The Gratitude Gap - Pastor Kenneth Steele

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

Luke 17 · chapter mention

we'll be today, Luke chapter 17. But before we

Luke 17 · chapter mention

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

Romans 12 · chapter mention

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

Psalms 37:23

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

Psalms 77:11–12

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

Psalms 9:1

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

powerfully by this message. If you have been

personally affected by our ministry and you would

like to partner with us as we love God, love

people every day, visit our website at