Gratitude 2.9.25
2.9.2025 Pastor Kendon
“Gratitude”
◦Battleships: Relationships, Companionships, Friendships.
◦Un-communicated expectations is the number one reason for divorce.
◦Our brain is wired for CONNECTIONS but trauma re-wires it for PROTECTION.
◦Healthy relationships are difficult for wounded people.
◦BROKEN people BREAK people. WOUNDED people WOUND people. HURTING people HURT people.
◦From a HOLE in us to being made WHOLE through Christ !
◦{Battleship game from the eighties examples}
◦Jesus’ strong response, “Get behind me, Satan!” was not calling Peter literally Satan, but rather recognizing that Peter was, in that moment, acting as a stumbling block, echoing Satan’s temptation. Just as Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-11) by offering a path to kingship without suffering, Peter was unknowingly suggesting a similar idea—that Jesus could fulfill His mission without the cross. Jesus saw this as a temptation to abandon God’s plan, so He rebuked Peter sharply.…He is saying you WILL NOT sink my BATTLESHIP!!!
◦Job’s three friends were:
◦1.Eliphaz the Temanite
◦2.Bildad the Shuhite
◦3.Zophar the Naamathit
◦These three came to comfort Job during his suffering, but instead, they accused him of sin, arguing that his misfortunes were a punishment from God. Made up crimes causing Job to question.
◦Have you ever been around people to question your sanity and try to control you???
◦Terrible Theology: “Sinners are punished and good people are blessed!” It’s the opposite!
◦But He says you have not spoken the truth; those words are not from me…
✓Job 42:7:“After the Lord had said these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, ‘I am angry with you and your two friends because you have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has.’”
◦Here, God rebukes Job’s three friends—Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar—because their words about God were incorrect. They had wrongly assumed that Job’s suffering was due to his sin, misrepresenting God’s justice. While Job struggled and questioned, he did not falsely accuse God in the way his friends did.
◦Holes in your life will be formed through words. Learn to filter!!!
◦If you want to see Gods results then you have to speak His language! “BUT” you have to know His language. Isaiah 54:17:“No weapon formed against you shall prosper,And every tongue which rises against you in judgmentYou shall condemn.This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord,And their righteousness is from Me,”Says the Lord.
✓So then what is God’s LANGUAGE? You need to know His LANGUAGE so when someone tries to pull you back from your purpose. See Below:
✓***”I am loved by God” 1 John 4:9-10 “This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”
✓***”God is with me” Deuteronomy 31:6 “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”
✓***”He is for me and not against me” Romans 8:31 “What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?”
✓***”I am created in the image of God” Genesis 1:27 “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”
✓***”I am loved” John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
✓***”I am chosen” John 15:16 “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.”
✓***”I am redeemed” Titus 2:14 “Who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.”
✓***”I am forgiven” Ephesians 1:7 “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace.”
✓***”I am the Righteousness of God in Christ Jesus” 2 Corinthians 5:21 “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
✓***”I am new creation in Christ” 2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”
✓***”I am more than a conqueror” Romans 8:37 “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”
✓***”I live with purpose” Romans 8:28 “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
✓***”I am powered by Holy Spirit” Acts 1:8 “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
✓***”I can do all things in Christ Jesus” Philippians 4:13 “I can do all this through him who gives me strength.”
✓Luke 17:11-19 tells the story of Jesus healing the ten lepers, emphasizing gratitude and faith. 11 Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance. 13 and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”14 When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed. 15 One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. 16 He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan.17 Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? 18 Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19 Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you whole!”
◦What made him whole? “Gratitude!”
✓Robert Emmons, a leading expert on gratitude. One of his well-known insights is that gratitude blocks toxic emotions like envy, resentment, and regret because it shifts focus away from what we lack and toward what we have. A quote that aligns with this idea is:“It is impossible to feel envious and grateful at the same time.” — Robert Emmons.