Thanksgiving Commands
Psalms 100:1-5
Two men were walking through a field one day when all the sudden they look up and see a bull off in the distance. Instantly they began to run towards the nearest fence and sure enough the bull ran after them in hot pursuit, and it soon became obvious that they weren’t going to make it. Terrified, one of the men shouted to the other, "Say a prayer, John. We’re in for it!" John answered, "I can’t. I’ve never prayed in public in my entire life." "But you have to!" cried his friend. "The bull is catching up to us." "All right," screamed John, "I’ll say the only prayer I know, the one my father used to repeat at the dinner table: ’Dear Lord, make us truly thankful for what we are about to receive.’”
The apostle Paul knew the power of a thankful life. He was thankful in good times and bad. He knew that God was conforming him to His image through every trial he faced, if he handled it correctly. He knew that a heart overflowing with thanksgiving could turn any situation around for good.
He wrote in Colossians 2:6-7, “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving”.
Paul’s life is a testimony to all of us, showing how a person can be truly thankful even in the midst of very dark circumstances. You see, Paul was able to use his experience in a dark prison cell for God’s glory. It was during this time that he wrote several books of the New Testament, which is perhaps the greatest blessing of his life and has impacted several generations of Christians.
Wouldn’t it be amazing if we could all adopt the same attitude – being able to praise God no matter what our circumstances, and no matter what the future holds, because we know that God is here with us and for us and that He loves us.
The psalm we are looking at tonight very clearly gives us a list of commands to follow if we are to be truly thankful not just on Thanksgiving, but everyday of our lives.
Read Psalm 100:1-5
The first command we see is…
1. A COMMAND TO SHOUT
As I mentioned last week and even referenced again here this morning, we don’t have a problem in the world shouting to the top of our lungs for our favorite sports team but when it comes to giving God praise we become deafly silent.
It’s ok to do more than just sit there and sing along while we are worshipping our Lord and Savior. It’s ok to shout out “Amen, Glory, or Hallelujah!” when soaking in the Word of God. Now I understand the need for reverence before our God, and showing Him the respect that He deserves, but He Himself tells us that there is a time to “make a joyful shout to the LORD!”
If I get more excited and more vocal when my team scores the winning touchdown than I do when I think about what Jesus has done for me on the Cross and through His Resurrection, maybe it is time for me to reexamine my priorities?
Not only does He say to make a joyful shout, but He even tells us who should do it…
“all you lands!” – this command to shout goes out to the entire world, who should acknowledge the Lord because of what He has done for His people. The day will come, as Paul writes in Phil. 2:10-11…
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Secondly, we have…
2. A COMMAND TO SERVE
The Psalmist tells us to “Serve the LORD with gladness!” If the presence of the Lord makes us joyful, then so should serving Him make us happy. It’s only when we stop taking pleasure in serving the Lord that it seems like a chore and a burden to do so.
Many of us serve the Lord and we do so in many different ways. Some preach or teach, some work in the nursery, others maintain the building, others may visit the sick, or feed the poor, or spread the Gospel and I am grateful for all of you.
But I have to wonder, are we serving with gladness? Now I’ll be honest with you, sometimes I serve just because I know it’s what I’m supposed to do. To take it a step further, there are times when serving is the last thing I feel like doing. And it’s during those times when my attitude is the opposite of gladness and yet I serve, but I do it unwillingly.
Now, I’m preaching to myself as well as many of you. If we are not serving with a glad heart then maybe we shouldn’t serve at all. Maybe we should stop playing church and putting on a show and wearing masks just to please other people because let me tell you something…it’s not pleasing to God. While we may be able to fool everyone else around us, He sees the true nature of our heart. And God’s opinion of of us and our service is the only one that matters!
So then, how do we learn to serve with gladness? I think the secret is in reminding ourselves daily just why it is that we serve in the first place. We serve, not because it is our duty (even though it is our duty), and not because we are commanded to (even though we are commanded to), we serve because we are grateful for what God has done, and has continued to do, and will do in the future on our behalf.
When we do that, it’s not that hard to serve with gladness, because our attitude has changed from a focus on ourselves, to a focus on God. We’re now serving, not because we have to, but because we want to, and that makes all the difference in the world.
Thirdly, we have…
3. A COMMAND TO SING
Singing to the Lord is something we are commanded to do. The Psalmist said: Come before his presence with singing!
