We thank you Lord for your truth. We thank you that your love does endure forever. The trials of our life, the difficulties of our lives are often painful and difficult, and You know them, Lord. And so we ask now that as we come to Your Word that You would use it in a powerful way to minister to our hearts, to encourage us, and to convict us to walk closer with You. And we thank You for this, in Jesus' name I pray, Amen. Would you take your Bible, please, and turn with me first to Psalm 100. Psalm 100 tonight. You probably know this Psalm well, but this is where I'd like us to spend some time. And really, we're just gonna spend time in verse 4, and then another passage as well, and try to connect the things together, the themes together. But I'd like us to read through the Psalm, kind of understand where it's coming from and then we'll consider that fourth verse. Psalm 100. The psalm reads, make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness, come into his presence with singing. Know that the Lord, he is God. It is he who made us and we are his. We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him, bless his name. For the Lord is good, his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations. Tonight I've decided for us to pause our series in Judges to turn our attention, given the holiday that is two days before us, again to our series in Gratitude. And we have traced quite a number of things in this series. The place where we started was we said that gratitude is God's will. And we established that from 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, where Paul says, to give thanks in all circumstances. for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. And then we consider the direction of our gratitude from Psalm 103, that our gratitude ought to be directed toward the Lord. And David in that Psalm calls himself to praise the Lord, to bless the Lord with all of his soul, and all that is within him, blessing God's holy name. And in turn, that calls us to do the same, to bless the Lord from all of our being. And then we considered from Luke chapter 17, the account of the ten lepers and the one who turned back, that what actually produces gratitude in the heart of an individual is the salvation that only Jesus brings. That it is because of our salvation that that is what makes us chiefly joyful and thankful and and ready and willing to serve the Lord. Jesus said in Luke 17 verse 19 that that leper's, the ex-leper's faith had made him whole. And so the question was, has your faith made you whole? Have you been saved by God's grace? If you have, then the only right response then is a heart and life of gratitude. Then This past Sunday here we looked at Ephesians chapter 5 and understood that it is only possible for us has Saved people as people who have been born again by the blood of Jesus to actually praise God. It's possible, the practice of gratitude is possible by the Spirit. So Paul says, do not be drunk with wine, which is debauchery, which leads to debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit. And the Spirit's work has such an effect in our lives that there are four marks as a result of that. And one of those, the third one, includes Thankfulness, and we saw that in Ephesians 5 20 and then tonight. I would like us to Understand gratitude's invitation that here the psalmist invites us to give thanks to God so really I've got two main points tonight number one is the invitation very simply the invitation and The psalmist begins the psalm by calling us to make a joyful noise to the Lord. And we can joke about this, that our singing may not be good, so we're just making a joyful noise, not necessarily a good noise. But this joyful noise, it comes from a heart that's been changed by God. And so, not only our song, but he says in verse two, to serve the Lord with gladness. Come into his presence with singing. So there's There's this coming together of serving the Lord and singing to the Lord. And then in verse 3, we're called to know. We're called to know something about God. We are to know that the Lord is God. He is the only God. The only One who can truly save, the only one who is good, the only creator and sustainer of all the universe. It is He who made us, and we are His. We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. This goes beyond just the normal creative act of God, but actually the creative act of God in saving us, creating new life within us. But then we come to verse 4, and this is where we'll spend most of our time here. He says, enter his gates with thanksgiving. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise. Give thanks to him, bless his name. This is simply a call for us to seek the Creator's presence. And so, what is his courts talking about? Well, his courts is where one might expect to actually find God. But where is that? Where are these courts? Well, in answering that question, we need to remember that this is not one of David's psalms, right? David wrote many psalms in the Psalter, but this is not one of them. Whoever wrote this psalm intended for it to be sung in connection with Thanksgiving, and not the holiday, but Thanksgiving as part of the normal act of worship on the part of a Christian. And it was likely that this psalm was written before David's time and was already sung by the time he came to the throne. And so therefore, there is this possibility that his court refers to the tabernacle, with all of its furnishings, with its tent and curtains. The Hebrew word translated court can refer to something as simple as a quarrel or a sheep pen. And inside the curtain that surrounded the tent were various places such as the altar, the laver, the furniture of the holy place, and the Ark of the Holy of Holies. But the structure wasn't the issue. The same word could have also referred to the grand edifice that Solomon built after David was already dead. Whatever the place would be, if it was a reference at all to a particular place, it was certainly considered to be the place where worship and thanksgiving would be offered. This was the case from the day Solomon finished and dedicated the temple, but again, the physical place or the structure is not the issue. One interesting observation is that this is the same Hebrew word described of the inner and outer courts of the place of King Ahasuerus in Esther chapter 6. So there's an important picture here with courts. Remember Haman? Haman could enter the outer court of King Ahasuerus. But he could only enter the inner court when summoned, and that was part of Esther's deal when Esther entered without the invitation or the offer from the king, without his permission. And so to barge into the king's inner court was to invade his private space, and it actually could result in execution. But what am I getting out here? What is the point? The point is that God does not invite us to enter a structure or a physical