I'm thankful for God's goodness and the fact that He knows what I need even before I ask. Health and a loving family. I'm thankful for the friendship I have with my wife. The community that God has given me has just been a huge blessing and such a joy.
Well, what are you thankful for? The Thanksgiving holiday, of course, is just around the corner, and this is a great time of year to reflect on all of our many blessings and to share a spirit of gratitude. That's what we're doing today on Focus on the Family with Jim Daly, and we're thankful that you've joined us as well. I'm John Foley. You know, John, Thanksgiving is a great holiday.
It's kind of in that context of being thankful for our country, for the Lord who oversees the affairs of this country, and World, right, and we're mindful of that, and hopefully we've prayed for that today, or certainly as we sit down and celebrate that moment. But thankfulness goes a lot further, and it's unfortunate that we only have one day that we celebrate being thankful, because it should be an everyday thing. And I'm thinking of the the E or person as well.
Now I can be that person too. Nobody loves me. Everybody does this to me. You know that guy or that woman, and I think in. Part we definitely want to talk with you today because I think there's great room for all of us to improve in our thankfulness to the Lord and to the life He's given us, even if it's a difficult moment right now for you.
And we're so pleased to have Stu Epperson Jr. with us today. He's a fellow broadcaster, an author, speaker, and for me, he's been a personal friend for a number of years. Stu is the founder and president of the Truth Network with radio stations across. North and South Carolina and Virginia, Ohio, stretching all the way to Salt Lake City.
He's written a book called "Thanks Living: Embracing the Power of Gratitude Every Day," and you can learn more about Stu and this terrific resource at our website. Stu, welcome to Focus on the Family for the first time. Hey, honor to be here, and I'm thankful for you for this awesome ministry, and thankful to be sitting with you today. Praise God! Really, let's get right to it.
Thanks, Living. We got Ashka. How'd you come up with This and what's your intent for this book?
Well, really, one verse and a traumatic event really set this set this book off. I've been studying one verse. You know what happens when you study the Word of God? It starts to study you. And someone said, "Hey, hey, it's I lead a men's Bible group called Wednesday in the Word, and we go through books of the Bible, and it was." That time of year, Thanksgiving, and I just started studying, five eighteen of First Thessalonians, and I really, it really got a hold of me.
Why? It just because I knew the verse. In everything, give thanks. For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. And so I started just reading and studying for this group to prepare, and I mean, it just got a hold of me.
And the Lord gave me all these insights and just each part of that verse. You know, sometimes we just say these things real fast. Or I'm sharing the gospel with with kids, and they'll just say John three sixteen so fast. But there's just not, you know, hold on a second. That's like eating a steak, you know, in one bite.
Hold on, let's savor the taste. And so. As I just started unpacking, and is is the Lord started convicting me in my own heart of what gratitude really is, and how it's not just an event, but it is a lifestyle. That's kind of what set me on this track, and then the traumatic event of my dad passing away, and I had the book. Pretty much written, but there was a block there.
I couldn't get it finished, and I just was wrestling with the Lord. I was praying. I was trying to get it done so I could get it out there. And then my dad passed away, and the day he died, my mom's a big scripture. Quoter, she's a quoter and floater.
She gets in her pool, and you'll find her if you come by the house. She'll hand you the the index card, so say okay. Quoter and floater, never heard that before. That's how she gets her exercise, and she she memorizes books of the Bible. She's memorizing Ephesians right now, and so she was out there the day he died.
You know, we've been dealing with this since four in the morning, but a lot of folks were just learning, so it's now you know eleven a.m. or noon, and Pastor comes by and he walks out. It's a hot summer day. And I walk him out, and he's very gracious. We're praying for you guys.
We love you. You know, people are starting to bring food and all this. And I've got nieces and nephews that are kind of sitting on the porch patio out in the yard. Kids and grandkids are playing.
Some are still crying.
Some just found out.
Some are very upset. And Pastor kind of kind of ducks his head under the umbrella, my mom's sun umbrella, while she's working on her scripture. And he looks at her and says, "Nancy, how are you doing?" And I'll never forget this. She looked back up with him with a big smile, and she said, "Pastor Will, I am so thankful that God gave me sixty years to be married to Stu." What a great response! And so, the the minute she said those words, guys, and I and I get kind of tender right now thinking about it.
It's like the dam broke. And literally, this book was finished like, like in twenty seconds. Yeah, it's like that's it. It's like the Lord said, "That's it." And it wasn't just; it was just. I can't explain it.
