I go back to Psalm 100, Psalm
100. This is the time of year commonly
referred to as Thanksgiving, and because that is on our minds,
I think it's fitting for us to focus on that. As I said, I appreciate
both of y'all doing just that, thinking about it. But you know
the fact is, every time that believers meet together, it's
Thanksgiving. Right? We don't reserve one day
a year for that. Every time we meet together is
thanksgiving. That is an essence of true worship,
isn't it? That's the heart and soul of
worship, is thanksgiving to God. Listen to a couple of other places,
so many in the Scripture. But Psalm 116, verse 12, David
said, What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits
toward me? He said, I'll take the cup of
salvation. I'll call upon the name of the
Lord. He said, I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving. The sacrifice of thanksgiving. As I said, or as we noted, that
we can't really do anything for God. But this deed extends, this deed
tells us to do, offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving. Listen to the
Hebrews, Hebrews 13, verse 15, it says this. By Him, therefore,
let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually." That
is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name, continually. That's not just a one-time thing. This is an essence of true worship,
giving thanks to our God. We need no other reason to come
here, do we? Yeah, thanks. Now, let's look
at these verses here in Solomon 100. I believe it will be a blessing
to you. Let's look at each verse with
an emphasis on verse 4 and 5. Make a joyful noise unto the
Lord. All you lambs, or all the earth,
every kind. Make a joyful noise unto the
Lord. Now, the word psalm, as I pointed
out to you before, the word psalm means poetry set to music. That's what David was called,
the sweet psalmist of Israel. As you know, he was a good harpist
or guitar player. So he liked to sit on the hill
or in his, wherever, in his in his house and played the harp
and sang unto the Lord. And Ptolemy's poetry said to
Muzik, there's so much written throughout the Scripture, I'm
going to start you singing unto the Lord. so much written throughout
the Scripture, the speech of singing unto the Lord, making
music unto the Lord. Look at just a few of them. Turn back to Psalm 92. Psalm 92. Now, I know religion
makes a big production out of their music and all that. That's
not what we're to do. It's not going to be entertainment.
It's something to him to make a joyful noise unto the Lord,
to entertain people with, and to be heard or seen throughout
the Scripture. First, Psalm 92, verse 1, is
a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord and to sing praises
unto thy name, O Most High. three, upon an instrument of
ten strings, upon a psaltery, upon a harp with a solemn sound. Psalm 95, quickly turn over there,
Psalm 95 verse 1, "'O come, let us sing unto the Lord, let us
make a joyful noise. to the rock of our salvation.
Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving and make a
joyful noise unto Him with songs." Chapter ninety-six, Psalm ninety-six,
verse one, O sing unto the Lord. A new song, sing unto the Lord.
All the earth, sing unto the Lord. Bless His name. Show forth
His salvation from day to day. And keep going. Psalm ninety-eight,
O sing unto the Lord. A new song. He has done marvelous
things. He's riding in, he's holding
the arm that got him the victory, Psalm 101. I will sing of mercy,
and he doesn't know nothing of the Lord, nor will I sing. So
you see, that's just a few random verses that speak of singing. I think most of you ought to
sing. It shows. When we get together,
you do some pretty good singing. But, you know, singing is not... Real singing is from the heart.
Real singing is from the heart. And perhaps the best singing
you can do is when you're alone or in the shower or something
like that. But singing, real singing, It's
from the heart. That's what singing is all about.
And you don't ever sing unless you feel like it, really. You come here, I'm telling you.
But when you get started, it makes you feel like it. It makes
you feel like singing. But when you're alone, or wherever
you are, and you start singing, you must be happy. Right? And
so that's why I say it's from the heart, singing. Now, we may
not be able to carry a tune, so to speak, in a bucket. That's
what Jim O'Sullivan did, right? He can't carry a tune in a bucket. Only an instrument he can play
is the radio, you know. Or that one fellow said, if I
was a soloist, I would be a singer. But you can make a joyful noise
unto the Lord, and Scripture tells us that. make a joyful
noise, and I've told you. And perhaps you've heard Brother
Jim Eccles yourself. I've used him as an illustration.
