November 30, 2008
Morning Worship
Text: Psalm 100:1-5
Subject: Thanksgiving
Title: Thanksgiving – One day at a Time
I’m looking around the congregation, and you can correct me if I’m wrong, but everyone’s faces look a little fuller than they did last week. Turkey, Turkey and more Turkey! But you know, that’s all right. I like turkey. I could eat it every day. I’m thankful for turkey.
The day before Thanksgiving one of the teachers at the elementary school asked the students to write a paragraph on what they were thankful for this Thanksgiving. Little Joey thought and thought and there was no way he could come up with a whole paragraph. His teacher gave him a break since it was the last day of school and a holiday to boot, so she said that he could just write one sentence.
After much thought Joey came up with this gem. “I’m thankful that I am not a turkey on Thanksgiving.”
When we stop and think about everything that we are blessed with we can only be thankful. I love what the apostle Paul had to say about that. Philippians 4:11, I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. 12I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13I can do everything through him who gives me strength.
Thanksgiving is a time of the year that should bring us to the place where realize that everything that we have comes from one source – God! When we confess Him with our mouths and believe Him with our hearts we come to the proper attitude that we need to have in order to worship.
Ecclesiastes 3:1, There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:
It is time for the church to worship God the way He alone deserves to be worshipped.
Lord, open my eyes to see and my ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to the church.
I. A TIME TO SHOUT. 1 Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth. How are you supposed to worship? With a shout! The phrase "shout for joy" in this verse is actually a single word (ruwa) in the Hebrew, and it can carry a number of meanings. It is most frequently translated simply "shout," as when the army of Joshua surrounding Jericho shouted, and the walls fell down (Joshua 6:20). Here it is translated in the KJV as "Make a joyful noise” which is kind of a watered down translation. It can refer to a shout of alarm, or shout of triumph, as well as a shout of joy, but it always refers to a loud shout. In fact, it comes from a root meaning "to split"--a noise that would split eardrums or shatter glass. Now why would God want us to shout to Him? I mean He knows our thoughts. He isn’t hard hearing like me. He doesn’t have to turn His hearing aids up. First, we aren’t just shouting for the sake of making noise. We are shouting for joy because our God is our creator. Our God is our savior. Our God is our redeemer. Our God is our deliverer. Our God is our Father. Our God is everything we need Him to be. As a matter of fact the word “LORD” (all caps) is the Hebrew word we know as “Yahweh” or “I AM”. It can also be translated, as “I will be what I will be.” So we shout for joy to the One who loves us beyond all understanding. And who is called to do the shouting? “All the earth”! In the same way that all the earth was subjected to sin and corruption at the fall of man, all of creation was redeemed with the death and resurrection of Jesus and will be restored with the second coming and the creation of a new heaven and new earth. Our shouting doesn’t make God hear us better. It tells the world who our God is. Worship involves shouting. Hallelujah!
II. A TIME TO SING 2 Worship the LORD with gladness; it is interesting to compare the different translations of the bible as we study. The same word translated “worship” in the NIV is “serve” in the KJV. What a beautiful description of what true worship is. Worship isn’t something that just comes out of your mouths, even though you are told to “shout with joy to the LORD.” True worship is seen in a lifestyle of service to Him. Notice that I didn’t say a life but a lifestyle. The English word worship comes from the old English Worth – ship, meaning something or someone who is worthy of worship. So we worship Him with gladness. We don’t worship or serve Him under compulsion or obligation. We are not forced to worship. We do so out of love for Him. When our lifestyle says that we serve the One true God it also says that we do so with gladness. He has made me glad, He has made me glad, I will rejoice for He has made me glad… come before him with joyful songs. Do you see a pattern here? Shout with JOY! Worship with gladness! Come with Joyful songs. Why do we sing songs of praise and worship? Have you ever noticed that in our church services singing doesn’t have priority over the word and the word doesn’t have priority over the singing. That is because the two go hand in hand. 1) Music engages us intellectually. So many of our songs are the word of God put to music. “I will enter His gates with thanksgiving in my heart…” Not only the words but our songs contain the principles of the word of God. “We fall down, we lay our crowns at the feet of Jesus…” It is great to memorize the songs we sing and not to be too dependent on books or screens. When you memorize you are quoting scripture2) Music engages us emotionally. It is the language of emotions in nearly every culture in the world. Fast songs in a major key (Days of Elijah) normally invoke joy and celebration. Slow songs in a minor key (Take me in to the holy of holies…” are more meditational and help us enter in to the presence of God. 3) Music engages us spiritually. Have you ever noticed that it is during the time of worship before the preaching of the word that the Lord speaks to us with prophecy or tongues and interpretation? Why does it happen that way? Because when we enter into corporate worship our spirits are being prepared to receive a word from the Lord – whether it is spiritual gifts or through the preaching. Come before the LORD with joyful songs.
