A Psalm For Thanksgiving

"A Psalm for Thanksgiving"

Psalm 100

- No matter what seems to happen in our lives, we can always look forward to this time of year

- A time that brings families together, a time to reflect, a time to give thanks

- Many have been through life changing adversity and are still in the midst of it

- 2000 has been a year that truly has brought a lot of change, confusion, heart-ache, adversity, but also it has been another year that we, as believers, must be thankful for

- I want us to look this morning at ’A Psalm for Thanksgiving’

- Turn to Psalms 100 / Pray

- I want us to look at all five verses this morning as we focus on a time of thanksgiving this week.

1. Shout For Joy (Read Verse 1)

- One thing that I think we need more of in our churches today is folks who can’t help but SHOUT FOR JOY.

- We go to sporting games and we hoot and holler and are joyous when our team scores

- Yet in church, we seem very tranquil and we might give an occasional AMEN

- Have you ever had so much JOY in your heart that you just wanted to SHOUT about it?

- I think that is what God desires of us and yet I am not sure we know how

- Or I am not sure we want to…we might think it inappropriate

- But sometimes shouting is what is necessary for victory

- Let’s look at it from God’s word in Joshua 6:1-5 (Turn there)

- God is what gave the victory, but He required of them to shout in obedience and the walls fell

- Psa 47:1 says, "Clap your hands, all you nations; Shout to God with cries of joy."

- Psa 66:1 "Shout with joy to God, all the earth."

- Psa 95:1, "Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord, let us shout aloud to the Rock of our Salvation"

- Isa 12:6, "Shout aloud and sing for joy, people of Zion, for Great is the Holy One of Israel among you."

- Isa 26:19, "…You who dwell in the dust, wake up and shout for joy…"

- This thanksgiving, you may be in adversity, troubling situations, under persecution,

- Just maybe, just like the walls of Jericho, you might want to do a little shouting that God can bring the walls tumbling down

TRANS: Not only, shout with joy before the Lord this thanksgiving but come and…

2. Worship with Gladness (Read verse 2)

- It seems that many times when we enter into God’s presence, all we have to bring is problems and sadness

- But when we really begin to seek His face and enter in His worship, He turns the worship into a worship of Gladness and joy

- Turn to Jer 31:10-13

- When we come into His presence, and we truly lay it all out

- We turn it all over to Him and worship Him, He will turn our mourning into gladness

- This thanksgiving, let us come and bow down in His presence, lay it all at His feet that we can Worship Him in Gladness

TRANS: A part of being able to worship with gladness, is in our hearts we…

3. Know the Lord is God (Read verse 3)

- John 1:1-2, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning"

- John 1:14, "The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us."

- We have the assurance that when we worship Him that He is the One True God.

- In John 10:30 Jesus says, "I and the Father are one"

- Turn with me to Heb 1:7-10

- Not only is He Lord of the believer but He is Lord of all and over all.

- We are the works of His hands, we are His people, the sheep of His pasture

- When we give thanks this year, Let us give thanks Knowing the Lord is God

TRANS: When we worship with gladness, knowing He is God, it then should cause us to…

4. Enter His Gates with Thanksgiving (Read verse 4)

- Whenever we come into His Presence, it should be with a heart and an attitude of thankfulness

- Paul even tells us in 1 Thess 5:18, "to give thanks in all things…ALL CIRCUMSTANCES"…even the bad!

- We have so much to be thankful for everyday of our lives

- We sing the song "Count your blessings, name them one by one"

- We can’t even realistically begin to do that because there are too many to count

- But, we should enter into God’s presence with giving thanks to Him for all He has done. You might say, what do we have to be thankful for