"thanks"giving Series

“Thanks”Giving

Steele Creek Church – Eastfield Campus

November 25, 2018 - Tom Bartlett

Good morning and welcome to Steele Creek Church, Eastfield Campus.

We’re launching this campus because we believe that God wants to change lives in this community and that He’s calling all of us to be His hands for that change. We believe that God wants to revive this community spiritually, and we’re taking the responsibility to step up and represent Him to this community.

I can’t help think that many people live their lives as Thoreau put it, “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.”

I can remember a time in my life that I was so distraught, so discouraged and so bewildered that I was losing a grip on reality. Fears and anxieties were taking over, my chest was tight, my mind confused. I wasn’t sure what to do. Depression and anxiety were overpowering me. My wife didn’t know what to do to help me and the doctors said I was fine physically.

After spending hours in the ER by myself only to hear that physically I was fine, I found myself curled up in a fetal position in my bed at home. My circumstances were beyond my control, my health was being affected and no one could help me.

All this was going on while I was a pastor. As I laid there in my bed, a thought occurred to me. God said that He would never leave me. He said He’d always be with His followers. As I thought about that, I began to do something I now know as a spiritual discipline that has helped me so profoundly and I know can help you too.

I’ll come back to that shortly, but today we look at a very popular Psalm written by David the great king of Israel.

It’s psalm 100. Psalm 100 is the final of a grouping of psalms called the divine kingship psalms. They point to the One true great king, God, the ruler of all.

King David was known for many things, but one of them was his music. He was mighty in battle but also mean with the harp and a very prolific writer of songs. He writes in Psalm 42,

“. . . I remember how it used to be: I walked among the crowds of worshipers, leading a great procession to the house of God, singing for joy and giving thanks amid the sound of a great celebration!” Psalm 42:4 (NLT)

In the Old Testament we read of the Israelite's and their incredible worship processionals and services. They were an incredible event that the people looked forward to all week long. The worship began long before any service as people prepared their hearts for going to the temple. Even the journey to the temple was part of the celebration. A processional much like a parade would happen through the city. The worship leaders would start their march with instruments and singers and dancers headed toward the temple. As the parade came toward your home, your family would come out and join in the processional leading to the temple. You’d wait and listen as the processional louder and louder the closer it got.

You’d join in and add you voice and dance to the crowd all building to this incredible experience as man would encounter God. David writes Psalm 100 with this in mind. The first 3 verses are associated with the processional part of the journey toward the temple in preparation of entering into the temple.

1 Shout with joy to the LORD, all the earth!

2 Worship the LORD with gladness.

Come before him, singing with joy.

3 Acknowledge that the LORD is God!

He made us, and we are his.

We are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

David uses four verbs to tell us the reaction we should have for the greatness of God and to be prepared to enter His presence. BTW – these are the very attitudes and actions that will help us to experience God’s presence.

• Shout with joy to God – (some translations say, make a joyful noise). You don’t have to have a trained voice to make a noise for God.

You know there’s something very therapeutic about singing and praising God. Not only do we express great unity when we all sing, we’re in sync with each other and agreeing to the same things.

• Worship the lord with gladness – gladness is a choice.

• Come before Him with singing – Singing has a way of causing us to enter the presence of God.

• Acknowledge that Jehovah is God. – In scripture when you see the word LORD all in caps is denotes the Hebrew word used for God. In this case the reference is to Yahweh, the self-existent one. The options are Adonai (Master, Lord), Elohim (Typically translated God. LORD) and Yahweh (self-existent one LORD).