Pastor Brodie Kalamen | Intentional Gratitude | October 12th, 2025

Father, we thank you for our community.

We thank you for your presence here.

For every heart that is open, for every heart that's searching, for every heart that is has become vulnerable in this moment and just opened up to you.

Father, you said that you said, come unto me, all who are thirsty, all who are heavy, all who are laden, all who are overworked, overlooked, and all those who are struggling and working and striving.

And you said, Lord, you'll come, you'll give us rest, and you'll give us the provision for our soul.

So, Father, today we turn our soul to you, our soul, our mind, our will, our emotions.

And we turn it to you today, Lord, because you are the good, good Father.

And every you're the giver of every good and perfect gift.

It comes from you.

You don't just uh take care of creation, you take care of us.

You're created.

So we honor you today.

Amen.

Amen.

Let's give the band a hand today.

It's so easy when it's Thanksgiving because you just like, can we say thank you to the band?

It's like, yes, we everyone's already all pent up, they're ready to say thank you.

All right, ready to say thank you.

It's great.

I have a question for you this morning.

Uh if you were to lose everything tomorrow, and you knew that you were going to lose everything tomorrow, you were gonna be stripped of your job, stripped of your health, stripped of your house, your friends, stripped of freedom, stripped of your peace and your security, what would you still thank God for?

And I want you to picture this Jesus in the final hours before the cross, he knew the betrayal was coming.

And if anyone has ever experienced betrayal, you you're experienced or are familiar with the anguish and of that betrayal.

And the weight of the world was literally on Jesus' shoulders, and yet in the middle of it all, he sat at a table like many of you will sit at a table this this weekend.

He broke bread, like many of us will do.

And what did he do?

He gave thanks.

He gave thanks in advance.

Before he even took the bread, before he took the cup, before he went to the cross.

Gratitude wasn't a reaction to the cross being over.

Gratitude was his choice, gratitude was his approach, gratitude was his posture and his attitude before the cross even began.

Gratitude was intentional.

And today I want to talk to you about intentional gratitude.

Can you just say intentional gratitude?

Intentional gratitude.

Intention matters.

What is intentional gratitude?

And I'm gonna go to the scripture here in Philippians chapter 4, verse 6.

Philippians 4:6

It says, Don't be anxious about anything.

Don't be anxious about anything.

How many of you felt anxious at one point in time?

Don't be anxious about anything.

If someone tells you that, hey, Natalie, my lovely wife, don't be anxious about anything.

You know what the response is generally gonna be?

I can't just flick a switch, Brody, to stop that.

How many of you would agree with her?

I'm not pointing her out, I'm pointing all of you who just raised your hand up.

Don't be anxious about anything, just to make that statement is pretty bold.

But Paul says, don't be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your request to God, and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus.

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about those things.

If you think about those things and you posture your heart and your soul in that manner, the scripture says anxiety cannot exist at that same table.

Paul doesn't say when life feels good, you should be grateful.

Paul doesn't say in everything, or he says, in everything, practice thanksgiving.

And here's the definition today: intentional gratitude is not waiting for thankfulness to hit you.

It's choosing it, it's practicing it, it's redirecting your heart every single day.

It's easy to be thankful on Thanksgiving, but can you be thankful tomorrow?

And the next day, and the next day, and the next day when Jesus was thankful, knowing that the next day he was going to go to the cross.

Thankful that knowing that after the meal, one of the guys at the table would betray him, knowing that one, another one of his disciples, his friends, was going to be the one that would leave him, another would betray him.

And yet he gave thanks in advance to prepare and posture his own heart so when the moment came, joy would erupt.

There's a power of intentional gratitude, and I'm gonna do my best to just make it as simple as possible because we learned last week we're not about complicating the gospel.

Keep it simple.

So I'm gonna try and keep this as simple as possible.

That when we practice gratitude, it invites joy into our life.

How many of you would agree with that?

That's right.

Have you ever noticed how we sometimes wait for joy to hit us?

It's like if I win that million dollars, then I'll be grateful.

I'll be thankful.

If I get that contract and it lands, then I'll be thankful.

They're waiting for Thanksgiving, you know, to happen on the other side of it.

If the kids stop arguing in the backseat, then I'll be grateful.

