How do you express gratitude?
Is it just a thank you? Do you hug people? Do you do that thing where you try to refuse it upfront, but you end up succumbing to their generosity, and then you get stressed out because you gotta figure out a way to pay them back? If that is you, who hurt you to make you think like that? lol

I remember when I got my drivers license. It was gonna be instant freedom. I couldn’t wait. Everyone I knew couldn't wait to get their driver’s license. These days kids just can't wait to get a phone.

But I remember driving and every time I would catch a green light, or a lane would open up, I would say, "Thank you Lord for the green light,” or whatever it was.

I would routinely have these little micro-gratitude moments, where, in even the mundane and insignificant things, I would express gratitude.

We've been talking about gratitude this entire month and what it means to be grateful, but this week, as I was just thinking about being grateful, I started to think about how we express gratitude.

I had a weird series of dreams this week while I was out at the campground. I don't know if it was too much smoke inhalation from the campfire or constant fear of one of my kids being dragged away by the alligator in the slough right behind our camper, but one night in my dream, I felt like the Lord showed me some ways we should be expressing gratitude. I’d like to share those ways today.

We’re all been the recipient of grace we don’t deserve and salvation we didn’t earn. All of us have had love that is unimaginable poured out on us. And that generosity from God makes us grateful.

And this gets to the crux of what I believe the Lord wanted to share with you today. Every single one of us has been the recipient of generosity from God Almighty. In countless ways and forms, God has poured out his generosity through all the blessing he brings, through the love that he gives.

All month long we've been talking about how being grateful should be our response to his extraordinary generosity. But gratitude is just a part of the chain reaction. What happens after that moment you feel the initial rush of being grateful? That is how gratitude is expressed.

Let me share with you today three ways gratitude is expressed.

1. Gratitude is expressed in the way you live
Just a real raw question to start:
Are you living your life in such way where somebody could tell just by watching you that you are grateful to God for everything he's done for you?

And if I might ask a follow-up question:
What would it look like to live in a way where somebody could tell just by watching you that you are grateful to God for everything he’s done for you?

It seems to me our lives are a back and forth series of confessing and denying Jesus. What I mean is that we have those high moments in our lives where we are confessing Jesus is Lord by the way we are living our lives. We are living out the fruit of the Spirit. We are being godly sons and daughters. We are living our lives in ways that mimic the character and nature of God. But then there are those other times where we are living our lives as if we are denying Jesus is Lord. When we flirt with temptation and fall into sin. When we act in ways that reflect the fruit of the flesh. When we live entitled and embittered and in unforgiveness.

We want to maximize those confessing moments and minimize those denying moments. What a better example than Peter.

When Peter first encounters Jesus, a miracle happens. Peter immediately sees his sinfulness and falls at the feet of Jesus.

Luke 5:8
Oh, Lord, please leave me—I’m such a sinful man.

Over the course of the next three years of peters life, we see this up and down that I'm talking about, the ebb and flow that we so easily relate to.
Up: he left his nets and followed Jesus.
Down: but only after he sasses Jesus about working all night
Up: he walks on water.
Down: his lack of faith causes him to sink.
Up: confesses Jesus as the Christ son of the living God.
Down: rebuked for trying to tell Jesus how to save the world.
Up: tried to defend Jesus in the garden gets simony.
Down: tried to defend Jesus by cutting the ear off a temple guard.
Up: boldly declared his faith and allegiance to Jesus.
Down: denied him three times.

I understand Peter more than any other Bible character. I see my own struggle in the up and down, the ebb and flow, the confessing and denying.

I don't want you to see today is not the beauty of those confessing moments so that I can persuade you to have more of them. I don't want you to see the brokenness of your denying moments so I can shame you into doing those less. I want you to see the struggle in Peter. I want you to see the struggle in you. I want you to see that fight between good and evil that rages inside of you.

Of course I want you to be godly and to do the right thing and to say no to temptation and to grow deeper in your relationship with Jesus. I want you to do bad things less, and fall into temptation less. But I want you to also understand that on this side of heaven, there are going to be no perfect days. Only the struggle. The war against the kingdom of darkness.

I want you to understand that while there are going to be moments where you succeed, there will be plenty of moments also where you are going to fail.

Gratitude is not expressed only in your moments of victory or defeat, but in your willingness to stay in the fight, to keep striving after God, to keep trying to be godly.

Proverbs 24:16
The godly may trip seven times, but they will get up again. But one disaster is enough to overthrow the wicked.

I'll be honest with you, I have a hard time relating to someone who always acts perfect like they never have struggles or sin or problems. I'm sorry, but I can't relate to that person. And while I am not saying at all that it's OK for us to just minimize sin and tell you it's OK for you to continue intentionally doing things that dishonor God, but I can easily relate to someone who is in the middle of the fight, who is working out their own salvation with fear and trembling, who is refusing to act perfect, but is fighting against living in sin.

That war rages:
Galatians 5:17
For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.

Colossians 3:5
Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you

Do you want to know what the Christian life really looks like? This is it. War.

Now for some, we don't want that. We just want peace and calm. I hear you, but as long as Jesus is your Lord, you are going to face a fight from this world.

So then, how in the world is gratitude expressed in the way that we live?

1 Timothy 6:12
Fight the good fight for the true faith. Hold tightly to the eternal life to which God has called you, which you have declared so well before many witnesses.

I'm not trying to get hyper patriotic on you, but one of the ways we honor those who have gone before us and have given their lives to create and maintain something like the United States is through standing up for what's right, letting your voice be heard, voting, fighting back against what is wrong in the world.

