Ancient Roman statesman Cicero accurately said,
what starts his gratitude quickly becomes dependency and ends in entitlement.
As a society, we seemingly have involved to the point where we can customize our circumstances
according to how we wish it to be, fashioning our world to favoring our whims.
Yet when we live in a way that we believe we deserve, we actually knock God out of the center of our lives.
Gratitude is a currency that secures more blessings and places you in the favor of the Father.
In this episode of Kicker 100, we go into Thanksgiving week talking about gratitude,
entitlement, and having a wisdom window with special guest Yolanda Stith.
What's good family? We are Sean and Christa Smith.
Hey everybody and welcome to another exciting episode of Keeper 100.
You are in for the Taster's Choice Pod experience today.
We are so looking forward to this conversation but before we dive into that,
I want to talk to the Keeper 100 tribe and kind of share with them where we've been the last week.
We've had such an incredible week with the Lord.
Yes, we have. We began at Fresh Start, an incredible church just outside the Phoenix,
Arizona area. Some great friends of ours, the Owens.
Yeah, truly. We just saw God do some incredible things. Christa, you really got touched.
Oh my goodness. Keeper 100 tribe, you got to know. I had a genuine encounter with God that I have
never had in my whole life. I literally had electricity from the Lord like voltage going
through my body. I ended up not even preaching that night. I just ministered. I prophesied.
I flowed. I laid hands on people. I mean, there was just the flow of the Holy Spirit was incredible.
And the word you brought was so profound. People were so impacted. There were salvations.
There were healings. There were deliverances. It was a true Holy Ghost service. And it was really
cool because a father walked up to me with his young son, Osman. And the interesting thing is
a previous time when I was at the church, I prayed for Osman who he ranked on the autistic spectrum.
And after praying for him, his dad took him back and they ran a battery test on Osman and he no
longer is on the autistic spectrum. He's in regular class. He's smart. He's intelligent. We got a
chance to hug him and talk to him. And I so love the fact that Jesus healed little Osman.
It is so amazing. I mean, I really want to keep it 100 tribe to grab ahold of that testimony because
I know there's so many people that, you know, that is their story. They have an autistic child or they
know someone that has an autistic child. And here is a medically verified healing of a child that
was once on the spectrum is no longer medically on the spectrum. Oh my goodness. And right from there,
we went to Dallas because we were a part of a Mama Cindy Jacobs call together a global
prophetic council. We're probably 40 or less different leaders and generals. We got together
and we just prayed about this upcoming year and share what we felt God was placing in our hearts.
Powerful. And then we stuck around and we were part of the global prophetic summit.
They had probably a thousand people in attendance and multiplied, multiplied thousands of people
that watched it around the world. And Christ and I got a chance to have a session amongst this
powerful conference of generals. It was such an honor to be speaking in that lineup. There's
so many of these people I've just always looked up to and admired and to just be able to minister
alongside them. I'm just like, wow, God's like, you know, it's funny as we're flying back on the
plane. I just was just so grateful for opportunity that in that week of ministry, because it was
about eight days there that God allowed us to just be with friends, new friends, but old friends
and just see God move like that. And that Thanksgiving just welled up in my heart. Speaking
of Thanksgiving, here we come. That's right. You know, it's always humorous to see how people gather
together at their homes with their families, their friends, and they stop and they give thanks
before they carve the turkey. But it's always interesting to see how quickly that Thanksgiving
fades from Thursday to Black Friday. And all of a sudden we mourn from dinner table gratitude to
fighting Fred at Walmart for a flat screen over a doorbuster special because we feel that we're
entitled to that deal. Isn't that funny? Oh, it is. And it's really funny. You called them Fred
at Walmart. That's hilarious. But it is. Isn't that funny how we shift from this day of like
family and gathering and so much gratitude and it's like warm, fuzzy, feel good to people like
all out war and videos that go viral on Black Friday fights. I mean, it's great. It's like the
battle of Black Friday. Yes. You know, it's so interesting because, you know, we're talking
about gratitude today, but the antithesis, the opposite of gratitude is entitlement. And, you
know, the truth is with the bigger our sense of entitlement is the smaller the sense of our
gratitude is. And our gratitude disappears and entitlement reappears when we believe and work
from a place that we think we deserve something. So true. And, you know, the word entitlement has