If the Turkey, if we just get through the weekend, then I'll be grateful.

If the Canucks win the Stanley Cup, then I'll be grateful.

No, some of you are like, no, I will not, because I just despise the Vancouver Canucks.

The Bible flips the narrative, as often the Bible does, where it says the the least of these, the greatest is the least.

The strongest is often the most humble and the most weak.

But the Bible flips this logic upside down.

He says, joy doesn't create gratitude, but gratitude creates joy.

You don't stumble into joy and then say, now I'm thankful.

It's like taking a seed, holding it in your hand, and saying, Oh, I can't wait for this apple tree or a cherry tree, or I can't wait for this fruit or this produce to be to come out of the ground.

You have to first plant the seed and then you see the fruit.

The fruit of joy happens because you are first planting the seed of gratefulness and thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving comes first.

That's why it's so critical that when we enter into the house of God, into his house, we come into his place, we come in with thanksgiving in our heart, and we come in saying thank you.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

That's the password to come into his presence.

You want to get to God?

You say two words.

Thank you.

Thank you, God.

Thank you, God, and I'm intentional about it.

It comes out of thanksgiving.

Gratitude and anger cannot live in the same heart at the same time.

I know it's a bold statement to say, but you cannot live both grateful and angry.

They don't play well together.

One takes resource in your heart, it's like oil and water, it's like toothpaste and orange juice.

It's like pumpkin and pie.

I knew I was gonna rub some people.

You know, pumpkin's a gourd.

There's a reason why they didn't call like pumpkin pie.

How many of you love pumpkin pie?

Ah, that's right.

There's some love in here for pumpkin pie.

Love for everybody.

Here's some free free counsel today.

If you've ever been heated, and I don't know if you've been like this, I know I've been like this, I know I've been like this as early as this week.

When you're thinking about life and you're thinking about a situation, your hands are clenched, your fists are clenched, you're rehearsing in your mind the things you're gonna say and how you're gonna write an email or a text message, and you're just pacing back and forth.

How many of you know that?

You're angry, you're frustrated, you're pent up, you're just like, I know what I'm gonna do, and you start fantasizing all the way things are gonna like, how the delivery is gonna be made, and all these things, and you're just and how you're right and the other person is wrong, you know how that works.

I want you to just take a moment, see, anger or that frustration is seated in your heart, and it's not productive, and so the best way to re-remove that and displace it, it's not deny that it actually exists, the frustration exists, it's displacing it and saying, I'm gonna actually stop for a moment, just pause, and say something.

Lord, today I am grateful for this.

And it is really challenging to do.

It sounds super simple.

I'm frustrated, I'm angry, and because what happens is the frustration turns into a bitterness and into an anger and then to an animosity and then to a division, and then the next thing you know, you go from one simple issue to you're having a divorce.

Marriage weekend is next weekend.

Quick plug.

Talking about marriage, you know, one of the best things you can do is if your spouse is in that position, go into a different room, lock the door, send a text message to that individual who may be spiraling out of control, and just say, Can you provide me three things you're grateful for today?

And then just run for the hills because it is not gonna end well.

And that because the last thing you want to do when you're angry is what?

Say what you're thankful for.

My soup is cold.

Well, thankfully, we have a microwave and a stove.

You just live in ignorance and you just like it.

Honestly, it just comes.

You just because we love to live in that state.

It's an energized state, it's uh it's an energy in us that's like holding on to that point that makes us feel powerful, but to give it up in thanksgiving, you'll never go farther.

You're chained, you're trapped, you're you're locked down if you're not living in a thankful place.

It's not denial, it's displacement.

You're removing that place so that it doesn't have power over you.

Gratitude has less to do with the size of your bank account and more to do with the size of your heart.

I've been like understanding gratitude and thankfulness.

I've been in places in the world where I've seen uh people who have had nice things, um, people who have had uh, you know, they've been wealthy, they've got nice cars, they've got nice houses, they've got nice clothes, they've got all the things, but inside their heart, they're not happy, they're not thankful, they're not uh in a good place.

And some of the most joyful, grateful people I've met didn't have as much as you would think in their wallet, but they had abundance in their spirit.