Just to see her response, and really, one of the toughest times. This is our family patriarch. This is the man who mentored me. This is a man who. Who who really loved this program in putting this kind of content on radio and media, you know, all over the world, you know, and and for her to have that response.
And then it just it just kind of set off a wave, and that that whole week was like that. His funeral or celebration, I kind of put the fun in funeral. It was like a big Thanksgiving. You know, let me ask you about that because, and this is something we didn't cover in the book. We're not.
I wasn't anticipating talking to you about this, but but that's a moment where your faith really does shine through. Like, do we really believe what we believe is true when it comes to death as Christians? We should. Be on the one hand grieving the loss of a loved one no longer being here. I get that, but on the other hand, we should be like, "Wow, they beat us there." That's right to the place of joy and peace and no more sorrow.
Being present with the Lord, that's an awesome thing. And if we really believe it, we should have some sense of thankfulness and joy that the Lord. Saved us, right? I mean that—that's really when it should shine through.
So I like that. I like your mom's response. I want to be that person. Let me ask you the the benefits, and we're going to weave in and out of what you just shared that scripture.
So we'll get back to that too. But there are a lot of amazing physical, emotional, spiritual benefits to thankfulness. And I guess if I could weave this question in in a way that speaks to the E or Person who is a believer. I mean, that's one of the things you know. It's just temperament that's part of it.
Maybe you've had a rough road in your life, but in that context, why and how did God construct us to benefit from a heart of thankfulness? Wow, it just goes back to you know James one seventeen. Every good, every perfect gift comes from above, and so. Look at all He's given us, and just we say general things. Lord, thank you for everything.
But when we start getting specific, like how are we even here right now? Like, how did that? My heart just beat all those times. You know, I took I took a breath this morning, and it's interesting that the world, the world's figured this out.
So the EOR Christians, we need to we need to kind of step up, and we need to kind of. Own this stuff because someone's going to get off a big jet today, walk into a major Fortune five hundred company, give a thirty minute TED talk, walk out of there, collect a check for fifty G's.
Okay, and in that speech, I can guarantee you this is what's going to be in there. You should have a gratitude journal. In that TED talk, somewhere he's going to say you should take a gratitude walk every day. You should start your day writing down something you are thankful for.
So here we have the secular world once again eating from the tree of life, from the tree that's you know that's always been there. Like you know, servant leadership didn't come from Wall Street, right? You know, taking care of someone like you want to be treated that didn't come from you know business and you know entrepreneurialism. That came from God, right? And so gratitude is another one of those, you know, because it does have all kinds of health benefits and anti-aging properties and all those things that which is amazing.
Yes, secular psychology. Tristor confirming that, so maybe as believers we should own that and we should you know go deeper and and see what's there and then live it.
So you were this is actually a therapy session for you with this question. You're at a casino on Thanksgiving, Stu. What are you doing at a casino?
Well, I'm a dad of dance, you know. But my daughter's you know performing and she was doing a Christmas program and these were three Thanksgivings in a row, and you know my initial thought was I want to go. I love my daughter. We'll do something there. I support her, but like Thanksgiving, like that's I need to be home with my family, with you know my mom, my dad, all the extended family.
We know we have a tradition, like everyone else has a tradition, right?
So there I am in the casino. It's Thanksgiving Day, and it's so depressing. And again, why are you there at the casino? I was there because that's the that's where my daughter was performing this Christmas program. They had a nice big room for the the kids to perform a dance.
That's exactly right. Yep. And so in between those things, you do stuff.
So we were watching the big football game on this big giant screen, and there's an older feller who's just all by himself, and he's just sitting there at the slots, just going. And we start. We built a conversation with him. We shared the Lord with him. Wow!
But it just broke my heart because we asked him about his family, and like he's not with his family. He's gambling. Yeah. And so the Lord just put in my heart just this. And I had been, of course, you know, studying five eighteen and been working on this and praying through this, and I just started thanking God for all He has given me and thanking God for the hope I have in Christ, thanking God for the opportunity to share that hope with this gentleman.
Who obviously didn't have that hope, and now I'm engaged in something meaningful and spiritual, you know, in that moment, and so that was just a lesson. But it just shows how kind of empty and hollow this world is. But gratitude takes us back to what's really what really matters. What really lasts forever. In that, I mean, that is awesome.
And it's you know, I I'm curious as to Jesus. You know, he hung out with the sinners. Yeah, you know, and they criticized him for it. He might have walked through a casino talking to a guy. But what are you doing here?