so become a part of our modern culture these days where we believe, you know, what we need and want
is actually owed to us. And when we don't get what we feel like we should have been given, we believe
we've been treated unfairly and therefore insert entitlement. We have seen that over and over again
in modern culture. In fact, that leads me to this fact I found that wasn't that long ago several
years back, the two siblings, 23 and 20 years of age, sued their mother. What? Claiming that she
was negligent and caused them emotional distress. Oh my. Now get this, Christa, they sued their maternal
figure for bad mothering because she didn't send her son a care package at college. What? She didn't
buy her daughter an expensive homecoming dress. What? The siblings said in court, there must be
an accountability for her actions. There must be an accountability for their actions. What are you
talking about? And get this, these two young 20 year olds were being raised by their father who's
worth $1.5 billion. You got to be kidding me. Living in a Barrington Hills home. Stop it. And of course,
their lawsuit was tossed out of court. Oh, absolutely, as it should have been. That is crazy.
These wealthy, wealthy children are suing their mom because they weren't given what they thought
they should have deserved a care package and a homecoming dress. My Southern black grandma would
have took care of that real quick. Just saying. Ethel, Ethel to the rescue on that one. I tell
you what, you know, it's so true. You see these crazy scandals about entitlement, you know, the
one I'm reminded of and it happened somewhat in, you know, recently and remember admission gate.
And it was when multiple celebrities, you know, were charged and I believe it was actually more
than 50 people if memory serves me right, were charged with participating in the college admission
scandal and it was a scheme involving bribery, money laundering and all these parents paid approximately
a collective $25 million to bribe universities on behalf of their children's acceptance and
admissions. And you know, even one of the actresses actually did her 14 days serving at a federal
correction center, which was only 10 minutes from our house. Shout out to the Dublin correction
facilities. You know, it reminds me of this thought. Some people are born on third base and think
they hit a triple. They don't realize that it wasn't them that got themselves there. And speaking of
a baseball metaphors, the San Francisco giants were once sued for passing out Father's Day gifts
to men only. Now, Hallmark has made sure of it that no matter who you are, you got a day or a
month to celebrate you. Can you imagine suing a professional? Here's another one. A psychic was
awarded close to $1 million. So she won this when a doctor's CAT scan impaired her psychic abilities.
Am I responsible to that? She should have saw it coming. That's hilarious and very witty. I love
that. You know, entitlement can leave you constantly feeling angry, resentful or frustrated by others
because if you actually believe that someone owes you something and that person doesn't come through,
do you feel like you've been ripped off and cheated out of what you rightly deserve? You're
always going to be living in a place of frustration and not in peace. Keep it 100. We have our new
segment that we introduced last week called the 100% segment or like we love to do in modern culture.
We have a nickname for it. We call it the Hondo P segments. So our discussion topic for this
episode is what do you think contributes to our ingratitude and entitlement as a culture? Well,
you know, what's interesting about this, my mind and the way I'm wired is I a lot of times look
historically of how trends have been created in order to understand modern day society,
modern day culture. And one thing I learned was after World War II, the United States experienced
an unprecedented economic growth and the baby boomers became the largest population at that time,
and they experienced the highest consumer market because the baby boomers were the largest population
and they on average were making more money than the average income than past generations. They
begin this consumerism of the best cars, the nicer house, everything began to go up a level with the
baby boomer generation where it was always kind of that keeping up with the Joneses, that high
consumerism, that high buying, less saving. And you barely begin to see that trend be passed on
from the boomer generation and all. And so when that's passed on to their kids, they begin to
call that the American dream. And so that sense of entitlement has been pedaled very profitably by
advertisers all over our society, really in every sphere of our society. And it's created an expectation
that the standard of living would always be better than your parents. But here's what's crazy. For the
first time in history, the millennial generation not exceeding the livelihood or income that their
parents have lived at, the millennials are not living at a better place. And historically, the
generations have followed have always had a better income than the previous generations. So we're
seeing now a downtrend of that. But one of the initial trends historically was the baby boomers.