Now, Brother Jim is hard of hearing. He practically deaf. And he can't
hear himself sing. It's obvious. But he sings anyway. He makes a joyful noise of the
Lord. He's not the only one. I've heard
many. But that's what the Scripture tells us to do, to pray for joy,
for noise unto the Lord, all he thinks. Everyone has been
the recipient of God's goodness. Everyone. We're going to see
that a little more in a moment. Verse 2, he says, "...serve the
Lord with gladness, come before his presence with singing." He's
going to come in his presence, do it with gladness and singing. It's a good thing to give thanks
unto the Lord we pray. I was glad when they said unto
me, let's go to the house of the Lord. I'm sure glad, and
I'm going to go there with gladness, and gladly sing. Serve the Lord
with gladness and sing. Third, back to 1 Chronicles,
Chapter 6. 1 Chronicles, right after 2 Kings,
you'll find 1 Chronicles. First Chronicles, Chapter Six.
Look at here. David, king, appointed sinners. There were Levites that he appointed. Now, the Levites were the ones
who were the priests over the Lord's house and around the thing,
around the purposes of worship. Various priests did various things.
There were priests who were set over the wood, chopping the wood,
and making the bread, and the candlesticks, and on and on. Well, there's certain fellows
of Levi's, and that's fitting. We're all called priests. Are
we not kings and priests? He had made us kings and priests.
We're all about the service of our Lord, about His temple, right? And we're all appointed this.
Look at 1 Chronicles 6, verses 31 and 32. It says, These are
they whom David sent over to serve as the psalm in the house
of the Lord, after the ark had broken. And they ministered before
the dwelling place of the tabernacle of the congregation with sin
in the tent. That's before Solomon built the
house. Well, Solomon came along. Let's
go over to, well, go over to chapter 9. Chapter 9, the first
part of it. Chapter 9, David again says,
"...these are the sinners, chief of the fathers of the Levites,
who remained in the chambers for three, but they were employed
in that work day and night." That's a good job, isn't it? Huh? The sinners, day and night.
That's all they can talk about. That's a good job. That's a good
job. And you know really that's about
all we're required to do. Let us come before His presence
with gladness and singing. Serve the Lord with gladness.
Come before His presence with singing. Solomon even more so. When Solomon built the temple,
he set up singers in the temple. I was a rich man. I was a rich
man. I love music. I love to sing.
I would hire him to be a full-time fan all the time. Wouldn't you? Have him around all the time.
Play me this or play me that. Sing this, sing that. And I guarantee
I'd join in on it. Wouldn't you? That's a rich man.
Well, Solomon walked and he didn't sing. I want to hear you sing. So does our God. It's music to
His ears, the praise and thanksgiving of His people, and music unto
His ears. Gladness and singing of a merry
heart make us glad. It makes us happy and cheerful,
doesn't it? Doesn't it make us happy and
cheerful? And the opposite is true as well. Look, and I'll
go back to the text. Verse 3. He said, No ye, after
the Lord, No you. Know this. Consider this. Keep
in mind that the Lord is God. It's He that has made us. He's
our Creator. Now, if you make something, whatever
you make or create, you have done it for your purpose, right? You've done it for your own enjoyment. Is that not right? If you make
something, you do it, you make it for yourself. Generally speaking. Unless you're going to give it
to somebody. But whatever you make, you make
it for your own enjoyment, your own use, your own purposes. That's
what it's supposed to serve, you, when you make it. Well,
God says, think. I made you for that reason. That's what he said. I made you. I made you to serve
my purpose, and that being, glorify me. We're not ourselves. This
is the next line. It says, He hath made us, and
not we ourselves. You have a marginal reference.
It reads better. It says, and His we are. He made
us, and His we are. We belong to Him. There's another
scripture in the New Testament that says, You're not your own.
You're bought with Christ. And so our whole purpose in life,
our whole purpose in life is to glorify our King. And the
best way we can do it is with a thankful and glad heart. That's what we're to be employed
to do by the King. Yes, we are. We're not our own.
We're fought with a cry. Read on. We are His people and
the sheep of His pasture. His people. We're His sheep.
