We know that to be ready for special days requires special preparation, such as for:
• Christmas
• Mother’s Day
• Father’s Day
• July 4th
• Veterans Day
• Memorial Day
But when it comes to Thanksgiving, the preparation in many homes involves Mom going to the grocery store and buying a big ham or turkey, ingredients for dressing and vegetables and deserts.
She then spends a couple days cooking for all the family members to eat on this very special day.
But the Word of God tells us that Thanksgiving should be recognized every time we enter the house of God.
Psalms 100:1-5, Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands. Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing. Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath 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 unto him, and bless his name. For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.
Thanksgiving Day is a distinctive holiday. It doesn’t commemorate:
• A war
• Anyone’s birthday
• An Anniversary
It is a day set aside to express our nation’s thanks to God.
Thursday, our nation will pause once again to celebrate Thanksgiving Day.
I think that the 100th Psalm was written to remind us of our need to be thankful, and maintain an attitude of gratitude.
We need to recognize how blessed we are today as we approach THANKSGIVING.
Let’s look at several things that will help us to prepare our hearts for this very special day we call Thanksgiving.
We see . . .
I. THE BASIS OF OUR THANKSGIVING
In the 100th Psalm, God was saying to Israel, "When you come into the Promised Land and settle down in your warm homes, and you have plenty to eat, remember I led you out of the wilderness and I brought you into the land flowing with milk and honey. Don’t forget who made all this possible."
Today we live in a society that want to give the impression that God did not give it to them…everything they got they worked for it!!!
Really:
• Who gave them the healthy bodies they have.
• Who gives them the air to breathe.
• Who gives them the eyes to see.
• Who gives them the ears to hear.
AND THEY CLAIM THAT THEY DO NOT NEED TO GIVE GOD THANKS…BECAUSE THEY WORK FOR WHAT THEY HAVE!!!
The least they could do is give God some praise and gratitude for the blessings of God on their life.
Illus: They remind me back in the days in our churches we had the old pump organ.
There was a church that had one and the fellow who did the pumping was behind the old organ in another room.
He would pump that organ and this fellow would play some beautiful hymns and at the end he would stand up, take a bow.
Week after week he would pump and he organist would play and the organist getting all the credit.
After each hymn the congregation would honor him as he stood they would clap for the great job he was doing.
The fellow that did all the pumping was in another room and he got no praise for his pumping whatsoever.
One Sunday he got tired of the organist getting all the praise. The organist set down and began to play but there and was no air being pumped in.
He hit the keys several times and each time and there was no air.
The organist got up, open the door to where the man did the pumping and said, “What’s wrong, why aren’t you pumping.”
The man that did the pumping said, “SAY WE!”
We need to give the Lord the praise for all His blessings. IT IS NOT WE, BUT HIM THAT GET ALL THE PRAISE AND GLORY!
God had us in mind, also, when this Psalm was written. Did you notice to whom it is addressed?
• The first verse says that it is addressed to, "all the earth."
• The last verse says that it includes, "all generations."
This message of thanksgiving applies to everyone!
It’s sad, isn’t it, that we are the only country in the world, except Canada and the Philippines that has a Thanksgiving Day?
WHY AREN’T PEOPLE THANKFUL?
There are at least two reasons:
A. THEY FEEL ENTITLED TO THE BLESSINGS OF GOD
Illus: The story is told of two old friends who bumped into one another on the street one day. One of them looked almost on the verge of tears.
• His friend asked, "What has the world done to you, my old friend?"
• The sad fellow said, "Let me tell you. Three weeks ago, an uncle died and left me forty thousand dollars."
• "That’s a lot of money." "But, two weeks ago, a cousin I never even knew died, and left me eighty-five thousand free and clear."
• "Sounds like you’ve been blessed...."
• "You don’t understand!" he interrupted. "Last week my great-aunt passed away. I inherited almost a quarter of a million."
• Now he was really confused. "Then, why do you look so glum?"
