A People of Thanksgiving

Alexander Whyte was a pastor in Edinburgh, Scotland and was known his pulpit prayers of thanksgiving. Every Sunday, Whyte found something to give thanks to God about. He was known for saying that, even in the worst of times, we have much to be thankful for. His church family told a story, that on one particularly stormy morning, the huddled congregation was murmuring amongst themselves. Surely, the preacher will have nothing to thank God for on a wretched morning like this.” But Whyte began his prayer, “We thank Thee, O God, that it is not always like this.”

Another, famed, scholar, Matthew Henry, was known for his thankfulness. One day, Henry was jumped by a gang of thieves and robbed of his purse. That evening, he wrote in his diary that he had four reasons to be thankful: He was thankful that he had never been robbed before. He was thankful that while they had taken his purse, they did not take his life. He was thankful that, while they had taken all he had, they hadn’t taken much. And, he was thankful that he was the victim, the one who was robbed, and not the one who was doing the robbing.

What these men exemplified is an exhortation and encouragement to us. In their words of response to the face of adversity, we find a resolution. We find a song to live by. We see the rock-base foundation of our love for God.

Open your Bibles with me, if you will, to Psalm 100. As we continue this morning in our celebration of Thanksgiving, we are going to do so in Psalm 100. And as we like to do here at Friendship, let us honor the Lord as we stand together at the reading of His word:

Psalm 100:1–5 NASB95

Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness; Come before Him with joyful singing. Know that the Lord Himself is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving And His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him, bless His name. For the Lord is good; His lovingkindness is everlasting And His faithfulness to all generations.

Would you pray with me? Heavenly Father, Giver of all good things, we come together in this place as Your people to worship You. We long to know You and to make You known. Even in the midst of this season of uncertainty, we see Your glory unfolding all around us, and we long to be a part of it. We long to live in the center of Will. We long to know You to the utmost, so that we might declare to all creation the goodness of who You are. Lord, would You be with us here this morning. Show us things that we did not know, that did not rightly understand. Show us Your glory, Father, and change us through it, that we might declare it to those who have not yet heard. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.

Thank you, you may be seated. This morning, we are thankful to God. This morning, we are continuing our month-long celebration of thanksgiving. Last week, we discussed our thanksgiving towards God because He is our Father. And we unpacked some of what that means for us on a practical and intimate level. I know that there are challenges in front of each of us right now. As a nation, as a state, as a community, we have struggles that, at times, make it hard for us to focus on thanks. I know that as a church, and as families, and as individuals, we have battles that we are facing, and sometimes they are all that we can think about.

And yet, this morning, as we continue our celebration, we are continuing in thanks to God, our Father. And I will continue to tell you this morning that we are a people that should be grateful. We are a people that should be thankful. In this Psalm this morning, verse 1 commands us in proclamation:

Psalm 100:1 NASB95

Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth.

In other words, Shout with joy to God, everything that He has made! Yes everything that has breath, but also those things that do not. Let the rocks and trees, let the hills, and the rivers cry out to the Lord with joy. We were created to worship the Lord. We were made to know and enjoy and experience His goodness. Our approach to God should be one of Joy and thanksgiving. In fact, if you have your listening guide this morning and are taking notes, the first thing that I would have you to remember this morning is that our f

Our first response in thanksgiving to God is praise

Thanksgiving is the reason and the purpose behind our joy to God. How can we be anything but thankful towards the One who made us. Our first response in thanksgiving should be praise.Every day that we are given is a reason to say thank you to God, a reason to praise Him. For, without Him, we would have no day at all. Every breath that enters our lungs is a gift to be thankful for. We owe Him everything, for there is nothing that we have on our own, nothing that we could have accomplished for ourselves without Him moving and working and providing and sustaining. We are not even capable of loving on our own. 1 John 4:19 says

1 John 4:19 NASB95

We love, because He first loved us.

Why are we capable of love at all? Because God loved us first. In fact, before God showed His love towards us, we were enemies of God. We lived in sin and rebellion. It is only by His grace, by His love poured out in His blood that we are freed from our sin. It is only by His resurrection that we have life. Romans 5:10 tells us,

Romans 5:10 NASB95

For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

Thanksgiving, friends, is the very foundation of our faith. It is the birthplace of our love for God. Because God loves us, because He gave Himself up for us we are thankful towards Him and our very first response to Him is that of praise. When someone has done something for you that you desperately needed and cannot repay, you feel indebted to them. You immediately grow a love and appreciation for them, and it changes the way you see that person.

