GIVE YOUR THANKS –
(.a.k.a.) GIVE THANKS TO THE LORD – Sermon Central
We have much to be thankful for this time of the year. Sometimes, we get so busy with all the cooking, and eating, and (then) sleeping off our turkey and dressing that we forget that Thanksgiving is a time to GIVE OUR THANKS. This morning may be the only chance the Lord will have this week to get your attention and for you to GIVE YOUR THANKS.
Allow me to get your attention for a few minutes and to focus how we can be thankful for all that God has done for us. We should remember that our heavenly Father desires to have your attention on Him. Actually, God is very jealous of sharing you with the holiday coming up this week. There will be lots of festivities and family get together, but the Bible tells us that God is a jealous god. He has been like this ever since He first created the sun that shines, and the moon & the stars.
Let me show you how jealous God has been since the dawn of His Creation… Genesis 1:16
"God made two great lights -- the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars.
What God calls “two great lights”, we call the sun and the moon, but this is what God told Moses to write down. I am glad that Moses listened closely and wrote things down very carefully, but why couldn’t God just have simply said “the sun and the moon”?
Instead He called them “two great lights”.
Moses used the Hebrew language when he wrote down what God told him. The words “sun and moon” were common words used by the Hebrew children, so why didn’t God use them (instead of “two great lights”?
The reason for this was because the Hebrew words for sun and moon were actually the names of false gods.
God knew this, and He was jealous of the false gods.
Apparently, the pagan people of the world were worshiping the sun and moon rather than worshipping the Great Creator of the Universe. God was jealous, and God did not like this at all! He wasn’t going to stand for it. Not for a minute. After all, the sun and the moon were His Creation, and no other god should have received credit for it.
So what God did was to deliberately leave out the names for the sun god and the god of the moon (from what He told Moses to write down).
That way the false gods didn’t draw the people’s attention away from worshipping God as the Creator.
The bottom line was that God was not happy with people worshipping any of the false gods.
And to this day – God is jealous of your giving attention to anything or any other god other than Himself!
Well here we are living in the 21st Century and the fact is this - God is still very jealous of what we do with our day…everyday…and especially our Thanksgiving Day.
We can all agree that it is important to spend time with our families and enjoy Thanksgiving Day…
But more importantly it is for you to remember to
GIVE YOUR THANKS.
Did you know that –
• Throughout the history of mankind there have been other things in God’s creation that have drawn attention away from the Creator?
• People have actually worshiped what God has created more than they have worshipped God?
• That people have worshipped the stars in the sky, the mountains, and God’s animals more than they have ever worshipped God?
Living today in the 21st Century we are not really tempted to worship the sun, or the moon, or the stars, or the mountains, or animals. No we consider ourselves to be sophisticated and educated…
Nevertheless, there are other things that can and will distract you from GIVING YOUR THANKS to God.
Especially on Thanksgiving Day. Even many of the blessings that you are thankful for can keep you from GIVING YOUR THANKS to God.
That is true – you can be so blessed with prosperity that you will neglect in GIVING YOUR THANKS to God.
Thanksgiving should be about our Lord. Amen?
Allow me to make a suggestion for you and your family this Thanksgiving….
Before you sit down at the Thanksgiving table with our friends and family to count our blessings, let us take a moment to count our greatest blessing.
“What is our greatest blessing?“
Our greatest blessing is God Himself.
And to Him you must GIVE YOUR THANKS!
The Holy Spirit will speak this to us with our text…
Text: Psalm 100
In our Bibles the Psalms appear as only one book among the many others books of the Old Testament, but to the Jews the Psalms were their hymnal for worshiping God. Some of the Psalms served as a songbook for worship. Other Psalms were performed by choirs and groups of musicians. Our church hymnal has many special hymns for the different seasons of the year (like Christmas and Easter). Likewise, the people of the Old Testament had were certain Psalms that they used for special celebrations of the year.
Transition:
Psalm 100 has always been special to god’s people.
It was known as "A psalm for giving thanks." Thousands of years later - we now read Psalm 100, and we might ask why there is nothing specifically identified or stated for the reason why God’s people should give thanks.
The writer of Psalm 100 doesn’t say, "Give thanks for your food, and your clothes, and your home and for all of those wonderful people whom you love and adore."
No. Psalm 100 shows us where to GIVE YOUR THANKS.
Your thanks are only to and for your only God.
In short - Your celebration of Thanksgiving Day is to be focused on the only true God. The Lord God Jehovah.
So then – why should you GIVE YOUR THANKS?
Because HE IS GOD!
Psalm 100 focuses only on God, not on what He gives.
I notice something interesting about Psalm 100 - The name of God, the LORD, stands out four times and with all capital letters. The name LORD is God’s personal name. In the Hebrew language, it means "I am."
In Exodus 3:13 – 14 - God sent Moses to the Israelites God told him what to say, "I AM WHO I AM.”
God also told Moses to tell them:
‘I AM has sent me to you.’"
God later gave Moses an explanation of what His name means. He said, "The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin." (Exodus 34:6-7)
Transition:
When the "I am" says something it doesn’t change. When the "I am" makes a promise it will happen. The name of God should cause you to GIVE YOUR THANKS.
