I want to share a message this morning entitled A Real Thanksgiving. A Real Thanksgiving. And we're going to take our reading in 1 Chronicles chapter 16. We're going to read a song. A song that King David wrote It is a song of thanksgiving. The purpose of the song was to thank God, and it was written on a specific occasion. And it's important to understand the occasion. They were transporting the Ark of the Covenant from the place where it had been in Kireth-Jerim, transporting the Ark of the Covenant from Kireth-Jerim to Jerusalem. This was the first time the Ark of the Covenant had come to Jerusalem. And I'll explain this a little bit. David was a new king. He was the one that David, that God raised up after Saul, the first king of Israel. He was a man after God's own heart. And Saul had a lot of issues and eventually he and his family were removed from the kingship and David became king. And it took quite a while for everybody to accept David, especially people from Saul's tribe, the tribe of Benjamin. But eventually, the nation of Israel came around David, they recognized David as the king, and then one of the first things after that that happened was David led the Israelites against Jerusalem. You see, Jerusalem was habited by the Jebusites, and it was in a prime location in Israel. They conquered the city, and it became known as the City of David because David moved there. That was to become the capital of the nation of Israel, this united nation. The capital would be Israel. And with the capital, David wanted people not only to come to see him, he wanted them to come to see God. He wanted the people to come and worship God. So he wanted the tabernacle, which was the place of worship, the tent at that time, to be erected there in Jerusalem. And the centerpiece was not the tent, but what was in the tent. There was that Ark of the Covenant that was made, I believe, at the base of Mount Sinai when God gave Moses those instructions that had been with the Israelites almost the whole time since then. And It represented, and inside of it were the Ten Commandments that God gave Moses, and I believe Aaron's staff, and a pot of manna that was kept from the days wandering in the wilderness. But on top of that was the mercy seed, and these engraved cherubs, and it was there that Ark was kept in the Holy of Holies, and there God's presence dwelt with the people. of Israel. So the ark was the holiest of objects for the Jewish people. And David wanted that ark moved to the tabernacle to be located in Jerusalem so truly the people would come to the capital not just to hear him but to seek God. And it was on this occasion, as they moved the ark there into the tabernacle in Jerusalem, that David wrote this song for them to sing. So read along with me. It's a little bit longer, but I'm going to try to make it as clear as possible as we read this together. 1 Chronicles 16, starting in verse 8. Give thanks unto the Lord. Call upon His name. Make known His deeds among the people. Sing unto Him. Sing psalms unto Him. Talk, ye, of all His wondrous works. Glory, ye, in His holy name. Let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord. Seek the Lord and His strength. Seek His face continually. Remember His marvelous works that He hath done, His wonders, and the judgments of His mouth. Oh, you seed of Israel, His servant, you children of Jacob, His chosen ones. He is the Lord our God. His judgments are in all the earth. Be you mindful always of his covenant, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations, even of the covenant which he made with Abraham, and of his oath to Isaac. And he confirmed the same to Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant, saying, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance. When you were but few, even a few, and strangers in it, and when they went from nation to nation, and from one kingdom to another people, he suffered no man to do them wrong. Yea, he reproved kings for their sakes, saying, Touch not mine anointed. Do my prophets no harm. 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 the nations. For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised. He 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 kindreds of the people. Give unto the Lord glory and strength. Give unto the Lord the glory. Do His name. Bring an offering. Come before Him. Worship the Lord and the beauty of holiness. Fear before Him, all the earth, the world also shall be stable, not moved. Let the heavens be glad, let the earth rejoice. Let men say among the nations, the Lord reigns. Let the seas roar, and the fullness thereof. Let the fields rejoice, and all that is therein. Then shall the trees of the woods sing out at the presence of the Lord, because He comes to judge the earth. Oh, give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endureth forever. And say ye, save us, O God of our salvation and gather us together and deliver us from the heathen, that we may give thanks to thy holy name and glory in thy praise. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel forever and ever. And all the people said, Amen, and praised the Lord. Let's pray together. Our gracious God and King, as we read the words of this song penned thousands of years ago, Lord, they ring just as true today as they were back then, because you are a God that has not changed. Lord, there have been so many things that have come and gone on the earth, so many situations, difficulties, that have dawned upon many a day, Lord, that you have resolved and things that you have worked through in the darkest and most difficult of times. God, you are God and you use even the difficulties and darkness around us to show your great power and your goodness. Lord, today we need. To praise you, God, today we need to give you thanks. Today, Lord, our hearts need to be real and sincere. There needs to be this Thanksgiving born from our lips, Lord, that comes from the very depths of us, because, Lord, we live in dark and dangerous times. Lord, there are many uncertainties on the horizon for so many of us. Lord, yet you are God. And this song is true today as it was back then. Help us to praise you, Lord, I pray again. For, you know, my prayers, Lord, that you would help this congregation to rejoice in you. To do what only your spirit can do in the hearts of men and women and young people that are gathered here, that they may see you as you are and that they may worship you, Lord, today in spirit and truth. Praise your name. Praise your name, Lord. For it's in the name of your Son, Jesus, we pray. Amen. I gave you a little bit of the backstory, a little bit of the backstory on this song that David wrote. And that's what it was. It was a song. I don't know what it sounded like. I'm sure it was beautiful. But I believe that this song would be better understood with more context. And so let me just kind of lay out what's on my heart this morning. I want to give you three backstories and four lessons. Three backstories and four lessons. I'm going to spend probably the bulk of my time on these backstories before I roll out that first lesson. But once they come, they're going to come pretty quickly. So just so you understand where we're at with this and where we're going. Because sometimes when we read something in the Bible, we cast a vision in our minds about what things are like. And we can't always see ourselves in the midst of the stories, in the midst of the songs that are going on. And so I want to put things in better context today, because I know how it is at my house. I know what we're in the midst of right now. Our kids are coming home, Lord willing, this week, and got some more family coming in and different things. And so this is time to clean the carpet. This is time to try to wash all the windows. This is time to try to cram all this stuff in, because why? Because we want it to be just right. We want it to be like one of those, if you're a bit older, Norman Rockwell paintings, or Thomas Kinkade, you know, you want to just get everything just right. And that's how we imagine that things need to be for us to be in a place to be able to praise God. And as I read to you this song of thanksgiving, I mean, and it was real, and it was sincere and pure. Perhaps you envision that as David penned this song and as they sang this song as a nation, you know, kind of like we envision for Christmas, you know, silent night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright, everything is just all wonderful the way it's supposed to be. But that was not. the real Thanksgiving. The first thing that you need to understand about this real Thanksgiving, the context of this song, is that things were not all easy and good. Yes, the nation finally united around David to make him king, the whole nation, and it took quite a while. And yes, they had conquered Jerusalem. And perhaps you think that things were, as it says in 1 Kings 5, 4, but now the Lord my God has given me rest on every side so that there is neither adversary nor evil occurring. And that sounds good, but that verse is from Solomon's day, David's son. It was not David's day. Because David never had rest, really, during his time. While he was king, he and his people lived under constant threat of the Philistines, the Moabites, the Ammonites, and some giants to throw in there, the brothers of Goliath that still had a vendetta against David. And he would eventually see victory, but it would not be without a battle. David's life was characterized by war and conflict the whole time. In fact, David eventually wanted to replace that tent in Jerusalem with a temple, a building, a beautiful structure. He wanted to do it, had plans to do it, started amassing materials to do it, even talked to a prophet about it. The prophet said, yeah, yeah, do that. But then God came back to the prophet and said, what? God told the prophet to tell David, thou shall not build a house for my name, because thou hast been a man of war and hast shed blood. You see, as this song is unfolding, everything was not yet in its place where it was supposed to be. There were a lot of loose ends, a lot of battles yet to be fought all around them. There was success, but there wasn't total victory. In fact, at the end of this song, if you notice in verses 