And that's really affected current modern day culture of the American dream is high materialism,
high spending. You know, you said something really that triggered me. And you just said,
hey, the parents passed something on to their kids. And so as much as it's easy to point at the
emerging generation and talk about their title, their this, their that, I don't know that the
blame should be placed as much on just one generation. When you look at it, you have to admit
parents have contributed to this. I think about when I was growing up, boo, and my grandmother
would make vegetables I didn't like like lima beans, very southern black eyed peas. Right. Right.
Right. And I didn't want to eat it. But my grandmother would make me eat it. I could not
leave the table if in fact she had made a dessert, I wasn't going to have the dessert. And there was
no throwing a fit and having my way. It's like you eat this or you don't eat. Right. Right. And
my grandma take a step beyond that. You're going to eat it no matter what because you need your
vegetables. I think about there's come on the scene a generation that moms or dads cook the
kids meals. The kids didn't like it. So the kids threw a tantrum and forced their parents to make
them something else. Or maybe I should say their parents capitulated and made them something else.
And then these same kids, they were getting cell phones, nice cell phones before they even got to
junior high. And then when they got to junior high, they had to get the $175 sneakers because
everyone else had it. And then I was reading this one article that said participation trophies. And I
thought about participation trophies. It's like the one kid is overplaying with caterpillars,
didn't really want to be on the team. He didn't even really want to play the sport. And he got
the same trophy as a kid that made every practice, played hard and did everything. And this one
article was calling and it was by behavioral experts was calling in the question and they said
participation trophies are a false representation of how life works. And so all of a sudden,
maybe you think you're supposed to get the trophy, but you haven't worked to get the trophy.
Right. And then as you grow up, you never lose that. And then you combine that with the presence
of victimhood culture where we've turned a grievance into a fad. If you've been hurt and you've been
wounded, you have a platform, you become an authority, everybody hears you and you may not
even have a solution. You just have a problem. And I think about even in the church, people are
saying, Lord, I've followed you for 17 years and I'm still believing for a mate. How can you allow
that person hasn't even been saved two years to already be getting married? And it's almost a merit
thing. But what happens is many people walk away from the Lord because God didn't give them what
they wanted, when they wanted. So they said God didn't work for them. But for many, the reason why
God didn't work is because he was never made Lord of their lives. And what happens in that point
is that God was just a means to get what they felt entitled to. And if God's just a means to get
you what you think you're entitled to, he's not your God. He's a genie to you and you need to make
him Lord. You know, it's something else to really break entitlement because you just hit something
so key. It's like, if someone doesn't get what they want, they're automatically like, oh my gosh,
God doesn't work for me. I'm going to do my own thing. But I really believe in the timing of God.
