We have spent the last 14 days as a church family developing and growing the gratitude in our lives. I hope you have enjoyed these past 14 days living out what we are calling “The Gratitude Challenge”. I’ve heard some cool stories about God using the gratitude in your lives for His glory. And if you’ve missed the daily challenge in the past few days, don’t worry about it. Pick back up today and finish strong. For those of you who were here a few weeks ago, remember, these 19 days of gratitude may give you a 55% chance to live longer…The whole premise behind living a grateful life comes from the voice we are listening to the most. We when complain more than we show gratitude and thankfulness, it reveals what we are choosing to dwell in our hearts and minds. It doesn’t take much to discover that we live in a world that constantly trying to influence us.

Opening Illustration: I’ve had some recent conversations with my kids about music. For you parents who have older children, I’m sure you’ve had the same conversation. I’ve heard my kids say, “But dad, I don’t understand why I shouldn’t listen to that song. It doesn’t say any bad words.” You know my response: “It’s not about the words, it’s about the message.” “What is the song saying?” Rachel and I will go read the lyrics of certain songs to our kids and help them understand the song. It’s amazing how many songs we consume that we have no idea of their true meaning. You’re Beautiful by James Blunt – Not a Love Song! Total Eclipse of the Heart by Bonnie Tyler – About Vampires. Born in the USA by Bruce Springsteen – Anti-American Song. In the Air Tonight by Phil Collins – About nothing. But the opposite is true as well. Once we know the meaning of a song, once we know all the lyrics, we can’t help but sing. When someone says, “That song’s my jam,” you know what’s about to happen. Depth produces enjoyment. The more you know, the more you enjoy. And the more you enjoy, the more grateful you become.

That’s what we are after today. I want you to know God, to savor God, to enjoy God, and be thankful for God. I want your worship to get deeper and sweeter. We are going to look at Psalm 100 – a famous psalm through the history of the Church. I hope you walk away with this simple, but profound truth: You were created to know and enjoy God. Open up to Psalm 100 in your Bibles. We are going to read God’s Word with expectancy. Why? God’s Word is alive and powerful. Read Psalm 100. Pray. Even though Psalm 100 is only 5 verses, it packs a punch. We are going to start with verse 4 with this: Accept the invitation to worship.

1) Accept the invitation to worship. (vs. 4) I want to give you some quick background information about this psalm. This psalm would have been used for worship. There’s a good chance this psalm was used for worshippers when they arrived at the temple in Jerusalem. And then notice the structure of the psalm. Verses 1-2 are a call to worship. Verse 3 tells us why we should worship. Verse 4 calls us to worship again. And then verse 5 tells us again why we should worship. There are two major parts to this psalm: Know God and worship God. But there is a subtle connector between these two major parts: gratitude. When you know God, your heart will overflow with thankfulness. And that thankfulness turns into worship. If you are running after gratitude, then you have to look at the other two areas: how much you know God and the worship that comes from knowing God.

If you’ve ever wondered why our church worship services have worship and teaching, then just read Psalm 100. Knowing God and praising God go together. Worship and teaching go together. Education and exultation go together. If you have education and teaching that doesn’t lead to worship, then it fails. And the reverse is true, worship that is not rooted in theology is empty. God is not glorified with artificial passion. I believe this – and do whatever we can to live it out at TCSH. Each Sunday, our worship team gathers to make sure we understand what’s happening during the service. But I also ask the question if they are ready to worship. The expectation that anyone on this stage is not living in artificial passion. But this psalm isn’t just for those with instruments in their hands. It’s for you. It’s for me. It’s for us. The expectation from Psalm 100 is that none of us are living in artificial passion. That’s what verse 4 is about: ⁴ Enter his gates with thanksgiving; go into his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and praise his name. Verse 4 is a communal verse. It’s about the people of God going up to the temple to worship. The imagery in verse 4 is that of presiding priest welcoming the people into the temple. He’s calling them from the outside and into the gates. He’s beckoning them to walk inside into the courts. And they are to come with joy, with gladness, with song, and with thankfulness. There are no Eeyores in Psalm 100! These people are excited and expectant to worship God.

