Enter With Thanksgiving Series

INTRODUCTION

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• It is good not to have feathers. 

• Thanksgiving is almost upon us. IT is a great time. There is food, family and FOOTBALL!

• But most important is the fact that thanksgiving is a time where we should reflect on the great blessings we have from God.

• There are times when life can get difficult and when those times come it is easy to forget what God has done for us.

• Being thankful for what God has blessed us with is an important because thankfulness leads to contentment.

• Paul speaks in Philippians 4:11-12 about being content no matter what was happening around him.

• He had a lot of reasons to grumble if he chose to, but he did not.

• A person who is thankful will be able to cut though all of the bad in life and find the good. Paul was thankful to God even though his relationship with God caused him great physical pain in his life.

• Even Jesus thanked the Father for things when He was living on the earth.

• Each and every day we get to enter into God’s presence, the question is how are we going to enter into His presence each day?

• In every tragedy you can look at what you’ve lost and be hateful, or you can look at what you have left and be grateful. Joseph (Old Testament) was a grand example of choosing to be grateful instead of hateful in the face of betrayal. Gerald Mann, When the Bad Times Are Over For Good, p. 150-152

• Grateful or grumbling? Our attitude is our choice.

• Today I would like for us to look at how we can enter with thanksgiving every day. We will also see a blessing from having a thankful heart.

• Let’s open Psalm 100 together, we are going to look at the WHOLE Psalm today, but the good news is the Psalm is only five verses!

• Let’s examine verses 1and 2 together.

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• Psalms 100:1-2(ESV) 1Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! 2Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing!

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SERMON

I. Entering with thanksgiving is a source of joy.

• One of the things I really like about Psalm 100 is the joy that is contained in the Psalm.

• Have you noticed in your life that when you are thankful, joy is a byproduct of that thankfulness?

• Think about the things you are thankful for, don’t you feel joy in your heart when you think of those things?

• One of the things we need to realize is that..

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1. Being in God’s presence leads to joy!

• We have instances in the Bible where being in God’s presence is a awe-filled sometimes fearful experience.

• This Psalm expresses the theme of joy as we enter into the presence of God.

• We are told to make a joyful noise, for some of us that is how we sing, it is a noise and it is with joy!

• Joy means that we know that God is in control and even when things do not look good. This assurance gives us joy.

• When we walk with Him each day we can enter with thanksgiving knowing He is for us.

• I remember my life before being in God’s presence; it was not a joyful experience.

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2. Our joy will lead us to serve with gladness.

• When we have joy in the presence of the Lord, that joy will lead to serving Him.

• Isaiah in Isaiah 6 demonstrates this. When he was in the presence of God, God needed someone to do a job and without even knowing that the job entailed, Isaiah eagerly jumped at the chance to serve the Lord.

• Serving with gladness makes serving a joy!

• In your worship, and in all your acts of obedience. Let there be joy in this service.

• As commentator Albert Barnes states:

• Let it not be with the fear of slaves; not as a matter of compulsion and force; not with reluctance, or gloom. Let it be a cheerful, happy service; let it be freely rendered, let it be an occasion of joy to the soul. The service of God is a source of the highest joy that man knows.

• Look at verse 3 with me.

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• Psalms 100:3(ESV) 3Know 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.

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II. Entering with thanksgiving comes from understanding who is who.