Thanksgiving

Our scripture reading for today comes from Psalm 100. If you have got a Bible, please open your Bible with me to that. Psalm 100: 1-5. Make a joyful noise to the Lord all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come into his presence with singing. Know that the Lord, he is God. It is he who made us, and we are his. We are his people, 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, and his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations. ' This is the word of the Lord. In 1944, Cori Tenenbaum and her sister Beste were taken to Ravensbrook, one of the most brutal women's concentration camps in Nazi Germany. They were cramped into wooden barracks built for 400 people, but now holding more than 1400. The stench was overwhelming. They slept on straw that was rotten. Their bunks were crawling with fleas. Cori wrote in in a book called The Hiding Place, that the first night that they arrived, she cried out, Beste, how can we live in such a place?

But Beste, who had smuggled in a small Bible, opened it to 1 Thessalonians 5: 18, which says, Give thanks in all circumstances. Cori said, Not for the flees. Flees, never for the flees. But Beste insisted, Give thanks in all circumstances. It doesn't say just the pleasant ones. And so standing in a concentration camp, they bowed their heads and gave thanks. They gave thanks for the flees. They gave thanks for being together, that they had a Bible. And finally, with reluctance, finally, Cori gave thanks for the flees. Later, they discovered something astonishing, that the guards never searched or entered into their barracks because of the flees. They never checked on them. They never interrupted them. And because of this, because of the flea infested barracks, it meant that they could pray, that they could read scripture, that they could worship together and share Christ with hundreds of prisoners without interference. Later, Cori wrote, We could thank God for the flees because the flees kept the guards out and the word of God was read every day. This is not a vague thankfulness. It's not sentimentalism, but it's directed. A directed thankfulness at God because of his purposeful giving and ordaining the flees to them.

That's the praise. That's the thankfulness that we see in Psalm 100 that it calls us to. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and give thanks to him. So it leads us to this question. I don't know if I've got this thing. Here we go. Our big question for this morning, what should a Christian do on Thanksgiving? What should a Christian do on Thanksgiving? Thanksgiving is one of the few days of the year that the whole country agrees on. Everyone thinks we know what it's for. For some, Thanksgiving is simply about being grateful for the good things in our life. Your job, your family, your home, your wealth. These are wonderful gifts. But being grateful for blessing isn't the same as being grateful to God. For others, Thanksgiving is a chance to pause and appreciate life. It's to take a breath, get a chance to rest, and to get some perspective. It's a chance to not see your boss for one day of the week. But appreciating life isn't the same as worship. Some people treat Thanksgiving as a day to count our blessings. It's a positivity exercise. But positivity isn't something that can sustain our soul.

For many, Thanksgiving is mostly about family. And that's a beautiful thing. It shouldn't not be about family, but family isn't the object of our praise either. Others see Thanksgiving as a moment to look at how far things have come. It's a yearly milestone. How were things last year and how are things this year? To look at our hard work, our success, our resilience. But that Thanksgiving ends with us. And even in Christian homes, Thanksgiving can quietly become, Lord, thank you for this food and for all the things that are basically good. Amen. The world applauses all of these things, and none of them are wrong in and of themselves, but they don't answer the deeper question, do any of these things actually turn our hearts towards God? Do they shape us into worshippers or simply into people who feel vaguely thankful? Here's what I want you to notice. None of these things that I just listed are bad. Family is good. Gratitude is good. Pausing to reflect. Rest is good. Not seeing your boss is good. Except for Jolene, sorry, today. But none of these things lead us or require us to be thankful to God.

You could do every one of them today and never once enter into his presence. And that's the danger. That's the danger of today, is to feel thankful without worshiping, to feel blessed without actually blessing God. And that brings us to the real question, what should a Christian do on Thanksgiving? Fortunately, the Bible has answers for us, so keep your Bibles open to Psalm 100, because we're going to find our answers there. Psalm 100 isn't just a way on how to give thanks. It gives us a God-centered pattern for worship on our best days and our worst. So let's walk through it together. Let's look at these two movements in this Psalm. Verses 1 through 3, we're going to see how to know the King. Verses 4 through 6, we're going to be invited to enter into his courts. We're going to summarize this chapter, these five verses into a sentence. It would be this, All the earth praises the steadfast God with a servant-based thankfulness. So let's look at this first section, verses 1-3, Know the King. You cannot give thanks deeply unless you know the one you're thanking. A little bit of history before we get into diving into this text.