Some folks are in that place, and because gratitude is actually an inside job, and what you hold in your hand doesn't matter as much about as much as who you have in your heart.

Because when you have Jesus in your heart, that's where joy exists.

And and here's the secret gratitude gives birth to joy, and the Bible says that the joy that comes from God becomes your strength.

So you watch the people who walk around with like a confidence and a sense of pursuit for their future and eyes that see abundance and eyes of faith, and eyes that have a vision for the future, they walk every day with thanksgiving.

Because thanksgiving produces joy, and joy produces strength, and strength produces vision, and that vision creates life.

So, in that place, we we're we're in that place where we live first with thanksgiving.

Uh, I encourage everyone to go on a missions trip.

I remember being on a missions trip uh last year, I think it was last year, and I was in a place where there were like literally tin roofs and dirt floors, and people didn't have much.

They didn't have a Costco card.

Honestly, Amazon Prime.

How many of you used Amazon lately?

Cone to Costco, gone to these places where food is available and abundant.

They had small things, they had little, but when it came to worship and it came to a place of giving thanks, it was abundant and and evident in their worship.

The church ought to be the most thankful place because we know how much we've been forgiven.

We we just are so thankful because of what we've we know how much we've been loved, so we respond with how much our great worship and thanksgiving to God.

That's why Paul said in Philippians 4 11, he says, I've learned.

Take note of that word learned, learned to be content, whatever the circumstance.

You gotta learn this.

It doesn't just happen naturally, you're just a thankful person.

No, I've got to learn it, I have to practice it, I have to reframe my world to see thankfulness.

When everyone else is complaining, I have to turn my mind and turn my thoughts towards thanksgiving.

I have learned that in whatever situation I'm in, to find that place of uh gratitude.

Paul is writing this, reminding, remind us, that Paul is writing this from the middle of a prison cell.

The Bible says he's writing in big letters because it's dark, and he's writing on papers, and he's trying, but you know that in those prison cells you weren't fed unless someone came to feed you.

So he had he was grateful for the people who were giving him food and water, the people who were taking care of him.

He was grateful in that moment, but he was in prison for for things that he hadn't done wrong.

And so he was in prison, but dealing with this uh this attitude in himself where he actually turned the situation, the circumstance towards thanksgiving.

Gratitude is in that place where you learn it.

You wake, you don't uh you wake up grateful because you learned to see every gift is a gift from God.

You wake up grateful because you learned that every breath you have is a breath that God gives you.

You wake up grateful because the strength you have comes from God.

You sing, you worship, and I loved hearing it today because of what God has done.

And when you see God in your story, that eruption of gratitude can just flow out of you, and that becomes your testimony, and that testimony makes a difference to the world.

Joy is not about having more material possessions, it's about just seeing clearly what God has done in your life.

If you've been forgiven much, you can be grateful and forgive much.

If you love much, you can be grateful and love again, love others the same.

Gratitude doesn't mean you deny pain, it means you reframe it.

I know uh in our family we've been dealing with pain.

We've had to look at a situation where there was cancer and then injury and all these setbacks, setbacks, and we got we have to take a moment and actually reframe, and sometimes it's difficult because you're in a hospital room or you're in a bedroom or you're in a home, and your vision of what your future looked like doesn't match the reality of your situation, and you actually have to reframe the situation to actually align itself to what God's plan is.

And you say, Lord, I'm grateful today.

Even Jesus reframed, he said, I'm going through the situation that was going to be the most painful situation a person could ever go through, the work of the cross.

And he goes, I'm going through this for the joy that's set before me.

I can endure.

He had something, he had a prize waiting for him on the other side.

So don't waste your pain.

Reframe it.

What am I going through right now?

And what have I got to go through to get to that other side?

So I think in those moments we pray, Lord, thank you that I'm not alone.

Lord, thank you that you'll never leave me or forsake me.

Lord, thank you that even this pain can be redeemed for your purpose.

Even in this moment.

And so when we look at that, that gratitude, that is intentional gratitude.

So, what's the response?

When when you plant this seed of intentional gratitude, what's the fruit that comes from it?

Gratitude will protect your perspective.

You practice intentional gratitude, your perspective changes.

Here's the truth is that you don't see the world as it is, you see the world as you are.

If you're bitter on the inside, you'll see the world is bitter and volatile against you.