34 and 35, as David is concluding this song, he says, give thanks to the Lord, because His mercy is always there. And also, while we're praising Him, I want you to say, God save us! Oh God of our salvation, gather us together, bring the people together and deliver us from the heathen, the nations that are oppressing us even now. There is unrest. Honey, that's kind of an important back story, isn't it? Because sometimes we get in our minds that everything has to be calm and bright and still and good and everything exactly where it's supposed to be. The reality is the kids aren't going to notice the carpet's clean or that the windows are washed. And it's not just that, is it? There's a lot of loose ends probably in every one of our lives. A lot of prayers that aren't yet answered. A lot of things you'd like to see in place. A lot of battles still being fought. Amen? And if we have to wait for everything to be the way at least we perceive that it should be, for us to give thanksgiving, we're not going to have a real thanksgiving, are we? Unrest without the camp. Backstory number two. unrest with God. You might think that at this moment everything between David and the Lord was great, and I believe it was at a good place right now, but David was healing. David was healing spiritually. So what do you mean by that? Well, this wasn't David's first attempt to move the ark to Jerusalem. This was his second attempt to move the Ark to Jerusalem. The first time, the Ark was down at Kireth-Jerim. And I probably didn't pronounce that right. You're welcome to do better. But the Ark was in Kireth-Jerim, and the story was the Ark had been, during much of Israel's previous history, in Shiloh. And that's where they worshipped. But during the days of Eli the priest, There was a lot of rebellion and the Israelites took the ark out to war thinking it was like a lucky charm and that God was going to bless them at war because they took the ark and the Philistines stole the ark and the Israelites got routed. And guess what? The Philistines took it and all sorts of bad stuff started happening to them. So eventually they gave it back to the Israelites and they sent it back on a on a cart with a cow, and it took it to Kirith-Jerim, and the Philistines gave offerings so that all the bad stuff would stop happening to them, and it just stayed there. And there it was, all the days of Saul's kingship, and David was wanting to bring it to the capital so that it would unite the people in worship of God. And so after he united the kingdom, he went to all the leaders of all the people, because he really wanted the whole nation to be together. And he said, what do you all think about bringing the ark to Jerusalem? What do you think about this? What do you think about this? And everybody believed it was a good idea. Everybody was united. And so David, after doing that, he got a brand new cart and oxen. And he had a procession with songs and instruments. And they got the ark and they put it on the cart. And they started this procession to take the ark to Jerusalem. And as they were walking along near the house of a guy named Obed-Edom, there was a guy whose name was Uzzah, U-Z-Z-A-H. And as they were going along, the ox stumbled and the cart kind of started bouncing, and this guy named Uzzah, who was concerned about the ark falling off, he reached up his hand to steady the ark, and he fell down dead. This guy who was just trying to keep the ark from falling off the cart, tried to steady it. Good intention. He fell over dead. Immediately. And they stopped the procession. And they took the ark and they put it in the house of Obed-Edom. And the Bible tells us exactly how David felt about that. It says, and this is from the ESV, and David was angry because the Lord had broken out against Uzzah. And that place is called Perez Uzzah, which means a breakout against Uzzah to this day. And David was afraid of God that day. And he said, how can I bring the ark of God home to me? David, in this first trip, because of Uzzah's death, got mad at God and became afraid of God. Because of what God had done to Uzzah, striking him dead. Now why did this happen? Why did God do this? Well, if you were to go back and study in the Old Testament and the instructions given in the book of Leviticus and things like that, you would see that the ark was not to be put on a cart. It was to be carried on poles. It was to be carried by specific Levitical priests, that God had made a way for all of this to happen, and when they put the ark on the cart, and they had good intentions in all of what they were doing, but they didn't do it the way God said to do it. And so the Lord, making a point that what He said He meant, He struck Uzzah down. You see, my friends, our God is to be regarded as holy, which means separate and apart. He's not like us, just bigger and better. He is altogether other and different. And when the Lord tells us how we are to approach Him, we need to take that with utmost seriousness because He has prescribed a way to come to Him. And there is no other way despite all of our best intentions that will work apart from the way that God says he