Thankful for God's Love
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A Psalm for giving thanks.
1 Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!
2 Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing!
3 Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name!
5 For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.
How should we show our thankfulness to God? What should our attitude, our actions, our demeanor be when we worship the Lord? Shouldn’t we be beaming from ear to ear, jumping up and down, shouting, and praising Him for all He has done for us?
Or, are we more like the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving movie we watched a few weeks ago?
Holidays always depress me.
I know what you mean.
I went down to buy a turkey tree...
...and all they have
are things for Christmas.
For Christmas? Already?
Anyway, why should I give thanks
on Thanksgiving?
What have I got to be thankful for?
Are we truly thankful for all we have, and all God has given?
Or, do we act like a spoiled Peppermint Patty, expecting what is not rightfully ours, and then complaining when we get what is given?
-Are we going to have a prayer?
It's Thanksgiving, you know.
Before we're served,
shouldn't we say grace?
In the year 1621, the pilgrims held
their first Thanksgiving feast.
They invited
the great Indian chief Massasoit...
...who brought 90 of his brave Indians
and a great abundance of food.
Governor William Bradford
and Captain Miles Standish...
...were honored guests.
Elder William Brewster, who was a minister,
said a prayer that went something like this:
"We thank God for our homes and our food
and our safety in a new land.
We thank God for the opportunity to create
a new world for freedom and justice. "
Amen.
What's this? A piece of toast?
A pretzel stick? Popcorn?
What blockhead cooked all this?
What kind of a Thanksgiving dinner is this?
Where's the turkey, Chuck?
Don't you know anything
about Thanksgiving dinners?
Where's the mashed potatoes?
Where's the cranberry sauce?
Where's the pumpkin pie?
Too often, we are unthankful for all we have. But to be honest, we have been blessed so much, God allowed us to wake up today, He allowed us to come and worship Him, and Lord wiling, we will partake in a meal here shortly. We are BLESSED, and we should be Thankful for the love God shows to each of us.
Rejoice With Joy and Gladness
Rejoice With Joy and Gladness
1 Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!
2 Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing!
Who is to make a joyful noise? ALL THE EARTH!
Psalm 66:1 (ESV)
1 Shout for joy to God, all the earth;
Psalm 95:1 (ESV)
1 Oh come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
What is a joyful noise?
Strong’s Greek & Hebrew Dictionary definition-to mar (especially by breaking); figurative to split the ears (with sound), i.e. shout (for alarm or joy):- blow an alarm, cry (alarm, aloud, out), destroy, make a joyful noise, smart, shout (for joy), sound an alarm, triumph.
Who are we to make a joyful noise to?
The Lord!
How many of you remember the words to the song “Shout To The Lord”?
My Jesus, my savior
Lord, there is none like You
All of my days, I want to praise
The wonders of Your mighty love
My comfort, my shelter
Tower of refuge and strength
Let every breath, all that I am
Never cease to worship You
Shout to the Lord, all the earth let us sing Power and majesty, praise to the King Mountains bow down and the seas will roar At the sound of Your name I sing for joy at the work of Your hands Forever I'll love You, forever I'll stand Nothing compares to the promise I have in You!
Not only are we to make a joyful noise, but we are to serve Him with gladness.
The word serve here means to worship, as in to serve God through our praise, our heart, our actions, and our hearts. Relates to NT use of “slave/servant/bondservant”.
There is labor involved in our worship and praise of God!
If we think of the relationship we have with God, we are no longer our own, we are a servant of the King. In the Roman times, these bondservants were viewed as property. So, we are property of God, and as such He requires honor, praise, and glory.
John 17:10–16 (ESV)
10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.
11 And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.
12 While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
13 But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.
14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.
16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
So, what keeps us from truly, FULLY worshiping our Savior? In an effort to maintain dignity, sanctity, and decorum in the Baptist church, have we forgot about how we are asked, even TOLD, how we are to praise God through our worship? I mean, if we TRULY think of what God has saved us FROM and WHERE God has taken us TO, do we not have a REASON to shout and praise Him in Thanksgiving for the love and favor He has shown us? Do we shout, do we sing, do we truly praise Him? I encourage us to search ourselves and ask the question “How am I worshipping my Savior”?