If you are angry on the inside, everything you see will be a fight.

You'll just walk around, you're just ready to put your fists up.

Others are ready to hug you and you're just we all know those people.

Their first response is because they see it, it's on the inside.

The world as you are.

If you're fearful on the inside, then every blessing will look like a threat.

Every promotion will be something you reject because of fear.

Every opportunity will be something that you resist.

Gratitude is like the lens cleaner for your soul, it cleans your Soul and it doesn't erase reality, but it clears your vision.

And so you reframe it to actually see.

Like, if you've ever put on glasses that belong to someone else, like I I have a very, very, very low prescription because I'm not getting older.

It's like a very low.

Barely need, I don't even need the glasses really.

Like I choose not to wear them.

But um, if you were to put on someone else's glasses, all of a sudden the world looks blurry and foggy and out of focus and out of perspective.

But gratitude is like that cleaner and it reframes and it re-uh prescribes your lenses so that when you put on everything else, everything comes into perfect clarity and into perfect color.

Gratitude will do that.

Philippians 4.8 says, when you think about these things, things that are noble, true, praiseworthy, good, you think about those things and you enter into your world with thanksgiving in your heart.

It's like the lens cleaner that focuses your life and re-resets you.

When you train your heart to notice those things that are good, what God is doing for you, you stop focusing on the negative and you start to focus on what is good in your life, and that changes the way you are as an individual.

All of a sudden, you don't see the world as oppositional.

You don't see the world as as things as being a curse to you or being uh being something that you'd have to reject.

All of a sudden, you start to welcome God's blessings into your life and welcome his gift into your life.

So we're just just take a moment for here and just turn to the person beside you and just say, thank you for sitting beside me today.

Thank you for being here today.

You see what just happened, and I knew this would happen, I'd have to rein everyone in.

Because here's the thing: as soon as you open up your mouth for Thanksgiving, it doesn't just change you, change you, it changes your whole climate.

And the whole environment changes.

That's why, church, you don't come in complaining.

You don't come in criticizing, you don't come in kicking stones.

You come in thankful.

Thankful.

You walk in, thank you, Lord, for a facility.

Thank you, Lord, for fresh coffee.

Hallelujah.

Wow, I know the heart of this church, eh?

Thank you, Lord, for good friends and family.

Thank you, God, for a good community.

Thank you, Lord.

If you want to change the world and the way you see the world, don't just pray for change.

Actually, allow God to change you and pray for Him to shift your perspective by looking at what is right.

Gratitude focuses on your future.

We all need vision to see what we're doing.

And none of us are just wandering through life.

Whether we admit it or not, we're all heading somewhere.

And here's the thing: gratitude is what keeps your eyes lifted toward the future, toward who you're becoming, not just what you're facing today.

And here's what I learned: you don't have to be the best today, to have to be able to get better tomorrow.

How many of you know that you know if you look back at your life, you're better than you were when you were 18?

Grateful people always get better.

Gratitude always leads you to get better.

And gratitude teaches you to recognize progress, not just perfection.

So in our prayer, I say, Lord, I may not be where I want to be today, but I'm grateful and thankful that you've moved me from where I was to where I am.

And Lord, I know your plans for me are for a future and a good thing and a hopeful thing and something I'm gonna be blessed in.

So today, Father, help me to move continue to make that movement.

Paul said this in the middle of prison.

He said, I'm confident of this.

Would you say confident?

Confident of this, that he who began a good work in me will carry it out to completion.

In other words, Paul's sitting in prison and he goes, I'm confident that where I am today isn't where I'm going to be.

God, you're going to move me.

So you might be walking today and you'll be like, Man, I'm in between jobs.

Things are strange with me and my family.

It's gonna be a really awkward Thanksgiving the way I see it.

But God, you've got a plan.

You've got a way.

And Lord, I'm gonna keep thankful in my heart.

I'm gonna keep grateful in my heart, and you're going to help me get to that destination.

Gratitude gravitates towards generosity.

Grateful people are generous people.

Always.

Always.

If you show me someone who lives with a thankful heart, I'll show you someone who naturally pours out their life for others.

They're grateful people who gravitate towards generosity.

When you realize how much you've been given, you can't help but give.

