Pastor Sam=s Schedule

CAUSE TO BE THANKFUL (PSALM 100:1-5)

THANKSGIVING SUNDAY

GCEFC: NOVEMBER 22, 2009

INTRODUCTION

1. In the days of circuit riders, a minister was out riding one afternoon and came upon a man working in his field. As he came upon the man, the minister called out: Fine day, isn’t it?

2. It may be fine for you, the man replied, All you have to do is ride around on that horse thinking about God all day long—while I have to sweat out here in this field, and then walk home at the end of the day.

3. I don’t think it’s right that you should have things so easy while I have to work so hard.

4. On the contrary, the minister answered, thinking about God is one of the most difficult things you can do. In fact, I’ll prove it. If you can think about God and nothing else for one full minute, I’ll give you this horse.

5. You’re on, said the man, and he immediately sat down in total silence.

6. Thirty seconds later he looked up at the minister and said: Does that include the saddle?

7. It’s probably safe to say that most of us don’t think about God as much as we should.

8. And also safe to say that few of us are as thankful to God as we ought to be.

9. So with today being Thanksgiving Sunday—I thought we’d spend some time in one of the classic biblical passages on thankfulness—PSA 100.

A. WORSHIP THE LORD WITH GLADNESS

1. Now we might think that the 100^th Psalm is about worship, and it is. But we cannot properly worship God without being thankful to God.

2. Nor can we be properly thankful to God without worshipping God. They’re really inseparable.

3. V1: Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.

4. Notice 3 words in these 2 verses: joy…gladness…joyful. When we worship the Lord, it should be with joy and gladness. Not with gloom and sadness.

5. Now as I stand up here each week, I cannot always tell if someone is worshipping with joy and gladness or not—but it’s usually obvious. How? It’s obvious from your face.

6. Sometimes judging by your face, one would think you’d just lost your job, your friends, your health, your dog, your sports team, and your favorite chair all on the same day!

7. PRO 15:13 says: A happy heart makes the face cheerful. There’s a connection between our heart and our face.

8. Our worship of God should be joyful. It should be encouraging. It should be enjoyable.

9. I find it puzzling that believers will be spending eternity worshipping and praising God with other believers—yet can barely stand doing it an hour on Sunday.

10. But what if things aren't going so well? What if I have a reason to not be joyful and glad? After all, life is not always hunky-dory.

11. Well that's a good point! But notice the reasons beginning in verse 3 for why we should be joyful and glad.

a. First of all, we should worship God with gladness and joy because the Lord is God! You see, no matter how bad things are, and how hopeless they look, and how desperate they get...THE LORD IS GOD!

b. No circumstances—good or bad or in between can change that fact. And they never will. Nothing will ever dethrone God. Nothing ever could.

c. I'm reminded of the boy playing in a Little League baseball game. A man stopped by to watch the game and asked the boy the score. The boy said: We're behind 25 to nothing! Well, said the man, you don't look very discouraged. Discouraged, said the boy, why should I be discouraged—we haven't even batted yet?

12. The primary reason we worship God with gladness is not because things are going great. Because everything is coming up roses. Because we have no problems to solve.

13. We worship God with joy and gladness because THE LORD IS GOD!

B. GOD IS OUR MAKER AND WE BELONG TO HIM

1. But not only is the Lord God—but HE HAS MADE US and WE ARE HIS!

2. We have several pieces of furniture in our home. Nothing fancy. We own them…at least in a worldly sense.

3. Now somewhere out in the world is the maker of the furniture we own. I've never met the person that made our furniture, but someone made it.

4. What if the person that made our dining room table knocked on our door. We open the door and he points to our table and says: Hey, I made that table and I want it back!

5. We say no way—we PAID for that table and we're keeping it. In fact, we have a certain attachment to our table because we own it.

6. But there are a few pieces of furniture in our house that I built myself. Those pieces have a special place in my heart. Even though Marian announced to me the other day that the coffee table I built back in 1976 has got to go.

7. These pieces of furniture may not have a special place in anybody else’s heart, but they do in mine. That's because I not only own them…I made them!

8. God not only owns us—he made us. God is ultimately responsible for our having life. It’s his gift to us. We didn’t make ourselves. God is our maker. And WE ARE HIS.

9. When we understand that the LORD IS GOD. That God has MADE US. That we are HIS. Then it should cause us to be THANKFUL...and come before God in joyful songs.

10. There’s a song written years ago that has been sung by many musicians. Some musicians have changed the lyrics to remove the biblical theme.

11. It’s a beautiful song entitled: How Can I Keep From Singing? Some of the lyrics include:

No storm can shake my inmost calm,

While to that refuge clinging;

Since Christ is Lord of heaven and earth,

How can I keep from singing?

The peace of Christ makes fresh my heart,

A fountain ever springing;

All things are mine since I am his--

How can I keep from singing?

12. If you are a redeemed believer in Jesus Christ who has been forgiven of your sins and promised eternal life as a free gift—I don’t know how you can keep from singing.

13. And I don’t know how any believer could keep from being thankful.

C. THE WAY WE APPROACH GOD

1. V4 tells us that we aren't even to enter God's presence without being thankful. It's a command: Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise.

2. When we enter God’s presence, we come with thankful hearts. We come thankfully.

3. But there’s more. We enter God's presence not only with THANKSGIVING—but also with PRAISE.

4. And just in case we missed it the first time, it's repeated—give thanks to him and praise his name.

5. It's important to understand that praise and thanksgiving are similar, but not identical. We praise God primarily for who he is. We thank God primarily for what he’s done.

6. Because if God never did one single thing for you. He would still be worthy of praise.

7. God is worthy of praise just because he’s God. That's reason enough.

8. NEH 9 says: Stand up and praise the Lord your God, who is from everlasting to everlasting. Blessed be your glorious name, and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise. You alone are the Lord. You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship you.