This Psalm would have been read as the Israelites would have made their way to the temple, into Jerusalem, as they made a pilgrimage into one of the festivals. They would have started with Psalm 90 once they got to the city and finished with Psalm 100 once they got to the temple. Imagine that scene. Hundreds, thousands of people worshiping God together, singing these Psalms as they are eager to enter into his presence. The temple was the fixture. That's where the holy place, the dwelling place of God was. Everyone excited to be close to it, to be just close to the proximity of where God would dwell on earth. These verses give us instruction on what it is we're supposed to do when we gather. It was giving the instruction on what the Israelites were supposed to do. Before we talk about what we're supposed to do on Thanksgiving, this psalm starts by telling us who we're doing it for. You cannot give thanks deeply unless you know the one who you're thanking. Thanksgiving grows out of our theology, out of knowing who God is and what he's done for us and why he deserves praise. This passage, it tells us what we're supposed to do when we gather together.

As a pastor, I have the privilege of marrying. I've married more than, I think, 20 couples so far in my career, and the rehearsals are always the most fun, and They're the most nightmarish part of the whole scenario. The rehearsal is a fun time because it's the anticipation, and we get to mess up before anything actually is legitimate or needs to be official. But it's also a time because it can be chaotic because nobody really knows what they're doing. It's my job as a pastor to tell people and to give instructions on what the bridal party is supposed to be doing. The bridal party, oftentimes, if you don't know, Bridesmaids, they always have it figured out. They know exactly what to do, and the broomsmen are like, they're lost most of the time. Even if they're standing in the right spot, they look like just a lost puppy up there. My instruction is always look at what the girls are doing and just mirror them. But this Psalm tells us what we're supposed to be doing in worship as we gather together. This first intro section, the first three verses tell us this, that we're supposed to make a joyful noise, that we're supposed to serve God, that we're supposed to come into his presence and know that he is God.

First, let's look at verse one, make a joyful noise to the Lord all the earth. This is a call. It's a command for Israel. It's a call and command for us. This language, the language of making a joyful noise, is the same language that would be used of someone when they were blowing a trumpet or a horn. That might sound like a weird thing to talk about, but I I want to stop on this just for a minute. In Israel, they didn't have microphones, they didn't have speakers, they didn't have the music that we had. They couldn't amplify sound. And so a trumpet, a horn would have been one of the loudest and a glorious sound as multiple trumpets rang out in harmony together, it would have invaded, it would have enveloped the space that they were in. A horn would have been a a glorious noise. And this call for us is to make a joyful noise all the earth. It is to make a noise that is so glorious, that is worthy of the God we worship. Think about the most moving music that you've listened to recently. Not just beautiful, but music that is loud, music that you can hear from outside the car, outside the building.

That's the of feeling or emotion that this word is carrying. That all the Earth in harmony together would worship God in this way. That the rivers and the wind, the The trees and the animals would all make a glorious noise that praises God, that moves us, that stirs us into further worship. We make a glorious noise because our God is glorious. So who should do this? The call is for all the Earth to do this because our God is sovereign. He is sovereign over every single thing in this world, and therefore, every single thing on this rock should praise God. Jesus says this in Luke 19. He says, I tell you, if these were silent talking about his disciples, that the very stones would cry out. All of creation will praise God. Our God is so amazing that all of creation could make its best sound ever, and it still wouldn't be enough. It still would not be too much to glorify God. In these first two verses, God is assembling his people. He's calling his people to come to him. Verse 2, it says, serve the Lord with gladness, come into his presence with singing.

The same word, this is the same word that God gives Adam for working the ground before the fall, that word to serve. It's a word that... It means work, but it doesn't mean toil. It means to joyfully and intentionally do something, but for it not to drain the life out of you. It reminds me of my father-in-law. He rebuilt a classic car, a classic pickup truck. When I asked him about the that he had to do to it because he built it from the ground up. Not a moment. I can see it in his eye. Not a moment of that was toil. Not a moment of that was labor. It was all joy. It built him up. Have you ever seen A woman with a great garden. My grandma used to keep an amazing garden. I remember talking with her about that, the joy that she had in that. She's out there tilling, she's out there working, and yet it's light, it's easy, it's a joy. This is the service that we're supposed to bring to God. Serving the Lord with gladness is not supposed to be something that brings us toil or is labor-intensive.