When you realize how much you've been forgiven, you can't help but forgive.

When you realize how much mercy you've been given, you can't help but give mercy.

When you realize how much grace you've received, you can't help but be gracious.

When you've been, it just goes on and on and on.

Generous people, grateful people gravitate towards generosity.

Proverbs 11 24 says this.

It says the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller and smaller, shrinks, shrivels.

But the world of the generous gets larger and larger.

And there's abundance they that's the law of God's economy.

That if you're generous, your world will get bigger.

If you're stingy, and I'm not just talking about money here.

I'm talking about invitations.

I'm talking about smiles and gestures and hugs and love and bringing food and caring for people.

I'm talking about the generous heart that like loves and welcomes people in.

That generosity matters.

One more smile, one more invitation, one more hug.

That's the overflow of a heart that's full and giving out of its generous place.

I've been around people who just radiate uh gratitude, and they're the most fun people to be around.

But on the on the flip side, if you've ever been around ungrateful people, you just can't wait to leave the room.

You want to be a generous person, a grateful person, a person that's just radiating that generosity.

I challenge you this week to say thank you, count it, how many times you say thank you, thank you in a day, and then double it the next day, and then double it after that.

I'll tell you, you cannot say thank you enough.

Thank you, thank you.

Just send a text message, thank you, thank you for being there.

Send thank you to your kids, to your spouse, to your relatives, to your neighbors.

I like I'm so grateful for some of my neighbors that they came over yesterday with steaks for me.

I was like, I have the best neighbors ever.

Grateful people.

You know what the first thing that happened when they came over with a steak, Natalie took a big bowl of soup and took it over to their place.

And because gratitude, generosity begets generosity.

And the way you it like it doesn't matter who, it just continues.

Gratitude attracts the right attention.

Grateful people are unforgettable.

Not because they're famous, not because they're rich, not because they're but because simply because they're thankful.

And you don't always remember the most uh talented person you met, but you'll always remember that person who just comes to you with genuine gratitude.

Thank you.

Thank you for what you've offered.

Gratitude leaves a mark that outlives the moment, and that's exactly what Jesus did when he went to communion.

The Last Supper.

I believe like Thanksgiving is less about the Mayflower and the first meal in America, and more about Jesus, and the table that Jesus prepared for him and his disciples before his crucifixion.

And Jesus goes to that table and he sits down and he says, I'm gonna make this memorable, and I'm gonna run, and we're gonna give thanks, and I'm gonna serve you.

Jesus served each of his disciples, he he washed their feet, he cared for them, he wanted to make that moment something that would matter in the same way because out of his heart he wanted to express his appreciation for those in his company.

When you're at your table this week, when you're at your table this weekend, I want you to stop.

I want you to break bread, I want you to stop.

It could be your potato, I don't know what it is, your turkey or ham.

And you just stop and you look back and you just say, give thanks.

Give thanks for what God has done.

I think about my boys, and not uh not my daughter, she's always been grateful.

But when I hear about my sons, what happens in me is when they come to me and they're like, Thanks, dad, thank you.

You know what that does in me as a dad?

It wants me to look for other ways to bless.

Look for other ways to continue blessing, to pour out over them and over their lives.

And the same way God does it with us.

The more we say thank you, the more God wants to deliver to us.

He's the giver of every good and perfect gift.

It comes from him.

He knows what you need before you even need it, and God has prepared that for you so that you can actually be a vessel of that g donation, and then you can give it out to others and to the point where your cup, your table overflows, and you can actually be a blessing to others.

People who are grateful are difficult to forget, and God wants us to be the person who stands out in this world and stand out, and we can do that by being grateful.

I like to invite the worship team to come up if they could.

Can I challenge you with something this week?

I'd like to uh I'd like you to take this week and at 1234, would everyone say 1234?

You you can set your timer on your phone.

1, 2, 3, 4.

Easy to remember you.

What time?

1234.

I want you to set your timer on your phone, and I want you when it hits one, two, three, four, I want you to stop for a moment, and I want you to give thanks for four things.

One, two, three, four.

Stop and give thanks.

Give thanks to God, give thanks to the people that you're around, give thanks to the uh the the community that you're in, give thanks right away.