9. That’s praise. Exalting the Lord simply because of who he is. For nothing more. For nothing less. For nothing else.

10. But PSA 105 tells us: Give thanks to the Lord, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done.

11. That’s thanks. We praise God for who he is. We thank God for what he has done.

12. So are you a thankful person? Or are you like the little boy who attended a birthday party, and when he got home his mother asked him: So did you thank Mrs. Johnson for the party? He said: Well I was standing in line to leave when the boy in front of me thanked her and she said: Don't mention it...so I didn’t!

13. If you’re not a thankful person...what are you waiting for? Do you think you're just going to wake up some morning and be thankful?

14. Being thankful is an attitude. Being thankful is a mindset. Being thankful requires being thankful when you may not even feel thankful.

15. The Apostle Paul is a good model of this. He wasn't always thankful. He said in PHIL 4 that he learned the secret of being content in any and every situation.

16. When Paul wrote these words he wasn't sitting in an easy chair, stuffed with turkey, dressing, pie, and eggnog—fighting sleep so he could watch a football game.

17. Paul was in prison when he wrote this. Thankfulness is an attitude that must be cultivated. It’s a response that should arise no matter the circumstances.

18. The great theologian Matthew Henry was robbed one night. This is what he wrote in his diary after the incident:

Let me be thankful—first, because I was never robbed before.

Second, because although they took my wallet, they didn’t take my life.

Third, because although they took all I had, it wasn’t much.

And fourth, because it was I who was robbed, and not I who robbed.

19. And let’s not deceive ourselves into thinking we can be thankful in some general way. If we’re thankful, we must be thankful for something and to someone in particular.

20. Even though Thanksgiving can be one of those times when people are thankful for what they have but thankful to no one in particular.

21. To be thankful for something implies that you’re thankful to someone for it. If you’re thankful for your marriage, it implies that you’re thankful for your spouse. If you’re thankful you’re a parent, it implies you’re thankful for your children.

22. If you’re thankful for what you’ve been given, it implies that you’re thankful to the one who gave it.

23. Yes, we’ve all heard of self-made men. And self-made women. Don’t believe it. No one is made without the help from someone else.

D. THE LORD IS GOOD, HIS LOVE ENDURES, HE’S FAITHFUL FOREVER

1. And as if that’s not enough, the passage goes on to give 3 more reasons why we should be thankful.

2. V5: For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.

3. First, the Lord is GOOD. Now be careful with that. It doesn't say the Lord is good as we define good.

4. Which might be that the Lord is nice. That the Lord fulfills my wishes and desires. That the Lord is opposed to my pain in any form.

5. No, the Lord is good...as God defines good. That may include things on the agenda that you or I would leave off.

6. And the Lord's love endures forever. Now when you talk about the Lord being good, and you link it with his love that endures forever—you have a wonderful combination.

7. Because God is good...His love endures forever. And because God's love endures forever...we know that God is good.

8. We can get into trouble fast when we start applying human wisdom in all its limitations and short-sightedness to God's character and purposes. We need to let God be God.

9. Finally, God is faithful through all generations. We don't have to be concerned that God is only faithful to his favorites.

10. Superstars like Moses, Joshua, Mary, and Paul. No, God's character is faithfulness—so he’s always faithful. Faithful through all generations.

11. Let me share with you a story of God's faithfulness from the experience of the Pilgrims. You’ve probably heard the story, but it bears repeating.

12. When the Pilgrims left England for the New World, they felt the call of God on their lives. They left in search of a place they could worship God freely with highest devotion.

13. The Pilgrims were a praying people. They believed God heard and answered prayer.

14. So as they sailed across the ocean together, they worshipped God and they prayed. And one of the things they asked God for was that He would help them in this bold adventure. That He would assist them in their dream to settle in this new and strange land.

15. Do you wonder how specific they were in their prayers for God's help? Well I don't know how specific they were, but they must have been in complete awe of God's faithfulness when they came ashore in November of 1620.

16. For they met a certain Indian in the Pawtuxet Tribe of Cape Cod. This particular Indian, it turns out, was kidnapped in 1605 and taken to England. He was treated well and lived in London until 1614, when he was to return to the American continent.

17. Unfortunately he was kidnapped again and taken to Spain, and sold as a slave to Christian Friars. He was also treated well by the Friars and under their influence he made a profession of faith in Christ and was baptized.

18. During a war in 1619, he escaped from the monastery and made his way back to England where a ship captain agreed to take him back to the New World.

19. The year after his return, the Pilgrims landed at Cape Cod. And when they landed, they were greeted by this same Indian who was a Christian and spoke perfect English.

20. The Indian's name was Squanto. He taught the Pilgrims how to plant corn and native squash, how to hunt and fish. Were it not for Squanto, the entire colony might have died.

21. Who in their wildest imagination would have thought that God would have placed on the shore of a wild, hostile, and pagan land an Indian who spoke the King's English and was a believer in Christ? God is faithful through all generations.

CONCLUSION

1. So this Thanksgiving. Or any time. When we're tempted to whine and complain. When our attitude of gratitude is losing altitude...let's recall the words of Psalm 100.

2. To come before the Lord in worship with joy and gladness. Why? Because the Lord is God. He’s our Creator. He has made us and we belong to Him. We are his people.

3. Come before his presence with praise. Why? Because of who God is. Apart from the great things he’s done—we praise God just for who he is.

4. And thanksgiving. Why? For what God has done. He’s done plenty. More than we will ever know or be able to recount.

5. You may not be on top of the world. Times and circumstances could be better. Times and circumstances have been better. But the Lord is still good. His love still endures forever. And God's faithfulness still continues through all generations…even ours.