Come Before Him
With Thanksgiving
Psalm 100
Do you know how to DO a turkey, make stuffing, put in the table leaf, get out the good china and silverware...
Well, that is the way most people DO thanksgiving. But that is not the way God wants us to DO it.
He gave us specific instructions on how to Do it... in 100th Psalm.
There are some preliminary things I want to say that He does not say in this psalm.
1. We NEED Thanksgiving!
Not for a vacation... not for a reason to stuff our face... not to stay home and watch football.
We need thanksgiving because it stretches our cup. What is our cup size?
The 23rd Psalm talks about "My cup runneth over."
Our cup is our ability to receive blessings from God.
It was the container used by each person when grain was rationed.
Our cup is the exact same size as the thankfulness in our heart.
God wants to bless you beyond your imagination.
However, most Christians cannot receive any of God's blessings because their cup is too small.
Their cup is small because they have not used it and not stretched it out.
If they would use it, it would stretch and be able to hold many times more.
But most people are not truly thankful to God for the things they have. They really do not believe God is the source of their blessings.
They believe it is the result of luck, or hard work, or intelligence, or education, or giftedness, or something else.
Thus, they are not grateful to God and their cup is small and receives nothing from God.
God is not limited in His ability to give blessings. The problem is... WE are limited in our ability to RECEIVE good things from God.
What is your cup size?
God gave us 3 steps for How To Do Thanksgiving
1.SHOUT FOR JOY TO THE LORD
Now, I am pretty sure this is a strange custom to most of you.
When was the last time you shouted in church?
FOR JOY not a business meet
Today we are going to follow the recipe for Thanksgiving… step by step
And the first step is SHOUT for joy to the Lord.
Turn to page 177 and 798
Now... this is serious worship. This is something that brings great joy to our Heavenly Father.
I want you to do it with great seriousness and passion. Praise the Lord!!!!! God is pleased with your offering.
2. Worship Him with Joyful Songs
I know that some versions say, "Serve Him with gladness."
This is an order of service for a service of Thanksgiving.
You do not serve during the worship.
WORSHIP is a much more precise and applicable translation.
We are to worship God with songs of Joy.
I don't mean songs like Kool and the Gang... Celebrate.
It is not joy for the sake of joy... it is joy because of the goodness of God.
If you look at verse three you can see that they are to be songs that acknowledge our relationship to God and the goodness that He has bestowed on us.
So right now we are going to DO thanksgiving by singing songs that celebrate what God has done for us.
Lastly God told us to...
3.Give Thanks
Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. 5. For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.
Give thanks... or in other words... tell of His excellent greatness.
Do you know that OUR GOD INHABITS PRAISE?
ILL. Roland Allen tells about a veteran missionary who came up to him one day after he had delivered his sermon. The missionary introduced himself & said, “I was a medical missionary for many years in India. And I served in a region where there was progressive blindness. People were born with healthy vision, but there was something in that area that caused people to lose their sight as they matured.”
But this missionary had developed a process which would arrest progressive blindness. So people came to him & he performed his operation, & they would leave realizing that they would have become blind, but now they were going to be able to see for the rest of their lives.
He said that they never said, "Thank you," because that phrase was not in their dialect. Instead, they spoke a word that meant, "I will tell your name." Wherever they went; they would tell the name of the missionary who had cured their blindness. They had received something so wonderful that they eagerly proclaimed it.
So have we. We have received something so wonderful that we should eagerly stand in public and proclaim it to the world... at work... at school... in the grocery store.
But specifically, God wants us to do it RIGHT HERE... RIGHT NOW.
I want to give time so everyone of you can stand up and proclaim what you are thankful for.
I would prime the pump with some things I read online and my own thanksgiving list...
I am Thankful that we only elect presidents once every four years. I am Thankful that teenagers will grow up and that one day they will have children that will become teenagers of their own. This week,I am Thankful that I am not a turkey. I am Thankful that hugs and kisses do not add weight or cause cancer. I am Thankful that TVs, Radios, & CD players can be turned off. And I am thankful for smoke alarms so you can know when the turkey is done.
On a more serious note someone wrote...
I am Thankful...
for the taxes I pay ....because it means I'm employed…
for the clothes that fit a little too snug ....because it means I have had plenty to eat...
for a lawn that needs mowing, windows that need cleaning and gutters that need fixing ....because it means I have a home.
for the spot I find at the far end of the parking lot ....because it means I am capable of walking… f
or my huge heating bill ...because it means I am warm.
for all the complaining I hear about our government ...because it means we have freedom of speech.
for the person behind me in church who sings off key...because it means that I can hear.
for the piles of laundry ....because it means my loved ones are nearby.
for the alarm that goes off in the early morning hours ....because it means that I have a job
for weariness and aching muscles at the end of the day ....because it means I am alive.
And for my own list... I am thankful for…
Family a Godly wife who loves me more than I deserve
Children who are safe, working hard and bring great joy to me
Church visionary, reaching out, growing, seeking God's will, loves my family, puts up with crazy ideas I have
God salvation, health, job, home, more
