Thank you for listening to this message from
Lifehouse Church. Alright, well good morning
everyone. I love it. Everybody's so nice and
so kind. Don't worry about me. You guys just
keep talking. It's fine. It's fine. I'll just
hang out over here. No. Thank you so much. for
being here today. Thank you for welcoming me
and Heather to Lifehouse. And there on the screen,
you see my family and our kids, Savannah, Jackson,
and Easton. And just so excited to be here today,
to be a part of what God is doing here at Lifehouse.
And when I went through MIP, Pastor Kip was leading
that. program and leading that process for our
state. And to be here and for him to invite me
here was such an honor. And so if anything weird
happens, if I do anything or say anything weird,
it's Kip's fault. Okay, just keep that in mind
as we go through. But no, I'm thankful to be
here. Today I'd like to talk to you on the subject
of the gratitude gap. And actually this morning,
I've heard what I'm going to talk about kind
of hit on here and there, which is amazing. God
is so good and he works these things out. You
know, it's Thanksgiving and that's the time of
year where we really focus in on what we're thankful
for. Focus in on the blessings of God in our
lives. But isn't it interesting that sometimes
we need that reminder? to be thankful. You know,
at Thanksgiving, it's always that, oh yeah, I
got to say thanks for this, or I got to say thanks
for that. And why is that? Why does that happen?
If we're honest, I think it's pretty easy to
forget sometimes to say thank you. We've all
been there, right? Someone holds the door for
you, but you're on the phone and you're talking
to someone, you're distracted, and you don't
say anything to the person who holds the door.
Or, Maybe your spouse does something they always
do, takes care of the laundry, washes the dishes,
gets the kids ready for bed, and you don't say
thank you because you just get so used to it.
They're used to doing it. Or how about when our
kids do something good? And they make a great
decision. And sometimes we can be so focused
or so busy on correcting them and making sure
they're doing the right thing that we miss that
opportunity to say, hey, thank you. Thank you
for doing that. Great job. Or even here at church,
it can be easy to forget sometimes to say thank
you. Thank you to the crew that comes and gets
church ready every morning. Thank you on a day
like today to the person who comes and turns
the heat on. And you're ready, right? We don't
always say thank you. Thank you to the worship
team, to the media team who make it all happen
behind the scenes. We don't always say thank
you. We benefit every week. We enjoy it every
week. But do we always say thank you? And so
don't get me wrong, I'm not coming here today
and saying, you're ungrateful. No, that's not
what I'm doing. But the truth is we can be distracted
sometimes. We can be overwhelmed sometimes. We
can lose focus sometimes and miss those opportunities.
And if that happens with all of these other things,
Is it really a stretch to think, does this happen
with our relationship with God? Do we sometimes
miss those opportunities to say thank you for
all the things that God has done and all the
things he continues to do in our lives? And so
let's just be honest. I don't know that there's
enough thank yous to say thank you to God. We
don't have enough thank yous. We don't have enough
words. But I think there is a gap there sometimes.
And that's what I'd like to kind of get at this
morning. I'd like to speak on the thought of
the gratitude gap. And that gap is the space
between God's goodness to us and our response
back to him. So before we get into the word,
would you pray with me one more time? Jesus,
thank you. Thank you for these moments that we
get to be together, that we get to be in your
word. So Holy Spirit, we invite you here. Help
me to say the things you want me to say and help
us to hear the things you want us to hear. Help
us to learn the things you want us to learn and
help us and give us the courage to change the
things that you want us to change. Holy Spirit,
you're welcome here in Jesus' name. Amen. So
to help us this morning as we get into this idea
of gratitude, I want to go to the account of
the 10 lepers in Luke chapter 17. So that's where
we'll be today, Luke chapter 17. But before we
begin reading this morning, I want to give you
just a little bit of background. This story that
we're going to read focuses in on 10 men who
had leprosy. And leprosy was a devastating skin
disease. It caused visible sores, disfigurement,
numbness in the affected areas. It made people
physically, socially, even spiritually isolated.