When you see them in public, they put a smile on your face. When you introduce them to someone else, you inevitably will tell them about your affection for them and what it stems out of. No matter what kind of day you are having, their presence puts you in a better mood. This should be the way that we respond to God, but not just some of the time. All of the time. In our lives, it is easy for us to find things to complain about. It is easy to find reasons to be upset and unhappy. If I went around the room this morning, I’d bet that every single person in here could think of a reason that they are unhappy or discontent in some way in some area of their lives.

It is easy to find things to complain about, but that is only because we forget that His presence is always with us. God is always with us. He goes with us and before us everywhere that we go. And since He is the One that made us, and we wouldn’t exist without Him; and since He is the One that has saved us, and we would be dead in our sins without Him; and since He is the One that gives us life and breath and every good thing, when He is with us, His praises should be on our lips. A song of His joy should be in our hearts. We should always be looking to tell that person that we are with about Him, to introduce them to Him because He is always with us, and that means that we should always be walking along in joyful praises to Him.

Look at verse 2 with me:

Psalm 100:2 NASB95

Serve the Lord with gladness; Come before Him with joyful singing.

Our second response in thanksgiving to God is service

There are many here in this room this morning that knew my grandfather. He served this county for many years as a county commissioner. He ran the T&T grocery on 5th street as well. He loved and served his community in ways that were public and private. My dad followed in his father’s footsteps. He served this count for 30 years as the emergency manager and paramedic. Growing up, I knew that these men were good men, Godly men. But I had no idea how loved they were until I saw the way that people served them.

One of my favorite examples of this came from a moment of tragedy in my family. On one occasion, my father was in a serious accident. He had to have surgery on his knee because of it, and went through a long period of rehab and couldn’t work. And,unsolicited, people started showing up to serve my father and my family. They helped fix things that needed fixing. They brought meals, and spent time. Nobody asked them to serve; they did it because they loved him. They were thankful to him for ways that he had served them.

Since coming back to Live Oak, I cannot count the number of times I have met someone or have run into someone I already knew, and have had them tell me about something my dad did for them, and that has often been followed up with a question about what they can do for me. He helped them 30 years ago, and so they want to bless me today out of gratitude! And here is the point, when you have been blessed, you want to be a blessing.

As children of God, you and I should gladly serve the Lord! We should gladly serve the Lord. We should bend over backwards to serve Him every breath of our lives. Over in this hallway, the nominating committee’s report for this year is hanging on the wall. And in that report, there are some blank spots. One of them is for the High Five Club. No one is signed up it to lead that ministry, and it’s not the only one. And friends, that should never be! It should be that in the church, we’re fighting over who gets to serve, not over who’s going to. Positions where we get to serve others are something we should covet, not something that we should hold our noses at.

And it doesn’t matter how young you are, it doesn’t matter how old you are, if you belong to Jesus, His goodness towards us will fill you with thanksgiving, and the right response in thanksgiving is joyful service of your King. It doesn’t matter how old you are.

Psalm 100:2 NASB95

Serve the Lord with gladness; Come before Him with joyful singing.

Just checking, nope, there are no age limitations here. There are attitude requirements, though. Serve with gladness, not begrudging. Our songs before Him should be joyful. This is what 1 John 1:4 says. It’s what Psalm 51:21 tells us,

Psalm 51:12 NASB95

Restore to me the joy of Your salvation And sustain me with a willing spirit.

Our joy comes from the freedom we have in Christ. It fuels our desire to serve Him, and our service fuels our joy all the more. Some would tell me, hey, Pastor I’m too young to serve. If God made you part of the body, you are gifted to serve as part of it. Some would say, I’m too busy to serve. If God made you part of the body, the body suffers when you neglect it. Some would say, I’m too old to serve, and I will tell you there is no retirement in the Lord. Is thirty out of seventy years sufficient for serving the Lord? Is forty out of 80? Just how much of your life is sufficient in service of the God who gave His One and only Son so that You may live? How thankful do you have to be?

