Gratitude

What we believe influences how we act, how we behave, how we talk. Every little detail of our lives is based on what we fundamentally believe about life, about who God is.

What we believe influences how we act, how we behave, how we talk. Every little detail of our lives is based on what we fundamentally believe about life, about who God is.

Every single one of you here is a delegator of value. You place value on the things that you.. Value. You decide, im going to choose this, im going to choose that.

What we value is communicated not by our words, but by our deeds. What do you spend your time doing? Do you play x box? do you scroll on ig? Do you help the poor? Do you spend your time thinking of jokes and ways to be funny? Do you spend your time reading?

EVERY SINGLE ACTION IS A COMMUNICATION OF >> WHAT. WE. VALUE.

If we arent waking up with gratitude on our lips,

We wont wake up and be grateful

Ephesians 5:1–21 (ESV)

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not become partners with them; for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says,

“Awake, O sleeper,

and arise from the dead,

and Christ will shine on you.”

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Have you ever had a time where theres nothing necessarily wrong in life but it just feels dull and mundane? That is because of a lack of gratitude.

Imitating God starts with our identity and christ culminates in gratitude

I want to sear this on your mind. That thank to God will always go hand in hand with imitating Him.

Who has felt discouraged lately

Who has felt burdened lately?

Who has felt good lately?

How often do you thank God for your living situation, your food, your finances, your health?

Gratitude keeps you refreshed. The other day I was driving and I felt really discouraged, and I just started thanking God, and my demeanor completely switched, my life completely switched.

BE IMITATORS OF GOD

We must imitate God. Its easy to imitate ourselves. To follow a human that is living for their own passions. Its easy to imitate our idols and role models. Its equally easy to imitate our own version of God. But to imitate God HIMSELF? That takes a true, supernatural work of the Holy Spirit.

Truth is what makes something beautiful. Our eyes have a way of surveying beauty. They are constantly taking surveys of the things in life we find beautiful.

How many of you ever saw someone and you thought they were gorgeous, then you talked to them and you were like wait ew. You liked what they looked like, but not who they were. There was an appeal to them, but when what you were appealed by was revealed, you saw that what appealed you wasn’t true. Appeal: the ability to attract. We all have an appeal. There are things about us that attract others to ourselves.

But I want to be clear, when we say that God is a God of beauty, we are not just referring to His appeal. We are referring to HIM. Not just what He looks like ——— but WHO HE IS. His nature, His character, His essence. ITS BEAUTIFUL

Before we talk about submission, we have to talk about truth.

Before we submit, we have to know what we are submitting to

Do you trust that His beauty is worth submitting to?

They turned away because they didn’t trust who He was. They turned away because they had a concept of who God was, but it was not who He really was. They had a concept of His beauty, but then when they realized He was different then who He appeared to be, they were like, ew, I can’t believe I was attracted to Him.

“His invitations to potential followers were clearly more costly than the crowds were ready to accept, and he seemed to be okay with that. He focused instead on the few who believed him when he said radical things. And through their radical obedience to him, he turned the course of history in a new direction” - David Platt

The things about God that were appealing to them, were different than who He really was.

WHOLE COUNSEL

Acts 20:27 “for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.”

IF WE DO NOT PREACH THE WHOLE GOSPEL, IT IS NOT THE GOSPEL. THEREFORE HAVING NO POWER TO TRANSFORM OUR LIVES.

Some of us wonder why we experience God in some areas of our life but not in others,

Some of us wonder why we walk in freedom in some areas and not in others

We might know the Gospel, but we don’t know His whole counsel.

“First, from the outset you need to commit to believe whatever Jesus says. As a Christian, it would be a grave mistake to come to Jesus and say, “Let me hear what you have to say, and then I’ll decide whether or not I like it.” If you approach Jesus this way, you will never truly hear what he has to say. You have to say yes to the words of Jesus before you even hear them. - David platt

We have lots of people come to us that say, teach us about prayer and worship. Im sorry, I dont like that question.

