Look at God as good. He is good. And we'll be looking at some scripture and seeing what a great God that we have. The most important thing we can be thankful for is our God. He's provided for us eternal life. He has taken care of us, He watches over us, and He has a place prepared for us. What a great God. You'll notice that the starting verse there is 1 Chronicles 16, 34. It says, O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endureth forever. These same words appear six times in the scriptures. In other words, that same verse is repeated, same words of that verse is repeated six times in the scripture, and I listed out the places where that appears. At least 36 times, 36 times we are told God is good. 36 times it's emphasized to us in the Bible that God is good. And throughout the Bible, as you read through the Bible, you find his great compassion and that he is willing to forgive, his willingness to forgive. God is of great compassion and he's willing to forgive, willingness to forgive. You remember he showed mercy to King Ahab? Wicked King Ahab. Very wicked, but when he turned to the Lord, the Lord showed mercy to him. 1 Kings 21, verse 29. It didn't end up that God took everything away from him, but God did show him mercy. And also to the wicked king Manasseh, in 2 Chronicles 33, verses 12-13, God showed mercy to him when he turned to the Lord. And we are told 41 times that His mercy endureth forever. 41 times we're told in the scripture, His mercy endureth forever. God is good. I put some verses in there, Psalm 34, 8. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man that trusteth in him. Psalm 145 in verse nine, the Lord is good to all and his tender mercies are over all his works. Lamentations 325, the Lord is good unto them that wait for him, the soul that seeketh him. And then Nahum 1.7, the Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble and he knoweth them that trust in him. And Psalm 84, 11, for the Lord God is a sun and shield. The Lord will give grace and glory. No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. A strong promise made there. And if we will try to do right and live by the word of God, no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. God is good, it's emphasized to us over and over again in the scripture. We have a good God. And by the way, the only God, as we'll mention later. Verse number two here in the notes, we are to praise and thank him for his goodness. And how do we do that? We praise and thank him for his goodness. We do this through prayer, and singing. Let's look at some scriptures on this and back it up by scripture. Psalm 51 and verse 15. Psalm 51 and verse 15. Here the Bible says in verse 15, Open thou my lips and my mouth shall show forth thy praise. We not only speak of him and how great he is, but when we pray, we talk to God and we praise him and praise him for how great he is. Chapter 63 and verse 3. Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, My lips shall praise thee. My lips shall praise thee. Psalm 119. There are many verses, but we will just look at a few tonight. Psalm 119, verse 171. My lips shall utter praise when thou hast taught me thy statutes. My lips shall utter praise. Then in chapter, back to chapter 71, We pick up the other side of it in 71. Not only our lips and through our prayer and our mouth we speak of him, but in Psalm 71, verse 8 says, let my mouth be filled with thy praise. and with thy honor all the day. And then in verse 23 it says, my lips shall greatly rejoice when I sing unto thee. and my soul which thou hast redeemed. My tongue also shall talk of thy righteousness all the day long, for they are confounded, for they are brought unto shame that seek my hurt. And so praising the Lord with our mouth, with our singing in chapter 135 of Psalm and verse three. 135 and verse three. Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good. Sing praises unto his name, for it is pleasant. Somebody says, well, I can't hold a tune. It doesn't matter. It's pleasant to the Lord. Just sing unto the Lord. Even if you're off key, it's pleasant to him. 147 and verse 1. Praise ye the Lord, for it is good to sing praises unto our God, for it is pleasant, and praise is calmly." Something we should be doing calmly. It's a common thing. We should be doing it. And singing, it is pleasant. So I put in here in the notes, congregational singing is praise to the Lord. That's why we do the congregational singing. It's a part of praise to the Lord, praising his name. And so when you sit there and don't sing and just listen to everybody else, you're not participating in praise. Because congregational singing is praise. And it's pleasant to him, whether you can carry a tune or not. Okay, and then thus notice here we show our thanks not only by mouth but also by our lifestyle and giving. We go back to David's song and praise in 1 Chronicles chapter 16. 1 Chronicles chapter 16. And we'll look at verses 7 through 12. It won't take the time to read all of this. I would encourage you to read all of it. And think about what he's saying when he has this psalm of thanksgiving, 1 Chronicles chapter 16. I'll get in 1 Chronicles, I'm in 2 Chronicles. chapter 16 and verse 7, then on that day David delivered first this psalm to thank the Lord into the hand of Asap and his brethren. And he says, give thanks unto the Lord, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the people. That's one way that we Praise and thank him as making known his deeds among the people. Sing unto him. Sing psalms unto him. Talk ye all of his wondrous works. Glory ye in his holy name. Let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord. Seek the Lord in his strength. Seek his face continually. Remember his marvelous works that he hath done, his wonders and the judgments of his mouth. And then if you look on down there to verse 23, he talks about the great things there in these verses in between that he did for Israel. And in verse 23, he says, sing unto the Lord all the earth. Show forth from day to day his salvation. Declare his glory among the heathen, his marvelous works among all nations. For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised. For he also is to be feared above all gods, for all the gods of the people are idols. But the Lord made the heavens. Glory and honor are in his presence. Strength and gladness are in his place. Give unto the Lord You kindred of the people give unto the Lord glory and strength give unto the Lord the glory do unto his name Bring an offering there it is. How do we praise the Lord and thank him? Bring an offering here's his His psalm of thanks to the Lord. Bring an offering and come before him. Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. So there's a couple of ways. He makes very clear there to praise and thank the Lord is the offering that we give. It's not talking about the tide here. It's talking about an offering above the tide. And come before him. Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. Holiness. Living a holy life. and bringing an offering, fear before him all the earth. The world also shall be stable that it be not moved. Let the heavens be glad and let the earth rejoice and let men say among the nations, the Lord reigneth. Let the sea roar and the fullness Thereof, let the fields rejoice in all that is therein. Then shall the trees of the woods sing out at the presence of the Lord, because he cometh to judge the earth. Oh, give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endureth forever. David's psalm of praise there brings out some of the ways that we can be thankful to him, show our thanks by praising him with the mouth, with the offering, and with a holy life, living a holy life. That's a way we can show our thanks to the Lord for the great things that he's done for us. Now notice number three here, there is no God other than our God. His greatness and goodness surpasses more than we can comprehend. If you look in Psalm 136, Psalm 136, In verse 1, O give thanks unto the Lord for his good, for his mercy endureth forever. O give thanks unto the God of gods, for his mercy endureth forever. O give thanks to the Lord of lords, for his mercy endureth forever. To him who alone doeth great wonders, for his mercy endureth forever. To him that by wisdom made the heavens for his mercy endureth forever. To him that stretched out the earth above the waters for his mercy endureth forever. endureth forever. To him that made great lights for his mercy endureth forever. The sun to rule by day for his mercy endureth forever. The moon and star to rule by night for his mercy endureth forever. And he goes on to explain the great things that he did for Israel here in these verses following. So notice now what the prophet Isaiah told us about our wonderful God. Prophet Isaiah, we're going to go back to Isaiah 40. Here he brings out some interesting things about our God. Now the theological term for what we're going to be looking at here is a theophany. A theophany is a way that it's explained so that we can understand. It's put in human terms so that we can understand it. You know, John 4, 24 says, our God is spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth. So the only way we can really comprehend our God is he must use a theophany. He must put it in terms that we understand so that we can get the idea of what God is like. God doesn't have hands, but he uses the term of hands to explain to us how he operates and what he is and how he works. And that's what we call a theophany. And so we notice here in verse 12, the Bible tells us, who hath measured the water in the hollow of his hand. So the Bible says he can hold all of the water of the earth in the hollow of his hand. There are just, I guess around 70% of the earth is covered by water. I wrote down some notes here in my Bible 332,500,000 cubic miles, something like that. And God holds all of the waters of the earth in the hollow of his hand. Remember, that's atophany. It's trying to explain to us how awesome our God is, how big he is, that he can hold all of the water of the earth in the hollow of his hand. And notice it says, and meted out heaven with a span. He placed the vast heaven out with a span and that's from the thumb to the little finger. In other words, the whole heaven, he put it out there like that and it just fit from his little finger to his thumb to help us to understand how great he is. And then notice it says, it goes on to tell us in this verse, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure. And that word comprehended is also translated hold in the Old Testament. So all of the dust of the earth was held in a measure. And it appears if you look on down that he talks about the is counted in verse 15 and are counted as the small dust of the balance. So, in other words, this measure that he measured all the dust of the world in was just a little measure to him. Just a little measure, all the dust of the world. Wow, that is something. Then he, verse 12 again, it says he weighed the mountains in scales. and the hills in a balance. In other words, the idea is that he weighed the mountains on scales, that's a lot of weight, and the hills in a balance. In other words, he put them on a scale and balanced them out to equal them out, to put them in the places that he put them in. In other words, it's showing us his mighty power. I don't know if anyone here tonight would like to try to go over in eastern Ohio where we have some pretty good size, I would call them more hills than mountains, and just try to lift one of those. Anybody want to take the challenge, just go try to lift one of those. And he weighed them all in scales, all the mountains and the hills and the balance. And then he here, all of the nations are like a drop in a bucket to him, verse 15. Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket. Isaiah is trying to explain to us just how great our God is. And he tells us that all the nations, I don't know about you, but I've seen pictures of great numbers of people together. Boy, it looks like a crowd to me. But to God, all the nations of the earth are just like a little drop in a bucket because he's so big, he's so great, he's so mighty. And he says in verse 15 that the islands there, the islands are just a little thing. He said, behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing. They're very little. The islands, boy, there's a lot of islands. And 45,000 large enough for humans, 25,000 islands in the U.S. alone, something like 840,000 square miles, a lot of islands. And he says they're very small. I have a note down here that there's lots of them. 2 million I think I've got written down all together. 45,000 large enough for humans and 25,000 islands in the U.S. alone. And he says they're just a little thing. And then G here in the notes, there are none to compare because he is the only God. He says in verse 18, to whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare unto him? It always amuses me when I read in the Old Testament of how God tells us in the Bible that the workman goes out there and he gets a piece of wood and he carves around on it and he cuts it up and then he sets it up and worships it, made by his own hands. can't hear, can't see, can't do nothing, how foolish. Can't do anything, what's described here, the awesome power of our God. It's kind of a foolish thing, yet many people do that. In Vietnam, they had to, they set their little gods up on a mantle, and when you tell them about Jesus, if they They hear about him, they'll take and make some kind of a little image of him and they'll set him up with their gods. And they worship all these gods. None of them can hear because they don't see Jesus as the only god. They don't, just an idol. And that is the only god that can save them from their sin. But when they do see that, then they get rid of all their other gods. So it's, to whom then will you liken God, or what likeness will you compare unto him? And then look at verse 25. To whom will you then, will ye liken me? Or shall I be equal, saith the Holy One? Lift up your eyes on high, and behold, who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number? He calleth them all by names, by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power, not one faileth. I don't know about you, but man has tried to name some of the constellations, but there are just millions of them out there, millions of stars, millions out there, but he calleth them all by name. Why sayeth thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, my way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God? Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? He never slumbers nor sleeps, Psalm 121, verses 3 and 4. He's always on the job. Sometimes you can think you need the pastor get into a serious situation and you try to call pastor rate of all and he's out somewhere try to call pastor Kenny and he's doing something and we're not available and We all both of us need to sleep But not with our God He's on call 24 hours of every day. And he says, call upon me, day of trouble, and I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things that thou knowest not. Jeremiah 33, three that I put down there in the bottom of the notes. So that he is always, never faints, never weary. And notice what it says, there is no searching of his understanding. Now there are a lot of men today that think they know more than God, but someday they're going to stand before the hymn and they're going to realize that all that they had in their little puny brain was nothing compared to our mighty God. Those atheists, those evolutionists, those people who rejected God are someday going to understand that all of their wisdom was nothing but foolishness. There is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might, he increases strength. Even the youth shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. That's where the strength is with the Lord. They shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint in the wind. We trust our own might, Well, we trust His might. We put our confidence in the Lord and trust Him. He hath made, Psalm 111 verse 4 there, He hath made His wonderful works to be remembered. The Lord is gracious. and full of compassion. Chapter 107, verse 8 says, Oh, that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men. Probably at Thanksgiving season, the most neglected one is our God because we will thank him for the things he's given us, we will thank him for the things we have. But often we forget to thank him for him and for who he is and for his great power and for his great mercy and compassion that he has shown to us. And in Psalm 40 in verse 5, many, O Lord, my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to usward. Ever thank God for his thoughts that he thinks of us often? The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good. They cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee. If I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered. There's a God who cares about us. So this Thanksgiving season, don't forget to thank God that he is good and that he is who he is and that he is a God that is almighty, all-powerful. There is nothing, he doesn't faint. He neither slumbers nor sleeps. He's always watching over us. His mighty power. Don't forget to be thankful for our God. Let's pray. Father, we do thank you for these few moments to think about how great our God is, how wonderful our God is. We just pray that our eyes will be focused upon him, You loved us so much that you gave us your only begotten son. Dear Jesus, you gave your life for us. What a God we have. What love you have shown us. How great you are. We don't have to worry about The promises that you've made because you're well able to care for every need, to take care of every problem, to keep every promise. We thank you that we have you. And we thank you that you are the only God and there is none else. And help us this Thanksgiving season not to forget you because it's all about you. We thank you and we love you and we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.