Gratitude: The Key to a Blessed Life
Saddleback Church Weekend Messages
Saddleback Church
4.7 • 723 Ratings
🗓️ 1 December 2025
⏱️ 44 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
When we choose gratitude, God opens our eyes to his goodness and draws our hearts toward him, while entitlement closes us off from the grace he’s already pouring into our lives. In this message, Pastor Buddy concludes our series, Closer, by reminding us that gratitude is often the first step toward a deeper, more trusting relationship with God. We grow in gratitude by paying attention to the ways he cares for us and choosing to thank him throughout our day. And as this rhythm takes root in our lives, our faith grows, our joy deepens, and we begin to experience God’s presence with a clearer, more hopeful heart.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey everybody, this is Andy Wood, and I'm the pastor here at Saddleback Church, and this is our podcast. |
| 0:07.9 | Be sure to subscribe so we can get you these new messages every week, and I hope you enjoy today's message. |
| 0:14.2 | Let's dive in. |
| 0:23.7 | All right, I'll take out your message notes. |
| 0:29.7 | We're finishing a series that we started three weeks ago called Closer, about awakening your hunger for God. |
| 0:32.0 | And in the first message, Andy brought the first message, it was on forgiveness. |
| 0:36.1 | And the bottom line to that message was that I will not allow any person to come, to get |
| 0:42.2 | in the way between me and God. |
| 0:44.6 | That as long as I am holding on to a hurt, holding on to an offense, I am allowing that |
| 0:51.2 | person to come between me and God. |
| 0:53.6 | And forgiveness says, I'm not going to let that happen. I won't let any to come between me and God. And forgiveness says, I'm not going to let that happen. |
| 0:56.0 | I won't let any person come between me and God. |
| 0:59.5 | And then last week, Stacey brought a message about surrender. |
| 1:04.6 | And the bottom line to that message is, |
| 1:06.7 | I will not allow anything to get in the way between me and God. |
| 1:11.0 | Remember, she preached her sermon the whole time with her hand stuck in that vase, |
| 1:15.9 | right, as a symbol, as a picture of holding on to things that we think we should possess |
| 1:22.5 | and that I will not allow any of my possessions to get in the way of God wants. |
| 1:29.1 | As long as my hands are gripped around the things that I think I should possess, |
| 1:33.2 | then my hands are not available to what God wants to give me. |
| 1:36.5 | So forgiveness, I won't let any person stand in the way, |
| 1:41.2 | and surrender. I won't let anything stand in the way. Those are how we now clear the way, |
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