All this week, we will hear a lot about giving thanks. We need to give thanks for all we have. But you will hear little about giving thanks to who. To whom do we give thanks? Our parents? Our forefathers? Our government? Our lucky stars? The fact is everything we have and all that we are, we owe to Almighty God.
Psalm 100
I often wonder why we who live in the United States of America, and have life so good, seem to be so discontent at the same time. How can we have so much of this life’s goods and pleasures, freedoms and privileges, resources and comforts, yet be so miserable?
Perhaps we have too much. I am often overwhelmed by the choices we have in most any given store. When we were in Indonesia, we would pay as much as $10 for a box of Cheerios – If we could find it. That was 20 years ago! We experienced culture shock on our return. we walked into a grocery store and walk down the cereal aisle and were literally blown away by all the choices.
I typed in “breakfast cereal” on a Google search and got over 248 million hits. Wikipedia list almost 700 different breakfast cereals commercially available. Just look at Cheerios, there are over 28 different varieties for Cheerios alone. You can buy cereal in any size box you want. Snack box, Value Size, regular size, Family size, and Giant size boxes of cereal and some breakfast cereals, you can buy them in different size bags.
So many choices, so many privileges, we have so much abundance, yet there is so much unhappiness.
A core problem in American culture – in American Christian culture: Because we have so much stuff, with almost unlimited choices, we have fallen out of touch with God, out of touch with real life, and we live only for the present with no thought about eternity. We have lost our need for God.
Those of us who claim to know Jesus and claim to have salvation, we tend to take that salvation for granted. We are a people with an entitlement mentality. God owes us. We tend to be an ungrateful people and we do not realize and we often forget that God does not owe us our next breath or our next heartbeat.
Remember the story of Jesus healing the ten lepers? Jesus heals them and tells them to be show themselves to the priests as required by Jewish law. Yet only the foreigner returns to give glory to God and to thank Jesus.
Luke 17:15–18 (NKJV) And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God, 16 and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan. 17 So Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? 18 Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?”
The amazing thing is, up to that time, other than a few miracles recorded the in the Old Testament, no one had ever came back from leprosy. Yet in this case, only one gave thanks.
We often do the same things. God heals, God restores, God cleans, and we will pay some lip service to that fact that God did it, but do we really give thanks, do we really give God the glory? So not only do we need to give thanks and glorify God – but how to we give thanks?
In the Old Testament we find a Song of Thanksgiving. It is Psalm 100. It is subtitled “A Psalm of Thanksgiving”. It is an invitation to join together to acknowledge the great things that God has done. Not only does Psalm 100 call us to praise the Lord with thankfulness – but it also describes to us the nature of giving thanksgiving. This morning, I want to show you
5 components of giving Thanks to God. The first component is:
1. JOY
Psalm 100:1 (NKJV) Make a joyful shout to the LORD, all you lands!
Make a joyful shout – is one word in the Hebrew. Has been translated in other places as: Joyful shout, Shout in Triumph, make a loud noise. This is the same word used when Joshua told the people to shout and walls of Jericho fell.
Joshua 6:16b (NKJV) Joshua said to the people: “Shout, for the LORD has given you the city!
We will shout at sporting events, but will we shout because we know God has already won the war. I’ve read the last page of our Bible. Jesus wins and He is coming again soon. That’s something to shout about!
2. Gladness
Psalm 100:2 (NKJV) Serve the LORD with gladness; Come before His presence with singing.
Is there a song in our hearts? There is a huge difference between gladness and sadness. When we come before the Lord – we are to do it with gladness not in sadness. There are times when I come to church and greet people, it is almost like they are coming to a funeral service. We need to come in here on Sunday morning like we are coming into a resurrection service. Jesus has risen from the dead. We need to celebrate that fact.
3. Dependence
Psalm 100:3 (NKJV) 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.
Know that the LORD, He is God. Acknowledge that YAHWEH, He is indeed God, the only God, there is none beside Him. He only is God, and we are not. We could stop right there, but there is more.
"It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves." He made us – we did not make ourselves. We live in America, were we have been heard to say, “I’m a self-made man.” But God not only made us, but has given us opportunity, and abilities, and resources. Even America’s poor – is rich compared to the poor in most of the rest of the world.
"We are His people and the sheep of His pasture." If we are his people, the sheep of His pasture – then He is our Shepherd. We know the 23rd Psalm, The Lord is my Shepherd. This Psalm only applies if the Lord is your Shepherd. God’s people are dependent on God. God’s people need God. But we have grown affluent. We are prideful – “I did it myself.” The fact of the matter, we cannot do anything alone.
4. Thanksgiving and Praise
Psalm 100:4 (NKJV) Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.
Thanksgiving and Praise go hand in hand. Show me someone who is thankful to God and I ‘ll show you someone who praises God from the heart. Look again at the leper who returned to Jesus to thank Him.
Luke 17:15–16 (NKJV) And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God, 16 and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan.
"With a loud voice" (ref Ps 100:1) he glorified God. he wanted to people to hear him. He "fell down on his face at His feet" is an act of praise and worship. Do we not praise our benefactors?
5. Gratitude
Psalm 100:4b–5 (NKJV) 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.
"Be thankful to Him" means to have gratitude and as a result we will praise or bless His name.
Why should we express gratitude to God? "For the LORD is good." All things good come from God.
James 1:17 (NKJV) Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.
"His mercy is everlasting." "His Love" in other translations. His mercies when I do not deserve them, over & over again.
"And His truth endures to all generations." Some translations will have faithfulness instead of truth. The fact is, God never changes, His is the one thing that never changes. In a world that is constantly changing, He is our Rock.
Malachi 3:6 “For I am the LORD, I do not change;
Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Do we give God thanks? Do we thank Him for being unchanging. Do we thank Him for loving us, in spite of our sins. Do we have a heart full of gratitude for what God has done for us?
Romans 5:8 (NKJV) But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Jesus took our penalty of sin, which is death. He paid the price for our sins. What gratitude will we show? Will you surrender all to Him? We Give Him thanks for all He has done for us.