Lepers were considered unclean. They had to live
outside of their community, outside of their
friends and family, really in isolation because
people feared that what they had was contagious.
So they weren't able to worship at the temple.
They weren't able to participate in normal life.
They had to kind of form their own community
with other people who were affected by this same.
because no one else would come near them. They
also had to announce their condition if they
saw other people coming toward them. They would
have to yell out, unclean, unclean, which had
to be completely humiliating, dehumanizing. And
so that's the life that these men are living.
When Jesus shows up. So with that as the context,
with that as the background, let's read in Luke
17, starting with verse 11. This is what it says.
As Jesus continued on toward Jerusalem, he reached
the border between Galilee and Samaria. And as
he entered a village there, ten men with leprosy
stood at a distance, crying out, Jesus, Master,
have mercy on us. He looked at them and said,
go show yourselves to the priests. And as they
went, they were cleansed of their leprosy. One
of them, when he saw that he was healed, came
back to Jesus shouting, praise God. He fell to
the ground at Jesus's feet, thanking him for
what he had done. This man was a Samaritan. Jesus
asked, didn't I heal 10 men? Where are the other
nine? Has no one returned to give glory to God
except this foreigner? And Jesus said to the
man, stand up and go. Your faith has healed you.
Jesus completely changed the lives of these men,
all 10, but only one man came back and thanked
Jesus for his healing. And Jesus noticed. He
noticed the gratitude. He also noticed the lack
of gratitude in the other nine men. And I think
what this passage, this story shows us is that
as followers of Jesus, gratitude really shouldn't
be optional. Gratitude should be evidence that
our life has changed, that our life has been
transformed. By the power of Jesus. It really
should be evidence that God is up to something
and doing something in our lives. So this morning,
I want to make just a couple observations about
that story I just read. As we dig into this idea
of gratitude. And the first thought is this.
And I'm going to start with an easy one. God
is far more generous than we realize. God is
far more generous than we realize. Let's go back
to verses 13 and 14. Crying out, Jesus, Master,
have mercy on us. Look what it says. He looked
at them and said, go show yourselves to the priests.
And as they went, they were cleansed of leprosy.
Remember, these guys were the outcasts. These
guys were the unclean. These guys weren't worthy
of people's time, weren't worthy of people's
attention, but not Jesus. He looked at them.
He saw them. He engaged with them and they lifted
up their voices to him and he responds with healing.
And all 10 of those men experienced God's goodness.
But did they do anything to dirt? Did they do
anything to deserve it? No. And we're going to
dig into that idea in just a minute. But Jesus
shows them, and as he shows them, really he's
showing us who he is. He's reflecting the character
of God, that he's gracious, that he's giving,
that he's merciful. Look at Psalm 103. Verses
8 through 11, the Lord is compassionate and merciful.
He's slow to get angry. He's filled with unfailing
love. He will not constantly accuse us or remain
angry forever. He does not punish us for our
sins. He does not deal harshly with us as we
deserve. For his unfailing love toward those
who fear him is as great as the height of the
heavens above the earth. That's our God. That's
the one who sent his son to die for us. And he's
the same today as he was back then. See, the
truth is, as I said, we receive far more from
God on a daily basis than we even recognize the
breath that we're breathing right now. forgiveness
for sin, provision for the day, answered prayers
that we've forgotten about, protection we didn't
even see. The list goes on and on, and that's
just one day. But God does this every day and
every day for millions and millions of people.
So a question to consider today, where has God,
been good to you that maybe you haven't thanked
him for? Where has God come through for you that
maybe you took it for granted? As I was thinking
about this question, one thing that I have to
remember or that I constantly get reminded to
thank God for is my family. As Charlie said,
as he was talking about me, I grew up in the
church. My dad is a pastor. I've been in the
church my whole life. And so I've been surrounded
by people, my mom, my dad, my aunts, my uncles,
who love God and who have shown me a great example
of how to serve God. And I've been able to stand
on their shoulders and continue on. Because of
their faithfulness and because of their example
that they showed in my life. But as a pastor,
sometimes I talk to people and I see families
that are broken. Families that are hurting. And
to me, it's a constant reminder of how God has
blessed me. With my family, with the support
that I have. And so we have to be careful that
we don't forget or we don't overlook those things.