We did this skit yesterday for the Senior Adults. It was about Friendship Old Fashioned Day 2070, when I will be 90 years old. Y’all stop doing math and focus. And we were talking. Do you know, if you stopped serving Jesus because you’ve retired, you are really robbing yourself and others. You are robbing younger folks you could serve beside and teach them things. You are robbing yourself of joy, and the expression of thanksgiving to God.

It doesn’t matter your age, your stage of life, or your excuse, if our joy is in the Lord, and we are thankful for what He is done, we will praise His great name with joy and thanks, and we will serve Him with a joyful, thankful heart.

Look at verses 3 and 4:

Psalm 100:3–4 NASB95

Know that the Lord Himself is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving And His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him, bless His name.

These verses are couple together to give us the who, the why, the what, and the how of thanksgiving. They start off by telling us that God is God. He is the only God. He is the only King. He is the Creator. He is the only One worthy of worship, and the One that we owe everything to.

Why? Well, it tells us. He created us. He fashioned us. He made everything about us. He gave you your talents, your creativity, your beautiful eyes, the hair on your head. There is nothing about you that He didn’t make. And what’s more, we belong to Him. We are His people, the sheep of His pasture. We are His possession, and that’s a good thing. These are good things. See, because I make mistakes, I make errors. God doesn’t. God does not make junk, so that means that He made you just how He wanted you to be. Secondly, you belong to Him, and so that means that He is the one that decides where you go and what you do. You are in His protection, and God doesn’t lose anything that belongs to Him. No one steals from the hand of the Lord.

And finally, we are His flock in His pasture. In other words, we are valuable to Him and He cares for us. You are valuable to God. You matter to Him, and He is the One that is caring for you. If God is the one that is caring for you, you will have everything that you need. You will find that He is sufficient for you, because you belong to Him.

Now, that covers the who and the why, and so in verse 4 we find the what and the how. What are we, the people of God, that He made and provides for, supposed to do in response to our King? We are to enter into His courts, so we are to come before Him. We are to draw into His presence with thanksgiving and praise. Our response to God in relationship with Him is thanksgiving and praise, and how we do that is given to us right there at the end of verse 4, that

Our third response in thanksgiving to God is giving

October was Pastor Appreciation Month, and many of you found ways to say thank you to Bethany and I, and to my kids. We loved the cards, and the thoughtful words. We thoroughly enjoyed the meals that some of you brought to us. And we continue to enjoy the sweet gift cards that we received. The gifts that we received were touching, because to give them required sacrifice, and that sacrifice showed us a genuine love and gratitude.

How much more should we give to God! How much greater should our outpouring of love and gratitude be. We bring gifts to lay before Him, not because He needs them, but because we need to express to Him how thankful we are. 2 Corinthians 9:6-7 says

2 Corinthians 9:6–7 NASB95

Now this I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

As a pastor, one of the things you learn is that giving is one of the last ways people start participating at church, and it is almost always the first way they cut back on their participation. But our giving is so important. Sure, your tithes and offerings help us to keep the lights on. They help us to do things for the Kingdom of God. But way beyond that is your heart.

Jesus said

Matthew 6:21 NASB95

for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

If God made you, which He did, and You belong to Him, which you do, that means that everything you have belongs to Him. But when we cling to His stuff more than to Him, that shows that we love the stuff more than the One that gave it to us. Your giving is important because it continues to draw you back to a place of thanksgiving. Tithes and offerings are acts of thanksgiving to God. We don’t give because He needs it-your money already belongs to Him-We give because we need to show God that we are thankful to Him, that He has filled us with joy. Let me put it to you this way. Our giving to God is a measure of our thankfulness towards Him. And knowing that, I don’t want to give Him what I have to, I want to give Him all that I can, because I don’t think I can thank Him enough.

As you know, right now we are raising money for a new youth building. As of last week, we had received 19, 751.44 towards the 60,000 we are trying to raise, and the vast majority came from gifts of offerings to the Lord. And while we will continue to do fundraisers, if we are going to make it to 60,000, most of that will come from offerings people make. The Lord has the resources, and He has given them to you so that you can give them back to Him in thanksgiving. This morning, you already heard about November 29th. We are asking you all to spend concerted time in thanksgiving and prayer this month, asking God what He would have you to sacrificially give as an offering to help with this building.