• "This week... nothing!"
That’s the trouble with receiving something on a regular basis, such as the blessings of God. We get to the place we feel we are entitled to these blessings!!!
Even if it is a gift, we eventually come to expect it.
This is the “entitlement mindset” that has permeated American society at almost every level.
We have been blessed to live in a land of plenty and as a result we feel we are not getting something we should be thankful for; these are blessings we DESERVE!
However, life has a way of giving us what we deserve.
Illus: Story is told that three people died and went to heaven.
• When they arrived, Saint Peter tells them, "We have one rule here. It's fairly simple: don't step on the ducks."
• The three guys enter Heaven, and the first thing they see is that Heaven is “OVERFLOWING” with ducks. It is literally impossible to not step on a duck. Despite this, they try their best, but soon one of the fellows step on a duck.
• Almost instantaneously, Saint Peter appears with the UGLIEST woman the guy has ever seen. He says: "As punishment for stepping on a duck, you will be chained to a rock with this ugly woman for eternity!" He chains the two of them together and they disappear.
• The two remaining guys are mortified by this, and try not to step on any more ducks, but two hours later, the second guy steps on a duck.
• Immediately, Saint Peter appears with another ugly woman, says his usual stuff, chains the two of them together and disappears.
• The third guy now has even more reason to not step on the ducks, and he vows to never step on one. He is successful, and manages to go for years without stepping on one. But one day he stepped on a duck.
• Then, one day, Saint Peter appears with the most beautiful woman he has ever seen. Tan, slender legs, curves in all the right places. He chains the two of them without a word, and brings them to a rock, where he chains the two of them there.
• The man begins to wonder whatever could have happened, so he asks the woman, "Whatever could I have done to deserve being chained to you for eternity?"
• The woman responds with: "I don't know about you, but I DESERVED to be here…I stepped on a duck."
There is another reason we are not thankful…
B. We do not have the same blessings that someone else have.
Listen, in life you will always find people who:
• Are smarter than you are
• Are more attractive than you are
• Have more than you have
We cannot base our thanksgiving on HOW MUCH OTHERS HAVE AND WHAT WE HAVE!
If we do, we will never be thankful: NEVER!
We can always find someone who has more than we do.
And this world is full of people that look around and see someone else has some thing they do not have and they feel like they deserve to have what they have.
This is the age of equality.
God made us different for a reason.
• There are things that a woman can do man can not do.
• There are things a man can do that woman can not do.
God knew what He was doing when He made man and woman different.
You can not always have equality.
If God wanted us all to be equal, He would have made us all equal.
Illus: Listen, if a man gets a job and agrees to work for so much, when the boss man gives him his pay check he is getting what he deserves to get.
But how is it that people feel God is cheating them when they did not do a thing to deserve His blessings.
For example, I am thankful that God has given me good health. And I must confess I have not always taken the best care of this body.
(1) I have eaten my share of junk food
(2) I have not always got the sleep that I should have gotten
(3) I have not always drink the amount of water that I should have drunk.
So I can not say, I DESERVE TO HAVE A HEALTHY BODY!!!
I have a healthy body because God has been gracious to me and that is why I AM THANKFUL FOR A HEALTHY BODY!
WHY SHOULD WE BE THANKFUL?
Our thanksgiving should be based on our relationship with the Lord.
Notice in the 100th Psalm, it is not about being thankful for THINGS, but for HIM (The Lord)!
• In v. 1 you’ll find the name of the Lord.
• In v. 2 you’ll find the name of the Lord
• In v. 3 you’ll find the name of the Lord
In v. 4 it says, "Enter His gates with thanksgiving"
In v. 5 you’ll find the name of the Lord is the basis of our thanksgiving because our thanksgiving is based on HIM not THINGS!
Illus: Alex Haley, the author of "Roots," had an unusual picture hanging on his office wall. It was a picture of a turtle on top of a fence post.