God is so much more generous than we realize.
And that leads me to my next thought, my next
observation, that most people enjoy God's blessing
but don't express gratitude. Most people enjoy
God's blessing but they don't always express
gratitude. Gratitude. Let's go back to our account
of the ten lepers. All ten had been healed of
leprosy. As they were heading to the temple to
show themselves to the priest, that's what was
required of them, that they had to go show themselves
to the priest so they could be made clean. And
look at what verse 15 said. One of them. One
of them. When he saw he was healed, came back
to Jesus shouting, praise God. One of the 10
men came back to Jesus to say thank you. Quick
math says 90 % of the men who enjoyed the blessing
and healing of Jesus didn't come back and say
thank you. 90%. And Jesus notices this. Look
at verses 17 and 18. Jesus asks, didn't I heal
10? Where are the other nine? Has no one returned
to give glory to God except this foreigner? To
boot, the one guy that came back was a Samaritan.
The hated, looked down on Samaritan. And when
we see this 10 % and we see this 90%, I think
the gratitude gap is on full display in this
passage. Jesus has done the miraculous for all
10 and only one has returned to give thanks.
So why does this happen? How does this happen?
Why do we fall into this 90 % or how can we fall?
into this 90 percent sometimes i think we get
distracted we get distracted by the next thing
the men in our story were probably so focused
on getting to the temple getting to the priest
so they could present themselves to the priest
and and start this new life they were healed
they were clean now so they could start doing
things they couldn't do before It's kind of like
what happens and it's coming up Christmas, right?
Christmas is coming up. And if you have kids,
you know how this goes. The kids, when it's time
to open the presents, they start opening the
presents and they open it up and all this is
amazing. They throw it to the side. They open
up the next one. This is awesome. They throw
it to the side. I know my kids do that. Right?
They're so focused on what's next. And we have
to remind them, hey, hey, hey, hey. Say thank
you to grandma. Say thank you to grandpa. Say
thank you for what they got you. And we can do
the same thing, right? We get so focused on the
next thing that we miss the opportunity to really
enjoy and appreciate what's right in front of
us. What God has done just now. Another reason
I think we fall into the 90 % is sometimes we
just assume that we deserve it. The men in our
story had been pushed aside, right? The men in
our story were made outcasts because of their
condition. If anyone deserved healing, it was
these guys, right? Seems right on the surface.
Seems like, yeah, you know what? They've been
through a lot. They do deserve this. But the
truth is, we really don't deserve anything good
at all. Sin is very clear in the Bible. The result
of sin is devastating. Romans tells us that the
wages of sin is death. That's what we deserve.
But as we read earlier, man, praise God, he does
not give us what we deserve. He doesn't give
us what we deserve. But that's only because of
his grace, only because of his mercy. James tells
us that every good and every perfect gift comes
from the Father. Everything good we have in our
lives comes from God. So we have to be careful
that we don't assume that we deserve what is
good. Another reason that I think sometimes we
fall into the 90 % is that we think that we'll
thank God later. The men in our story went, presented
themselves to the priests and we... We never
hear from them again. That's it. We don't see
them. Maybe they thought, okay, we'll go to the
priest and then we'll come back. We'll see Jesus
after that. But I'm sure once they presented
themselves to the priest, they were ready to
move on to the next thing. I got to see my family.
I got to see my friends. I got to tell them.
I got to tell them. They moved on. We get distracted.
We do this. I know I'm guilty of this. We're
busy in the moment where it's not the ideal time
and place to give God thanks. And so we just
assume, oh yeah, tonight when I'm praying, I'll
definitely thank him for that. But the truth
is that moment usually doesn't come. We forget.