The timing of the Lord will break that entitlement because when you trust God, you have to surrender
and surrender breaks entitlement because you're recognizing his ways are not your ways, his ways
are higher. Surrender breaks entitlement. And when we live from a place of entitlement, we're not
surrendering, right? And so that's so important for us to understand when you have that attitude
toward God of it's not this way. And you kind of feel that adult tantrum coming on. And we've all
gone there. You know, some of us less than others, like probably my husband's never had one because
he's like so, so kind. On the other hand, it probably definitely at times been like, God,
why? You know, but I think what's so important in that process is understanding. I have, that's
one thing I've learned in my life is the timing of God, which is so, so, so important in the trusting
of seeing God's plans and purposes in your life. So when things don't go in the way you,
you want or hope or even prayed for, you know, in the end, God's going to work it out. I think
that's important, you know, for our listeners to really grab ahold of today. You know, researchers
have also proven what most parents really knew instinctively that gratitude doesn't come naturally
to people and especially kids. They did a study, which I thought was really cool, that children
spontaneously say hi 27% of the time, goodbye 25% of the time and thanks only 7% of the time. So,
you know, the really the conclusion from that research is children had a much more difficult
time learning how to say thank you. And I think that's a really telling trait of humans. It's of
the human race. We are quick to say hello, goodbye, but not so much thank you that gratitude is a
learned trait and it's not just a learned trait. It has to be a learned lifestyle. With that being
said, we want to jump into an incredible conversation with Yolanda Stith. We love this woman. She is
a lead pastor of all nations worship assembly in Baltimore, Maryland. She has, she has authored
multiple books and she is a mover shaker in the kingdom. God, this woman is a woman of wisdom.
She has transformed so many lives, including Sean and I's. We can't wait for you
to enjoy this conversation with apostle Yolanda.
Amazing. Come on Yolanda. One of my favorite, favorite, favorite people and to have this
woman's voice on our podcast is truly an honor when Sean and I were talking about who do we want to
have contribute to the gratitude conversation? Yolanda was like our pick number one. So I was
like, I'm going to send her a message and see if I can get her on. And she said, yes. So Yolanda,
welcome. Thank you so much for inviting me on your podcast. Yes. Yes. Thanksgiving is one of my
favorite topics. So thank you. Right. Well, you know, the reason is you carry it and you really
embody gratitude. And we've seen that in you and our time we've shared together and just being able
to partner with you and so much that God's put in you. But I have some questions for you. Is
it okay if I just dive in? Yes. All right. Awesome. So, you know, we're talking about gratitude and the
power of gratitude and why it's so significant for people's life. And in such a tricky year,
like we've been in 2020, I think gratitude for many of us has been a little more scarce or something
you had, you've had to be a lot more intentional about, right? Yes. So for you in 2020, what is the
thing that you're most grateful for excluding God and your family? I think the thing that I'm most
grateful for is health and strength. I've seen so many people impacted by this year, all that's been
going on, and I've counseled so many people that are on the brink of mental breakdowns and different
things. It's so true. The body of Christ included. And so I've just every day felt such a sense of
gratitude about God just keeping our mind, right? We're blessed to have our mind kept in just in
the perfect peace of God. Yes. And I've been through things. I've gone through so many different
trials this year, but my saving grace has been the power of thanksgiving. And so that's what I'm
grateful for. Yeah. Oh, that is so, that's so good. You know, it's so true. And I think, would you
agree that when we really practice gratitude, it shifts obviously your mind, right? Because what
your mouth declares, it shifts your internal atmosphere. You're so right. I've been in moments
where one specific attack hit our family. And I remember just consistently, like for three days,
thinking about it. And I was sinking. And all of a sudden, I felt the Holy Spirit just overshadowed
me. And he said, I want you to begin to give thanks. And I began to give thanks from the depths of
my soul. And when I tell you, it shifted everything about how I felt even about the situation. And
I just began to thank God that it could have been worse, but we overcame. And so my peace was found
in thanksgiving. That is so good. Having counseled so many people, fighting the brink of just kind
of that breakdown. So many people have been attacked mentally, like what you're saying,
you've walked your own battles this year, I've walked my own battles. I think we can all agree.
You know, it's been a challenge. What has been kind of your counsel for people in the area of
what they can be grateful for during this time? I think my counsel, number one, is reflecting
just on the goodness of God, because God, he's never changing. That's not predictable, but he is
still the same. And that's one of the things we have to do. I felt that very strongly when I was
thinking about this question, he is still the same. And I remember reflecting on just the
sameness of God, he's not predictable, but he is consistent. And we see this all throughout the
scripture, where the end result is we overcome, we overcome because of the testimonies of the saints,
because of the blood, we overcome because God has a consistent track record with these people of
bringing us through. He has already given us the victory. Come on, already, we know the end result
of everything, and it's going to be victory. And so I think thanksgiving is directly connected
with peace and remembering that God is still in charge is a saving place. Yeah.