The Lord refers to us as animals. So my illustrations are pretty
boring. So my little animal picture. Go back to Deuteronomy 10. Deuteronomy
chapter 10. And I, you know, I keep apologizing
for using my animals, and I'm going to quit, but I enjoy the
illustrations like that. My little animal kingdom. My little animal kingdom. Every
one of them there are kept, they're fed, they're watered, they're
cared for by me. And why do I have them? Why do
I have those animals? I don't make it a dime, I don't
appreciate it. I have them for my enjoyment. That's it. If I don't get some enjoyment
out of it, I'm not going to have it. Right? I enjoy simply looking
at it. My brother Kelly puts his horses
to work. Mine hasn't done a lick on her. Hasn't done a lick. I just like
to look at them. I like to look out there and
see them, that's just, that's, it's a character for me. Just
to look out there and see them eat my bread. I love to pet those
dogs. I like to come out in the morning
and run up to them and just pet them how you'd like to. I just
like to see them, pet them, enjoy them. I don't require anything
great out of any of them. and neither does the Lord of
us." Look at Deuteronomy 10, verse 12, "...and now is true
what must the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord
thy God, to walk in all his way, to love him, to serve the Lord
thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul." That's not a number you can believe.
What does he require? Not a great work, but just enough
to serve it. He'd find something in it. Now
let me ask you something, getting back to my little table. What
if one of those animals, what if one of those animals rarely
came home, not rarely saw him, and rarely killed him? What if
one of those animals didn't get along with the rest of them. What if one of those animals
was always growling and gittering me? What would
I do with that animal? Huh? The answer's easy, isn't
it? Well, now to believe her. A believer, someone who claims
to be a believer, who is generally unhappy and miserable and groused
and mean, is either very ungrateful, very ignorant, very impure, or
lost. That's just a fact. We've got
every reason for joy and for joy. God's people have great
calls for joy and rejoicing. Most people on planet Earth do. Scripture says that Psalm 11,
we have the movement, the Lord is good unto all his work. Most
people have more calls to be happy and joyful than sad. Our blessings far outweigh our
difficulties, especially in the United States. Right? Is that not right? Certainly. Every one of us in here, I know
you. I know all of us. Our lessons
are, are outweighed. Our difficulties are outweighed. We should be happy and thankful.
He says in verse four, he says, and again in verse three, that's
why he has us. Where is she? He's not going
to put up with a cantankerous, mean, ungrateful king. That's not a king. He's a bad
lord. They're just very, very immature
and ignorant, and the Lord will straighten that out. He says
in verse four, "...enter into this gate with thanksgiving." We're walking this door with
thankful hearts, entering his gates with thanksgiving. This is the Lord's acts. It's
called the gates of Zion. Jerusalem alone was a walled
city. It had gates of entrance and
various service gates. Eastern Gate being the main entrance
was a picture of Christ with his leeway into the city. But it was a protected and fenced
city, and so was his church. The Lord does something. He protects
it. He edges it. In fact, he walls it. There's
just one gate, and that is Christ's door. We are to enter into this
gate with thanksgiving, with a smile on our face. You can
be thankful and sad at the same time. Not really. Not the same
thankful and morose of a sad day. We're to enter with a smile
on our face, a pleasant word of greeting. Five times in the
New Testament, Paul and Peter both tell us to greet the Holy
Brethren with a holy kiss. Five times. In various places. We're told
to greet the brethren with a holy kiss. That is a greeting. That doesn't necessarily mean,
you know, an actual kiss. Do it. If that's what you feel
like doing, do it. If I was a brethren, do that. Our brethren. That's fine. A
hug. A greeting. Glad to see you. That's fine. So that's why we're here, to
build one another up. To come in, smile on our face,
a pleasant word of greeting, a holy kiss, a solemn heart and
solemn lips. That's what our God says to do.
I don't feel like it. Do it anyway, unless we grieve
the Holy Spirit and bring Him by Himself. It's not about me. It's not about us. It's about
this. It's about God's glory. We're sinners of the Lord. That means to give you an illustration
of that. A very simple illustration is
I came into your house. I came into your house. I didn't
preach at the door. I went over and sat on the couch.
Scattered. Didn't speak. All right. Would you have me back again? Huh? Would you walk me around?
