Tres decisiones que cambiarán tu vida | Todo y más | Pastora Jen DeWeerdt

Hello, good morning Church. We are excited that everyone is here. It is going to be an incredible day. If everyone can give us a big round of applause for all the communities here in Coral Jadesville, God behind the bars. We love you so much. Thank you for being a part of us. We are in this series called Three Decisions That Can Change Your Life. We have been praying and planning these messages. And we thought it would be fun to talk about three things that we have personally learned in our faith journey. And we have put this into practice and it has really changed our lives. And there is a lot that we have done in our lives to change. And if we could go back in time and change things, we would. So, there are things that we would do again and again and again. Last week, Jeremy talked about the message, about leaving the limits. And it was profound. If you have not had time to listen to that message, listen to it. If you do not know what that message is about, it is very good. Listen to it. So, as we are talking about decisions, the biggest decision that changed our lives, and I think it is also true for many of you that are here, is that we made the decision to follow Jesus. And we made him the leader of our lives. And that changed everything. And the decisions that we made this week, that we are going to talk about, came out of that main decision. And that main decision today would guarantee that if it was a woman who did a bet, you would not even know what I am going to talk about. Because when you see the title, you say, wow, it is incredible. But you say, wow, three decisions that can change your life. Your mind can take you to... You feel that maybe there are deep things. Or you say, well, what is the big deal, Jen? As I see this change, I think that the change that can happen in our lives does not just come from a decision,

but a series of small decisions that affect change gradually. And well, I am going to tell you, I do not like to change because I do not want to wait to change. I want it to happen when? Now. We are living in a moment in history where you do not have to wait long for what you want. And I have a word to prove it. It is called Amazon. You want what you want. You need it. And well, now you can get home between four and eight in the morning, the next morning. Between four and eight in the morning. Think about this. I was kind of thinking, how crazy is this? And this is what came to my mind. A hundred years ago, many Americans got on a horse to go where they could go. A hundred years ago, put it more or less. And now in 2026, all we have to do is put our finger on a screen and tell it what we want and a driver arrives and leaves us at home. We no longer have to wait. And this has affected us mentally, our psyche. Because it says, well, when we change, we have to change our Amazon mentality to our lives and our circumstances. And what happens? We get frustrated. When we are frustrated, that habit or that thing that we wish did not exist in our life. We become impatient with ourselves. And maybe sometimes with the people in our life. Because we want different things right now. And we can become maybe discouraged because we want change around us. And it's very long, sometimes, the wait for change.

We would all prefer, let's say here, we would all prefer God to do everything fast, what you need. Imagine if he put it on the door like Amazon. That would be incredible, that what we want God to give us the next day. But we see in the scripture that it's a different story. Change comes differently. More times than not, the change inside of us and around us happens in something, in a way, in a way. in decisions that we don't like, that aren't glamorous, right? And that bring us the results that we want to see. And there's this verse in Proverbs that gives us, it says in Proverbs, it says, be careful, right, of all your ways. It says, draw a straight path for your feet. Remain on the safe path. What does it mean to draw a path? It says, one step at a time. How do I get from point A to point B? One step at a time. The direction of your life is determined by your daily decisions. This, to draw a path, what does it say? Your path will be safe. So today I want to talk about a small decision that you can make

that will change your life and that will help. Like in Proverbs, it's something incredible, simple, that you can do every day, that you can have a profound effect on yourself and especially those close to you. It can have an impact on your relationships, on your marriages, on your colleagues, on your co-workers. And this is crazy, but we'll see. It can have an impact on your mental health and even physical health. And it says, Jen, it looks like you're doing a spiritual version of GLP-1, the medicine. But look, what I'm about to say is not glamorous, but maybe you wouldn't believe me if I told you. And maybe you'd say, Jen, I'm waiting, with the breath, like this, ready, what's going to change my life? I can't wait to hear the word, ready? I'm ready to change my life forever. Gratitude. Gratitude, right? Nobody said, wow. Nobody said, wow, Jen, wow. Yes, gratitude. And I'm telling you that gratitude is something that has changed my life. And Jeremy and I have walked, I've said it several times, when I talked about Mother's Day,