That is a profound statement you just said. I'm like, I want you to preach that one day,
that he is the same, but he's unpredictable. He can surprise you at any moment. He can change
things in a moment. I always wake up every day you'll want to, with that hope for the things I'm
believing for, for those breakthrough. Like, God, at any time, today could be the day.
And I just have that, that, you know, it's like, he is the same. He is the God of breakthrough.
He's bell pairs him, the Lord who sees me. And yet he's unpredictable in a great way,
because in any moment it can turn, and yet I can rely on his faithfulness and his goodness.
We know what Philippians says, Philippians four and six says, do not be anxious for anything,
but in every situation by prayer and petition with thanksgiving. Yeah, come on, present your request
to God and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding. And so the peace of this
peace that's connected to this thanksgiving, it transcends all understanding. And so that means that
even when our breakthrough doesn't come, we know that he is right on the brink of doing it for us.
And so we can hold on to the fact that he is the God of breakthrough.
Yes. I know you all can't see Yolanda and I, but right now I'm like cheering her on. I'm,
I put my hand in the air and I gave her a praise on that because that's so good. That is so good.
I love that. You know, in our culture, there's so many things that mitigate against being grateful.
But what do you feel like those top things are that really fight against being,
being really having a culture because it's a culture. It's a lifestyle of gratitude. It's not
a one time moment. What do you think that looks like for our culture today? I think two key things
are self centeredness and entitlement. Hit that break that down. Yolth, centeredness and entitlement.
We live in a world that tells us to create your own lane, do it your own self, just make it happen.
And it takes our reliance off of God and it puts it on ourself. And so we think that we are our own
God or we made it our own way, done it within our own strength. It totally removes God from the picture.
And so when we've been taught to be creators of our own lanes and not wait for God to open the door
it's a do it yourself type of culture. Sometimes we can create that very self centered attitude,
which totally takes us from the reliance upon God. When we learn to rely upon God,
it brings us into the sense of Thanksgiving. So in our culture, especially, well, I won't say what
generation I've seen this in the most, but in this. Well, that will go on smoking right now.
I have a feeling what you're talking about. Like people, you know, it's unjust, so
engrossed in my own pain and so engrossed in my own thing. And what's not happening for me,
that I forget that God is still worthy of the praise. Come on, that we base our ability to
praise and worship based on how we feel. Yes. And nothing could be further from the truth.
Right. Because if I relied on how I felt to praise God, there would be some days that there
wouldn't be some praising, but it's when I haven't felt like it, when I've leaned into it, that's
what's actually shifted me to come into alignment with him. And then when I come into alignment
with him, it's like my perspective, my eyes get off myself, right? And I think so many times our
eyes have to get off ourselves in order to worship, right? Yes, it's called the sacrifice of praise.
Oh, come on. Given God the sacrifice of praise, it's beyond how we feel. He deserves it because
he's God. And I think that sometimes we forget that he is the creator of the universe and that
we were created to do this very thing. Yes, life circumstances, pain and everything has a way of
being able, we're having the power to smother that, but it takes the sacrifice, which is just
like you said, when we remove ourselves from this situation and remember that he is God.
Oh, that's so profound and deepest. If one of our listeners grabs the hold of that today,
that there at times is a sacrifice of praise. And yet the breakthrough that happens as we praise and
we position ourselves in gratitude, it shifts everything. I really believe that there are
realms that get opened up to us in the heavens with gratitude. For you, in what ways have you seen
that? Observe that in your life and other people's lives that when gratitude is expressed, it opens up
the realms of heaven. A few months ago, I ministered from a title called Into His Gates,
and that one is a revelatory series about the heavens opening up when we praise, right? And so
we read what Psalms 100 verses four through five, it gives us the revelation about entering into the
gates or the portal of glory through Thanksgiving. And so it says, enter into his gates with Thanksgiving
and towards course of praise, give thanks to him and praise his name. Thanksgiving is the key
that will unlock the doors of God's blessing in our life. It will unlock the doors of great breakthrough.