is to be approached, the way he is to be worshiped. And so David became angry. He was angry with God because he was trying to do good. He talked to all the other Israelites. He had his good intention. He wanted people to see God. Doesn't God see that I'm trying to do the right thing? And then he was afraid. Can I even trust God? I mean, how could I ever do this? So they abandoned the move. They left the ark in the house of this guy, Obed Edom, and it stayed there three months. And during those three months, everything at that guy's house prospered. I don't know in what ways it all prospered, but something happened at that guy's house and it just became obvious that God's blessing was on that man and his home. Something so obvious that nobody could ignore it. During those three months, God did not change. But David's heart changed. David's perception of God changed. And David resolved his anger, and he resolved his fear by changing his view of God. God didn't change. But David was the one who had to change, and he came to revere God as holy. A sense of a holy, reverential fear came upon his heart. He sought the Word, and he understood how God wanted the ark to be moved, and he sought to do it that way. But he also realized that God is not only holy, God is good. God is good. It was God's desire and intention to bless Israel. God's love for the people had not changed, despite what happened with Uzziah. So at this moment, as they're singing this song, his heart was healing from a painful lesson. And he wrote and led a nation in a song of sincere thanksgiving to God. Third backstory. Unrest at home. You might think that everything was going really good for David. It wasn't. For there was unrest at home. Because of David's change of heart, the way David approached God changed. And as we read in scripture about the bringing in of the ark to Jerusalem. We see that when they did it again, three months later, they used the Levitical priests who carried the Ark on poles, and they were coming in with songs, and they were making sacrifices as they went along. And the whole nation was gathered together to continue this. And the Bible tells us in 1 Chronicles 15, if you were to back up a couple pages, David was clothed with a robe of fine linen. as also were all the Levites who were carrying the ark, and the singers, and Chenaniah the leader of the music of the singers, and David wore a linen ephod. So all Israel brought up the ark of the covenant of the Lord with shouting to the sound of the horn, trumpets and cymbals, and made loud music on harps and lyres. David's change of heart changed the expression of his worship because he didn't lead this procession as a king. He led the procession wearing a simple linen garment there as a servant, as just a man before the holiness of the presence of God. He did not consider himself even to be a leader of men among them, but just one of them that had the joy and privilege of being able to bring the Ark of the Covenant into the tabernacle there in Jerusalem. And the Bible tells us that as David, as He came with the procession, that He was dancing and He was rejoicing and singing with the Israelites as they brought the ark and all these things were going on. He danced before the Lord, which was not common for the king to do. In fact, kings wouldn't do such a thing. It would be seen to be beneath them. And the Bible tells us in 2 Samuel, which tells us of the same occasion, 2 Samuel 6 and 20, that when he returned to his house to bless his household, Michael, M-I-C-H-A-L, it was McCall, perhaps, the daughter of Saul, one of his wives. came out to meet David and said, how the king of Israel honored himself today, uncovering himself today before the eyes of his servants, female servants, as one of the vulgar fellows shamelessly uncovers himself. And David said to Michal, it was before the Lord who chose me above your father and above all his house to appoint me as prince over Israel, the people of the Lord. And I will celebrate before the Lord. I will make myself yet more contemptible than this, and I will be abased in your eyes. But by the female servants of whom you have spoken, by them I shall be held in honor. And Michal, the daughter of Saul, had no child to the day of her death." David's humble behavior, which was beneath the behavior of a king, as he humbled himself to worship the Lord in front of all the people of Israel, made him despised in the eyes of his wife. And she accused him and spoke harshly against him. At that moment, David had a serious rift in his home. And it was a rift that was never resolved because she never had a child to the day of her death. Everything was not all right at home. on this day when David sang this song. His home was rocked by deep division, and yet he wrote and led a nation in song of sincere thanksgiving to God. So if I were to summarize all this, I'd say David's inspired song was sung with unrest without from the enemies of Israel, He had had unrest with God, fear and anger with God that he has just come to a point of resolving. And he had unrest at home. There was nothing like a Norman Rockwell painting in regard to