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Pastor Mike will be speaking on Thanksgiving Truths. He will be in Psalm 100:1-5.
Some of you are so wrapped up in the things of this world that you’re distraught, you’re defeated, you got your head down, and you’re so wrapped up into the worldly kingdom you have forgotten about a kingdom that is coming from heaven and a kingdom that will surpass all the kingdoms of mankind.
Hello, this is Pastor Mike Sanders. We are drawing near Thanksgiving. I hope that you are gonna be able to connect with family and friends and there’s many things that we certainly can be thankful for.
So let’s this year make sure that our gratitude is even more expressive in the times that we live in. Well today we’re gonna be in Psalm 100 and I’m gonna be teaching on the thanksgiving truths. You don’t want to miss out on these thanksgiving truths because they’re right there in the text and I know it’ll bless each of our hearts.
So let’s turn to Psalm 100 and let’s begin our study. If you have your Bible I want you to join me in Psalm 100 and we’ll be covering verses 1 through 5 this morning and we think about thanksgiving and we recognize that thanksgiving is the day when we pause to reflect, to remember, and to respect the abundant blessings that God has bestowed upon each of us.
Now unfortunately many will use Thanksgiving Day as a day of indulgence but perhaps they’ll use it as a day of ingratitude, not respecting their Creator, not respecting their conscience, not respecting the blessings that they have received.
But yet for us who love the Lord and are committed to the cause of Christ and are committed to the coming of the kingdom of God, thanksgiving is an act of praise. Is it an act of rejoicing? And for each of us, this praise and thanksgiving may take many different forms in our lives.
And certainly there’ll be some uniqueness to how we will celebrate thanksgiving this year. For some people, it’ll be a time of private prayer where they will thank God and they will give praise to God for the blessings that God has bestowed upon them.
Others will make public proclamations. They will articulate their appreciation to family members or maybe they will articulate it in other ways of communicating that they are thankful for their faith in Jesus Christ or they are thankful for their family.
However it is done, each and every one of us is called to enjoy the blessings of God and to give Him all the credit for what He has accomplished. and what He has given to us. The Bible tells us that every good thing comes from above.
Thanksgiving is more than a day. It truly for us who follow Christ, it is a disposition. It is a mindset that all Christians should display every day. This attitude that we are called to display of Thanksgiving and rejoicing and praise should daily characterize each and every one of us as we are devoted disciples of Christ.
So I want us to look at Psalm 100 because in this text, we see some wonderful truths, some Thanksgiving truths that’ll help us to live everyday life. Thanksgiving truths that we can live by. The Psalmist says, make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands, serve the Lord with gladness, come before His presence with singing and know ye that the Lord, He is God.
It is He that has 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. As we contemplate Thanksgiving this coming week, I want to encourage us to refocus our minds and our hearts. We live in uncertain times, we live in unique times, we live in some unsettling times, but that does not change our faith and that does not change our attitude.
It does not change our Thanksgiving to God Almighty. And so I want you to note this morning that as… Christians, we should give thanks to God for His goodness. We should give thanks to God for His goodness.
You notice in our text that it says, the Lord is good, and we can all say amen to that. Because He is good, thankfulness for God’s goodness is always in order for believers. The Bible says praise the Lord of hosts, for the Lord is good, for His mercy endureth forever, and of them that shall bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the Lord.
When we come, we don’t bring physical sacrifices relating to like the Old Testament, but we do bring the sacrifices from our lips. And they are sacrifices of praise to God when we come into the house of our Lord.
We come rejoicing, not because all of our circumstances are wonderful, not because everything is perfect in life, but because we have a God. who is good. Too many times we forget about the goodness of God.
The book of Psalms abounds with references to God’s goodness. The psalmist said in Psalm 23 and verse 6, surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
That’s the ups or the downs of life, whether we climb the mountains and the zenith of experiences or whether we’re in the valleys of experiences, our God is good. God is good by nature and someone defined the goodness of God this way, that it means that He is morally excellent.
He is extraordinarily beautiful. He is deeply glad and He is extravagantly bountiful. The Bible says, O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endureth forever. What is the outcome of the goodness of God in each of our heart?
It is not only that we would rejoice, not only that we would sing, make a joyful noise, it’s not only that we would serve, but get this, that we would repent. That’s right. The goodness of God leads us to repentance.
Here’s what the scripture says in Romans 2 .4, despise as thou the riches of His goodness and forbearance and long suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance. You see, that’s really what the goodness of God is designed to do.
