The Joy of Knowing God

Introduction

Good morning church, it is a pleasure to be opening the word before you this Sunday before our yearly celebration of Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is that special time of year when we all come together and do the thing that we should have been doing every day for the rest of the year. We do not have to wait until the third Thursday in November to give thanks for the many, many blessings our God has poured out for us, and it is my hope that I am speaking to group of people that know this and practice it. That being said, I think each one of us can take the call to, as the hymn says, count your blessing more often. In fact, despite how obviously rough this year has been in many ways, the times that I stop focusing on those hard things and start looking to Jesus and the ways he has been there through all of it are the times that really lift me up and give me the strength to persevere through the rest of it. Today, we will be looking at Psalm 100 which is a Psalm of thanksgiving. If you will lets stand to read the word of God.

Christian Standard Bible Psalm 100

Psalm 100

BE THANKFUL

A psalm of thanksgiving.

1 Let the whole earth shout triumphantly to the LORD!

2 Serve the LORD with gladness;

come before him with joyful songs.

3 Acknowledge that the LORD is God.

He made us, and we are his,—

his people, the sheep of his pasture.

4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving

and his courts with praise.

Give thanks to him and bless his name.

5 For the LORD is good, and his faithful love endures forever;

his faithfulness, through all generations.

Serving With Joy

The Psalmist starts out with the proclamation “Let the whole earth shout triumphantly to the LORD!” If you happen to be familiar with the King James Version, you’ll note that this declaration is the familiar line, “Make a joyful noise unto the Lord.” Honestly, only a person who knows the greatness of God personally would be able to say something like that. If you know God this morning, you can testify to the His goodness, and the victory that He brings as we serve Him. We have every reason to look to God and shout triumphantly to make a joyful noise as we sing in worship. There may be some out there like, but preacher you just don’t know what I’m going through, you just don’t know how hard this is, hey, lift your eyes to the Lord! At the very least he is the creator and sustainer of your life and by his mercy each one of us still draws breath despite our sin and our wickedness. Christian, you have the privilege of not just knowing God, but of being adopted into His family through the saving work of Christ. Through the grace of God we are made sons and daughters of the most high, sharing in the eternal inheritance with Christ the Son. Rise up and make a joyful noise to our God.

“Serve the Lord with bitter hesitancy and continuous complaining.” I’m not sure but it seems like some people read it this way, but it actually says “Serve the Lord with gladness.” I know everyone’s busy. I’m busy too, and some of you may be able to out busy me and that’s fine, I’m trying to get done what needs to be done not compete for the most busy person award. When an opportunity to serve God comes forward, we should have so many joyfully willing to serve that we have to turn people away. Church, where is our joy in serving God? Well pastor I just don’t feel God calling me to do this. Well is God calling you to serve at all? I don’t particularly think that you have to have a specific calling to serve in a lot of the ways that are needed. Nursery? Probably don’t need a specific call. Volunteering with the Youth or children, working the kitchen, helping clean up after an event, manning a booth at an outreach event, sharing the Gospel with your lost friends and family? God has called us to serve, and there are any number of places that one can serve without a specific calling to do so. Frankly, if I have to twist your arm to come serve and your going to have a sour attitude while you do it, I’d rather you just stay home. The Psalmist says, “serve the Lord with gladness.”

He follows up by saying to “come before him with joyful songs.” When you sing songs of praise are they characterized by a dull droning or filled with joy? This question is a personal question and I’ll let you think about it. Are you filled with joy when we sing praise songs? I fell in love with God by singing modern contemporary praise songs set to a full band, but even I can still be filled with joy while singing songs of style that is not first preference. Songs that glorify God are songs worth singing joyfully whether they are traditional or modern. Not every hot new song is worth singing, but not every hymn that was written is worth singing either. My point is this, no matter the style, when you sing to God in praise, do so with a heart filled with joy. The question may begin to form in your mind, well why should I serve God with gladness and come before him with joyful songs? The answer to this question is found in verses three, four, and five.

Knowing the Lord

“Acknowledge that the Lord is God. He made us, and we are his - his people, the sheep of his pasture.”

One of the biggest problems with humanity is there refusal to acknowledge that the Lord is God. Paul tells us in Romans 1 that people preferred worshipping the creature rather than the creator. The truth of this reality is seen all over the world and all throughout history. People saw the sun and recognized how wonderful it was from its life giving warmth, but instead of giving glory to God for the gift of the sun, they turned the sun into a God. Today, it is the cult of the self, and if your “self” is not how you want it to be, there are a million ways you can change it with self-help, therapy, weight management, or surgery you can have whatever self you would prefer to worship. Whatever makes you happy. While there is some benefit to those things, we have to realize that God is God and we cannot put ourselves above Him. The pursuit of the self can never overshadow the role of God in your life. “He made us.” “We are his.”

We have the glorious benefit of entering into his gates and professing our thanks. This relationship we have with God is not something we earned. In fact it is by our hands that the relationship is broken. Each one us, a sheep made for God’s pastures has gone astray. We have left the pastures, we have left the gate of his house in pursuit of our own sin. Whoa preacher, I’m a good person. Friend, the word good does not mean the same to us as it does to God. Our goodness is filthy. Our goodness is marred by our wickedness. Our wickedness that we chose. Speed a little here, lie a little there, steal a little over yonder, gossip a bit back behind there, lust after others in the secret places. Yeah, our definition of good is a little off. How can we shout to God with joy when we’re in such a pitiful state. We’ve left the gates of God’s pastures? How can we acknowledge and serve him with gladness? Verse five explains it all.

“For the Lord is good, and his faithful love endures forever; his faithfulness, through all generations.” It is true what the prophet Isaiah said, “We all went astray like sheep; we all have turned to our own way,” but that’s not the end. God is good and his faithful love endures forever. He is faithful when we are faithless through all generations. God was not shocked to see us choose our sin, but he made a promise to us that the gate is open, held open by the cross, the one who would be from the line of David, the one who would crush the head of the serpent. God saw us lost like sheep, unable to return to the flock on our own and out of his faithful love he sent his Son to retrieve us. For in Luke Jesus says, “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.”

How can we serve the Lord with gladness, shout joyfully to Him, and give thanks to Him despite the crashing waves around us? For myself it is simple to answer. I was lost and now I’m found. I was broken and Christ made me whole. I will gladly serve him, joyfully sing to him, and give him thanks for the rest of my days because he demonstrated his love for me in this way that while I was still a sinner, Christ died for me. If you can say that today, you have reason to be thankful. You have reason to serve gladly and sing joyfully.

If you are still lost in your sin, having not trusted in loving work of Christ to save you, I have good news for you. Paul tells us to proclaim that Jesus is Lord with our mouth and believe that he rose from the grave in hearts and we will be saved. Your mom cannot proclaim Christ for you, your dad cannot believe on your behalf. You have to trust Christ personally. That may be the greatest thing of all of this is that God wants to save you personally. He wants you personally to know him because he loves you personally. In just a moment, I’m going to pray and make my way down from the platform, the musicians are going to come back to the platform, everyone’s going to stand and sing joyfully to God, but you, if you’ve called upon Christ to save you personally, your going to have the opportunity to step into one these isles, and I will gladly help you call on him today for Paul also tells us that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Let’s pray.