The Body Beautiful
Part 3
Life of Thanks
We are in week three of this series entitled
The Body Beautiful
We actually began the week before this series
with a very frank discussion about how the Lord was impressing upon me the direction this church must be heading
I am feeling an intensity and desire to press into God
A desire to see the manifested glory of God – in our midst
Because it seemed we were stalled
Not moving forward
I was overwhelmed with a sense of failure
That maybe I was not the one to take this church to the next level
But what the Lord was revealing was that
It was necessary for me to experience
the Lord’s desire
to visit us –
with His Manifest Glory
To manifest His presence
But the only requirement --------------- HUNGER
Was not evident in the church
Something happened 3 weeks ago,
I don’t believe it had anything to do with me
It was the Holy Ghost –
Moving on you
You began to sense and feel
What I was feeling
And many of you – since then
Seem to be more free
Than you ever were
In regards to worship and praise
Remember
Praise ushers in the presence of God
And Worship is
Us acknowledging His presence
Then we talked about how God created His Body
To worship Him-
To usher in the presence of God
and to recognize His presence
And just bask in His presence
In His presence is fullness of joy – freedom – and total healing
And then last week we talked about
how God has high hopes for us
because His plans for us are plans for success
He is not disappointed with us
He loves us and accepts us – just as we are
We have a lot to live for here on earth
And even more to live for in eternity
No matter how bad your past was
Your past does not determine your future
He has already buried the past
And gave you a new start today
Others may not extend that much grace to you
But God has – and
We must take advantage of it
Because if we don’t we are
Actually – disrespecting His sacrifice for us
We must be about the Fathers business
You are a vital part of the Body of Christ
No matter what part you have in the Body
It is vital to the entirety of the body
There is a place for you
Here – where God has placed you
There is a purpose for you
here –
Where he has established you
If you are not committed to a church
You need to find the place where God wants you
And get to work
Once you get busy – you will find
God will ---- in time
Fulfill all your dreams and aspirations
Today we are going to take this deeper
And the exciting part is
Only God could have planned
This sermon – this week
Today we will talk about another reason the Body was established
And that is
To be thankful
We are called to live a life of thanksgiving
To be a complete Body –
We need thanksgiving –
Thanksgiving brings blessings
Living a life of thanks
Opens closed doors
And breaks down barriers
What are you thankful for?
Thankfullness is so important
To receiving the blessings from above
This is a true story of a shipwreck off the coast of Evanston, Ill. many years ago. The students of Northwestern University came to the rescue. One student, Edward Spenser, personally saved the lives of 17 persons that day. Years later a reporter was writing a follow up story on the event, and went to interview the now elderly Spenser. When asked what was the one thing that stood out about the incident in his mind;
Spenser replied: “I remember that of the seventeen people I saved that day, not one of them ever thanked me.”
Thankfulness says a lot about
Who we are
And what we believe
Our scripture reference for today is
Psalms 100:1-5
A Psalm of Thanksgiving. Make a joyful shout to the LORD, all you lands!
Serve the LORD with gladness; Come before His presence with singing.
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.
Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.
For the LORD is good; His mercy is everlasting, And His truth endures to all generations.
So I would like to ask you today
WHAT DOES REAL WORSHIP LOOK LIKE?
It should look like thanksgiving
IT IS A MATTER OF THANKSGIVING!!
Let’s look at verse one
A Psalm of Thanksgiving. Make a joyful shout to the LORD, all you lands!
THANKSGIVING IS ABOUT EXUBERANCE or PRAISE
Exuberance is acknowledging what God has done
Do Remember the story of the
“Healed Samaritan Leper?”
Luke 17: 11-19.
The story tells of Jesus healing Ten Lepers.
All ten asked Jesus to heal them.
All ten were healed by Jesus.
But of the ten who were healed,
only a foreigner,
a Samaritan
came back to give God praise in a loud voice!
“He threw himself at Jesus’ feet
and thanked him
—and he was a Samaritan
Then Jesus asked in verse 17
“Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?”
Verse 15 says this
He came back “Praising God in a loud voice
Listen church
That’s why we need more Amen’s
and more feedback noise from you the congregation.
scripture clearly calls for feed back!
You need to get involved
This is not a spectator event!
Exuberance is also being real with God
The Psalmist begins his call to praise by stating,
“Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth (Verse 1).”
The writer knew that coming into the Sanctuary
should lead to joy and celebration,
“EXUBERANCE.”
He still calls us today
to “Get all excited
and tell everybody
that Jesus Christ is King,
Jesus Christ is Still
the King of Kings!”