If you want true, deep gratitude in your life, then ask yourself, “What gate am I walking through?” What invitation are you accepting that will evoke praise from your life? Illustration: Riddle about doors. For some reason, my family has been on a kick about telling each other riddles. I told my family a riddle recently about choosing one of two doors to walk through. In the riddle, one door leads to death and the other leads to life. There was nothing spiritual about the riddle. But without missing a beat, one of my kids yells out “I choose the door to life because that’s where Jesus and salvation are!” Riddle solved! This world is always trying to get you to value something other than Jesus. This world is always trying to get you to accept the invitation to worship other than Jesus. Your first step toward gratitude is to make the choice to enter the gates and walk into the temple courts. Jesus has opened up the doors and you have direct access to the Father. Choose to be in the presence of God – and from there you will worship. I said there are two major parts to this psalm. There’s the invitation to worship. There’s also the invitation to know God. Really, it’s an expectation to know God. That’s what we see next: The invitation to worship God comes with the expectation to know God. 

2) The invitation to worship God comes with the expectation to know God. (vs. 3, 5) Take a look at verses 3 and 5: ³ Acknowledge that the Lord is God! He made us, and we are his. We are his people, the sheep of his pasture. ⁵ For the Lord is good. His unfailing love continues forever, and his faithfulness continues to each generation. We’ve already seen that we can’t worship without knowing God. I would venture to say, you can’t truly worship God if don’t truly know God. The psalmist wants to make sure we know certain things about God. Your foundation for thanksgiving is in what you know about God. What are we supposed to know?

Verse 3 gives us three important knowledge nuggets.

1. The Lord is God
   • What does 1 Corinthians 8:6 tell us?
   • ”But for us, there is one God, the Father, by whom all things were created, and for whom we live. And there is one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things were created, and through whom we live.”
   • Our God is the only God – all powerful, all knowing, and all present
   • Any other belief system is simply cheap imitation of the one true, living God
2. God made us
   • The reason that you are here today is because God made you
   • We are not some random collection of molecules
   • The Creator of the Universe knit you together
   • You are not accident
   • You matter because God made
   • You are intentional because God made and God loves you
3. We belong to God
   • Since we belong to God, God takes care of us – like a shepherd takes care of His sheep
   • For some reason, my dad asked me this week, “How do you tell the difference between a goat sound and sheep sound?”
     • I thought it was some kind of joke, so I said, “I don’t know. How?”
     • And then I realized he was being serious
       • He really wanted to know how – and I still don’t know why he wanted to know
       • There are moments when you realize a parent is getting old – this was one of them for me.
     • What my dad unintentionally reminded me of with his question was John 10:
       • ²⁷ My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. ²⁸ I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from me,

If verse 3 wasn’t enough, the psalmist gives us verse 5: ⁵ For the Lord is good. His unfailing love continues forever, and his faithfulness continues to each generation. This Great Shepherd of is good. He loves us. And His love never runs out. He is faithful to us. And His faithfulness never runs out. The same God that created us, also sustains us. Know the Lord is God and He is good. Let that truth settle in your gut. Some of you keep that truth in your head. Some of you let it travel to your heart. But this truth needs to rest deep down in your gut. This truth needs settle in your very core. It needs to shake your core. God is God and He is good and He is for you.

I want you to know this God. I want you to know Him personally. The problem is that so many are content with that God gives, rather than God Himself. If you are content with experience the goodness and the gifts of God without experiencing God Himself, you are missing it. It’s not about the gifts, it’s about the Gift-Giver. It’s not about the goodness, it’s about the good God. Your whole life is about God. You were created to know and enjoy. You were created to glorify God. What does the Westminster Catechism say? “What is man’s chief end?” “To glorify God and enjoy him forever.” When you understand who God is and understand whose you are, it changes your life. If you are here today, and you’ve been hanging out on the fringe, Jesus is inviting you in. Jesus is inviting you in to experience His goodness, but more importantly, to experience Him. If you have been trying to enjoy the goodness of God while ignoring God Himself, it’s time to fill that void that you feel inside of you. It’s time to begin a relationship with Jesus Christ.

GOSPEL PRESENTATION

The invitation to worship has been given. The knowledge to know God has been put in front of you. Here’s what’s left: Let your gratitude for God overflow from your life. 