We enter into this realm of Thanksgiving. It gets the attention of heaven, but it also gets the
attention of hell. And it is actually warfare when you learn to give the offering of Thanksgiving
in the midst of hell in circumstances. We see this in the book of Acts, and slow me down if you want
to, but we see this in... This is awesome, go. We see this in the book of Acts where Paul and Silas
and they pray and the Bible says that they sang praises unto God and the prisoners heard them,
and suddenly there was a great earthquake so that the foundations of the prisons were shaken.
And then what happened? God released an angel. There was an angelic assistance that was released
as a result of Paul and Silas' praise. They were in a circumstance that they could not get out on
their own, but when they learned to praise him and give thanksgiving, offer thanksgiving to God
in the midst of their circumstances, great breakthrough happened, heaven responded, and
all that witnessed were astounded because God came through. And I honestly feel like that's
a word for us right now. That is. Because I feel like we've been in a situation, we've been in these
situations all throughout this year, and we've needed God to come through in my own life.
I needed God to come through for me. I have been under pressure, and I knew it because there was
another place that God was going to open up for me. And nevertheless, it was still pressure.
And I knew that I needed God to intervene. And so in the midst of the pressure, in the midst of what
appeared to be bondage, I had to give God the praise and offer up songs and offer up gratitude
because it could have been worse. Great is his faithfulness to what he is. Amen. Because he came
through, right? He came through. Yes. For us all, we're sitting here, we're conversing. My family
has their health, their strength. We're all strong. We've not lacked one thing because God
right? Yes. Right. Okay, come on. I mean, I think you just preached and we all literally just had
an encounter. I tell you what, because that just came out of you because of who you are and what
you carry. And you have battled, I can tell, right? You know, when you hear someone's story,
when you hear someone's testimony and they walk in an authority, it's often because they've battled
for the breakthrough in that area. It's like, I hear the gratitude come out of you. I hear
the praise and the worship, the sacrifice of those things come out of your life. But you know, it's
like for you and I, for our listeners today, it's like, hear what apostle Yolanda just released
over you. And that is when we praise and we worship and not only breaks the chains of the enemy,
the chains of captivity, but it also sets those free around us because what I love in Act 16
is every prison door opened, not just Paul and Silas' but every prison door. I mean, every prison
door. It's like we change atmospheres not only for ourselves, but literally everyone that we come
in contact with. You know, you're coming into your workplace, your family, your friends, whomever,
your grocery store, your Starbucks, whatever. It's like when we walk into an atmosphere and we release
the praise of the Lord, we literally shake the foundations of what the enemy thought he had set.
We shift the foundations and there is an openness of the heavenly realm. And I love what you brought
out and you highlighted that the angels were released, right? The ministering angels were
dispersed when the praise of heaven was released. And I believe for some people, as you release your
praise, the angels are getting dispatched. I believe in the angels of the Lord being sent to
come alongside us and minister and to be activated, right? And so I believe there's an activation of
the angelic realm that happens in our praise. And so, you know, I believe there's some people that
are listening right now in your home or in your car, your workplace, and you just need to start
thanking God like Rhonda reminded us, you know, be reminded of what God has done. He might be
unpredictable, but he's exactly the same. Come on. Yeah. I tell you what, Apostle Yolanda, you are a
woman of wisdom and revelation. I know we're just getting a small piece of the well that is within
you today. But I know from this conversation, there's so many of our listeners are going to be like,
I want more of this woman. She's incredible because that's exactly how I felt the first time I met you.
I was like, I want to be this woman's friend. I pray she wants to be my friend because I just love
who you are. What you carry. So how can people get in touch with you? Tell us about your ministry.