Yet we're called to enter before the King and worship in a way that does take effort, that is intentional, that the final product is beautiful. It couldn't just haphazardly be put together. It was something that took work. But it wasn't labor, it wasn't toil. And that leads us to understanding who we belong to in verse three and where we belong. Verse three says, 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. We are to come before the King. Who's our king? Our king is the Lord. Our king is the eternal God. He made us We are His. We are His people. And he wants us. He wants us to be with Him. He wants us to dwell with Him. That's why he came back. That's something that we get to see and we get to worship in a different way than the Israeli who sang this Psalm originally. We get to know that we have God dwelling with us all the time. We have the Holy spirit who is living with us. That call for him to be with us all the time leads us into our second point, to enter into his courts, verses 4 through 6.

That we come before God with thanksgiving. We enter his gates with thanksgiving. What does this mean? What does this mean to come before him, to enter with thanksgiving? It means that we come before him, that we seek him out, and we sing and worship and thank him for for who he is and what he's done. We don't just thank him for the things that make our life better. We thank him for what he's done in our life, for who he is. I think oftentimes we don't think about this, but our God does not have any requirement to be good. God does not need to be good, and yet our God is. I I think it's something that we overlook often. It's something that struck me this morning. But our God is good. He is good to us. He is faithful to us. And that's one reason that we can be thankful today. Another thing that I want to point out in this verse is that it is a command. This whole psalm is a command. It's not a suggestion because we were made to worship. The Westminster Catechism, the question and answer number one, says, what is the chief end of man?

It's a reformed catechism. It's just Presbyterian. It's the same reform. I don't need to get into the history. It's good. I can tell you the history of it later. But Westminster Catechism says, What is the chief end of man? Or what is the primary purpose of man? It is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. This is how things should have been in the garden. This how we should have operated. We were made to be thankful. But to whom should we be thankful? It's to God. Ephesians 5: 20 says this. It's going too far. Giving thanks always and for everything to God, the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Today, we will talk about what we're thankful for, hopefully Probably gathered around some edible poultry. But rarely do we stop and talk about to whom we're thankful for. Who are we thankful to? This whole Psalm makes it very clear that God is about God, that he's for God, and that this praise is to God. Like a wedding, what I tell the bridal party is that if you get lost at any point, you can't follow the bridesmaids. Look to the bride.

That's who you're supposed to be turning towards. That's who you're supposed to be facing the whole time. When she's walking in and when she's Standing up here, that's who you're supposed to be turning towards. But people, prosper church. Look to Christ. Look to God. That's who we're supposed to be looking towards. As we gather, we look to God. When we're thankful, we look to God. When we're in doubt, we look to God. When we have a festival or celebration, we look to God. When everything isn't going well, we look to God. Maybe this year has been heavy for you. Maybe this year, as you set your Thanksgiving table, there's an empty chair. Maybe your finances are tight or your relationships are strained. Psalm 100 isn't about pretending everything's fine. It's inviting you to bring everything that you have into his courts because he is good even when life isn't. He wants us to enter in. He wants us to come before him because he loves us. He wants us to be close with him. We are his creation. Whether we recognize it or not, the truth is there is a longing in our hearts that we want to be in his presence, too.

Because we know deep down in each and every one of our souls that we are satisfied only and completely by him. Let's look at verse 5, our last verse in this psalm. For the Lord is good, his His steadfast love endures forever and his faithfulness to all generations. The great part about today, the great part about our God is that he is good, that he will never let you go. He will never leave you nor forsake you. Think about one event this moment, one event or one moment this year where you've seen God's thankfulness, or that you've seen God's faithfulness and that you can be thankful. Our main idea for today is to enter into God's presence with Thanksgiving. Enter into God's presence with thanksgiving. Enter into God's presence with thanksgiving. That's the heart of this psalm. Thanksgiving isn't just a feeling. It's not just something that happens to us when life is going well. Thanksgiving is an act a moment of the heart and body towards God. Come into his presence. Enter into his courts. Sing, serve, and know. The psalm is filled with verbs. It calls us to move. Not just hope that we'll be thankful or that we'll get it right.

There's a part that we often look. Coming into God's presence requires effort. Israel saying this Psalm on their way to Jerusalem. Many of them had been walking for days through the dust, over hills, in the heat, possibly danger. And yet they made the effort to come to God's presence just so they could gather with God's people in God's presence. It wasn't convenient, it wasn't comfortable, but it was always worth it. The same question sits in front of us. Will Will you still worship when it's inconvenient? Will you still be thankful to God when it's inconvenient? When your body's tired, when your schedule is full, when your emotions feel flat, and when life isn't going like you hoped it would? Thanksgiving is not the reward of a perfect life. It is the response to a faithful God. The Psalm is telling us, make the effort, turn your heart, lift your voice, come near to him because he has come near to you. So the question becomes, what does this actually look like for us today? How do we live out Psalm 100 in real ordinary life? Not just during a holiday meal, but as people as God's people every week.