3) Let your gratitude for God overflow. (vs. 1-2) Look back at verses 1 and 2: ¹ Shout with joy to the Lord, all the earth! ² Worship the Lord with gladness. Come before him, singing with joy. The people are in the gates, they’ve entered the courts. They’ve accepted the invitation. They know God. So they shout with joy! The worship with gladness. And they call the entire world to join in – because God deserves all the world to praise Him. Paul, in his letter to the Colossians, said it with utmost clarity: ¹² Therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and dearly loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, ¹³ bearing with one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a grievance against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you are also to forgive. ¹⁴ Above all, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. ¹⁵ And let the peace of Christ, to which you were also called in one body, rule your hearts. And be thankful. ¹⁶ Let the word of Christ dwell richly among you, in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another through psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. ¹⁷ And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Colossians 3:12-17 (CSB). Look at verse 16 again. Did you catch what it said? Let God’s Word dwell richly among you. Admonish one another through worship. And then what? Singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.

If I could sum this up in a sentence, it would this: Don’t take your eyes off Jesus. Illustration: Look at your bride. Whenever I officiate a wedding, there is a key moment of instruction I never miss during the rehearsal. When the bride and groom are repeating their vows, do you know what I tell the groom: “Don’t look at me”. It was one of the very first weddings I officiated, and we got to the point where I was reading the vows so the groom could repeat them to his bride and do you know what he did? He stared at me. I’m trying to give him the side eye to look at his bride. Eventually the bride gave his hands a squeeze and he realized he needed to be looking at her. So I tell the groom, “Keep your eyes on your bride”. When we look with that kind of focus on Jesus, gratitude starts filling up in your life. It’s so easy to look at what you don’t have. But when you keep your eyes on Jesus, you see that you have everything. I love this quote from C.S. Lewis: Quote: ““Your real, new self…will not come as long as you are looking for it. It will come when you are looking for Him… The principle runs through all life from top to bottom, give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favorite wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end submit with every fiber of your being, and you will find eternal life. Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.” – C.S. Lewis. Jesus is life. And that should be produce a gratitude deep down in your soul. 

I’ll close with this question…What’s your song? What’s your jam? What is the message of your life? When the world looks like at, what do they hear? I hope your life sings about Jesus. I hope that you sing about the God that took your life from the pit and place you on the foundation of Jesus.

I hope your life is Psalm 40:

¹ I waited patiently for the Lord to help me,
    and he turned to me and heard my cry.
² He lifted me out of the pit of despair,
    out of the mud and the mire.
He set my feet on solid ground
    and steadied me as I walked along.
³ He has given me a new song to sing,
    a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see what he has done and be amazed.
    They will put their trust in the Lord.

I hope the gratitude of your life overflows because you know God and you worship God. I hope you sing because you know you were created to know and enjoy God. Let’s pray. In just a minute, we are going to give you the opportunity to let that gratitude overflow. But first, we need to do some celebrating!  

Transition to Baptism 

• What baptism is
• Why do we do it
• Introduce Kadence
• Baptism

 Transition out of Baptism

 Before we start singing one more time, I want you to sit in the goodness of God. As I read these passages, know God, and let gratitude fill your soul. 

1 John 1:5 - ⁵ This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all.

Psalm 145:5-7 - ⁵ I will meditate on your majestic, glorious splendor and your wonderful miracles. ⁶ Your awe-inspiring deeds will be on every tongue; I will proclaim your greatness. ⁷ Everyone will share the story of your wonderful goodness; they will sing with joy about your righteousness. 

2 Corinthians 4:8-10 - ⁸ We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. ⁹ We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. ¹⁰ Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies. 

1 Peter 5:7 - ⁷ Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you. 

Isaiah 41:10 - ¹⁰ Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand. 

Psalm 3:3 - 3 But you, O Lord, are a shield around me; you are my glory, the one who holds my head high. 

Romans 5:8 - ⁸ But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.

John 3:16 - ¹⁶ “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

Psalm 100

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.
⁴ Enter his gates with thanksgiving;
    go into his courts with praise.
    Give thanks to him and praise his name.
⁵ For the Lord is good.
    His unfailing love continues forever,
    and his faithfulness continues to each generation.

Are you thankful yet? Is your filling with gratitude yet? Are you ready to worship? 

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