place. Many religious people are generally impressed by physical structures. They're impressed by attractive religious leaders. But if all the buildings And all the organizations that claim to represent God were suddenly to disappear, either because of persecution or something else. What would happen to the so-called faith of many that have just had a superficial faith resting in a place? Well, God is not distracted by buildings. In fact, God invites us into his very presence. Now, I'm not talking about the local church. The local church isn't a building, it is a people. And God has made us for fellowship with himself. And sin interrupts that fellowship. God has provided the means of reconciliation through the blood of Jesus Christ. And through Christ, He still is inviting us to come into His courts to praise Him. In fact, it is our duty. I mentioned on Sunday that there is a moral duty to give thanks. There is also this duty, as created things, to give worship, to give praise to God. And our approach to how we worship is so important. What is worship? Because he says to enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise. So he's speaking about worship, right? So what is that? Worship is the humbling of our hearts before God. And it is coupled with this expression of acknowledging God's greatness. In our modern worship, psalms play a big part in praising God. And so the same must have been true when the psalm was written and when the people were worshiping God then. A singing that is right and good and honors God is that which addresses who the person and character of God is. Folks, a right assessment of God, coupled with a right assessment of ourselves, is going to result not only in worship of God and a proper assessment of God, but it's going to lead us to thanksgiving. People who love God also love to worship Him. Do you love to worship God? Does your heart get warm, and really, just truly, you can't wait to worship God. Is that your heart's desire? The fact is, in the first place, we ought to worship God individually. There ought to be a time where we spend every day with the Lord, in some capacity. And this is not a legalistic thing where you have to do it in the morning or in the evening at this particular time or in this particular way, but we ought to be spending time with the Lord. And I think that having a dedicated time of worship is so important to our spiritual growth or spiritual lives, but it ought to happen throughout the day as well, where we pray to God, where we're thinking on spiritual things. We even are listening to godly music that will help encourage us in this way. But in the second place, worship is also public and corporate and together with other believers. It is collective. There is individual worship, and there's collective worship. And yes, that happens primarily on the Lord's Day, but this, even what we're doing now, is a form of worship. As the Bible is taught, and as we pray, and as we read the scripture, or as we sing, all of these things are public demonstrations of the worship that God deserves. You know, the thing is that not all people Not all people who claim to love God are willing to actually engage in the kind of worship that God demands, that God deserves. But the Scriptures encourage us to praise God with our whole hearts. The Scriptures encourage us to praise God with every part of our being. And so God desires us to show Him thanks in our praising of Him. In this context, we're not surprised then to see the command to bring the Lord an offering of thanksgiving. I want you to think about Old Testament expressions of thanksgiving. This is a psalm for the thank-offering, and the thank-offering can be referenced in Leviticus chapter 7. And you don't have to turn there, you can if you like, but Leviticus chapter 7 verse 12, we read there that if he offers for a thanksgiving, that is for a thanksgiving offering, Then he shall offer with the thanksgiving sacrifice unleavened loaves mixed with oil, unleavened wafers smeared with oil, and loaves of fine flour well mixed with oil." And so if in the Old Testament when the people of God wanted to offer this kind of offering, that's exactly what they would bring. And so it's possible that this psalm was used in connection with this thanksgiving offering. And it is also possible that it's part of a collection of five psalms that the people sang as they went into the temple or the tabernacle to offer sacrifices. Some scholars believe those include Psalm 93 through 100 has a section of the psalms that would actually call Jehovah as king. At the same time, this psalm, this verse particularly, is a call for all of God's people to be characterized by thanksgiving and praise. If we know the Lord, If we know Him at all, and we know what He's done for us, we ought to be thankful. God is so gracious and so glorious and wonderful that He gives us all kinds of good things to enjoy, and every gift, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above. The truth is, though, if we're honest and we start assessing ourselves accurately, we should know that we ought to be thankful. Right? We know that as Christians, we have everything to be thankful for. God is so kind and so forgiving. He's faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanses from all unrighteousness. We should be continually thankful for even such things as life and breath and health and every day and in everything. It is a great opportunity to think about how great God is. That should be our daily offering. The Israelites would offer the Thanksgiving offering, but we ought to be, as Christians, giving a daily offering of Thanksgiving from our hearts to the Lord. He is worthy of it. He is God, and we are His. We are the sheep of His pasture. He is our good shepherd. He takes care of us. He provides for us. He loves us. He faithfully guides us. He restores us. He does all of these things, what should we offer but all of our praise and thanksgiving? But the problem becomes that we know our hearts too well. And so that leads to the second point, not only the invitation or the call, but secondly, the problem. The problem is that so often our hearts are not this way. So often, by nature, we tend not to be thankful. And so, as we consider this second point, I want us to go to another text of scripture, and that's Romans chapter 1. Romans chapter 1. If you'd turn there, please. Romans chapter 1. We see that humans, by nature, tend not to be thankful. An explanation for why our hearts struggle with this is found in Romans chapter 1 and verse 21. Romans chapter 1 and verse 21. We read there, as you'll remember in this passage, Paul has said in verse 16 that he is not ashamed of the gospel for it's the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Gentile for the righteousness, verse 17, for the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, the just or the righteous will live