This is why we sing at church. Not just to fill a time slot or go through the motions, but to praise the Lord. And doing that is critically important to our growth as Christians. Music is one of the ways in which we express our gladness, our joy, our praise. We don’t sing to create gladness, we sing to express it. It’s through our singing that we approach God.
Sometimes I think people forget that from my vantage point up, I can see every single person in this room. If you’ve ever had the opportunity to stand up here and see what I see, what Bro. Richard sees, and what the choir sees on any given Sunday there are many times that you wouldn’t see gladness. I mean you would think that were at a funeral rather than a worship service. Let me tell you something, if you don’t enjoy singing praises to God and you plan to go to heaven you had better get used to it!
But why not take it further than just singing at church? How about singing in your car, or at home, or even singing to God in prayer? We have the greatest song book ever created in the book of Psalms itself. Even if your voice sounds like a croaking frog, when singing praises to God, it will sound like the angels are singing to Him.
We do have to be careful though that we don’t fall into the trap of worshiping music rather than worshiping God. You see, our corporate worship has to be an expression of our individual worship, or else it is unacceptable. We can’t live anyway we want from Monday thru Saturday and then come to church on Sunday and just simply turn on the worship button. It doesn’t work that way.
Our fourth command is…
4. A COMMAND TO SUBMIT
We are reminded in our Psalm to: “Know that the LORD, he is God! It is he who made us, and not we are ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture”.
This verse says a lot. First of all, Jesus Christ is God. Not Buddha, not Muhammad, and not many of the other false Gods that people worship today.
Secondly, we are the products of His hand. Not a product of senseless, mindless evolution. We are not aliens from another planet; we are not here by chance. We are here because God created us and He wants for us to know Him and He chooses to use us to share Him with those don’t. It’s that simple. You ever want to know the will of God? Well, there you have it.
This world that we live in tells us over and over again that the most important thing that we can do is to honor ourselves, to make ourselves number one, and to do everything we can to make sure that we are happy and comfortable. But we are reminded here that God created us for His glory, not for our own.
Living a life of thanksgiving unto God involves first and foremost admitting and accepting the fact that He is God and we are not. He saved us; we can’t save ourselves. We humbly and obediently submit to His Lordship. We are the sheep of His pasture. God is the Creator; we are His creations. God is the Father; we are His children. He takes care of us because He loves us!
When we remember these basic truths, the Christian life is not so hard after all. We have no other choice but to surrender our life to Him. It’s only in complete surrender, knowing that God is in control and we are not, that we are able to live the Christian life. And it’s a lot simpler than we make it out to be.
The final command found in this psalm is…
5. A COMMAND TO SACRIFICE
As we return to our Psalm we find that we are directed to: “Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise! Be thankful to him, and bless his name!”
The sacrifice that God demands of us is the sacrifice of praise. We can sacrifice our time, talents, and tithes, but our offering of worship to Him appears to be the most important of all.
Every believer, when coming into the presence of God, should do so with “thanksgiving” and “praise”.
1 Thessalonians 5:18 reminds us, “In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”
Even in the most difficult circumstances, we have reason to be thankful because we are granted access to God.
CONC. (v. 5)
In the first 4 verses of this Psalm we are given commands:
A command to shout.
A command to sing.
A command to serve.
A command to submit.
A command to sacrifice.
Verse 5 tells us why: “for the Lord is good”.
When you are going through difficult times, I want you to know that God is on your side and always will be. He always loves us and is always good. When it seems as though you can’t count on anyone else, you can count on Him. He is a God of infinite mercy and goodness. His love and faithfulness are unfailing through all time. He keeps His promises! Everything else falls by the wayside, while His Truth marches on. His Word has stood the test of time for over 2,000 years and will continue to do so until the end of time as we know it.
It’s clear to me that this Psalm is calling us to look up, and see the blessings of God. Charles Spurgeon once said that “it is very questionable whether man can know himself until he knows his God.” We learn who God is from studying His Word, and our passage tonight is a strong invitation to worship God freely, in whatever way the Holy Spirit guides you. We should be grateful that we have a place to worship. A place that welcomes us with open doors, and without fear of persecution.
Thankfulness is the opposite of selfishness. The selfish person says, "I deserve everything I have because I’ve worked hard for it”! But the mature Christian realizes that life is a gift from God, and that the blessings of life come only from His bountiful hand. Those who have tried to be happy without God will at last find that true joy only comes through a saving relationship with Jesus Christ.