Very good illustration, isn't it? Huh? We're here for God's
glory, God's praise, and thanksgiving. But it's come to enter into His
gates with thanksgiving, into His courts with praise. And we cannot always be happy
and joyful. I realize that. I'm not. You're
not. We can't always be happy and
joyful. There are difficulties, there are trials. Of course,
we go through sadness, grief, sorrow, and depression. Yes,
our general attitude should be one of thanksgiving and praise.
Yes. My general attitude would be,
well, joy is not glorified in the Lord to be a melancholy and
morose person. That means you don't really believe
that God is in control. You don't really believe that
he's saying everything you're looking for. That is the chief
reason that children of Israel did not enter the promised land
of murdering and complaining. They never could find anything
good, although God kept giving them good things, free of debt.
They didn't deserve anything. They didn't deserve anything
from those rotten, ungrateful people. Yet God kept raining
and raining, and bringing them water, and killing their enemies,
and all this and that. Kept doing, doing, doing, and
then they got in a heap of trouble. Then they crawled on him, and
he saved them time and time again. Then they got real kind. Then they fell right back into
that murder. They were a sorry lot, weren't they? So were we. Well, this tells us. This tells
us to enter His gates with thanksgiving, enter His courts with praise.
Be thankful, first of all. Be thankful unto Him. Bless His name. Be thankful. You know something? Thanksgiving,
if we put this into practice, it will produce and maintain
our children. This is where you put it into
practice. It will forget. You've heard
this illustration. Fifteen years, I'm starting to
come up with new ones. My brother and my sister's daughter,
Carrie, when she was just a little girl, I don't have what she was,
but they all knew enough to know, when three or four years old,
She came down one morning for breakfast. It must have been
about five. She was going to school earlier
than that. Four years old. She came down
one morning. Everybody was sitting there waiting
on her at the breakfast table. She came down and patted him.
He was kind of, you know, he was spitting in his eye. He just,
you know, snarled on her face. And Bob or Becky or whatever,
both of them, the wives of the six young ladies, You go right
back up those stairs, and go to your room, and don't come
down here until you've had a smile on your face. You're not going
to rely on anybody. You're not going to make everybody
else unhappy. There are more people living in this house than
there should be. And you come back down when you can be with
more children. And do not let her be like that. Do you know Carrie Simpson today? Do you know her? I have never
seen her not smile. And she's had some sex. But I
have never seen her. She'd bite herself in the nose when she'd come out. And you know, if you're feeling
bad, you just have to cut the rug off. Doesn't matter. Well,
some people in here are like that. Tammy, every time we ask
Tammy, how are you? Wonderful. I mean, she's going
to have the worst day. I wouldn't, I couldn't handle
it without her. But it's just wonderful. Never. And all in all, that's
what we're called to do. And if we put it in practice,
that's a different thing. It will produce and maintain
joy. Considering all the things we
have to be thankful for also, and that will lighten your heart.
Here's the key. Here is the secret, if you want
to call it that, of happiness. Be thankful. Consider what you
have to be thankful for. Don't be thinking about the few
bad things in your life. Be thinking about the multitude
of good things that the Lord has brought you. The multitude
of reasons to be humble. It will lighten the heart, it
will gladden the heart, it will dispel the gloom. Yes. I love
that hymn by, I don't know who wrote that, he says he thinks,
I can't quote it, he talks about behind every cloud there's a
smiling That's where we got that old sighting of the silver diamond
behind the dark cloud, which I can quote you anyway. The empirical sights, fresh courage,
the theology so much dreaded, are filled with lessons and shall
write with mercy on their head. That's it. And all of them together. This is what our God tells us
to do. Be thankful. Enter His gates
with thanksgiving, with a kind word, with a cheerful word, with
a cheerful countenance, with a kiss of grief. Be thankful. Have every reason to be. Bless
His name. Come here and bless His name.
You will not be blessed unless you come here to bless His name. That's right. Verse 5, it says
for, now here's the reason, for the Lord is good. How good is
the Lord to you, Max? He actually said that to a lady
he used to work with, and the local lady said, what did she
say? She said, he ain't done nothing
for me. You remember that? He ain't done nothing for me. of his summer he was working
for. He ain't got that from me. The Lord used to do that. Very
good. Have good as the Lord had to
give you. Everybody. Look around you. You're not in a wheelchair. You're
not laying on the bed. Inflicted. Bad. Got me family beside me, healthy.