I CANNOT TAKE THE TEACHINGS OF JESUS I LIKE AND LEAVE BEHIND THE ONES I DONT. IF YOU CAME HERE, AND ALL WE TAUGHT ABOUT WAS PRAYER AND WORSHIP, THEN I FEAR THAT PRAYER AND WORSHIP WOULD BE OUR IDOL AND NOT JESUS.

THE GOAL OF BEING A CHRISTIAN IS TO BE CHRISTLIKE, NOT JUST TO BE LIKE CHRIST IN ONE AREA OF OUR LIVES, BUT IN EVERY AREA. If i teach on prayer and worship to those who do not know the full counsel of God, their actions will mirror the form of who He is but their hearts will not be like His.

SOMETIMES I LOOK AT CHURCHES AND IM LIKE AH MAN, THEY AREN’T REALLY WALKING BIBLICALLY, ITS NOT THAT WHAT THEY ARE PREACHING IS OUTRIGHT HERETICAL, ITS THAT THEY AREN’T PREACHING THE FULL COUNSEL OF GOD

ONE OF THE GREATEST MISTAKES A CHURCH CAN MAKE IS TO PREACH ACCURATELY ON A PORTION OF THE GOSPEL BUT NOT THE WHOLE GOSPEL.

APPLICATION

One of the greatest mistakes we can make is to try to live in the culture of a prayer room without living out the culture of Jesus.

Imagine someone wearing a wild fit. and youre like yo i want to dress like you, so the next day you show up and youre like, i dressed like EJ today, but the only similarity you were wearing was the same shoes, and everything else was different. Thats how many christians show up with christ. they are like look God! I look like you! but the only similarity is the shoes they are wearing.

Tremble at His Word

Isaiah 66:2 ESV

All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the Lord. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.

It is critical that we walk with humility and contriteness. Its critical that we tremble at His word

You can stir thousands of people to excitement, but that won’t prepare them to preach the Gospel.

God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

The thing that makes us furthest from God isn’t immorality, its pride.

What would happen if almighty God.. Who made the heavens and the earth.. Opposed us

We must be humble, and heres the thing

I CAN’T HUMBLE YOU

I CANT MAKE YOU TREMBLE, ONLY A VISION FROM GOD CAN DO THAT

THAT YOU SEE HIM RIGHTLY AND.. REALIZE. THIS ISN’T ABOUT YOU

God we need you to humble us. Show us that this isn’t about us.

This is my favorite verse in the Bible right now

THE WORD BECAME FLESH

John 1:14 “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

When we are obedient to this we are not obedient to a book but to a person

So many people say I want to follow Jesus, but they never read this book. This book became flesh and dwelt among us.

You can claim to be following God’s voice but if its not in allignment with this book its not God’s voice its your own voice.

You would consider it rude to leave a friend alone who came to visit you: more so a friend who came from afar, why then do we neglect a God who came from heaven?

In the beginning of the summer, we had a meeting with our board of directors, we were enthusiastically sharing about our dreams and visions for prayer house. They looked back at us and said, you can plant hundreds of prayer houses across the world, you can do all these dreams you have in mind. But when you get to heaven, God will not be pleased with you planting hundreds of prayer houses, he will be pleased if you were wholeheartedly obedient to Him.

GIVE HIM THANKS

Romans 1:21–23 (ESV)

For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

Honoring Him as God

Starts with seeing Him rightly

but its not just seeing Him rightly. — Its treating Him rightly.

If Joe Biden or Donald trump walked in this room. we wouldnt just carry on, we would address them, we would change our agenda because a man of importance showed up.

That is what we should do with God, WHEN HE SHOWS UP THE AGENDA CHANGES.

Then that goes into thanks.

The lack of thanks caused a futility in their thinking.

AND THEN LOOK

THEY EXCHANGED THE GLORY OF THE IMMORTAL GOD FOR IMAGES. FOR LIES.

What lies are you believing about God.

What ways are you seeing Him rightly, but not treating Him rightly?

PRACTICE GRATITUDE

WRITE LETTERS OF GRATITUDE TO GOD