Embracing Gratitude: Overcoming Complaints and Compromise

1. "When I look at a patch of dandelions, right, I see a bunch of weeds trying to take over all the grass that was once nicely growing. My daughter, she sees flowers. She sees a little thing to blow it into the wind. When an adult looks at an old drunk standing on a corner that's been there for a couple days, an adult may see a smelly, dirty person who probably just wants money for more alcohol. And so they tend to look away. Even if that man is smiling at me, we still tend to walk away. Our children, they don't see the drunk, they don't see the dirty. They don't see him wanting money from alcohol. What they see is the smile. And they smile back." [44:49] (67 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2. "It's all in the attitude. You can look at challenges ahead. You can look at things that you may not like. You can look at things that you're struggling with. You can look at things that just don't sit right. You can look at things that just got you to your boiling point. And you can be discouraged. You could be angry, you could be frustrated. Or you can see them as opportunities for growth and for God to demonstrate his power through you. The question is this morning, how can we adjust our attitudes?" [48:22] (37 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3. "Don't compromise with the enemy because you too can end up bondage. And some of you guys like, oh, I ain't compromising, pastor. I ain't doing it. Little do you know that so many of us compromise in so many different areas of our lives. Do not compromise your allegiance do not compromise in your allegiance to the Lord. If you're going to change your attitude. Who wants to change your attitude? If we're going to change our attitude today, we have to understand that we need to follow the Lord in every area of our life. Every area of our life. Choose to obey God completely and you overcome the enemy in your life." [57:12] (50 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4. "If you want to exchange an attitude of defeat for an attitude of victory, then you cannot compromise your allegiance to the Lord. Instead, we need to follow the Lord fully. We got to obey him completely. But in order to obey him completely and follow him fully, did you know that you got to actually fully appreciate everything that God has done for you, because if you don't, you really can't follow him fully because you don't really understand what he has truly done for you. Do you understand?" [01:14:23] (28 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5. "We can't complain about the allotment of land that God has already given you. You can't complain about what you have right in front of you. Appreciate it. Appreciate it. You got to enjoy it. Listen, when I'm dealing with teenagers and below, right, teenagers and below. And they're given opportunities for certain things, and even if it's a small opportunity, you can tell if they're excited. Oh, thank you. And they work at it. They do it. Or you have those, like, this is it. Do you know, I feel more inclined to give the one who's super excited, super happy, super grateful an opportunity to do more." [01:25:34] (48 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6. "Stop complaining and start thanking the Lord for all the blessings in your life. Be grateful for what he's done. Have a gratitude. Gratitude is the attitude of victory. In closing, I want to say, in closing, I want to say this. Sean Aker, or Acker, was a psychologist who teaches at Harvard, who taught at Harvard, and he suggested that we train our brains to become more grateful by setting aside. Ready? Write this down. Five minutes. Every day at the same time. Every day. Right? So every day at 06:00 p.m. every day at 06:00 a.m. every day at 05:00 a.m. whatever. Pick a time in the day, every day, five minutes. And write down three things that you are grateful for." [01:30:05] (54 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


7. "The world has us thinking of all the negatives so much. It has. Many of our minds are programmed to think negatively. Some of us, we grew up in struggles. Some people have struggled their whole life and therefore have been forced to think a certain way. But God wants to change that. He wants to reprogram that mind. He wants you to see people and be happy. He doesn't want you to see people and see problems. He wants you to see people and be heartbroken for the things that they're going through." [01:35:59] (40 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)