You've authored an incredible book. You have a podcast as well. I'd love for people to be able
to connect with you. I just want to say thank you and you are my friend. You are so beautiful.
I honor you. I honor Sean. Thank you so much for having me. Well, my podcast is Junius Table Live,
with Yolanda Stiff. You may find that on any of our podcast outlets. And my website is www.yolandastiff.com.
You'll see all resources there. Finally, I have two books, one newly released called Jail's Tent.
And if you are a woman that has been born for the frontline, I would like you to get that book.
Thank you. All women need to get that book. Yes. Thank you so much. I tell you what, thanks so much
for coming and having this conversation with us. And you are such an empowerment to the body of
Christ. Keep doing what you're doing. And I know you've been fighting on the front lines, but no,
Sean and I love you. We support you. Can't wait to continue to partner with you. Thank you so much.
Yo, that was so powerful. Yolanda, man, she just came, comes from such a deep place. I love how
authentic, how real she is. You could tell she has lived that. There is traction to the things that
she's saying and not to continually hit our theme. But man, Keep Your 100. She kept it 100 in that
interview. She really did. As always, Keep Your 100 Tribe, we want to give you the Keep Your 100
takeaways. In this episode, we're focusing on gratitude. First takeaway that we want to give
you is gratitude is where you begin to experience God in a powerfully personal way. I think that's
so important because many people that don't understand that you come into God's presence
with thanksgiving in your heart, they never get to enter into a deeper place of God's presence
because they've never learned gratitude. If you want an encounter with God, begin to express
thanksgiving and praise. The Lord inhabits the praises of His people. And that reminds me of one
of our core values. And it really comes from the story in the gospels where Jesus healed 10 lepers.
And leprosy was, of course, at that time, an incurable disease apart from Jesus healing you,
God healing you, you would die of that. It's far more contagious than any other disease in the
history of mankind. And Jesus walked up upon a leper colony of 10 lepers. And He said,
hey, go show yourself to priests. So they began to walk away. And the narrative of the passage would
indicate that they were healed as they went. So I love what you said earlier. It's a process of
time. We want it now, but maybe there's a process. That's right. When they discovered they were healed,
it's the funniest thing happened. Only one out of the 10 lepers turn, return to Jesus to say thanks.
When Jesus saw him, He says, was there, was there not 10 lepers that were healed? Where are they?
And the one leper, of course, couldn't answer for the rest of them. But the interesting part of the
passage is nine of the lepers were Jewish, like Jesus was Jewish. And obviously, saw him as a rabbi.
So maybe they felt a bit entitled that, hey, we're Jewish. And the one leper that did return to say
thanks was Samaritan. So he probably felt unworthy. So he said, thanks. And so my core value is that I
always think about the one leper. I want to be the one leper return to Jesus says, thank you.
And if you could thank Jesus, you can connect with Jesus. And from that, at that point, you move from
the cuts to the condo of intimacy, which is my way of saying you move from the outer courts to the
inner courts. I will enter into His gates with thanks, give Him to my heart. And gratitude creates
an opportunity for further blessing because that one leper not only got healed, Jesus basically
used the word sozo, which really meant that he was delivered. He was redeemed. He entered in a
covenant. All that happened to the Samaritan leper because he returned to say thank you.
You know, another takeaway about gratitude is gratitude defies Satan's lies. The enemy always
wants to distort who God is. But gratitude always reminds you actually of who God is. And you know,
when the devil's whispering that God's withholding something good from you, he's not going to come
through. He begins to distort the character of God. What does gratitude do? It puts it back in
perspective. It reminds you of who our God is. It makes God big. And the obstacles battle small.