But the body of Christ has somewhat fell asleep
And is in a strange place
Of always wanting from God
And yes
He desires we come with our petitions
But we open the door
Through praise
And we receive through worship
The Body of Christ reminds me of another story
There was this young boy who was given an orange by an older man. The boy’s mother asked, “What do you say to the nice man?” The little boy thought and handed the orange back and said, “Peel it.”
The Body of Christ must understand
THANKSGIVIVNG IS ABOUT PRAISE
Let’s read verse 2 again
Serve the LORD with gladness; Come before His presence with singing.
A. Praise is about being “GLAD” for His Presence
The Hebrew word for praise is
From H1984 (in the sense of rejoicing); a celebration of thanksgiving for harvest: - merry, praise.
Thanksgiving is about ushering in His presence -
Being glad for His presence and desiring More of Him
Worship is about “Singing” getting lost
In His presence
The Hebrew word for worship is, the act of reverence and devotion to acknowledge the honor, dignity, greatness of character, and essence of God
Let’s go to the next verse
Verse 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.
The Body must be assured
That God has our back
That happens through knowing HIM
THANKSGIVING IS ABOUT KNOWING HIM
ITS ABOUT A PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP
Why should we know God?
Why should we acknowledge
that He is the Lord?
Because
It is He who made us,
And we are His.”
We Belong to HIM!!
The truth of verse 3
is that HE CLAIMS US!!
Maybe a lot of folks won’t claim you
but our GOD claims us all,
“We are His people the sheep of His pasture.”
Thanksgiving is about relationship
First with God
Because once we have that
We can be strengthened by HIM
So we can
Do better at accepting others as they are
Because honestly church
the Body of Christ needs to be
more like Christ
Far too many Christians
Are still trying to change others
And not themselves
It Reminds me of the young fiancé
who, after learning that her husband to be
didn’t believe like she did,
she cried to her mother saying,
“Mom, what should I do?
How can I change his thinking?
He says he doesn’t believe in hell?”
The Mother said,
“Honey, that’s alright, you marry him
and both of us
will make him believe in hell.”
We must stop trying to change people
And instead
Extend grace and mercy to others
The same grace and mercy
That God continually shows each of us daily
Lets read the last 2 verses
Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.
For the LORD is good; His mercy is everlasting, And His truth endures to all generations.
The Body of Christ is called to give thanks
THANKSGIVING IS GIVING THANKS (VERSES 4-5)
Just to make sure we get it,
the Psalmist tells us twice,
“Enter with Thanks Giving, and Give Thanks.”
What is giving thanks?
And why can’t we do it at home?
Thanksgiving is about the Bride
Coming together
All the parts of the Body
Coming together
We need each other
Giving thanks is all about
coming to church!!
It is all about showing up
Desiring His presence
It is all about sharing what God has done!!
Letting the Redeemed of the Lord say so!
Is saying so
When we gather together
Giving testimony to the goodness of God
It is really all about
Each of us
Individually giving thanks
While in the presence of the body corporately
In the Bible we see giving thanks
As a necessity – to increase the faith of the others around us
It’s all about being THE ONE
instead of being ONE OF THE NINE!!
Thanksgiving is about Praise!
twice the call is given, “PRAISE!”
This takes us back to verse 1,
“Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.”
Thanksgiving is about making it public!!
This is about getting happy about our God.
“For the Lord is good and His love endures forever,
His faithfulness continues through all generations.”
There is reason for praise,
there is reason for thanksgiving.
Listen to this:
You were created uniquely by God
To fit into this body
When you are in the church
You fit
You were made to be part of it
That is something to be grateful for
Your purpose is found
In your place of worship
But maybe that’s still not enough for you
Maybe your year is down the tubes!
Maybe everything is not going your way!!
OUR praise and thanksgiving
are not based on circumstances,
but on our GOD!!
IT is about HIM!!
It is about WHO HE IS!!
IT IS about the FAITHFULNESS OF OUR GOD!!
When the Body of Christ
Individually and in unison
Corporately – usher in the presence of God through Praise
And then fall on their faces in worship
Before a Holy God
The resulting changes to our lives and
The lives of our family
Will be indisputable
You were born to give praise and worship
To the Lord
You are a vital part of His plan
For the church
Here locally
And for the world around us
The call today is to press in to His presence
Do not be satisfied with the simple prayers
Of your youth
Press into praise
Press into worship
There is so much more waiting for you
Beyond the veil of this flesh
And our fleshly thoughts and ideas