You should be with your family on Thanksgiving. I I could clearly see that. You identified five elements of gratitude from that verse. Tell us what. Those elements are and how they connect.
It's the five A's of five eighteen, and you know this whole book is on one verse of the Bible. Yeah, which by the way, pastor, it's okay to preach one sermon on a whole verse. There's so much in there. Slow down a little bit. Let the book talk.
Let the Word of God speak. Let the Word do the work. Study, prepare, and just teach the Word. And that's this is all one verse. And the five A's of five eighteen.
You have the amount in everything, and each one has a whole chapter. You have the action. Giving thanks. This is an action. This is a decision we make.
So the amount was one. Yes, sir. And then the action. Then the action, and then you have the aim. I don't think anyone out there listening wants to be outside of God's will.
And that this is God's will. It says it very explicitly right there. This is the will of God, and then the access so important. How do we get there? There is no Thanksgiving without the one who came and gave it all, Jesus Christ.
So you know, in Christ Jesus, and then finally the application concerning you. We're the great beneficiaries. We Thanksgiving is really a response to something He's done. He gave. We give thanks, yeah, and you know.
Hope deferred makes us wonder what's God doing, and that that doesn't help gratitude sometimes. If we're questioning His plan, we have some mutual friends, Dr. Gary Chapman and his wife. And early on, I don't think I knew this story. Early on, they really wanted to do some ministry that evidently the the Lord shut the door, and but He answered.
But but talk about that because gratitude played a part. Yeah, he he just needed to get one more degree. To be able to go, you know, to be accepted by the mission board to go do the mission work that they had prayed about and they had agreed upon with the Lord. This is where we're called to do.
So he went. He jumped through those steps. Added a few more years. Added to his degree level, which is a lot more of a degree level than I'll ever accomplish. And I'm telling you, they were so excited.
And then they got that letter denied. And it was tough, and there were tears. They had done everything right. That's exactly right. And so they they just went back to the Lord and said, "Lord, how do we how do we take this situation?
And what do we do? And how do we trust you?" And they trusted God. And the Lord put something on His heart, something about love languages or something like that. I'm not sure you y'all are familiar with that concept. There you go.
And and lo and behold, fast forward the tape, decades later. He's got this book in all these languages, and every time that they publish a book in a foreign language, the publisher graciously sends them some books in that language just to open and just to see. Wow, this is incredible! How God's using this. And they open those books, and Carolyn started crying, and then Doctor Doctor Chapman started crying.
As and she says, you know, you know, Gary, had we. Gotten accepted, you know, by the board and gone that way. This book wouldn't have been in all these languages, like fifty countries. Yes, sir. Fifty languages, a lot.
And all these people wouldn't have been, you know they they wouldn't have heard the gospel. Yeah. And so many have come to Christ, and so many marriages and families have been impacted by that.
So just another way of God's working. We don't always see. That, but we can see him, and this is the you know that that chapter on finding God's will. The aim is so important. Don't be so obsessed with God's will.
God, tell me right in the sky, where do you want me to go to school? Who do you want me to marry? Where do you want me to work? How to make a decision about this money? Time out.
Quit seeking God's will. Seek God. Yeah, faithfulness will show you those things, and His will will His will will find you. Yeah, and that's what this chapel speaker, when I was in Christy College, said, and it rocked us all because, like, wait a second, we're here to find God's will, and you're telling us to stop looking for God's will. Yeah, and he said, no, you you find God.
And you watch yourself finding yourself right in the middle of God's will. I think He enjoys that. He enjoys putting the breadcrumbs out. You don't get the whole loaf. You just get a breadcrumb.
You know. Let me ask you to describe how Jesus modeled thankfulness, especially in the Last Supper. You cover that in the book. I mean, that He's breaking bread, obviously, and thanking the Father in heaven. But what's the other application there?
Well, thankful in in all all of His language, in all of His life. This great feast we have, which is the you know the New Testament Lord's Supper, is obviously the the Passover carried over, and Christ is the fulfilling Lamb of that. And here, before the darkest day, you know we call it Good Friday, right? Really God Friday, and really, it's a it was a dark day where He redeemed us from the curse of law on that tree of death. The night before He opens everything with thank you.
You know, in fact, Eucharisto. This is the word for the Lord's Supper. The word, if you look in the Greek, it actually is Thanksgiving.
So this is actually a Thanksgiving feast. And so here he is. I mean, who prays this grand prayer of Thanksgiving to usher in a feast of Thanksgiving the night before they're executed in the worst? Way possible, and they're completely innocent. Yeah, of all of all wrongdoing.