these years of youth with our son, third Paxton, in his teenage years, we've had challenges, like any child. And we've had difficult days, frustrating days. And it was one of those days where I said, oh, I have to go out for a walk. And I went out for a walk and I was praying. And if I'm honest, I was really, I was, I was complaining about everything. Am I the only one here who complains about everything? Well, and as I was complaining and crying, I felt the Holy Spirit whisper to my heart, it's time to return to gratitude. Because what I was doing is that I was getting myself really frustrated. And I was focused on this situation. So I was with such anxiety, and I said the only thing I could see was the challenges. I was like, all of a sudden, I was literally getting up because they're little challenges in the morning and at night. Not in the morning and at night, not in the morning and at night. But in the morning, I would get out of bed, and I would say, oh, I don't want to, I don't want to get up this morning. And the Holy Spirit said, it's time to return to gratitude. You have to give thanks. And my challenge to us all today is that it's time to return to gratitude.

I feel that this message of gratitude, of giving thanks, has been a theme, and I've had to return to it. Why? Because I've seen in the spiritual principles of how people have worked in my life, in the good ones. Because it's very easy to give thanks in the good ones, but especially in the difficult moments, when things are going well and not going well, when I'm in the mountains and when I'm in the vast emptiness. And even in the moments, gratitude can change everything. A decision to take life with gratitude can have a profound impact. And I need to know this about me. I'm not naturally a person who gives thanks, naturally. But in my faith, after following Jesus for five years, I found this verse that I'm going to read to you. And it was literally very important to me because it stayed with me. And it was what led me to enter this idea of gratitude. gratitude and practice gratitude. It's in Romans, chapter one. And when you start, you say, really, this is what caught your attention? Yes. He says, it's true. They knew God, but they didn't want to worship him as God or thank him. Instead, they began to invent foolish ideas about God. As a result, their minds were left in darkness and confusion. They claimed to be wise,

but they became completely foolish. And instead of worshiping an immortal and glorious God, they worshiped other people. And he was blessed eternally, right? They used that. And he gave this, right? Who is worthy of eternal praise? Well, there are people who are far from the mind. The world has sins. People are doing whatever they want. They don't want to live according to God. But there are two things that took me down. The first was that he said here in this verse, they didn't honor God. They didn't recognize him. They didn't acknowledge him. They were like, God, you are God. And the second is that they didn't thank him. Listen, of all, of all that Paul could have said, that Paul could have said caused the downfall. Of all the things he could have said, he said, just you go down as far as you go. Which makes sense. You don't believe in God, well then, you're going to go down as far as you go. But they didn't thank God. They didn't impress him, right? This is shocking to me. This sent me on the wrong path.

And it taught me to be grateful from the beginning. And because, I don't know like to be fragile, I don't want to have a dark heart. You know, I don't want to have a dark heart. I'm going to be wise. Does anybody else want to be wise? Does anybody else? And I was like, wow, this is what is fascinating to me. Like, this is what is fascinating to me. That science is actually starting to prove what scripture has been teaching us for years. And there were more or less 64 studies that had this idea of gratitude. And they said that people who were grateful had better mental health. They had better satisfaction in life. They were happier. They had less anxiety and depression. And they had more positive emotions. And one study reported that they had less physical problems and less physical problems and symptoms. People physically felt better. Why? People started to physically feel better. Because they practiced, right? There are secular books now written about gratitude. And they're saying, well, how can you change that? Now in the podcasts, all the while, it's just the beginning, right? It's been written in the scriptures.