It is designed to lead each and every heart to Him. When we think about His goodness towards us, then each and every one of us should fall on our knees and we should not only rejoice, but we should repent of it.
of any indulgence. We should repent of any selfishness. We should repent of any attitude of ingratitude. And we should strive to simply give praise and to give great thanksgiving to our Lord and savior who at the bare minimum gave his life for each and every one of us this morning.
Can God’s people say amen? What I want you to know is the Bible says, “‘O taste, and see that the Lord is good.’ “‘Blessed is the man that trusteth in him.'” Now you may feel as you think about your circumstances and your problems in life, that it’s hard for you to see the goodness of God.
But I first remind you that his goodness is not determined by our circumstances. And that even in the midst of our circumstances, no matter how problematic they may be, that we can always know that behind all the circumstances, And overseeing all the problems, there is a God who is good all the time.
It’s hard when you face the depths of despair, the problems that seem to cloud our thoughts and make it impossible for us to think clearly. But friends, what needs to be a part of the bedrock of your faith is that you know and believe that He is good.
Whether you feel it or not, your faith needs to know that God is good. And when you believe that God is good and that He is good all the time, whether you are having great times or sad times, when you believe that God is good all the time, it frees you to take ever increasing steps of faith.
To have the outlook that somehow God is evil or that somehow God is punishing you or He’s beating down on you is only going to limit your journey of faith. But when you understand that this holy and righteous God that not only loves you, but He is good to you, friends, when that becomes the bedrock of your faith, it becomes the power and the motivation to help you to keep moving forward in faith.
Not only as we look at thanksgiving truths or learning, we should thank God for His goodness, but we should thank God for His greatness. We come to Psalm 48, verse 1, David declared that God’s greatness, what he said, Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in His holy mountain.
Think about this, God is above all power. He is above every authority in this world. There is nothing that is too difficult for our God. He is a God of miracles. It is our responsibility as believers to teach our children, to teach our grandchildren, and to teach our spiritual children about the greatness of God, the scripture.
says in Psalm 145 and verse 3, God’s greatness great is the Lord and greatly to be praised and His greatness is unsearchable. Have you ever thought about the greatness of God? Have you seen it more than just an adjective to put on before the name of God?
But have you understood it to be a part of the essence of who God is? How great is our God? God’s greatness is evidenced in each of our lives by the depths to which He is willing to rescue our hearts from sin.
Your life and my life was rescued from sin. Yes, we have such a great God that He did not leave us in our sinful state. He did not leave us in our state of being separated from Him, but rather He took the initiative.
It was His greatness that would inspire Him. to not only show great love to us, but to step out and to send His only begotten Son to us. For the Bible says that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Think about that for a second. How great is our God? He sent His Son to this earth. When Jesus came to this earth, He lived a sinless life. You see, not just anyone could die for your sin. Not just anyone could pay the price for the perfect righteousness of God, meaning that no one on this earth, you, me, no one could ever pay the penalty of sin.
Only Christ could do that. Only Jesus could do that. But to verify that and to qualify that, Jesus came and He lived a sinless life. Perfect. He fulfilled the law in every aspect of it. From His birth all the way through to His death.
When Jesus came on this earth, He conquered diseases by healing the sick. When Jesus walked among men, people, He conquered demons by casting them out of people. When Jesus was on this earth, He showed His greatness by raising the dead and conquering death.
He not only conquered death in that He called people back to life who were literally dead, but He Himself who was dead rose again. He then walked 40 days on this earth after His death and resurrection.
And for 40 days, He trained His apostles about the kingdom of God that was to come. How it would initially come as a spiritual kingdom. And then it would eventually come as a physical kingdom. He gathered His disciples there on the mountain and He commissioned them.
them to take the gospel to every person on the planet. He ascended into heaven. The Bible teaches us that God is so great that he is interceding for us, that Jesus is praying to the Father, praying for each and every one of us.
Now, it is wonderful to be on the prayer list of God’s people, but how much more to be on the prayer list of Jesus Christ? Let me ask you, do you ever think that there’s a prayer that Jesus prays that the Father says no to?
Do you ever think that the Father ever says no to the prayers of Jesus Christ? Absolutely not. They are all fulfilled and answered, yes, in Jesus. That’s right. And friends, one day our God is so great that we have a hope and we have a promise that he is coming back to establish his kingdom on this earth.
Oh, some of you are so wrapped up in the things of this world and the politics of this world that you’re distraught, you’re defeated, you got your head down. you’re not even expressing the joy of Jesus Christ and you’re so wrapped up into the worldly kingdom you have forgotten about a kingdom that is coming from heaven and a kingdom that will surpass all the kingdoms of mankind.
The kingdoms of this world the Bible says they will all fail and they will all cease but the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ will go on forever and ever and ever and this is the kingdom that we work in and this is the kingdom that we work towards and my friends we are looking forward and we are praying thy kingdom come and thy will be done.