When I need to be reminded of who God is in the midst of obstacle or obstacles that I'm facing
against the things that are coming against me, I begin to worship and I begin to praise him,
which is a posture of gratitude. And it's the posture of gratitude that shifts me from anxiety
to peace. And it also teaches us to discipline our thoughts because you know, the word talks
about taking thoughts captive. This is how I take thoughts captive. This is how our listeners can take
thoughts captive is when you're in a place of gratitude, it forces you to meditate and be
reminded of the memorials of when God has answered your prayer, when he's come through, who he is,
what he has done in the past. And it puts it back in perspective that God is going to come through
because he's true to his word and he cannot deny himself or his word or his promises. And when we're
in from a place of gratitude, it reduces anxiety, which I love that because so many people struggle
with anxiety. You want to break anxiety in your life, it increased the gratitude in your life.
Yep. And gratitude also erodes envy and comparison, which is so important. Yes, it is. In a social
media world where we are so looking at the highlight reel of people's life and we can often compare
one another like they have this, they have that. And you know, we've all been there and done that,
but the way you break it is number one, just sometimes put away your social media. And then
number two, go into a place of thanking the Lord for what he's done in your life. And when you
begin to see the faithfulness and the goodness of God in your own personal life, it makes you stop
comparing what other people have and what everyone else has is better than what you have. No, no,
God has blessed you in your life. And having that practice of gratitude is so important to break
envy and comparison. You know, a truly grateful person learns how to train their thinking to jump
to gratitude instead of grumbling. You can actually change your default setting in your life from
grumbling to gratitude. That's so good. When gratitude becomes a normal daily practice,
because not a moment, it's actually a lifestyle. And you know, really, I'll end with this and I
want to jump to the last takeaway. Gratitude gives us an eternal purpose. It sets our eyes on who God
is and who our Lord is and what better is that to then to be daily reminded of the goodness and
the bigness of our God. You know, last takeaway with about gratitude is gratitude. And this is one
of my favorites, attracts the miraculous. It keeps us continually aware that the Lord is close by
and our dependence upon him alone. And I love this because gratitude focuses our attention on him
rather than our circumstances. You know, and John 1144 talks about how Jesus gave thanks before
raising Lazarus from the dead. I love that. That is so great. Right? Before the miracle took place,
Jesus thanked the Father, which again, I said this earlier that gratitude is an expression of praise,
is an expression of worship. And that is a place, an atmosphere that hosts the miraculous. And what
I love is the angels are dispatched in our praise and in our worship. And what I love is the Spirit
of God came and raised Lazarus from the dead as Jesus gave thanks to the Father. And as you and I
give thanks in situations that seem dead and need resurrection, just like Jesus, we can see things
resurrected when we give thanks to the Father. Gratitude hosts the miraculous. It invites the
miraculous into our situations. And lastly, in John 6 11, we also see Jesus giving thanks again
before the miracle of multiplying the fish and the loaves. I just want to reiterate that point.
You need a miracle in your life. You need breakthrough in your life. I challenge you
to begin to worship, to praise and make declarations of gratitude of what God has done in your life.
And I tell you what, there's going to be an unleashing and an unlocking of the miraculous realm
because of the multiplication, the miracle power, miracle working power of God in our lives,
I believe is partnered with the declaration of our mouths and our hearts. For those of you
that are listening, you have a challenge before you to be like that one leper that your life
is continually returning back to Jesus to say thank you, that you may live in a world of entitlement,
but the world of entitlement doesn't have to live in you. And this crucial component of gratitude
is so pivotal and foundational to your life that if you allow this to really sink deep inside of you,
I believe they could truly revolutionize your life from this point on. Keep it 100 tribe. We
just want to thank you so much for tuning in again with us this week. We want to ask you to make sure
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ministries and we'd love to hear how this podcast has impacted you and if you reach out to us,
we will definitely reach back to you. And keep it 100 tribe. Next week, you're definitely going
to want to tune in while we have a new episode with incredible prophetic voice of Cindy Jacobs.
We love this woman. We're going to be talking about the important topic of 21st century's
Deborah and Esther's because we are in the hour where God is raising up women and you do not want
to miss this and men don't check out because it supplies to you too. As always, remember that
relief may change your circumstances, but a revelation will change you.