It's like God knew. It's like God knew. It's like, I know, I know how I made you. And I know this world is going to be crazy. And I know this world is going to be crazy. And maybe you're thinking, you know what? I don't buy what you're saying. I need something deeper. When I was starting to get this message or when I was starting to get into this church. And you're like, I know what the scripture says. And I know what the scripture says. And the specialists are saying that it's true. But to feel it at this moment, but to be thinking about what you're personally carrying. And hello, how is the world right now? And you say, with what I'm carrying. And when I'm hearing the news, and then when I look at it, is it what you want or what I'm thankful for? There's a war, there's financial stress. And I know that many of you guys are having personal health issues, conflicts, children having things. I've seen what you've sent in a prayer request. I've heard the stories. And you say, Jen, with what I'm carrying, and what you're asking me to do, I don't understand. And then we don't align.

I understand that this concept of being thankful, when we have problems, it makes us feel like we can scratch our heads and say, really? Really? But I want you to listen to the word of God, not mine. Because my prayer is, and I've prayed it. And I prayed it as even as I walked yesterday. Dee, my prayer is that at the end of this message that the Holy Spirit reveals to you the gratitude. That you don't see it as, oh, it's a journal that they're selling at Target, or a beautiful concept that they're selling to me to thank me for a gift, no. It's powerful. And the apostle Saint Paul who wrote this verse, we're going to talk about other verses that he shared in other letters, and the power of the letters that he shared, and he gives us this instruction in Thessalonians, verse 5, and he says this, he says, Give thanks always. What does he say? Give thanks in all circumstances, right? Because this is the will of God, right? Never stop praying. Be grateful in all circumstances. This is the will of God. He says, in all circumstances. He doesn't say, give thanks for the circumstances, but he says, Give thanks, give thanks in all circumstances. You don't have to give thanks for how the world is. Oh, yes, it's incredible. I love it. I love everything bad that's happening.

I'm grateful. No. You don't have to give thanks for how you are, or your broken heart. But I know that maybe you have a problem, or you have a relational tension, or you're with a heavy heart. And you say, well, I have to give thanks to God. And you say, no, give thanks to God in it. You don't have to give thanks for that. And sometimes when we're in those things, we can ask those questions. What do we do? What do we do with this? Every day I say, I don't know what to do in this situation. I don't know what to do with how the world is. I don't know how I have to respond. I don't know how to navigate this situation. And Paul tells us here, we have to rejoice, we have to pray, and we have to give thanks. And how does that scripture end? It says, because this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. The will of God in the circumstances is to give thanks. You say, oof, ouch. Even in this, I want to do my thing, not what he wants. I want to be honest. I want to do the opposite. Instead of being thankful, what is the exact opposite of being thankful? It's giving thanks. What is the exact opposite of being thankful? It's complaining. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. We're going to go there today.

We're going to talk about complaining. We're going to talk about what you're going to do and not what you're not going to do. You're complaining, complaining, complaining. And there's a lot of negativity in our world. And it's more difficult to complain or give thanks. It's normal, right? We want to complain and complain and complain about everything. It's so easy to complain about our husbands. To complain about our house. To complain about our coworkers. About our gas prices. About gas prices. Right? That person that drives you crazy. In that situation. You're complaining about the situation that is just frustrating. And here's the Apostle Paul again. I told you, let's read it. This is another book. Another letter that he wrote. Another book in the Bible. And this is what he said. In Philippians. You're not going to like this. He says, do everything. Everything. Without what? Complaining. And without arguing. So that no one can criticize you.