That’s right how glorious it is to know that we will one day rule and reign with him. Our God is a great God and friends every wrong in this world will be made right through Jesus Christ. It doesn’t matter how much mankind tries to right all the wrongs in this world they will always fall short for only Jesus can bring true peace and true unity and true justice into this land that we live in and so we look to him we don’t hold on to grudges we’re not going to spend our life griping we are going to spend our life giving gratitude to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and we will say as the Bible says in 1st Chronicles 29 verse 11 and 12.
Thine O Lord is the greatness and power and the glory and the victory and the majesty for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine. Thine is the kingdom O Lord and thou art exalted as head above all both riches and honor come of thee and thou reignest over all and in thy hand is power and might and in thy hand is to make great.
And to give strength unto all how important is the greatness of God. your own mind, well the knowledge of God’s greatness produces greater faith in your heart. I mean if you believe in a God who is not great and he’s just mediocre and he’s average and he’s just kind of trying to hold this crazy world together that’s spinning out of control, that somehow he is not sovereign and he is not in control and that somehow God is just trying to fix all the wrongs of mankind on this earth day by day that no wonder you operate in fear,
no wonder you make decisions in fear, no wonder that you see everything through the lens of fear but when you begin to grasp not only the goodness of God but the greatness of God then my friends from that moment on you are going to have great faith.
Every man, every woman that has had great faith and has shown that great faith whether it’s in the scriptures or through the halls of history. have been people who believed in a great God for the size of your God determines the size of your faith for if you see God in a perspective that he’s little he’s distant he’s disengaged it is no wonder that your faith is anemic and powerless and that you find yourself stuck and overwhelmed by the circumstances of life Psalm 147 verse 5 declares great is our Lord and mighty in power his understanding is infinite the greatness of God’s person and the greatness of his power and the greatness of his provisions should bring praise and thanksgiving to every believer’s heart on this thanksgiving season so when you come to know the greatness of God in a deeper way it will change everything about your life you will want to bring glory to his name every day you will want for his greatness to be manifested through your life you will want to see his mighty works displayed as you faithfully follow him for whatever he has for you and you will begin to sing that great song how great thou art then sings my soul my savior god to thee how great thou art how great thou art this thanksgiving let us not only learn about the goodness of God and the greatness of God but let’s give thanks for his grace in first Corinthians chapter 1 verse 4 the Bible says I thank God always on your behalf for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ we saw these two wonderful ladies sharing their testimony wasn’t that special church and what we should really think about is the wonderful grace of Jesus Christ the grace that reaches hearts the bible defines grace as unmerited favor.
Or perhaps you could put it this way, undeserved favor. You see, there’s not a one of us that deserves the grace of God. There’s not a one of us that somehow you live better than somebody else and now you are worthy of God’s grace.
The Bible says, for by grace are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast. And it’s not that God said, you know, you ran harder, you were smarter, and I’m gonna show grace to you.
No friends, that’s not how it works. God shows grace to all of us, even though all of us are undeserving. The Bible says in Ephesians 1 .7, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace.
What are the riches of His grace? It is simply this, that Christ redeemed us. through His blood. He granted us forgiveness of our sins. I don’t have to hold on to the guilt of my sin every day. I now can come to God Almighty and I can plead for His grace.
I can plead for His salvation. And the Bible tells me based upon what Christ has done, not what I’ve done, but based upon what Christ has done on the cross, that God will grant me by faith His grace as I trust in Him and He will wash away my sins and He will make me a new creation in Him and I will now walk in newness of life.
Yes, when you give your life to Jesus Christ, everything is new. Everything is new, a new direction, a new heart, a new desires. The things of God seem so amazing to us because we walk in a new path, not the path of the world, not the path of sin, not the path of the devil, but we are walking in the newness of Jesus Christ.
And friends, this grace cannot be earned. But let me tell you something, it certainly can be enjoyed. And that’s where a lot of Christians are missing it. They have put their trust and faith in Jesus Christ.
They have begun in grace, but they have reverted quickly back trying to impress God, impress others through works. Now friends, I want you to know that the apostle told the Galatians, you began in grace, what makes you think that you’re gonna be able to finish in your own works.
You see, too many believers are trying to pay God back when they really need to enjoy the grace of God. They need to experience His grace through faith and they need to continue to understand that their whole life is always about the grace of God.
The Bible says in 2 Timothy 1 .9, that Christ has saved us. He has called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to our work. to his own purpose and grace. How about that? Which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.
