Summer Psalms #10 - God Seriously Wants You to Rejoice!
Psalm 100:1-5
Sermon by Rick Crandall
McClendon Baptist Church - Aug. 5, 2009
*Does God want His people to rejoice? -- Without a doubt, He does! The first time we ever see the word “rejoice” in the Bible is Exodus 18:9, “Then Jethro rejoiced for all the good which the Lord had done for Israel, whom He had delivered out of the hand of the Egyptians.” God uses this word “rejoice” 257 more times in the Bible. Listen to a few examples:
-Deut 12: 7, “And there you shall eat before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice in all to which you have put your hand, you and your households, in which the Lord your God has blessed you.”
-Psalm 20:5, “We will rejoice in your salvation, And in the name of our God we will set up our banners! May the Lord fulfill all your petitions.”
-Psalm 33:1, “Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous! For praise from the upright is beautiful.
-Psalm 105:3, “Glory in His holy name; Let the hearts of those rejoice who seek the Lord.”
-And Phil 4:4, “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!”
I. God surely wants His people to rejoice. God seriously wants you to rejoice in Him. So in Psalm100 God gives us some great requirements to rejoice.
1. The first requirement in vs. 1 is to shout with joy.
*“Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands!” Or as the KJV says, “Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands.” That word “shout” or “noise” is an interesting word. The original word picture is to break or split something. So here He’s talking about making an ear-splitting noise.
*It is the same word we see when Joshua fought the battle of Jericho. Listen to Joshua 6:16&20:
16. And the seventh time it was so, when the priests blew the trumpets, that Joshua said to the people: “Shout, for the Lord has given you the city!”
20. So the people shouted when the priests blew the trumpets. And it happened when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat. Then the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city.
*“Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands!” -- Same word. Have you ever shouted for joy? -- Maybe when you saw that game-winning homerun, or when you saw that perfect pass caught for a game-winning touchdown.
*God says: “Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands!”
-I am not asking you to do that in church, because God also says, “Let all things be done decently and in order.” (1 Cor 14:40) But let me give you this assignment: Sometime this week think about all God has done for you, and give Him a big shout of joyful praise. God’s Word tells us to shout with joy.
2. And in vs. 2, God’s requirement is to serve with joy.
*“Serve the Lord with gladness!” In 2 Thess 3:13, Paul tells believers not to “grow weary in doing good.” But sometimes we do. Don’t give in to that. Trust God to renew your strength, and serve the Lord with gladness.
*In the early 2000’s, Martin and Gracia Burnham were American missionaries serving in the Philippines. On May 27, 2001, Martin & Gracia were kidnapped by Islamic terrorists. At the time, they were visiting a resort, celebrating their 18th wedding anniversary. Hoping for ransom money, the terrorists held this couple for more than a year. On June 7, 2002, a Philippine army unit moved in to rescue the hostages. Martin was killed by a stray bullet and Gracia was wounded.
*At Martin’s memorial service, it was reported that the last thing the couple did before the raid was to pray together. Martin told his wife, “We might not leave this jungle alive, but at least we can leave this world serving the Lord with gladness. We can serve Him right here, where we are, and with gladness.” (1)
*Surely we can also serve the Lord with gladness right here, where we are. God’s Word tells us to serve with joy.
3. Also in vs. 2, God’s requirement is to sing with joy.
*“Serve the Lord with gladness; Come before His presence with singing.” God wants us to come before His presence overflowing with joy, as we with sing praises to Him. Yes, there is a place in worship for other emotions, but we can’t leave out the joy. God wants to see obvious joy in our singing to Him.
4. Then in vs. 4, God’s requirement is to joyfully step closer to the Lord.
*“Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.” In the Temple, there was a court for the Gentiles, a court for women, a court for the men, each court closer to the Holy of Holies, each court closer to the Lord. But there was only so far you could go as a Gentile, as a woman, as a man, as a priest. And only the high priest could enter the Holy of Holies once a year. But all of those barriers were broken down when Jesus died on the cross. God even tore open the curtain to the Holy of Holies to show us that now we all have access to Him through the blood of Jesus Christ.
*God wants us to seek His face. God wants us to get closer and closer to Him.
-And God wants us to overflow with joy, as we get closer to Him.
*These are God’s great requirements for us to rejoice:
-Shout with joy.
-Serve with joy.
-Sing with joy.
-And step closer to the Lord with joy.
*To sum it up another way:
-Rejoice with your lips, and rejoice with your life
-Rejoice with your lips, your hands, and your feet!
-Rejoice in the Lord. Those are God’s requirements to rejoice.
II. But if your joy level is low tonight, God also gives us great some reasons to rejoice.
1. Rejoice over our creation by God. -- In vs. 3, “Know that the Lord, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves.”
*Rejoice over your creation by God. He didn’t have to do that, you know.
-He didn’t have to make you, but He did -- rejoice!
*Think about the awesomeness of God’s ability to create the whole universe with just a few words! The vast reaches of the universe are nothing to Him.
*The “Navigators Daily Walk” once gave this perspective, based on Isaiah 40:
-The oceans of the world contain more than 340 quintillion gallons of water, yet God holds them “in the hollow of his hand.” (vs. 12)
-The earth weighs 6 sextillion metric tons, yet to God all that is like “dust on the scales.” (vs. 12)
-The known universe stretches more than 90 billion light years but God measures it by the width of his hand. (vs. 12)
-Scientists claim there are at least 100 billion galaxies in the universe, and each galaxy is made up of about 100 billion stars. But Isa 40:26 tells us that God calls each star by name. (2)
*God is big enough to take care of His universe. And He is big enough to take care of you. Sam Cathey became a Southern Baptist evangelist in 1967. That first year, he had to rush back from a revival, because his daughter had gone in the hospital with acute appendicitis. They thought it might be ruptured.