this Thanksgiving. Nothing like a Thomas Kinkade painting. Nothing idyllic, perfect about the circumstances. surrounding this sincere and spiritual song of thanksgiving. And so here's lesson one. Unrest is the perfect occasion for real thanksgiving. Whatever situation you find yourself in today, every one of you, is the perfect occasion to have real and true thanksgiving in your heart. You don't have to wait for it. The only thing that's needed is for you to see, and I wanted to share a few more lessons briefly with you that I think will help you with having the kind of thanksgiving you need. Lesson number two, real thanksgiving is specific. As we look at this whole song, there are several phrases that come up over and over. Kind of ideas. It says, make known His deeds. Talk about what He's done. talking of all of his wondrous works, right? Things that God has done. Remember his marvelous works. Bring them back to your mind, the things that God has done. Be you mindful always of his covenant. Remember the promises that he's made to you. You're a child of God, you're under the covenant of the blood of Christ, a superior covenant in every way. And they were given thanks for the covenant they had as a nation of Israel. You've got a way better covenant. Remember what you've got and your salvation. Remember the promises of God, what he's done for you, what he's doing for you and what's ahead. And show forth from day to day his salvation. You see, as David penned this psalm, He writes in generalities, but he's writing to a people that he knows should have some stories, right? People that should have some stories that they can tell, things that they can see, things that they're aware of from day to day, right? We pray, give us this day our daily bread. That's part of the Lord's prayer that He taught us. But when we get that bread, do we realize, thank you for providing for me. You've answered my prayer. You've brought the very thing that I need. You've done it again. You've done it again. Are we connecting that? Are we able to be specific as we say we're thankful? If you can't specifically name what God has done for you, you're not thankful. How can you have a spirit of thanksgiving about you if you can't name what He's done? If you're not seeing what He's doing even now, how can you be thankful? Remember the prophet Elisha and his servant, they were in Dothan and they were surrounded by the Syrians and that servant was so afraid about what was gonna happen and Elisha prayed to God. He said, open his eyes that he may see. Open his eyes, Lord, that he can see. And God opened his eyes and he looked and there were just chariots and angels on the mountains all around them, way more numerous than the Syrians. And my prayer for us today in an ongoing way as a congregation is, Lord, open our eyes that we can see. Open our eyes, God, that we can see what You're doing around us, that You're present, that You're hearing, that You're working. It doesn't all get resolved. The Syrians were still there surrounding the city, but he saw the Lord greater, stronger, mightier, and he was able to rejoice even though he was in a city surrounded by the Syrians. Real thanksgiving opens our eyes. to the reality of God's hand moving around us. That's how Paul and Silas could praise God while they're in shackled in a prison. Because they saw past all the things and they knew who their God was. Number three, lesson number three, real thanksgiving is personal. It's personal. It's specific, but it's also personal. David wrote, give thanks unto the Lord. Call upon His name. Sing unto Him. Sing psalms to Him. For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised. If we're gonna do this right, I mean, we have to be specific. We have to think about what God has done, what his hands have brought into our lives. We have to look at this, but then again, we have to look back up the shaft of light from where this light has come. to the one, the blesser, not just the blessings, but to the blesser and realize that it's come from the goodness, the kindness of our great God. If it's going to be real Thanksgiving, we can't just look around and say, I like all my toys. I like all my food. That makes me thankful. Not really, because Thanksgiving is done when you tell someone, thank you. You need a blesser. I mean, what good is it if we live down here in this world and we rejoice in having light to see things and we rejoice in warmth and we rejoice in growth and we're completely ignorant of the sun that makes it happen. Right? For it's the sun that's making all of that move. It's the sun that's illuminating our eyes to see. And the Bible tells us in James that every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights in whom there is no variableness, no shadow of turning. Every good thing in your life. You know, I know that many of us live in fear of losing the good things in our life. And that's a whole nother sermon. But just back up a second. You've got a good thing in your life. Where'd that come from? God. It came from God. You know, Job, on the day that he lost his children, on the day that he lost his possessions, he