Live clean in the light. Live clean in the light. Live clean in the light. Live clean in the light. Live clean in the light. Do everything. Do everything. Without complaining. But that's what it says. You know, through the years. You know, through the years. I'll get people on the news every year. Jen, how can I be a witness to my faith? How can I be a witness to my faith? How can I be a witness to my faith? He changed me, but my family doesn't want to talk to me because of my decisions. What do I do? How can I be a testimony for my parents, my friends, the people I work with? And it says here that when we stop complaining, we're going to shine like lights in a perverse world. Because the way you talk is going to be different. It's different. Everyone around you, all those workers, they're complaining. And when you stay quiet, that's what my mom used to say, quiet, quiet, you look prettier. And you listen,

or you choose. You say, well, look here, workers, the coffee here in the office is not so bad. That's what we're going to focus on. We always have to look for what we can be grateful for, what we can look for well. You have to be thankful in all circumstances. Be thankful in all circumstances. Do everything. That term is important. Everything. It doesn't mean something different in Greek. It means all in everything. Everything in every moment. They mean all in everything. Some of you are complaining even in your mind. You say, well, this woman, this woman who evangelizes today, and she says, look, maybe she's following it in your heart. Because you say, well, you don't know my circumstances. You don't know how my husband treats me, how he chooses his food. I have to complain about that. I have to complain about it. You don't know the environment I'm in. You don't know how hard this time of year has been. I don't want to be sad. I want to feel the stress that I'm going through.

You don't know the stress that I'm going through. You don't know how hard this time of year has been. Right, I don't know. I don't know, but I can guarantee that your situation falls within all circumstances. I didn't write the book. I'm giving you the words of the good book today. Some of you may be thinking that this message borders on the positive. It has to be positive, but it's so toxic. You know, living a life of gratitude doesn't mean that you live ignorant, right? That you don't recognize the problems. It doesn't mean that you call what you call. You know, yes, that child is problematic. That work is toxic. But if you've read a little bit of the Psalms, you know that sometimes it's like the writers are really complaining about God with a spiritual overtone. They're complaining about God. And the scripture says, it has a word, and it's called lamenting. For example, I want to give you an example today. In Psalm 69, it says, David is writing extensively about how difficult life is. And it's a long psalm. It's actually a pretty long psalm. It says the first 29 verses.

I say 29. The first 29 verses. It's a long list. It's a long list. It's a long list. The first 29 verses, he is talking about the frustration he's having. He's telling him how God is trying to sabotage the truth. I mean, how people are trying to sabotage. And he's complaining about God. And I'm going to read you a little bit of the 29 verses. Read it if you want. It says, save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck. For the waters have come up to my neck. I cannot find a place to rest my feet. I am in deep waters, and the torrent covers me. I am tired. I am tired. I am weary of shouting for help. My throat is dry. My eyes are swollen with tears waiting for the help of my God. Maybe that would sound better. And literally, you can feel the despair of the person who is writing this. This is tough. He is telling the truth and he is being honest. He is not complaining, right?

And I was talking and I said, I have a list of 29 things that I can complain about. And I said, I think we can all do it. And I was like, I think we can all do it. Right? And he said, I think we can all do it. And I said, I think we can all do it. And he said, if there is something I am doing, I can do that. I can do that. And I said, if you are new to faith, I can talk to God like that. Especially if you are new to faith, you are like, I can do that. I can talk to God like, you know, you are going to be struck by lightning in one of these storms. After 29 verses of complaining, David writes this and says, I will praise the name of God with a song. I will glorify Him with thanksgiving. Now if you kind of, I don't know if you are here, but when you are looking at these psalms in the scripture, when someone is telling you, this is what I am going through, there is a word that is called, there is this thing called, or the word that says, I am going through these things, but I will continue to praise Him. I will glorify Him with thanksgiving. It is profound, you know?