*Sam got on a plane in Los Angeles about 2:30 in the morning, headed home to Detroit. He was overwhelmed with doubts and fears. Sam’s seat was right behind first class, and he could see through the curtain that no one was up there. So, he asked the stewardess if he could go up there to get some rest. She turned him down, because it was against the rules, and they didn’t have a stewardess up there.
*But just as she walked away, another stewardess walked through those curtains. This one invited him to come up front and sit with her. She brought him a sandwich, olives, chips and a coke. Then they sat facing each other, as she began to talk. She went on and on about the Lord, Scripture and grace. She talked to Sam about God’s sovereignty, His love, care and protection.
*Sam just listened, never even mentioning the problem with his sick daughter, Nola. When they passed over Chicago, she stood and said, “See all of those lights down there? Put your hands like so,” and Sam cupped his hands. Then she held them out and said, “See, from way up here, it looks like you cover up the whole city of Chicago, doesn’t it?” Sam agreed.
*“Now cup them like so.” Sam did, and she said, “From up here, it looks like you’ve got the whole city of Chicago in your hands, doesn’t it?” Again he agreed. Then she put her hand on his shoulder and said, “Man of God, Nola will be all right.” She wheeled around and went through the curtains into coach.
*Sam never saw her again. And the first stewardess thought he had been dreaming until he showed her the left-over food in first class. When he got off the plane, his wife was grinning ear to ear. The hospital had just called. Nola’s fever had broken and she was perfectly well. (3)
*God wanted Sam to see that He’s got the whole world in His Hands. God is big enough to take care of His universe, and He is big enough to take care of you. Rejoice! Rejoice over our creation by God.
2. And rejoice over our relationship with God.
*Again in vs. 3: “Know that the Lord, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.” Here we see God in relationship with His people. Think about the connections we see in this verse. The motto for our church is “Connecting People with the Love of Jesus.” And that’s what the Lord is urging in vs. 3: “Know that the Lord, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.”
*This word “know” is not just talking about facts and information. It’s not just head knowledge. It’s heart knowledge too, knowing the Lord in a close, personal way. This word “know” is the same Old Testament word God used to describe the oneness between a husband and wife. And God uses this word to point us to the spiritual oneness we can have with Him.
*“We are His people.” This can mean His countrymen, citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven with God as our perfect King! But “We are His people” can also mean we are God’s relatives. God wants to be our Father, our Brother and our Best Friend. We can be part of the family of God. So we are talking about a close connection here:
-Knowing the God of Heaven up close in our heart.
-Knowing the Father through His Son, Jesus Christ.
-Knowing Jesus as our best friend, our Savor and our Lord.
-Having an eternal connection with Almighty God.
*“We are His people.” But we are also “the sheep of His pasture.” Again there is a connection, a relationship. We are His sheep and He is our Good Shepherd. But why does God say that we are sheep? One reason is because sheep have a tendency to stray. Left to themselves, sheep wander off and get into trouble. And all of us have. As Isaiah says, “All we like sheep have gone astray.”
*The other thing about sheep is that they need a shepherd. Sheep are totally defenseless. They cannot take care of themselves. They need a shepherd.
*We need a shepherd! So we have to know that we are the sheep. Then we have to know that the Lord is the Shepherd. That’s of course what David said in the 23rd Psalm, “The Lord is my shepherd.” And today we know that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Good Shepherd David talked about. In John 10:10-11, Jesus said:
10. The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
11. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.”
*Jesus proved He was the Good Shepherd when He died on the cross for our sins. And now, when we turn to the Risen Christ and trust Him as our Savior and Lord, vs. 3 becomes the reality of our life, because we “know that the Lord, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.” Rejoice over our relation with God.
3. And rejoice over the reputation of God.
*Vs. 4&5 speak to us about the great reputation and character of our God:
4. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.
5. For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, And His truth endures to all generations.
*The Lord is good! Think about God’s goodness. God is perfect all the time. He has never sinned even once. And since Jesus Christ is God, He never sinned even once. Imagine that! -- Never sinning even once in thought or word or deed.
*I like to think what it must have been growing up in the home with big brother Jesus. I can hear His little brothers or sisters saying, “That goody-two-shoes never does anything wrong!”
*But rejoice! -- The One who never sinned even once was the only one who could take the punishment for our sins!
*Rejoice! -- For the Lord is good; and His mercy is everlasting. Aren’t you glad?
-Christian you future is absolutely safe and sure, because it doesn’t stand on your goodness. It stands on the goodness and mercy of Almighty God!
*Rejoice! -- For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations. Our sinful world is filled with lies. And it is largely run on lies. But God’s truth will endure forever! As Jesus said in Matt 24:35, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.”
*Rejoice in the Lord tonight! Rejoice: He created you and He is able to take care of you.
-Rejoice if you have put your faith in Jesus Christ! God is your Father, your Brother, your best Friend, and King. You are a citizen of Heaven and part of the family of God.
-Rejoice! “For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, And His truth endures to all generations.
-Shout with joy.
-Serve with joy.
-Sing with joy.
-And step closer to the Lord with joy.
1. KERUX ILLUSTRATION COLLECTION - ID Number: 22397 - SOURCE: A Word With You By Ron Hutchcraft #4116 - TITLE: Joy In the Jungle - AUTHOR: Ron Hutchcraft - DATE: 10/21/02
2. Navigator’s Daily Walk, July 25, 1991 - (Found in Raymond McHenry’s Stories for Preachers & Teachers: Topics: God / Religion / Isaiah 40)
3. Adapted from story told by Sam Cathy in “SBC Life” Monthly Magazine. (Sam was pastor of Graceway Baptist Church in Oklahoma City, when this story was written in Summer, 1993.)