During the Old Testament - Having the LORD as God must have been very different than having any other god. The false gods of the pagan nations around Israel were known to be very mean to the people. Actually the people lived in fear and even hatred of their false gods. The false gods were known to be distant from the people. What a difference it must have made in the people’s lives when they learned the truth about the great God Jehovah.
And this is where mankind is today.
Once again mankind must know that the true God,
and the LORD can cause man to worship in this Psalm
of thanksgiving,
Make a joyful shout to the LORD, all you lands! Serve
the LORD with gladness; Come before His presence with singing.
During this Thanksgiving holiday - Our thoughts must be focused beyond all that God has done to make us blessed and prosperous, to who He actually is.
We give thanks to the LORD because he is God.
When we do, the focus becomes more direct. Verse 3 says "Know that the LORD is God." When we use the word “know” we may mean that we have just a little knowledge about something. Or we might even know it very well. In the Hebrew language - the word “Know” means to know the LORD not only with our mind, but also with our hearts.
Times have changed since this Psalm was written. New false gods have taken the place of the old false gods. Now the gods of science, materialism, humanism have invaded our lives. Nevertheless, the same LORD is God.
Today this Psalm of thanksgiving calls us to shout, and worship, and know that the LORD is God.
Before we give thanks for all the blessings we enjoy let’s look to the One who is the giver of all good gifts. His Name is the LORD. We give thanks to the LORD because he is God.
Transition and Close:
The final thought I have for you today (in this Psalm of Thanksgiving) is the very real truth is the LORD’s relationship to his people. Verse 3 says, "It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture."
Notice again that we don’t see a list of blessings or a long description of what God gives or what He does. The Psalm writer doesn’t see all the things you have in your life as being important, but rather for all of us to simply focus on God and how He loves his people.
We are his People
If you were to research the history of God’s chosen people you would have to ask, "Why did God choose the Jews to be His people?"
The Jews weren’t the strongest, the bravest or the most noble of people. The Jews were actually small people in size and build. They were not very important people. But God in his mind boggling mercy, called out a man named Abraham and just decided to make him into a “great nation”. No real particular reason...
The fact that the writer of Psalm 100 and his people belonged to God was the main reason for them to give thanks. No other nation was cherished in the same way as Israel was by God. They knew all too well that they were very blessed to have been chosen by God.
Before we give thanks today may we see ourselves as the Psalmist saw himself and his people. "It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture." God made us who we are…both physically and spiritually. He then made us His people through his Son, Jesus Christ.
Of all the blessings for which we are thankful it is the spiritual blessings that come from God that we treasure the most. Someone described that kind of focus on thanksgiving in this way:
As we gather ’round our firesides / On this new Thanksgiving Day,
Time would fail to count the blessings / That have followed all our way;
Grace sufficient, help and healing, / Prayer oft answered at our call;
And the best of all our blessings, / Christ Himself, our all in all.
While we love to "count the blessings," / Grateful for the year that’s gone,
Faith would sweep a wider vision, / Hope would gaze yet further on.
For the signals all around us / Seem with one accord to say,
"Christ is coming soon to bring us / Earth’s last, best Thanksgiving Day!"
The things for which we are thankful today are secondary to the fact that we belong to God now and forever. From our relationship with him through Jesus Christ come all the blessings we enjoy. Let our thanksgiving begin with the fact that the LORD is our God and we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
Giving thanks to the LORD because he is God and because we are his people will then lead us to give thanks for how he blesses us. "Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations." Again the focus is on God.
The third thought is …
The Psalm doesn’t mention everything that God gives us. It points to the fact that he is good and that his love endures forever.
The second half of the Psalm follows the same pattern as the first half. There is a call to worship God and give him thanks. Then the reason for giving thanks is given. Living in a simpler time where most people were involved with farming the Israelites were dependent on their good God whose love endured forever. If the rains didn’t come at the right times the people would go hungry. If bugs and pests devoured their crops there would be famine. It was God’s love and faithfulness that kept them alive.
Perhaps we are at a disadvantage. Most of our food is grown for us. It comes from around the world. Science and medicine have solved many of our problems. We have machines that can overcome the hardships of life. The economy is good. Things seem to just roll on But it is only God’s goodness, love, and faithfulness that keeps them coming to us. From his love that endures forever comes the food and clothes, the shelter and family, the cars, jobs, and money with which we have been showered. As we count our blessings on Thanksgiving, which really are too numerous to count anyway, may we see them streaming from our God who is good and whose love endures forever.
It is customary in our culture to send a person a "thank you" when they send a gift for a birthday, or wedding, or for Christmas. We are also in the habit of naming what the person gave us. "Thank you so much for the toaster." "Thank you for the money." "Thank you for the fruit basket." When I was younger I used to spend the whole letter telling how I used the money or the gift that I received. In a way it seems kind of silly to talk about what we have received from the person. The person knows what he or she gave us. The person would rather here about our thanks and appreciation.
In a similar way it is customary to send God a "thank you" on Thanksgiving Day. We tell him how much we enjoy all the stuff we have. But I believe that he would much rather have us give thanks for who he is and what he does. Or at least begin our thanksgiving there. The writer of Psalm 100 had a similar thought in mind when he called his people to focus on God. He pointed to the fact that the LORD is God and the Israelites were his people and that his love endures for ever. His inspired words are timeless. He now calls us to give thanks to the LORD. Give thanks because he is God. Give thanks because we are his people. Give thanks because his love endures forever. Amen.