• When asked, "Why is that there?"
• Alex Haley answered, "Every time I write something significant, every time I read my words and think that they are wonderful, and begin to feel proud of myself, I look at the turtle on top of the fence post and remember that he didn’t get there on his own. He had help."
The basis for our THANKSGIVING is our being reminded that everything we have comes from the Lord.
We see THE BASIS OF OUR THANKSGIVING and now let us look at. . .
II. THE BLESSINGS OF OUR THANKSGIVING
As we continue to look at Psalm 100, we see God gives us five commands in this THANKSGIVING passage of scripture.
(1) Psalms 100:4 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.
Being thankful is a choice, but many choose to gripe and grumble.
Illus: The story is told of a lady who was known as an incurable grumbler. She constantly complained about everything.
At last her preacher thought he had found something about which she would be happy, for her farm crop was the finest for miles around.
• When he met her, he said with a beaming smile, “You must be very happy Mary. Everyone is saying how healthy your potatoes look this year.”
• “True they’re pretty good, but what am I going to do when I need bad ones to feed the pigs?"
Illus: Rudyard Kipling was a great writer that had opportunity to enjoy his success while he lived. He also made a great deal of money at his trade.
• One time a newspaper reporter came up to him and said, "Mr. Kipling, I just read that somebody calculated that the money you make from your writings amounts to over a hundred dollars a word!”
• Mr. Kipling raised his eyebrows and said, "Really, I certainly wasn’t aware of that."
• The reporter cynically reached down into his pocket and pulled out a one hundred dollar bill and gave it to Kipling and said, "Here’s a hundred dollar bill, Mr. Kipling. Now, you give me one of your hundred dollar words."
• Mr. Kipling looked at that hundred-dollar bill for a moment, took it and folded it up and put it in his pocket and said, "Thanks."
He’s right! The word, “thanks” is certainly a hundred-dollar word. In fact, I would say it is more like a million-dollar word.
It’s one word that is:
• Too seldom heard
• Too rarely spoken
• Too often forgotten
Let’s look at some of the COMMANDS the Lord gives us concerning Thanksgiving.
.
(1). THE COMMAND – MAKE A JOYFUL NOISE UNTO THE LORD.
Look at verse 1, "Make a JOYFUL NOISE unto the LORD, all ye lands."
When a blessing has been provided by God, we should make a joyful noise
Illus. Roland Allen tells about a veteran missionary who came up to him one day after he had delivered his sermon.
• The missionary introduced himself and said, "I was a medical missionary for many years in India. 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 grew older."
• This missionary had developed a treatment which would stop progressive blindness. So people came to him, and they would leave realizing that they would have become completely blind, but because of him, their sight had been saved.
• 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."
That is, wherever they went, they would tell the name of the missionary who had the cure for blindness.
The word THANKS is not used as much as it should be used.
Illus: Dr. Odell Belger tells the story that this lady that was in charge of home schoolers came to see him.
She explained that the home schoolers meet once a month to have activities and wanted to know if their association could use his facilities to have actitives.
He gave them permission and it was probably at least a hundred children showed up.
They used the playground, basketball court and the large fellowship hall for their indoor activites
They enjoyed themselves immensely. They called for permission to return two more times. And Dr. Belger was more than happy to accommodate them.
But on the third occasion the woman in charge came into Dr. Belger’s office. And something that was on his mind he said to her, WE ARE GLAD TO LET YOU USE OUR FACILITIES FOR THREE TIMES. But he said, I have noticed, not a mother, worker, or student have ever said THANKS!
Than he said to her when I was in school one of the things we were taught was GRATITUDE!
I do not think she was THANKFUL for the lecture.
The Psalmist is saying. Suddenly you realize that God has been so good to you that you can’t keep it inside any more AND MAKE A JOYFUL NOISE.
(2). THE COMMAND - SERVE
Look at verse 2. We read, “Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing.”