And in the context of the midst, being in the midst of a betrayer, Judas was there at that feast, so he knew all that was going on. Yet he still had a heart of thankfulness. He didn't let that consume him. Yeah, which we can typically do at our Thanksgiving feast. That relative that irritates me that'll consume your mind.
The Lord seemed. Knowledgeable of it, but not taken by it, which is interesting to me. It's a good point.
So every time we we gather, every time we take the Lord's Supper, every time we take you know the juice, the wine for that represents His bloodshed, we are deeply thankful for what He did for us. The gospel is not what I'm doing for Him. It's not this hamster treadmill, this performance wheel that we're on. It's what Jesus Christ has done for us. Bread broken, so that just takes us into that, and no doubt Passover go back thousands of years.
The Israelites, the Passover feast was a thanksgiving feast that the angel of death didn't come in there. That God passed over in mercy. Yeah. Well, Stu, I had the privilege of knowing your dad and and hanging out with him a little bit. He was larger than life in so many ways.
He really left such an impact on you.
So as you were working on this book, especially with as you said earlier the. The trauma of losing him—that that hard event—how did he impact you prior to his death in writing the book? He lived it. I mean, he lived it. He lived it.
You think toward the end, I would—I get that call, mom would say, "Hey, can you take your dad to chemo?" So I'm thinking, I grab my newspaper, take some work stuff. I'm gonna sit there in the lobby forever. No, that's not how it went down. I picked him up. We got in there.
We prayed on the way. I got him in there, and he's got a whole satchel full of gospel tracks. And he's like, "Young Stu, give this gospel track to that nurse. I didn't. I forgot to give it to her when she took my blood." And literally, it's revival.
So you're tag teaming it. He's sharing the gospel with anyone that moved in that cancer ward.
Sounds like you are a little Timothy.
Well, well, so an older Timothy, right?
Well, he's big Stu, I am little Stu. Yeah, there you go. Six foot six, but you know, just but that that kind of thing, that impact, we'd be having family family discussions that would get a little heated sometimes, and he would stop us in the middle of it. He'd say, "Hey, aren't we grateful?" That we get to argue about this stuff, aren't we grateful that God's given us stewardship over these things that we can have even a heated discussion about, just to bring us back to why we're here, where it all comes from. Praise God, from whom all blessings flow.
So he had that heart, and he and he had that anchor, and it didn't change when he was really sick. It didn't change when he was early on. You know, when he could have gone the route of big money, secular radio, he wanted to put Christian radio. He wanted to put focus on the family on radio stations everywhere and spread the gospel because he was so grateful for God saving him from where he came. He's so grateful that God just opened the door and that he was born into a radio family and.
A lot of that's in the book, you know, his testimony and whatnot. It's so awesome, you know, and it's true with Salem. It's true with Bot Radio. All the networks that we work with, the individual independent stations out there, we're so grateful. And last year, every year, we do survey work to find out how Focus has impacted those listening to Focus on the family on all those networks, including Salem.
And you know, we go to about three thousand households, and about two million households will contact. Us every year for help, and to the best of our survey capability, we estimate conservatively like one hundred seventy-three thousand people last year gave their life to the Lord just in one year. It's been as high as two hundred ten thousand.
So I mean, together, the Lord is using the focus on the family program, along with all the other programming, you know, Johnny Erickson Tada's program, and you know, all the programs to help reach people.
So that's been a Fabulous way for the Lord to do the harvesting within the kingdom.
So that's been an awesome responsibility and privilege for all of us to work together in that way. Let me ask you in terms of you know connecting those dots, gratitude and thankfulness. I think people are saying, "How do you how do you tap into that power of God?" I think part of the problem is human beings. We tend to think of this as power, like we're going to be superior to others in that power. That's not God's tool chest.
It's love, joy, peace, goodness, mercy, the fruit of His spirit.
So it's not a worldly kind of power. That's the first problem we encounter: is we think of it from a human perspective that we could win the election, we can do. Whatever out of this power and those things may be byproducts, but at the core, the power from the Lord is the power to have relationship with other people and spread the kingdom of God. But speak to that tapping into the power. What have you found with thankfulness?
I think Romans one sixteen. I'm not ashamed of the gospel. It is the power of God to salvation. And I think we we need to stop and say quit trying to be strong. Be weak.
James four, God resists the proud; He gives grace to the humble. And when we stop and say, "Lord, I can't do this. I can't be thankful for this person. And the you know they did me wrong. I can't be thankful for them.