We move on. We get distracted. We assume we deserve
it. We think we'll thank God later, but we never
do. That kind of sums up the 90%. And I think
these symptoms really stem from a much deeper
issue. And I think that deeper issue is this.
We tend to focus more on the gift than the giver
of the gift. We focus more on the blessing that
we receive and how that affects us rather than
the one who gave us the blessing in the first
place. We focus on the healing. We focus on the
provision, on things working out in our favor
the way that we want them to. But let me just
say this. God is so much more and so much bigger
even than the things that he gives us. And they're
good things and they're great things, but God
is even bigger and better than that. And so our
attention, our focus should be on the giver,
just like the man in our story. That man, that
one who came back shows us that gratitude is
more than a feeling. Gratitude leads to a response.
Gratitude is more than just a feeling. It leads
to a response. Let's go back to verse 15. We
see the response of the man. One of them, when
he saw that he was healed, came back to Jesus
shouting, praise God. The man who was healed
stopped what he was doing. He changed directions
and he came back. To Jesus. Sometimes when I'm
reading these passages, I think about different
parts that the Bible doesn't tell us. In this
story, I often wonder how far did he get before
he realized, I need to go back. How far away
from Jesus was he? How close was he to the temple?
We know that it happened on the outskirts of
town. So we know it was a little bit of a walk.
And the Bible tells us that as they went, they
were healed. So we don't really know exactly
how far away they were. But we do know he's walked
far enough that he has been completely healed.
And so even then, even though he's moved forward,
he stops. He changes direction. And heads back
to Jesus. Another thought. Do you think there
was a conversation between the ten men? When
that guy realized, I should go back. Did it start,
hey, we should go back. We should go back and
thank Jesus. Was he trying to convince the other
men? And they said, no, we'll do it later. We
got to go to the priest now. We got to go to
the temple now. It can be uncomfortable sometimes
to stop what we're doing and give praise to God.
Either way, he makes the choice. He makes the
choice to go back and thank Jesus. And I believe
this man truly models what gratitude is all about
and what gratitude looks like. It was all in
response to what Jesus had done for him. So what
does he do? First, he notices the blessing. He
sees what has happened. He realized that Jesus
has healed him. That shows us that gratitude
often begins with awareness. We should be looking
for how God is moving in our lives. We should
have our eyes open to the work of God every day,
not just Sunday at church, every day in our lives.
Next, he returned to Jesus, the one who healed
him. He stops what he's doing. He goes to the
source. And that shows us that gratitude requires
movement and intention. And then when he gets
to Jesus, he expresses that gratitude openly.
He is loud. He's praising God. He's falling on
his face in humility. He doesn't care who sees,
who hears his focus. is on Jesus. And that shows
us the importance of worship and vocalizing what
God has done for us. Gratitude is a response
to God for what he has done for us. And it doesn't
just produce words. It can, and it should, but
I think it produces even more. I think it should
produce worship. And yes, we sing and we worship
with song, but Paul tells us in Romans that worship
is more than just that. Look at Romans chapter
12. Paul says, and so dear brothers and sisters,
I plead with you to give your bodies to God.
Why? Because of all he has done for you. That's
the response. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice,
the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly
the way to worship him. Don't copy the behavior
and customs of the world, but let God transform
you into a new person by changing the way you
think. Then you will learn to know God's will
for you, which is good, pleasing, and perfect.
We respond to God's goodness and what he has
done for us in worship. Yes, in singing. Yes,
in lifting our voice to him, but also with our
lives, with our everyday life. We give our bodies
to God. And I love how there's another translation
of this passage. It's actually the message translation.
This is what it says. So here's what I want you
to do, God helping you, take your everyday ordinary
life, you're sleeping, you're eating, you're
going to work, you're walking around life, and
place it before God as an offering. Embracing
what God does for you is the best thing that
you can do for him. Don't become so well adjusted
to your culture that you fit into it without
even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on
God and you'll be changed from the inside out.
Readily recognize what he wants from you and
quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around
you, always dragging you down to its level of
immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops
well -formed maturity in you. I love that, our
everyday walking around life. We give God everything.