And on November 29th, the last Sunday of the month, we are inviting those that are ready to participate in a Thanksgiving offering for the youth building. Now, I’m not asking you to hold onto your gift, if your already prepared to give. But we do want to use this opportunity as a church this month as a springboard in our thanksgiving. We want to be a people that give in thanks for what the Lord has done. Wouldn’t it be amazing, if in December we could begin making plans to break ground because we had half of the money? Wouldn’t it be amazing to know that through our thanksgiving, God had already provided all of the resources that we need for this project?

Our giving, not just to this building, but in general shows a grateful heart before the Lord. It is born out of a right understanding that all we have comes from God. Giving, especially a sacrificial gift that comes from your need and not your wants, shows a deep gratitude to God because it is an acknowledgement that you would have nothing without Him. It also, is the evidence of a deep and profound trust in God that is born out of memory. Look at verse 5:

Psalm 100:5 NASB95

For the Lord is good; His lovingkindness is everlasting And His faithfulness to all generations.

Our fourth response in thanksgiving to God is to remember and trust

It gets easier to trust someone when you have a memory of their trustworthiness. When you trust someone, and they don’t let you down, you are far more likely to trust them again. That’s what trust is. It is a memory of faithfulness in the past that we base our present and future relationships on. And that is what this verse is. It is a memory. It is a statement of truth in conviction, that you and I can remember and declare that yes, the Lord is good. He has shown us kindness and lovingkindness. The Lord is good Friends, we can trust God, because we have a memory of His trustworthiness.

The Scriptures, from cover to cover, stand in constant witness to His goodness, His loving kindness, and His faithfulness. These things are who He is. They are the very character of God. We also have our own experiences in faith, where God has called on us again and again to trust Him, to step out in faith. And each time you step out in faith, He has shown up. Each time, God has provided. Perhaps it was not in the way that you wanted, but He has provided none the less. And we remember the goodness of God, how He has made a way where there was none, how He has provided where it was needed, and has done what could not be done. And when we remember that God parted the waves the last time we stepped out in faith, it gives us to another reason to be thankful, which helps us to trust Him.

You trusted God before in your praise, in your service, and in your giving, and each time, He provided and He did what you could not. And if you will step out again, He will do it again. It is a continuous loop of growth in the Lord. The more thankful you are, the more you will give Him your praise, and your service, and your treasure. And the more that you give to Him in thanksgiving, the more reasons He will give you for which you can give thanks.

I am not talking about the prosperity gospel. I am not saying that we give to God to get from God. But I am saying that you can’t out-give God. And the more you give to Him in thanksgiving, the more you will want to give to Him because He will teach you time and again that He is worth thanking.

Won’t you join us this morning, in this season of thanksgiving? Won’t you all it to become your pursuit in living your life out before Him? Before you this morning, God has laid out an altar of thanksgiving. And regardless of our circumstance, regardless of what we have faced in our recent past, now is the time for a season of praise. Come to Him in thanksgiving today. Come lay down your sorrows, and trade them for joy. Lift praises to Him in joyous song. Come and serve Him in the gladness of your thanksgiving. Come and give to the in the measure of your thankfulness to Him. Remember His works, trust in His name, and give thanks to the Lord while their is still breath in you.

Let’s go to our Lord in thanksgiving this morning. Lord, Jesus, thank you, thank you, thank you. We cannot say it enough. There are not enough minutes, hours, or days for us to say thank you. And, Lord, we acknowledge that we don’t thank you enough. We find reasons to complain, and to be selfish, and to doubt, and to sit when we could serve. Lord, would you open our hearts in glad thanksgiving this morning! Help us to live out our thankfulness for your goodness in the way that we praise you, serve you, give, and trust You. You are worthy of our praises, and the One who has given us everything. And we are here this morning to open up in our lives a season of celebration, a season of thankfulness for who You are and what You have done. Would You come and help us. Would You open the floodgates, that the overflow of your goodness would pour out of us in the way that we live thankfully before You. in Jesus’ Name we pray, amen.