Give Thanks!

Read Psalm 100

For those who have come most Sundays for 2017, you realize that most of my messages are about discipleship; therefore, a great majority of them come with some degree of challenge.

Salvation and eternal life are a gift.  Hallelujah! 

Discipleship is another matter, to which we should also shout hallelujah!  Following Jesus takes work—that’s not the best word.  Following Jesus takes life.

But following Jesus is often a challenge.  Today, I will present to you what may be the biggest challenge of a disciple.  What?

Thanksgiving.

Once again, the pastor has lost it.  I feel good when I am thankful.  Thanksgiving is good stuff.  When I am thankful, my problems seem less significant.

I agree with all of the above.  I do feel better when I am thankful.  Thanksgiving is good stuff.  My problems do not rule my life when I am thankful.

So why are we not thankful all of the time?

It’s hard to be thankful when you have a flat, don’t have a spare, and it’s raining and cold.

It’s hard to be thankful when you have to choose between paying the gas or the electric bill.

It’s hard to be thankful when the officials can’t get a single call right.

It’s hard to be thankful with cancer or after a car wreck or when everyone is criticizing you at every turn.

It’s hard to be thankful when the phone won’t stop ringing, supper is burning, and you don’t know how to turn the smoke alarm off.

It’s hard to be thankful when you are out of money, out of smokes, and out of people to blame for everything.

OK, I’m just writing lyrics for country and western songs now. 

How can we be thankful in all circumstances?  Some stuff just gets you.  You don’t forget to pray, but beginning your prayer by giving thanks is difficult.  Lord, I need healing or relief or a job or just someone to talk with or you finish the list.

It’s hard to thank God when our hearts hurt, our wallet is empty, and when nothing seems to be going our way.  How can I thank God when my world seems to be falling apart?

Give thanks to him because he is good.  That doesn’t change.  Your employment status can change.  Your grades in school might change.  Your tire might even get changed, but knowing that God is good.  That doesn’t change.

Let’s give thanks to God because he is good.

How about we give thanks to God because his love endures forever?  Even when my world is a mess, God loves me no less.

It is important that this thought be chiseled in our hearts and our minds.  God’s love endures forever.  He loves you with an everlasting love.  His love never ends.

Love never fails.

Even when my world is a mess, God loves me no less.

But in the middle of my mess, it seems like God has forgotten me.  Is he still there?

He is.  His faithfulness continues through all generations.  Unlike the transactional things of this world, his faithfulness does not expire.  Here are some things you won’t hear God say:

I’m sorry sir, the warranty on your salvation has expired.

That’s not covered as you have exceeded the recommended mileage on compassion. 

That forgiveness coupon was only good for last week.

Your login has failed three times.  You are now locked out.

His faithfulness continues through all generations!

In the middle of your worst day, remember:  God is good.  His love is forever.  His faithfulness doesn’t stop because of your mess or because the world is still upside down.  It continues, but before we continue, let’s answer a question.

Do you believe God’s holy word?  Do you believe in God’s love and faithfulness?  It influences our attitude towards thanksgiving.

Some of you may have noted that I started with the last verse first in Psalm 100.  That’s because the why of what we are called to do in the other verses is explained.  In many ways, it is the why of thanksgiving.

What is the why again?  God is good.  His love is forever.  His faithfulness doesn’t stop because of your mess, it goes on and on.

OK, I will do my best to be thankful, even in my mess, even in this topsy-turvy world.  What do I need to do?

Let’s start with 3 verbs:  Shout, worship, and come.

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

We live in Oklahoma and we see these things.  Green pastures, wildflowers, wheat harvest, sunrise and sunset like nowhere else, snow that glistens on the ground or the same 1 inch of snow that just blows back and forth all day long. 

The world in its own way shouts for joy to the Lord.  If you have even happened upon a field of Black-eyed Susans interspersed among the Indian Blanket Flowers that work around the sage and cactus plants; you have been witness to a part of the earth shouting for joy to the Lord.

Why are humans the only ones who just say, “Yeah, OK, thanks?”

Shout for joy to the Lord all the earth!

But my life is a mess.  We went through that.  God is good.  His love is forever.  His faithfulness doesn’t stop because of your mess, it goes on and on.

So, am I to shout for joy to the Lord in the middle of my mess?  The answer is yes.

But we don’t stop there.  We worship the Lord with gladness.

Hold your holy horses, preacher.  I will shout some thanksgiving, but you can’t expect me to be happy about it.  You can’t really expect me to worship the Lord in gladness.  God knows my deal and it’s just not good for me right now.

I will make my offering and sing my songs and even stay awake for the sermon, but I am not going to be happy about it.

God wants us to know that our happiness is not rooted in our circumstances.  Our joy is in him.  Remember Paul’s counsel to rejoice in the Lords always.  He said it twice—again I say rejoice.

Rejoice in our circumstances?  No.  Our joy is in the Lord, so we worship him with gladness.  That manifests itself in joyful songs.