The Psalm gives us a pattern, but now let's consider how we need to walk it out together. Let's move from the text of this Psalm into the lives, into some practical application. That leads us to our application. The first is to worship together. The Psalm clearly calls us to come, come into his courts with thanksgiving, enter into his presence, come together. This passage is talking about gathering God's people in the temple before God. And so now, it doesn't only mean coming to church, but it absolutely does mean coming to church. Means being in a local body and worshiping regularly with them. Hebrews 10: 25 says this, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near. Often people I hear people say, I can worship on my own, I can worship on the deer blind or on the golf course or on the lake. But worshiping together with fellow believers is a crucial part of our faith. If you physically cannot be with other Christians, absolutely You can worship anywhere. But there is something special about being with God's people in God's house on the Lord's Day.

That leads us into our last point of application. Don't disguise idolatry as thankfulness. Today, we're probably going to go around the table and talk about what we're thankful for. It's a great thing, but there's a heart posture that can lead us into idolatry and disguise it as thankfulness. I like to call this the difference between cat and dog theology. If you have a cat and a dog, you'll get this. But a dog looks at their owner and says, I am so lucky that I have such a great owner. And a cat looks at his owner and says, You are so lucky that you have such a good cat. And oftentimes, that can be our attitude towards God. Not that cats are worse than dogs. I won't say that from the pulpit. But I encourage you to adopt the viewpoint that says that we are so lucky that have such a good God, not that God is so lucky or the people around us are so lucky that they have such a good person in front of them. That tone will change how we're thankful and to whom we are thankful for. On feasts in Israel, it was common to kill animals for sacrifice.

It was common to enter into the temple and smell the aroma of meat roasting. It's probably the some of the same smells we'll smell later today. Why did Israel do this? Why would Israel have to do this? It was to be pure before God. As they were getting close to God's presence, they had to be purified. They couldn't enter his presence by being unclean. How is it that we can enter into his presence? That we can enter his gates with thanksgiving now? It's because Jesus on the cross became impure for us. He became the defiled one. In the Old Testament, no one entered into God's presence without a sacrifice. They needed a substitute. They needed cleansing. And that's still true for us today, but Christ has provided that for us once and for all. Jesus has become the sacrifice. He became unclean so we could be made clean. He was cast out so we could be brought in. He lost the presence of God so that we could enjoy it forever. So yes, enter into his gates with thanksgiving, not because life is easy, not because everything is going your way, but because Christ has made a way.

Prosper Church, enter into God's presence with thanksgiving today. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for who you are, that you are good, that your steadfast love endures forever, and that you have faith gratefulness to all generations. God, I pray as we come together to worship you today, to be thankful today, I pray that we would not waste this opportunity to be vaguely thankful for how good life is or to just have a positive spin on this year. God, I pray that we would see you as our ultimate joy in Thanksgiving. God, help us to respond as we worship today, as people changed by your word. Father, we love you and we love to do your will, so help us do that. It's in your name we pray. Amen. Would you stand as we sing our closing song?

When the Father is filled to your endless thoughts, when your heart is nourished, thinking all is lost, come, your many blessings, take them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done. God, your blessing, take them one by one. God, your blessing, see what God has done. God, your blessing, make them one by one. Without your many blessings, see what God has done. Are you ever burdened with a lot of care? Does the crossing that you are called to bear? Not too many blessings, every doubt will find, and you will be singing as the days go by. Not too

that others lift their hands and roll. They that Christ has promised you his love untold. No too many blessings might be cannot die. You're rewarded, then we're all on high. God, your blessings, give them one by one.

Hear this blessing. May the Lord who made you and calls you his own, fill your heart with thanksgiving today. May his goodness be your comfort, his steadfast love, your song, and his faithfulness, your strength in every generation. Now go in the joy of his presence, and serve the Lord with gladness. Amen.

Do not be discouraged, God is over all. Don't your many blessings, angels, care of me. How can comfort give you to your journey's end? How much your blessings taken one by one? How much your blessings be what's on God has done. God, He pushed me, gave them one by one. Not so many of us can see what God has done., give them one by one. Not sure any God since he would God have done.