I can't be thankful for my wife right now in the heat of the moment. We just had an argument. I can't be thankful for this prodigal child. I mean, I you know what what in the world? All these things.
It seems like my life is falling apart. We'll stop. And say, Lord, I need you, and humble yourself in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up. In a great path of that humility, is saying, "Thank you, God. Just go to ground zero.
Thank you that you saved me. Thank you that you died in my place, and that it's by your power you raised me, who was lost. You gave me sight, and you raised me from the dead spiritually." And now I'm walking with you. I'm a new creation in Christ. I I have everything to look forward to.
For the Christian, it's only going to get better. Right, right, right. And there's a whole lot of folks that don't have Christ. It's only going to get worse. And ironically, you mentioned the word power.
The world is actually there's books out there and TED talks out there that they call gratitude a superpower.
Well, maybe the folks with the real power, the power of the Holy Spirit, right, the Acts one eight power, should be the ones that are the most grateful. And so it's it's really a rebuke. I'm talking to myself as I'm talking to you because I'm under conviction a lot because I kind of get in the dumps and I kind of get down in the pity party, and I just need to thank my way out of it. You know, not think my way out of it, but thank my way out of it. Yeah, and give God thanks because He's working.
You know, practical application of this was your friend Robbie, who I think underwent brain surgery. How did it impact him and you, and what was that situation? He Was just in a dark moment, and he thought he was going to die, most pain he'd ever been in. And he's a radio host, loves the Lord, family man, grandkids, and all that. And he thought this is it.
And and some godly nurse just grabbed his hand in the middle of this massive brain surgery they had to do to to clear up all these problems. And he just felt the peace of God. He just started thanking God, yeah, for what God had done in his life and for what God was doing. And that just that really carried him through the the grace of God. Grace and gratitude go hand in hand.
So, what's that lesson for us? I mean, I I've got the application, but turning your focus away from the problem and putting it on the problem solver—that's it. That really is it. Is thanking the Lord for whatever circumstances you are in, even something like brain surgery, and contemplating the fact that you might die. It's hard to break that concentration.
That thought pattern and say, "Whoop, okay, Lord, I'm in Your hands. I give myself to You." What a way, if You do die, to go into heaven. I mean, wow! I think that's the way we should go.
So, where do we start? We're right here at the end. This is the last question, and probably the best one. How do I get out of my funk and start being thankful here at Thanksgiving? Yeah, two words: thank you, and maybe add a third one: Jesus.
Thank you, Jesus. Just start right there, and if you don't know them. Ask some questions. Where does this come from? How can these people be grateful?
How can these people have guests on this show who have gone through stuff that I can't imagine going through brokenness? How can Holocaust survivors be grateful? Corey Ten Boom. How can she be grateful for the lice and the fleas in her cell when they're studying First Thessalonians five? They're studying that themselves.
How can they be grateful that moment? Only to find out later that the guards didn't come and harass them because they were scared to death of those fleas. It hurt. And her sister were given thanks for those fleas. Wow!
And so you just go. It goes in the mess, but it's connecting to Him. It's you know He's promised, "I will never leave you. I will never forsake you." He's promised, "Abide in Me. I will be with you always, even to the ends of the earth." So grab hold of those promises and grab hold of Him.
It's a relationship with Christ, and as you go deeper with Him, as grace floods in to your life, His grace. Gratitude will flow out. Yeah, I don't think there's anything more to be said from us. I mean, this is really good, Stu. Thank you for being with us.
It's been great.
Well, thank you, and I challenge everyone write a thank you note to that second grade teacher. Yeah, it's so good. That's why I recommend everyone get the book. Whether you're brand new to the faith, there have been a Christian for decades, there's something here for all of us. Even if you're not a Christian, Stu has some amazing insights that will literally transform your life.
You can't. Beat that! And you can send a gift of any amount to the ministry, and we'll put a copy of the book "Thanks Living" into your hands. It's a win-win opportunity because you get a great resource, and we're able through your generosity to reach even more people, like the 173,000 that either gave their life to the Lord or rededicated their life to the Lord last year alone. We want to get the good news message of Christ out to as many people as we can, and I know your support will help us accomplish.
We'd love to hear from you when you call 800 the letter A and the word family 800 232 6459, or donate and get a copy of Stu Epperson's book when you click the link in the show notes. Thanks for listening to Focus on the Family with Jim Daly. I'm John Fuller, inviting you back next time as we once again help you and your family thrive in Christ.