We fix our attention, our eyes on him. We give
him our whole lives. And when we do that, we're
living out the will of God in our lives. When
we give our lives to him, we're living out his
will in our lives. And we will develop into mature
followers of Jesus. We respond. to God's goodness.
And that brings me to my last observation this
morning. Gratitude deepens our relationship with
God. Gratitude deepens our relationship with
God. In our account, Jesus has healed all 10
lepers, but only one has come back and thanked
Jesus. And then look what Jesus says to him in
verse 19. Jesus said to the man, stand up and
go. Your faith has healed you. Another translation
said your faith has saved you. And so there's
a much deeper meaning here than just physical
healing. His faith had saved him. And this phrase,
these words that Jesus used, your faith has healed
you, your faith has saved you. Those are the
same words, if we go back a little earlier in
the New Testament, that Jesus uses when he talks
to the woman who had been caught in adultery.
Same words. It's the same words Jesus uses when
he heals the woman with the issue of blood. Your
faith has healed you. It's the same words Jesus
uses when he heals the blind beggar. Your faith
has healed you. Your faith has saved you. Yes,
there's physical healing, but it goes deeper
than that. There's salvation. There's life change.
See, gratitude doesn't just say thank you. It
draws you closer. To God, it opens up your heart.
It deepens your faith. It produces joy in your
life. It strengthens your worship. And it changes
the way you think. And it changes what you value.
Gratitude doesn't just change our mood. It deepens
our spiritual maturity. It helps us ultimately
become more like Christ. And that's what we want
to do. To be like Christ. So as we begin to wind
down this morning, I want to talk about how can
we close this gap, this gratitude gap? How do
we close the gap? How can we develop this attitude
of gratitude in our daily lives that ultimately
draws us closer in our relationship with Jesus?
And I think we look right at the example of the
one man in our story. And so here's where it
starts. It starts with actually looking for God
in our daily lives. We look for God in our everyday
life, looking for what he's doing, looking for
how he's moving. We fix our eyes on him. We fix
our attention on him. And we recognize that the
good things that we have come from him. We don't
chalk things up to accidents or chance. We believe
that God is moving in our lives for our good.
David understood this in the Psalms. He writes
this Psalm 37 verses 23 and 24. The Lord directs
the steps of the godly. I love this. He delights
in every detail of their lives. Though they stumble,
they will never fall for the Lord holds them
by the hand. God is in the details of your life.
We just have to look for it. You know, one thing
that I have found throughout my life is what
I look for, I'll find. If I go through my day
looking for someone to hurt me, guess what I'm
going to see? I'm going to see them hurt me.
If I go through my day thinking, oh, something
bad's going to happen, I'm going to find it.
I'm going to see it. But if I look for God every
day of my life, I guarantee you'll see it because
he's moving. He's working. He's working it all
together. So if we look for him, we will see
him. And then when we see him, we want to actually
take the time to, number two, reflect on his
goodness. As followers of Jesus, we should be
making space in our lives every day to reflect
on God's goodness. Let's go back to David in
Psalm 77, verses 11 through 12. But then I recall
all you have done. Oh Lord, I remember your wonderful
deeds of long ago. They are constantly in my
thoughts. I cannot stop thinking about your mighty
works. The goodness of God should be on our minds
all the time. And when we focus on God's goodness
and when we focus on how God is moving, it is
so much easier to see him the next time and to
see him the next time. So we look for God. We
focus on the good things. We reflect on his goodness.
We make time for it. And then before we move
on to the next thing, let's express that gratitude.
Let's express our gratitude. And we're going
to have a chance to do that in just a minute.
I'm going to invite our worship team to come
up and get ready. We're going to end with a song
of gratitude this morning. So we make time in
our lives for it, and then we actually express
it. We thank God for what he has done. In the
morning, you can pray through your day, God,
give me my daily bread. Give me what I need today.