I don't want you to stop and I don't want you to to to stop and think about it.

I just as soon as that alarm goes off and you see that time, I'm gonna actually pray that God makes you see 1234 everywhere you go as a reminder.

That it's like you're walking on the street and you'll see a sign, 1234.

Oh, okay, four things right now.

I gotta do four things to be grateful for.

And you actually give thanks and and recognize and watch how that thanksgiving shifts your own spirit, shifts your own heart.

Give thanks with a grateful heart.

We give thanks.

Matthew said they went up to the Mount of Olives and they gave thanks, and they returned with grateful hearts.

It got thanksgiving can shift your perspective.

You'd be facing really difficult things, and that moment of thanksgiving can shift it.

Grateful hearts.

Psalm 118 says, Give thanks to the Lord, He is good, and His love endures forever.

Give thanks, He's good, His love endures forever.

If you have trouble giving thanks, just give thanks that God is good, and his love endures forever.

He loves me, he loves my family, he loves my life, my future.

He put me here on purpose to complete his mission on this world, on this earth, and Lord, I just give thanks in this moment.

And the call today is not to do just seasonal gratitude, like it's Thanksgiving, so we're all obligated to be thankful.

Not just occasional gratitude, but actually intentional gratitude every day giving thanks.

Some people have journals.

How many days has it been, Norm, since you've been your feet hit the floor before and you give thanks 18.9 years.

If you've ever read Norm's book, you'll know that it sh it's the gratitude was the key to shifting your perspective and shifting your life.

I encourage anyone to read that.

It's called thank you.

I think it's a very simple.

Is that what it's called?

Thank you in any language.

Thank you in any language.

Gratitude.

Protect it.

Focus it.

Give it out, attract it.

Gratitude will produce that joy, and that joy produces strength, that strength produces vision, it will shift your life.

Would you stand with me today?

We're gonna take a moment and uh and let's just close our eyes for a moment just between you and God.

This is just a personal time.

And if you've been struggling with gratitude, and you've been struggling with thanksgiving, you've been struggling with that grateful heart, would you just bring it to God and just say, Lord, I've just been carrying stuff in my heart that doesn't belong there.

It could be anger, it could be bitterness, it could be jealousy, it could be uh just uh striving, it could be like uh an envy of others, it could be any of those things, comparison, competition, it could be in it just in those areas where you're just like it's taken up my heart, and you said that I need to have a grateful heart.

And so, Father, would you fill my heart today?

Fill my heart today with gratitude, fill my heart today with the vision of what you've done for me.

Be thankful for the cross, thank you for the grace, thank you for the mercy, thank you for the love, thank you for the second chance, thank you for the new the new opportunities, thank you for new dreams and new vision and new opportunities.

Thank you, Father, thank you for the community, thank you for the breath I breathe, thank you for the life we live, our family and our hope.

Thank you, Lord, for bringing us to this moment and this time with these people, thank you, thank you that I'm in the place where you've called me.

Thank you, Father, and just fill your heart with thanksgiving.

Thank you, Father.

Thank you, Lord.

Thank you, Father.

And if you're here today and you've never had an opportunity to receive Jesus Christ, we do this each and every week.

We would never want you to leave the room without hearing an invitation that Jesus wants to fill your life with his spirit.

He wants to help you turn your life from one direction to the next.

And and you cannot do it without him.

You cannot do it in your own works.

You need you need his strength, you need the grace that comes from God.

If you're here today and you say, I've just struggled with this Thanksgiving, I've struggled with looking at my life through only one lens and one direction, then Jesus is here to fill your heart.

Jesus is here to come into your life and co-labor with you at this journey that he's placed you on.

If anyone's here today, and this is just an invitation to accept him into your heart and begin this new journey with him, just go ahead and just raise your hand real quick, just for my sake.

If anyone here, I see that hand on my right, anyone else, I see that hand.

Just pray this prayer along with me today.

Father, I accept today that I need a savior.

I I recognize that I've lived life my own way.

And today I confess that you are the Son of God and that you died for me.

You took the penalty of my sin and made a way to the Father.

Today I repent of my sin, and I ask for your forgiveness.

And I confess today that you are my Lord.

Would you come live with me?

Fill my thoughts, fill my heart in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.