Come before him with joyful songs!  We don’t come singing a dirge.  What do I mean?

OK preacher, you are pushing the limits.  I will shout for joy and worship with gladness, but I am not getting all happy about singing.  That’s just not my style. 

Let me pick the next song.  We will sing, Were you there when they crucified my Lord…  Tremble, tremble…

You may not be jumping up and down during our worship songs, but your heart needs to be full of joy and that joy is to be transferred to you lips.  We are called to make a joyful sound. 

We don’t have to be music majors.  When people who know music start talking sharps and flats, I’m thinking tires again.  Something sharp penetrated your tire and now you have a flat.  You don’t have to have the best pitch or even sing in the right key for your song to be joyful.

If you don’t believe me, swing by the men’s Bible study on Wednesday night.  We often open with a song or two and those songs may or may not follow the music in the books.  But we offer them to God with joy in our hearts that comes out through out lips.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.

I am going to give you a word that you might not associate with this part of the psalm:  Truth.

Here is the truth that we need to remember.  Humankind did not love God, at least most of it was rebelling against him.  Judgment was what we deserved.  We were convicted in our sin and sentenced to death.

Jesus paid the price for us.  David didn’t understand all of this when he wrote this psalm, but it speaks so clearly to us today. 

While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

We were dead in our sin.  Now we are alive in Christ.

How can we come before God in our worship without thanksgiving and praise?  Being a Christian and not coming before our God with thanksgiving and praise is wholly inconsistent with who we are.

We were dead in our sins and now we are alive in Christ.  How can that alone not bring forth thanksgiving from every heart and how can thanksgiving not come forth from every mouth?

Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.

Duh!  Sorry for the highly theological terms.

This is sort of like when I am talking with a Christian tourist, someone who knows some of the Bible but doesn’t really want this whole discipleship thing, and they say, “The Bible doesn’t say you have to go to church.”

I get to answer, It’ says, “Don’t stop!”  It’s one of those ever so obvious things.  Don’t stop gathering together.  Duh!  How could the answer be anything else?

Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.

We were dead.  Now we live.  Praise the Lord.  Thank you Jesus!

Some of you are clued in to the fact that I skipped the third verse.  I did.  The pastor has lost it now.  He started with the last verse, then went to the top, but skipped a verse.  What’s up with that?

That third verse begins with a unique verb—know.  There is a continuum of definitions that go with this word.  They on one end begin with awareness and perception and go to the other end to being fully convinced especially in matters of truth.  Archaic definitions involved intimacy.

This third verse involves being fully convinced.

Know that the Lord is God.  It is he who made us, and we are his we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

He is God.  He made us.  We are his.  This is an unmistakable relationship.  This is an undisputed relationship.  This is complete ownership.

We are his.

The psalmist adds the metaphor of being the sheep of his pasture.  Our trust is completely in him.  Our safety is completely in him. 

God is not an intellectual concept for us.

He is not one option among many life choices for us.

He is not available only as a last resort for us—though many Christians still need a little work there.

He is God!  We don’t think he is God.  He is God and we are his.  This is the most primal, the most basic, the most intimate relationship that we have.  It is the most natural relationship that we have.  This is foundational to who we are.

He is God and we are his.  There is no debate or equivocation. 

Know that the Lord is God.  It is he who made us, and we are his we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

There you have Psalm 100, even though we didn’t look at it sequentially.  This is a psalm, a song, for all of God’s people.

I have a whole bunch of songs that I like, but only a few that just grab me, take me, do the things that only music can do to you. 

I enjoy Heart of Worship, Blessed be the Name, Sweet Home Alabama (sometimes changing the words and making Alabama into Oklahoma) even though it doesn’t fit the rest of the lyrics.  Hotel California is always unique.  And yes, I can head bang with the best of them on Stairway to Heaven, but they don’t’ really just take me. 

When I was in high school, yes, in the last millennia, the Stone’s song Angie would do it for me.  Of course it was the perfect song for a 16-17-year-old kid who was always in love with somebody for at least 2 weeks.  It doesn’t ring my bell so much anymore.

Revelation Song owns me.  I just have to let the song have its way.

Psalm 100 is like that with me.  Much like the 23^rd psalm, it just goes beyond the words and speaks to your heart and your entire being.

If it doesn’t do the same for you, well, you have issues.

It is different in another way.  It is not a first-person psalm as many of David’s were.  Psalm 100 speaks—sings—for all of us.  It is a song, a psalm that we are to lift up to God together.

Psalm 100 is a psalm for all of us.  The congregation memorized this a few years ago.  It is on our list of verses to memorize next year as well.  It’s been a few years and we have some folks who were not with us then or not old enough then.  So next year, we will memorize it.

For now, let’s close with it in unison.

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
²     Worship the Lord with gladness;
    come before him with joyful songs.
³ Know that the Lord is God.
    It is he who made us, and we are his
    we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

⁴ Enter his gates with thanksgiving
    and his courts with praise;
    give thanks to him and praise his name.
⁵ For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
    his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Amen!