In a similar way, one of the best ways we can live lives of gratitude for what Jesus has done for us, is to refuse to succumb to the darkness in our lives and, rather, fight the good fight of faith. Let me say it like this: I express gratitude to God for his sacrifice for me in how I stay in the fight, no matter how hard it gets. If I am winning, I praise him. If I am losing I call to him. No matter the ebb and flow, gratitude is expressed in how I live.

2. Gratitude is expressed in the way you give
Someone come up and take this money. Pick someone and give them $10. You know why it was so easy to give? Because it wasn’t yours to begin with.

The reason I use money for this illustration is because it's the easiest way to explain what we're talking about here.

The reason it is easy for us to be generous is because none of it belongs to us to begin with. And please understand generosity is exponentially more than just about money. Time, talent, experience, wisdom.

Truth is, grateful people give. In fact, you can't stop a grateful person from giving. But why is that?

Psalm 30:1-12 (bits and pieces)
I will exalt you, O Lord, for you lifted me out of the depths and did not let my enemies gloat over me. O Lord my God, I called to you for help, and you healed me. O Lord, you brought me up from the grave; you spared me from going down into the pit. . . . You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, that my heart may sing to you and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give you thanks forever.
Has God done anything like this for you?

Remember, gratitude is the result of generosity. Gratitude is readiness to show appreciation for something. Generosity is readiness to give something. Gratitude is the natural byproduct of generosity. Generosity is the natural byproduct of love.

What is interesting is that your gratitude as the result of generosity actually changes what do you think, believe, and do based on the fact that, after having experienced generosity, not only do you become more cognizant of the blessings around you, you actually begin to crave the very thing that made you grateful in the first place: generosity.

So as we become more grateful, we become more generous. Why is that? It’s because gratitude opens our eyes to the character and nature of God, who gives us everything we need, and as we encounter his character, a natural hunger grows in us to be more like him.

Gratitude expressed makes us generous. Proof?

Biblically, Luke 6:40
Students are not greater than their teacher. But the student who is fully trained will become like the teacher.

1 John 2:6
Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did.

These verses are biblical proof of this notion that the more we encounter God and his character, the more we become like God and his character.
All a Christian is is a person who has confessed Jesus as the Lord and is actively engaged in trying to be more like him. The more we encounter his generosity, not only the more grateful do we become, the more generous we become, just like him.

We can even prove this without the Bible, just in normal life. Have you ever seen a TikTok of someone being given $500 in a store only to turn around and give some of it to someone else? Generosity can start a chain reaction of gratitude and generosity.

I am not trying to guilt you into giving your time, treasure, talents, etc. But I am saying that: Everything God in your life came from God, and one of the best ways you can show gratitude is by giving.

God gave to you. Don’t let your lack of gratitude stop the chain reaction of generosity.

Matthew 10 is Jesus telling the disciples he was about to send out (and us too) the unfiltered truth of what being a Christian in a fallen world is going to be like, but let me remind you of Matthew 10:8
Freely you have received, freely give.

Don’t let entitlement kill the gratitude that fuels generosity in you. Gratitude is expressed in the way you give.

3. Gratitude is expressed in the way you grow
I believe too many people are focused on the produce and not the process, and it keeps them from being grateful until they have the fruit in their hand.

Do you know what a generous thing though?
The fruit doesn't benefit the tree. Only the process does. The fruit is always for somebody else to grow. The process is always for you to grow.

So then, why aren't we more grateful for the process?

The process includes time in the dark. The seed gets buried and has to die.
The process includes stretches of periods of delayed gratitude. You rarely see the growth instantly.
The process includes pruning. Leafy branches might look healthy, but they are robbing nutrients for fruit production.
The process includes waiting for production. On average, it takes six years for an apple tree to go from seed to bearing fruit. On average, it takes a cherry tomato plant 65 days to go from seed to bearing fruit.

On average, a cherry tomato plant will produce about 100 tomatoes per season. On average, a standard apple tree will produce over 2000 apples per season.

It's really easy to get frustrated at the process by comparing your process to someone else’s. This is a part of why you having a personal relationship with Jesus is such a big deal. The closer you get to him, the more you know who he is and who you are, and this helps you be grateful for the process that you were in because you know that process is going to produce.

Are you doing a good job of expressing gratitude to God through your spiritual growth? Are you getting the nutrients you need through prayer and reading the word? Are you getting watered through engaging in gala community like the church? Do you get excited about pruning, knowing that while it hurts, it's going to help you produce? Are you keeping things that poison your progress away from you?

1 Timothy 4:12-15
12 Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity. 13 Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. 14 Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership. 15 Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all.

Growing starts with a seed. You express your gratitude to God in how effectively your seed is growing. Maybe you need to dive into the Word and prayer more.We can help. We’re launching Mini-Meets in January, which are 6 week topical groups to help you grow. Maybe you need to get in a DGroup or sign up for Alpha at the start of the year. Maybe you need to start serving. Maybe you need to start giving. Takers get salty. Givers grow. All of these things are designed to help you grow. And growing is gratitude expressed.

Is how you are living showing your gratitude to God for his generosity? Is how you’re giving doing the same? What about your growing?

Colossians 2:6-7
6 …just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. 7 Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with gratefulness.

This is what God wants for you. He doesn’t want your gratitude because he knows he deserves it. He wants it so you will live victoriously, give generously, and grow fervently.

How are you expressing your gratitude to God through your living, giving, and growing?

To end the message and the series, let’s just take a moment and thank God.

Let’s pray.

What is the Holy Spirit saying to you through this message?

How does he want you to respond?