You know what I'm going to face. You know what
I'm going to see. You know what I'm going to
experience. God, give me what I need today. And
then in the middle of the day, when you see God
come through, it's okay to stop. It's okay to
say thank you, even in the middle of the day.
It's okay. And then at night, I like to pray
through the day and say, God, thank you. I saw
you here. God, I saw you here. Kind of a look
back at the day and seeing God's faithfulness,
how he came through, how he provided. Maybe you
want to write it down. Maybe you like to journal.
Write down how God has come through for you.
Write down the blessings of God in your life.
Maybe you sing a worship song to the Lord, but
be specific. Don't just say, God, thank you.
But God, thank you for giving me patience today
with my kids. God, thank you for giving me the
words to say in that difficult situation today
at work. God, thank you for opening up that door
that I could share my faith with my family. Be
specific in your thanks because our gratitude
grows when it's expressed. Psalm 34 one, David
again, I will praise the Lord at all times. I
will constantly speak his praises. I will constantly.
Speak his praises. David tells us that it should
be on our lips all the time. And we don't just
keep it to ourselves. We don't just keep it between
us and God. The last thing is we can share the
goodness of God with others. That when God moves
in our lives, when God does the incredible, when
God does the unthinkable, or when God does the
small thing, We can share it with God. Share
the goodness of God with others. Psalm 9, verse
1, I will praise you, Lord, with all my heart.
I will tell of all the marvelous things that
you have done. You know, I don't know every single
one of you here today, but I do know that I'm
sitting in a room with people that God has been
good to. that God has been faithful to, that
God has come through for, that God has done the
miraculous in your life. And so because of God's
goodness and in response to God's goodness, you
have a story to share. And no one can take it
from you because it happened to you. No one can
say it's not true. No one can say it didn't happen
because God did it for you and you saw it and
you experienced it. So we've got to be willing
and we've got to be ready to share God's goodness
with those in our lives. So that's how we do
it. That's how we close the gratitude gap. We
look for God. We reflect on his goodness. We
express our gratitude to him and then we share
it with others. So we come to a close this morning.
Here's what I want us to remember. God has been
far more generous to us than we realize. And
most people enjoy God's blessings. Without expressing
gratitude. But gratitude is more than a feeling.
It's a response. A response that returns to Jesus.
A response that worships. A response that says,
Lord, I see what you've done. I see what you're
doing. And I'm not going to move on. I'm not
just going to keep walking. I'm going to thank
you for it. Just like that one man we read about
today. We want to be the people who turn back,
the people who notice God's hand, people who
pause long enough to reflect on his goodness,
people who express our gratitude openly to others,
people who share what God is doing in our lives,
people whose faith isn't silent, but it's seen,
it's felt, it's lived out. The truth is this.
Gratitude doesn't just change our words. Gratitude
changes our walk. It changes our lives. It draws
us closer to Jesus. So the challenge for us,
for me, for you, is to close that gratitude gap.
The gap between God's goodness and our response
to him. So let's make that choice today to be
like the one, the one who turned back, the one
who chose to say thank you, Lord, both with his
lips and with his life. And we can do the same,
yes, with our lips, but that's got to spill over
into our lives and how we live. And so today,
as we close this service, as we close this gathering,
We're going to sing of God's goodness. We're
going to sing this song of gratitude. And so
as we sing this song this morning, I would encourage
you to lift your hands, to praise God, to be
specific about the things that you're thankful
for. Maybe you even need to come forward and
take a step further than you normally take. And
begin to worship and begin to praise. And as
we sing and as we worship God in this moment,
my hope and my prayer is that it would be a catalyst
for what we do when we walk out these doors.
Yes, we can praise God here in church. That's
what we do. But how can we take that with us
and be people of gratitude in our daily lives?
So I'd invite you to stand this morning and our
worship team is going to sing. Think about that
thing. Think about that thing God has done that
you are so thankful for that maybe you haven't
thanked him for out loud. Vocalize it, verbalize
it, take a step forward, whatever that looks
like for you. We pray that you were impacted
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