Got a home. Happiness is all around me. I
like to really enjoy life. In light of all the misery that
many people are going through at this point in time, we watched
Hannah and David. I watched a show last night on
a video. The Nazi occupation of Poland,
true story, said pianists moved it, true story, famous pianist,
composer, performer. They would release that along
with the rest of the Polish peoples captured by the Nazis in prison
and cruel camps. They went hard, hard. sad, terrible,
just filled from start to finish with truth, a whole set of slaughtered
for the youth. And, you know, that Bible is
very sad and very difficult to watch. You know, it's very uncomfortable
to watch all that poverty, misery, people just dying, literally
dying, starvation, captivity, and so forth. It's good for me
to see things like that. the fact that that's the Americans
who've been through very little death violation of any kind ever
in this generation. And we've got a lot to be thankful
for and a lot to answer for. Oh, a lot to answer for. How good has God been to you?
You, you, you, you, me. We practice. We practice. Because of my intentions, whatever
we go through, though it might be difficult at the time, and
it is, some of them are very difficult, yet their lives, compared
with the blessings, The ratio of trials to blessings is very
small. Their life compared to all the
blessings we get, we live our lives in ninety percent, at least
ninety percent of goodness during our time. Their life compared
with what some people go through. David was a king, yet he was
on the run, and he was tough. Do you remember how he was in
Italy? Last time we looked at him in
Italy, he was running. Here's where he lies. Early and
late on in life. As the older man, he'd run from
Sodom and Gomorrah. Absolutely. Compared with what some people
are calling and doing the right kind of things. Go down to Mexico. It'll bring you back to this
country where you have access to all this energy, how good
the Lord has been. Those people down there, they
live on dirt floors and grass cuts, and they put on an open
fire and don't plummet. And the right well that the whole
town drinks from, the hurricane comes, blah, blah, check it,
there's a little grass cut, and then they walk. And yet, when the Lord revealed
the gospel to them, they come into the church, they come into
the worship service on Wednesday, they're walking miles to Gethsemane,
with old rags and sandals on, in a pitch black car, and walk
a long way to Gethsemane, and get there with a smile on their
face. Just so happy to be there. Has their one best-cleaned shirt
on. And it just happened to me. I
thought, if you're there, hmm, that's going to be on the front
row of the Lord. It's going to get the best. I don't know how
it's going to get the sun, but I'm glad of that. But, I've asked three questions.
In light of what other people go through, our blessings are
so great, and in light of their sins, compared to our future
lessons. What we're called to do or hear,
he said, they won't even tell you that. It says the former
thing, Isaiah 65 says the former thing, and I don't even remember
if that was mine. You know, the Lord uses the illustration
of a woman giving birth to a child of this happiness and joy and
living through its period. You ladies, when you were pregnant
with a child and you were going through that, nine months seemed
like an eternity to you. Especially the last two hours
of labor. Seemed like two years, didn't
it? Didn't it? I know he was married.
And he said, and he talked to her, Steve was out of town, and
she said, Mary looked like an absolute monster. But the Lord said, as soon as
that baby's born, haul him out like a barrel hat. Is that right? Would you go through
and get that boy out there? Ten times over, would you not?
It's horrible that you're getting that far. It was a joy that a
baby is born, if you're saying. Prevail, difficulty. It seems
like it's a long time. As soon as that child is born,
all of a sudden, all of a sudden, it's the most adorable occasion
of your life. And so it is. with the believer
when we're birthed into the kingdom and out of this chalet called
Earth. That's like never happened. And
then the eternity of nothingness. Pure, unbridled joy without cessation. So our life conditions are but
for a moment, but for a moment. And our idea is the greatest
goodness of all, the Lord is good, His mercy is everlasting. This is the greatest goodness
of God of all, is that God has chosen us for the foundation
of the world. God, in His goodness, revealed
the Gospel to us. God, in His goodness, led us
to repentance. God led us to a higher, prevailed
His souls. It's of the Lord's mercies that
we're not consumed. This is why our brother Barnaby's
statement holds so much weight. We're pure. He said, anything
this style of ale gives mercy. And we ought to be thankful for
that. Because what we've earned, what
we've deserved from God, from a lifetime of rebellion and sin
and great ingratitude and not even giving God a thought. We
reserved wrath and judgment, but now who is rich in mercy? For your great love would have
loved us even though we were dead in Christ's name. Was it
quick enough to yield this life to you? This is the greatest
grace of all, of God. He, in His mercy, has spared
us goodness and mercy of God, and sent Him, His Son, to this
cesspool called the planet Earth, to redeem the lives of us from
madness. Praise the Lord for His goodness
and His mercy, and His mercy endureth forever." We ought to
keep from them. We shouldn't, but we will. So
if you're a person and good, how good is God to you? And he
will keep doing so, leading so. How good is God to a person?