We are His
We are His
3 Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
Know the Lord is God!
We should have an awareness, knowledge, certainty, in other words we should BE SURE of who God is!
He is our Creator (He made us!), we are His (remember, He created us; we did not create Him!). Have we ever thought just how awesome a statement this is? From the time of creation, what was this world created from?
If we think of the scientific definition of creation, we find a fatal flaw. According to NASA, “In 1927, an astronomer named Georges Lemaître (pronounced George LooMatRah) had a big idea. He said that a very long time ago, the universe started as just a single point. He said the universe stretched and expanded to get as big as it is now, and that it could keep on stretching. Everything we can see in our universe today—stars, planets, comets, asteroids—they weren't there at the beginning. Where did they come from? When the universe began, it was just hot, tiny particles mixed with light and energy. It was nothing like what we see now. As everything expanded and took up more space, it cooled down.
The tiny particles grouped together. They formed atoms. Then those atoms grouped together. Over lots of time, atoms came together to form stars and galaxies.
The first stars created bigger atoms and groups of atoms. That led to more stars being born. At the same time, galaxies were crashing and grouping together. As new stars were being born and dying, then things like asteroids, comets, planets, and black holes formed! How long did all of this take? Well, we now know that the universe is 13,800,000,000 years old—that’s 13.8 billion. That is a very long time. That’s pretty much how the universe began. Because it got so big and led to such great things, some people call it the "Big Bang."”
But, where did the single point, the tiny particles, the light and energy source come from? Does it not assume this already existed? But, where did this matter originate?
3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
6 And God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.”
9 And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so.
11 And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so.
14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years,
And on, and on, and on…but the most important verse is Genesis 1:1
1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
Don’t forget God existed from eternity past, to the present, and will exist for eternity future. When He chose to create this world, He already existed. He desired a relationship with us. He loved us enough that He created us in His image and likeness.
16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
19 We love because he first loved us.
Is this not a reason for Thanksgiving for God’s love to us?
Because we were created by Him, then we are His people.
Would we agree that God is a jealous God? That He claims who He is, and claims what He has created, and claims all honor, praise, and glory?
8 I am the Lord; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols.
God expects us to praise Him through worship, and we should be thankful to praise Him for His love!
Sheep of His pasture.
When we realize we are sheep, then we must realize we have a shepherd. He watches out for us. He keeps us from danger. He leads us to food, water, and shelter. He is willing to place his own welfare on the line for His sheep. He is even willing to sacrifice His own life for the sake of His sheep.
By knowing the Lord, it means we know by experience and acknowledge that He is God. How awesome is this! We should be shouting it from the rooftop how good God has been to us!
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving
4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name!
5 For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.
As the worshipers reached the gates of the sanctuary, they break out in song. Simply because of all God had done for them - His goodness, His mercy, His faithfulness. We find this time of praise as a theme in Psalms - 106, 107, 118, 136, we also see this carried over in the NT 1 Chron 16 and 2 Chron 5.
1 Praise the Lord! Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!
13 and it was the duty of the trumpeters and singers to make themselves heard in unison in praise and thanksgiving to the Lord), and when the song was raised, with trumpets and cymbals and other musical instruments, in praise to the Lord, “For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever,” the house, the house of the Lord, was filled with a cloud,
Is our heart filled with Thanksgiving when we enter into His house? Do we think of all He has done for us, and in our lives, and caused us to break out in praise? Think today: What has God done for me today? What has God done for me this week? What has God done for me this month? What has God done for me this year? What has God done for me since I was saved? And even better, What has God saved me from???
If we truly look back at our lives, what God has saved us from and what He has done for us, then we can only do as the Psalmist says “Give thanks to Him; bless His name”!
If we are controlled by the Holy Spirit of God and the Holy Word of God, we will reveal it in the way we worship God. Because “his steadfast (unfailing) love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.” He is our God forever. We are his people forever. We are the sheep he cares for forever. So we worship him forever. When we think about the kind of God our God is, is it too much to ask that we worship and serve him in Thanksgiving with the whole of our lives?
Closing
Closing