III. A TIME TO REFLECT. 3 Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. The word “Know” in verse 3 means to ascertain by seeing. You aren’t just called to know about God but you are told that you can see for yourself that the LORD is God! In 1 Kings 18, as Elijah fought against the prophets of Baal he told the people that the God who answers by fire, He is God. The people of Israel ascertained by seeing to power of God as the sacrifice, the wood, the water and the dirt beneath it were consumed by fire. You see we are called not just to know about Him but to experience Him. It is he who made us, and we are his… In Acts 17:24-28, 24“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. 25And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. 26From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. 27God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 28‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ Everything that we are, everything that we do, everything that we have has been ordained by a loving God. He is the creator. We are His creation. we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. If we are His sheep then He must be our shepherd. If you want to reflect on the depth of your relationship with Him look at the 23rd Psalm.
a. The Lord is my shepherd – that’s relationship.
b. I shall not want – that’s supply;
c. He maketh to lie down in green pastures – That’s rest.
d. He leadeth me beside the still waters – That’s refreshment
e. He restoreth my soul – That’s healing.
f. He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness – That’s guidance.
g. For His name’s sake – That’s purpose.
h. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death – That’s testing
i. I will fear no evil – That’s protection.
j. For Thou art with me – That’s faithfulness.
k. Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me – That’s discipline.
l. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of my enemies. – That’s hope.
m. Thou anointest my head with oil – That’s consecration
n. My cup runneth over – That’s abundance.
o. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life – That’s blessing.
p. And I will dwell in the house of the Lord – That’s security.
q. Forever – That’s eternity - From the Spurgeon Archives.
IV. A TIME TO ENTER IN. 4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. You see the one thing that has to happen in order for you to be “thanks-giving”? You have to enter in. Old Testament believers could enter in to the temple complex through the gates. They could come into His courts, but they could not enter into the presence of the Lord in the holy of holies. Do you see the advantage that you have over OT worshipers? Hebrews 10:19-23, 19Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith… Hebrews 4:16, 16Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. Do you want to give thanks? Do you want to worship? Do you want to praise the Lord? You can’t do it from the outside. You have to enter into His presence and the only way to do that is by the blood of Jesus. Worship has to be from the inside out. It is not merely external. You can stand in church all you want with your hands raised and singing as loud as you can but if you haven’t been transformed by a personal relationship with Jesus you haven’t really entered in. Let’s take that a step further. Those who are saved enter in because they want to go deeper, higher, wider and longer with the Lord. You can’t wait to see what He is going to do next in your life. So enter in and just begin to thank Him for all He is going to do. 4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.
Closing:
So, what are you thankful for? We are thankful that we have a God who is worthy of worship. Our lives center around that fact.
Warren W. Wiersbe, The Integrity Crisis, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1991, p. 119.
True biblical worship so satisfies our total personality that we don’t have to shop around for man-made substitutes. William Temple made this clear in his masterful definition of worship:
For worship is the submission of all our nature to God. It is the quickening of conscience by His holiness; the nourishment of mind with His truth; the purifying of imagination by His beauty; the opening of the heart to His love; the surrender of will to His purpose -- and all of this gathered up in adoration, the most selfless emotion of which our nature is capable and therefore the chief remedy for that self-centeredness which is our original sin and the source of all actual sin.
5 For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.
Day by day, step by step, from glory to glory we can be assured that we have a God in heaven who created us, we have a Son from heaven who saved us, and we have a Holy Spirit alongside to empower us.
And He never stops caring for us.
Let’s worship Him.