It is good to complain. It is good to tell Him what is happening to us, not on Facebook. Amen, right? Ah, people. If we could heal from that, it would be incredible. I am sorry, it is not in my notes. Give it to Him. Don't complain to your friends just because of this. Give it to Him. Give it to God. Give it to Him. But lay it all out before God. Because there is going to be, you know, there is not a psalm where there is not a change. This is how it is. I am being honest. I feel that you are very distant from me, God. Why am I so discouraged, so depressed? But I am going to praise Him. However, you only need those three little letters, right? However, have your moment. And have your moment of almost, in spite of. And He praises. He complains, but He praises. And it says in that line, where it says, and I had never seen it before. And I almost cry, because I say,

He is so good. What was that second line? He said, I am going to glorify Him, giving Him thanks. Glorify Him. I have heard it. And it says, let us exalt His name. Yes. But look. Look. Look at this magnifying glass. A magnifying glass. To see better. This scripture is saying, when you have gratitude, what you are doing, is that you are taking the magnifying glass. You are lifting up the magnifying glass. And you say, Oh, I have one when I was little, and I was lit up by the sun. You are thinking about that. What happened when you were little, you were fascinated with the magnifying glass. You would see something. You would bring up the magnifying glass. You would see what would happen. You would bring up the magnifying glass. You would see what the flower would look like. It totally changed.

It was no longer something beautiful that you were there from afar. You were close. You saw it in a new light. You could see it in a whole different way. You could see the pollen. You could see the little detail in the flowers, in the petals. And you could see the little hair in the flower. And maybe even the little animals that were there. And you say, Oh, look, it looks like a Buzz Lightyear life. It really does look like a bug's life. Like it's just a magnifying glass. It's always been there, it's beautiful and detailed. It was always, it's beautiful and detailed, but guess what? When you pick up the magnifying glass, it shifts your perspective. You see things differently. You can see things more clearly. You're closer to it. You're more intimate. And when you say, I'm going to glorify God with my gratitude, you say, I'm not going to complain. I'm going to magnify God. I'm going to thank him. I'm going to choose to be thankful in the circumstances in which I am. And I'm going to choose to be good.

What you're doing is you are actually shifting your perspective. You're shifting your perspective. And I want to just talk to you about six things. Okay, I got four minutes here. There's no way she can do this. I can do this. Four minutes, six things that magnify God and make him thankful. Six things that being thankful will magnify. Okay, here's the first of all, what happens is we're going to see God more clearly. Thanksgiving shifts our attention to what's wrong, to what we're doing, to what God's doing. David's circumstances didn't change in this psalm, but it was his focus, his focus that changed. When we're focused on the problem, on the frustration, it's already there. And when we say, no, we're actually magnifying it, we're actually changing our perspective so that gratitude doesn't change. Gratitude doesn't change. He's always been there. He's always been good. He's always been amazing, but it changes what you focus on God. It shifts things. The second thing is that being thankful, you know, our problems are different. The problem doesn't go away, but it is no longer the biggest thing in the picture.

The problems are smaller. But you say, I'm going to be thankful for what God has given me. I'm going to be thankful. I'm going to say, I'm going to be grateful. I'm going to be grateful for the coffee. One of my things was being grateful that I was late. I'm so glad I got all the red lights when I was running late to church because I got to catch my breath. There's always something to be grateful for. There's always something to be grateful for. Always, it's, listen, our problems started to get smaller. They don't go away from the biggest thing in the picture. But we start to calm down. And whatever you magnify, whatever you magnify, you bring this magnifying glass and you can't get out of your problem. You're worried. You're going on it and God's going on it. Change it. Change the perspective. Change it. And it'll go on and on. But guess what? The problem looks smaller than it used to be. We see people different. This is cool. When we choose to be grateful to God and other people, this idea of thankfulness doesn't just work with God.

It works with everyone. We start to focus on when we're ungrateful, rather. When we're ungrateful and we just don't want to play with other people's problems, we tend to keep a focus on what other people owe us. But when we're grateful, we start to recognize other people as a gift from God. Your spouse, your wife starts to do a blessing instead of an irritation. The person you work with, you see them as a person instead of a problem. And the church starts to be a gift instead of a collection of imperfect people. Change your perspective. The fourth is, we see ourselves more accurately. Amen. And giving thanks gives us humility. It reminds us that we don't earn all the blessings, that we don't come here to be alone, and that God has been working in our lives. You know, something I've noticed is that people who are thankful don't get offended easily. And the more you like to learn, well, the less you get offended. And you start to recognize the grace, and you see the light of God's grace. You start to see things differently. You see your perspective, your correct perspective of who you are and your place. And the fifth thing is that we help people

