What Are You Thankful For?

Introduction:

“A Peanuts cartoon showed Charlie Brown bringing Snoopy his dinner on Thanksgiving Day. But it was just his usual dog food. Snoopy looked at his bowl and said, “This isn’t fair. The rest of the world today is eating turkey with all the trimmings, and all I get is dog food. Because I’m a dog, all I get is dog food.” He stared at his food for a while, and said, “I guess it could be worse. I could be a turkey.””

As we get ready to celebrate Thanksgiving, it’s in this season that many remember to be thankful. Too often, however, those thoughts of thankfulness ends when all the turkey and potatoes have been eaten and black Friday shopping begins. My hope and prayer this evening is that we learn to live a life of thankfulness. To be able to do this, we must be reminded to be thankful towards the Lord our God.

Psalm 100 “A psalm of thanksgiving. Let the whole earth shout triumphantly to the Lord! Serve the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Acknowledge that the Lord is God. He made us, and we are his— his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and bless his name. For the Lord is good, and his faithful love endures forever; his faithfulness, through all generations.”

(Prayer)

A.G.E.S.

A = Acknowledge

Psalm 100:3 “Acknowledge that the Lord is God. He made us, and we are his— his people, the sheep of his pasture.”

Acknowledge = “To know.”

1.) To know in a cognitive sense.

2.) To know in a experiential sense.

(Example: Miracles)

The Bible Guide The Gladness of Access (Psalm 100)

The joyful shout is that of a crowd offering loyalty and welcome to a king. It is not to be given lightly, as it implies a total commitment

“How do I know I am hearing from the Lord? The voice of the Lord never contradicts His word.” (John 10:1-16)

G = Give

Psalm 100:4b “Give thanks to Him and bless His name.”

How do we give thanks?

1.) Verbally

2.) How we live

3.) Financially

E = Enter

Psalm 100:4a “Enter His gated with thanksgiving and His courts with praise.”

Hebrews 4:15–16 CSB

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin. Therefore, let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in time of need.

“Don’t always gone into the throne room ready to complain.”

S = Serve

Psalm 100:2 CSB

Serve the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.

“Learn to serve the Lord with gladness, even when it’s something you weren’t expecting.”

The Eerdmans Companion to the Bible 100 A Hymn of Praise

The worship of God includes not only singing his praises but also serving him with gladness in an attitude that acknowledges the subordinate and dependent relationship of humans to the Creator (v. 3). Thanksgiving, praise, and blessing constitute appropriate responses to God’s goodness, everlasting loving-kindness, and perpetual faithfulness. God’s “gates” and “courts” refer to the Jerusalem temple (v. 4).

Why Should We Be Thankful To The Lord?

Psalm 100:5 CSB

For the Lord is good, and his faithful love endures forever; his faithfulness, through all generations.

1.) The Lord is Good.

2.) He is Faithful.

Conclusion:

“Inasmuch as the great Father has given us this year an abundant harvest of Indian corn, wheat, peas, beans, squashes, and garden vegetables, and has made the forests to abound with game and the sea with fish and clams, and inasmuch as he has protected us from the ravages of the savages, has spared us from pestilence and disease, has granted us freedom to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience.

“Now I, your magistrate, do proclaim that all ye Pilgrims, with your wives and ye little ones, do gather at ye meeting house, on ye hill, between the hours of 9 and 12 in the day time, on Thursday, November 29th, of the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and twenty-three and the third year since ye Pilgrims landed on ye Pilgrim Rock, there to listen to ye pastor and render thanksgiving to ye Almighty God for all His blessings.”—William Bradford, Governor of Plymouth Colony

We are called to be thankful to the Lord throughout all of our ages. Let today be the start of living a life thankful for the Lord.

(Pray)