And the last thing is he is truly endurable to all generations. His mercy, His truth endureth
to all generations. God's truth is going to be preached
in the Gospels as long as there is a day, as long as there are
Jews on planet Earth. His truth, the Lord's goodness
shows that we have the truth, and we're not caught up in a
lie. This is the greatest service of all, folks. This is the greatest
of doctrines. We're sitting here hearing the
truth and our life. You know, that's the goodness
of God. Oh, my. The truth which sets
us free. The truth which enlightens our
darkness. The truth which leads us back
into darkness. The truth which causes us to
give thanks. The truth, we're sitting here
hearing the truth. You're not hearing a preacher
who's trying to pacify you, and trouble you, and make you feel
good, and tell you the truth of your good. The truth. Telling himself the truth, which
he needs. The same thing he did. It's of
the Lord's goodness that we're here tonight to hear the truth.
This is the greatest good of us all. This is our—the Lord
saves us, heals us, teaches us. The truth will keep your hearts
and minds through Jesus Christ. Look at verse 6 and 7 in closing.
I quote these in closing. Be careful for nothing. That
is not the full of anxious care and worry about anything. That's
what that means. That's how good it is, that's
what that means. But in everything, Do that everything by prayer
and supplication with thanksgiving. Don't just ask and ask and ask
and ask and ask. Do a lot of thanking, thanking,
thanking, thanking. You know, the more thanking you
do, the probably less asking there. With thanksgiving, let
your requests remain open to God. Yes, you can. Yes, you may. All your requests remain open.
With thanksgiving, your requests will be much fewer if your thanks
are much greater. That's your request. And the
peace of God, what we need is peace of God which has an all-understanding,
that is, people can understand how someone gets through this,
gets through that. This is that. will keep your hearts and your
minds through Christ Jesus, who is our benefactor, who is our
help, who is our embrace of help. So enter into His gates with
Christ Jesus, and in His courts with prayer. Be thankful unto
Him. Bless each other. The Lord is good. He mercies
every last one. It's truth. You can do it all.
That's the whole point. All right. We're going to stay. You want to stay on the other
side? All right. Stay on the other side. It's very difficult. You don't have
to. You don't have to. You don't have to. You don't have to. You
don't have to. You don't have to. You don't have to. You don't have to. You don't have
to. You don't have to. You don't have to. You don't have to. You
don't have to. You don't have to. You don't have to. You don't
have to. You don't have to. You don't have to. You don't have to. You don't
have to. You don't have to. You don't have to. You don't
have to. You don't have to. You don't have to. You don't have to. You don't
have to. You don't have to. You don't have to. You don Okay, two points. Some thank the Lord for praise, and
some for mercy, soon and sweet. Another would praise Him for
His grace. in prayer our Lord repeats. Thank you, Lord, for taking my
soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me
whole. Thank you, Lord, for giving to
me Thy great salvation so rich and free. Some thank Him for
the flowers that grow, such bolder stars as shine. My heart is filled with joy and
praise because I know He's mine. Thank you, Lord, for saving my
soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me
whole. Thank you, Lord, for giving to
me Thy great salvation so rich and free. I trust in Him from
day to day. I prove His age in praise. I'll sing this song of praise
to Him, until I meet Him again. Thank you, Lord, for filling
my soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me
whole. Thank you, Lord, for giving to
me. Thine is the salvation, so be
it set free. So.