see God more clearly. Right? This is incredible. We start to see, we start to teach people to see God more clearly. When we don't complain and we are grateful, people are going to shine like a big light. Do you want to be a testimony? Be grateful. You have to have a different perspective and you are going to shine. Are you going to shine like a light or are you going to be very dark? You know what? I want to be grateful. And the sixth, the benefit number six of giving thanks is that it makes our faith grow. Every time we give thanks to God and we declare thanks, I say, God, I haven't forgotten your goodness. And that is for all of us. I believe it. I believe we have something, something to be grateful for. Because we are breathing well, we got up today, the sun came out. Our family, maybe it's not the job you want, but it's a job. And give thanks wherever you are and you say, it's good, it's good, right? To be grateful. But give thanks. And as we wrap up today, I have a task for you. Aren't you excited? Super simple. Because that's what I want us to do together as a church. I want us all to do it. It's super simple. Because a lot of people are thinking, Jenny, they don't even know where to start. Because you know what? Complaining is the main thing. You need a cup, a pencil, and a piece of paper. And this is what I want you to do. Put it on your kitchen counter, in your bathroom, and this is what I want you to do. And I want you to do it the first thing. Not the very first thing, but you can do it. You can do it. It wouldn't be a bad idea.

When you get up, think, as your coffee is being made, or you're getting ready in the morning, write one thing that you're grateful for. One thing. It doesn't have to be like, Oh, I need to grab a nice, expensive book. No, a piece of paper, a receipt. Although they say receipts are made of cancer-causing material. Sorry, my brain does go like a squirrel. It's too early. So, write one thing. One thing that you're grateful for. You put it here. You put it in a cup. The next morning, when you get up, you do the same thing. Day after day. All the way from today to the 1st of July. All right? I want all of us to do this. Go home. Just do it right now. If you miss a day, well, don't get mad at yourself. Do it in the morning, in the afternoon, or before you go to sleep. At any time. One thing a day. Start somewhere. In fact, I had an idea. My friend Holly Wagner. She was going through cancer. Crazy stories at work. People were betraying her.

And she felt that God had those moments where he said, It's time to return to gratitude. So she got up and said, You know what? I don't have anything to be grateful for. And she put coffee. She felt that coffee. Drinking coffee. And maybe you don't have anything. And you say, Jen, I'm going through a bad moment in my life. And the only thing I can be grateful for is that I have a machine that can make my drink cold. I don't know. Maybe in a week you'll come up with something better. But let's see what happens when we're grateful day to day. Even if it's for one thing. And we become addicted to gratitude. Let it, you know, the Bible says a thousand times, okay? The word is give thanks. Give thanks. Give is a verb. You got to be intentional. Give it to God. Give it to other people. Express gratitude. Give thanks. Let's just see what God does. Let's pray for that.

God Almighty, for who you are. Thank you for your kindness. I thank you for this church. I thank you for all the people who are here. I thank you, Lord, that I have a microphone to be able to speak in a loud voice. Thank you for your word, which is so full of truth. It has changed my life. I can't imagine where I would be without the instruction of the word of God. And well, something like that, God. Something so small, but it has changed us, it has changed my life. And gold, I know that people bring heavy things, I know that the world is crazy right now, but I pray that we make a world with people who have gratitude, that we give thanks with the way we give thanks, that they make things clear to us, that they give us new perspectives, and that our gratitude changes our attitude. And that we see things differently, that we see ourselves differently, that we see other people differently, and that we see you more clearly and differently. We love you God, we give you thanks for who you are and what you are doing in this house, in the name of Jesus. And we all say, Amen, Amen. In the name of God, a very, very loud applause.