said, humbled himself, he said, the Lord has given and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. I only had these things in my life because God gave it and now he's taken it. But his good character has not changed. The situation has changed, but God has not changed. He remains holy and good. My life is not the judge and determination of God's character because my story's not done. My story is not done. Folks, your story is not done. We need to direct our thanksgiving personally to our great and mighty God. For friends, the Bible tells us that if he cares for the sparrow, aren't you worth much more than that? Aren't you worth much more than a bird? And he cares for the sparrow and he cares for the grass. Final lesson, real thanksgiving is forward looking. Real thanksgiving is forward-looking. This song ends, and we've read this passage already, give thanks to the Lord for He's good, for His mercy endureth forever. And say, save us, O God, of our salvation. Gather us together, deliver us from the heathen, that we may give thanks to Thy holy name and glory in Thy praise. Real thanksgiving causes us to stop and to look back at what God has done, what He's done in our lives, and then to look up and to see Him and to recognize Him and thank Him and give Him praise for it. And it also prepares us for what's ahead. It also gets us ready for what lies ahead. Because the story of David and Israel as he writes this song was not over. He puts this in the song. Lord, there's still things undone. There's still things we need you in as a people, as a nation. I as the king, there's more ahead of us. And David understood and recognized that stopping and thanking God right now was absolutely necessary for everything else that was to come. Every year on July 4th, as a country, we celebrate the 4th of July. It's the celebration of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in July of 1776, when we freed ourselves by declaration from England. We still had to fight to make it happen. But we said it was so. You've got to start with that. Fourth of July, though celebrated early and often, was not made a federal holiday until 1870. Some of you are aware I'm going through right now old minutes of the Western District Association, the spiritual forefathers that we have in this area. Western District of Tennessee, our association came off of them, but these are our spiritual forefathers in the area. And as I'm transcribing those handwritten minutes, in the year 1826, they included as a recommendation from the association to the Tennessee churches in the time in Kentucky, we advise the churches to observe the fourth day of July as a day of thanksgiving to God for His goodness to us as a nation. Their advice was to encourage God's people to stop and celebrate that day. Now, this is before the Civil War. This is before many other things aligned. This is when they were settling the area. I mean, you think about all the things that have happened since then, the world wars and all the ups and all the downs. What was it that these spiritual forefathers of ours understood? Because they were trying to plant an area. They were trying to prepare an area. They were trying to make a land and an area where future generations could come and be raised and there could be, you know, towns and cities and all sorts of things and churches all over the place. What were they concerned with? I mean, they were very concerned about the future. They were investing in that. They had moved over from Virginia and North Carolina and all sorts of places. taming this land, what were they concerned about? They were concerned about the future, weren't they? They thought about the next generations. But what do they also understand? That for these next generations, these next days to be able to go forward, there are times to stop and look back and say, look what God has done. Because the God who has laid this foundation for us and the God who has been faithful to us and he's shown himself, he is the same God, the unchanging God that will live and lives already in our uncertain future. Because every one of us, our future is uncertain, isn't it? We don't know what the rest of the day holds. We don't know what tomorrow holds. And I know we can get wrapped up with lots of fears and anxieties about all those things that are ahead. But my friend, if you're gonna walk through those days with an uncertain day, you need an unchanging God to walk with you through every one of those days. And I tell you what, today is a good day. Today is a good day, wherever you're at and whatever you're in, to give Him praise as we conclude Real thanksgiving can exist in unrest. Real thanksgiving is specific. Real thanksgiving is personal to God. And real thanksgiving is forward looking because it gets you ready for what lies ahead. Today is a good day for us to give our God thanks. And I want us to conclude today and sing a song together and whatever else the Lord might have for us in this service. I'm going to ask Brother Adam to come and Brother Lee. And as a congregation, we're going to stand and we're going to sing, thank you, Lord, for your blessings on me.