A lot to digest. But think about the grace of God in your life. And so we understand this, that Christians are not only saved by grace, but we live by grace. And we not only live by grace, but we learn by God’s wonderful grace.
And that it is God who is opening up new things to us. It is God who is teaching us. It is God who is revealing to us his wonderful truths and his wonderful promises. It is God who is helping us to enjoy all the things that he has for us.
I not only live by grace and learn by grace, but get this, I labor by the grace of God. I labor by the grace of God. I am not laboring in my own strength, but it is through his grace that he sustains me.
It is through his grace that he empowers me. It is through his grace that he enriches me to be able to accomplish what he. has called me to do. The truth of God’s grace should cause praise and thanksgiving in our hearts.
Ephesians 1 .6 says, “‘To the praise of His glorious grace with which He has blessed us in the beloved.'” Will you take time this year to say, Lord, I wanna thank you for the grace of God. I wanna thank you for your wonderful grace.
My last point, Christians should thank God for His gospel. I want to remind you of a text we already went through, 2 Corinthians 8, verse 18. The Bible says, “‘With Him we are sending the brother who is famous among all the churches for his preaching of the gospel.'” Now, this person is never named.
Paul sent a team to the Corinthian church. Remember, they were entrusted with handling the funds. They were entrusted with delivering and making sure that everything was handled with integrity and honesty and that it would be honorable to God and to those who were watching over it and that it would not be done in any way that would bring a stain upon the gospel.
But a part of this team, which included Titus, it included Luke, but was a man, a brother in Christ, who was famous among all the churches for his preaching of the gospel. He doesn’t have a name, but he does have a fame.
And he was famous for preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. What he was honored about, what he was recognized about among the people of God is that he always preached the gospel of Jesus Christ. And they were thankful that this man preached the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The gospel is God’s good news. And I want you to understand that you need a constant intake of the good news of Jesus. And what you need to do is every time you’re in a conversation and somebody’s griping, complaining, you need to tell them about the good news, the good news of Jesus Christ, that he loves you, that he died on the cross for your sins.
Did you hear about the good news of Christ? Christ that He’ll forgive you? If you would only believe in Him, did you hear about the good news that He’s coming again? That this isn’t the end for us? Did you hear about the good news that one day for all who believe in Him, we’re gonna rule and reign with Him?
Friends, that’s what I’m looking to, the good news of the gospel. And you see the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Paul the Apostle said in Romans 1 16, I’m not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation.
To everyone that believeth to the Jew first and also to the Greek. You see, friends, you and I can be assured of the power of the gospel and we can be assured that the gospel will change lives. Do not ever think that the gospel cannot change lives.
That’s why you need to keep planting the seeds. You need to keep telling people about them. You need to keep sharing the good news. You need to keep watering the good news. You need to know that the good news.
brings salvation to a fallen world, to a world that is struggling and trying to find purpose. And friends, we have it. That good news is Christ and he is the reason. The other day I was listening to the radio, this person was talking about the purpose of life and they were all over the map about what should be the purpose of life.
You know, if I’d had the opportunity, I was driving so I couldn’t really do a lot, but I would have picked up the phone and I’d have called them and I’d have told them the purpose of life is to glorify God.
The chief end of man is that we would glorify God and that anything that we might do on this land is very meaningful in that helping our fellow man, being a good neighbor, helping others with problems and needs, all these things are wonderful and they are only the means to the end, which is to glorify God.
And if you really want to live your life with purpose, it is to surrender your life to Jesus Christ and to be thankful for the gospel of Jesus Christ and know that now God has called you for the rest of your days on this earth to be passionate about sharing the good news for his glory because there is nothing that brings greater glory to God than to see what you and I just saw with these two young ladies.
What brings glory to God? The salvation of sinners. Your life is a trophy of his grace. My life is a trophy of his grace and one day that will be on full display in heaven as you and I are displayed according to Ephesians chapter two in the heavenlies of the grace of God and the angels will behold how great our God is, how good he is and they will see that his grace has fallen upon a people who have sinned against a holy God.
But because of the gospel, those people were able to find forgiveness. and they were able to find joy and purpose in life. And may it be true of all of our hearts, this Thanksgiving, that each of us, for the rest of our days, will continue to give thanks to God.
For all Thanksgiving truths begin with God. And all Thanksgiving truths continue with God. And all Thanksgiving truths conclude and consummate with God almighty. Well, I hope in each of our hearts that we can be challenged about this matter of Thanksgiving.
It’s easy to start complaining, find fault. It’s easy to forget how much we’re blessed. But this year, let’s take time to count our blessings and let’s make sure that we’re singing unto the Lord and giving Him all glory and praise because He is worthy of our worship and our thanksgiving.
This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope. worth having.