Look at the word “Serve”. Notice, it doesn’t say-
• Serve the church
• Serve the preacher
• Serve the congregation
It says, "SERVE THE LORD."
Matthew 25:40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
The Bible teaches that if we:
• Witness on behalf of the Lord,
• Feed the hungry
• Clothe the naked
• Do the work of the Lord, whatever it might be
WE ARE SERVING THE LORD!
Many have not grown spiritually enough to grasp this:
• They serve from a feeling of obligation
• They serve from a feeling of guilt
• They serve to get attention
Until a Christian comes to recognize we are put here to serve Him, he will never be thankful for His blessings.
(3). THE COMMAND - WITH SINGING
Look at verse 2 again, “…Come before his presence with singing.”
Do you like to be in the presence of someone that is always complaining. No, we avoid such people. And the Bible tells us God must feel the same way because it tells us COME BEFORE HIS PRESENCE WITH SINGING.
Do you ever hear some complaining who profess to be saved?
They complain because -
• No one will help them
• Some will not give financial support to the church
• Some will not attend
They are constantly serving the Lord, and the whole time they are serving they are complaining. This tells us something about them.
Their focus is on people. They are not serving the Lord for the right reasons.
Have you noticed that in these commands, God has said that He wants you to be happy?
• Shout with joy
• Serve with gladness
• Come before His presence with singing
(4). THE COMMAND - KNOW YE
Psalms 100:3 Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
WHAT ARE WE SUPPOSE TO KNOW…
(1) Lord He is God…not us!
(2) He hath made us…not us!
(3) We are His people and the sheep of his pasture.
Basically God wants us to know HE IS OUR CREATOR!!!
God’s Word says, “KNOW YE.” Many folks live as if they created themselves and they have every right to do with their life as they please. Not so!
God made us:
• He took every bone, every joint, and He welded them together with sinews and muscles and covered them with skin.
• He gave us eyes that we can see with
• He gave us brains that we can think with
• He gave us fingers that we can use to pick things up
• He gave us feet to walk with
God made us! The scriptures say, “It is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves;”
Then He says, "We are His people, the sheep of His pasture." Most of us want to be shepherds, not sheep.
He is saying, "You be the sheep. Let me be the shepherd, and I will lead you beside the still waters, the green pastures. Just let me lead." (Paraphrase ours.)
(5). THE COMMAND - ENTER
Psalms 100:4-5 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.
In the O. T., the temple symbolized the presence of God. Whenever the people came to the temple and entered the courtyards, they knew that they came into the presence of God.
Now that temple no longer exists. But oftentimes the place where we meet to worship God is called a, "sanctuary," indicating that God is there.
But God is everywhere. You know that.
• He is with you as you drive on the highway
• He is with you when you work
• He is with you as you care for your children
• He is with you every moment of your life
But as soon as they entered the temple (God’s presence) start prasing the Lord.
That is the source of our thanksgiving, isn’t it?
Conclusion:
We grumble about so much but we have so much to be thankful for…
Let me share with you some things I am Thankful for.........
....the taxes I pay because it means I’m employed.
....the clothes that fit a little too snug because it means I have enough to eat.
....my shadow who watches me work because it means I am out in the sunshine.
....a lawn that needs mowing, windows that need cleaning and gutters that need fixing because it means I have a home.
....the spot I find at the far end of the parking lot because it means I am capable of walking.
....my huge heating bill because it means I am warm.
....all the complaining I hear about our government because it means we have freedom of speech.
....the lady behind me in church who sings off key because it means that I can hear.
....the piles of laundry and ironing because it means my loved ones are nearby.
....the alarm that goes off in the early morning hours because it means that I’m alive.
....the weariness and aching muscles at the end of the day because it means I have been productive.
God is a good God and we need to remember His kindness toward us and THANK HIM!
We see . . .
I. THE BASIS OF OUR THANKSGIVING
II. THE BLESSINGS OF OUR
THANKSGIVING