by faith. And then he goes on to describe the wickedness of the world in which we live, and if we go to verse 21, after saying that God's wrath has been revealed and all of this, he says in verse 21, for although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks to Him, but became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. For although they knew God, In Psalm 100, the passage we were just in, we are called to know something about God. What did it say in verse 3 of Psalm 100? And so, is this the kind of knowing? Well, I think so. I think that there is a part of us, every one of us, that the fool has said in his heart there is no God. There is a part of us that knows God. The problem with the unregenerate human nature, though, is that though they know God, they simply don't care. For though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God. In short, this statement is telling us that our sin keeps us from being thankful. We are sinners by nature, and the greatest sin there is rejecting God. The greatest sin is not to love Him and embrace Him with all of our hearts, with all of our soul, with all of our mind, with all of our strength, not to love Him and embrace Him in faith. To reject Him has the revealed God, the Creator and the Sustainer of the universe. But God has provided plenty of evidence for Himself in creation and in the Word. A general revelation is what we often call it, and we see in verse 20 that God's invisible, invisible attributes, namely His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world, and the things that have been made so that they are without excuse. Psalm 19, the heavens declare the glory of God. and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. We can see in creation the fingerprints of God all over the place. It's not enough to save a sinner, but it is enough to know that there is a God. And in this statement in verse 20 of Romans chapter 1, we see that God has revealed His eternal power. God has revealed His divine nature. He has made these things obvious in creation so that people are without excuse. We know there is a God. We know a lot about Him. In the next chapter of Romans, if you flip over to chapter 2, Romans chapter 2 and verse 15, They show, Paul says in chapter 2 verse 15, they show that the work of the law is written on their hearts while their conscience also bears them witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them. That is, they try to justify that though the evidence is there, they simply don't care. They simply have rejected it. As if creation and conscience were not evidence enough, God has given a detailed description of himself in the Bible. Again, flip one more chapter over to chapter 3, and Paul is arguing in chapter 3 verses 2 through 4 something about this fact. You remember he says in Chapter 1, that all Gentiles are sinners, that's his point. Chapter 2, all Jews are sinners. And Chapter 3, he begins to say that all of us are sinners. But Chapter 3, verses 2 through 4, Paul says, to begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. What if they were unfaithful? He says that you may be justified in your words and prevail when you are judged. So Paul says, if you could justify yourselves, you certainly would try, but you're trying to justify yourself when you can't. Because of God's self-revelation, we know who God is and what He's like, but sin causes us to resist God, to not accept Him as our Creator and Master. And as a result, if you go back to chapter 1 and verse 18, God's wrath is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. for what can be known about God is plain to them. It's clearly there. Rejection of God is a refusal to acknowledge who He is. Sin causes us to suppress the truth that is clearly revealed about God. And it says in verse 21 of Romans chapter 1, but they became futile. futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened because they reject God, they become futile in their thinking. That isn't to say that if we walk in sin, we become unintelligent, right? There are many intelligent, smart people who are not believers, who are self-proclaimed atheists and agnostics. But God is expressing the extent of sinful human wisdom in Genesis 11, 6. Listen to these words. And the Lord said, Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do, and nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them." I mean, no thinking person would claim that all sinners are stupid because they're sinners. But all of this wisdom that they have acquired is earthly wisdom. It is not wisdom from God. And so they reject God. They become futile in their thinking. Their foolish hearts continue down the darkness road to the point where, like a blind person, you try to describe what the sunset or the mountain or this place or that place looks like, but because of their blind condition, they are unable to see. So it is with a person who does not embrace God. As he reveals himself, they move deeper and deeper into dark blindness and are unable to see the light. of God unless God continues to reveal Himself to them. But God is patient. He leads people to repentance. He is bringing people to that place. The last part of verse 21 also tells us that part of their problem is because they've suppressed the truth and they're living in darkness, they no longer give thanks to God. Sin causes us not to be thankful people. So, what are we to do with this? Well, how are we to be thankful people? Well, we have already looked at this in this series that what makes us thankful people is God changing our desires in salvation. That once we were darkness, but now we are light. God has changed us. He has lifted the blinders off of our eyes. He has made dead men live. He has caused us. to be born again. But you say, wait a second, I'm a believer, we're here on Tuesday night, we know this stuff, we know the problem, so what are we to do about it when we as Christians have periods of ingratitude? What are we to do with that? We ought to remember what Psalm 100 said, that the Lord is God, that He's actually the one who's made us and knows us and walks with us. the application that is very simply what we saw toward the end of the message on Sunday. That we must not allow our feelings or our doubts or our struggles in this life to cause us to not be thankful people. But Colossians chapter 3 verse 15 says to let the Word of Christ dwell in us richly. Let the Word of God be the thing that guides our thinking. makes us have a settled conviction that God is good. And no matter the circumstances of our lives, we choose to be thankful. Will you do that? Will you choose to let God's Word be the truth that is the settled conviction and the reason for your praise of God? Because what we know of God is revealed in the scripture. God has given that to us. And so we ought to, by the Spirit's grace and by His filling our lives, we ought to give thanks to God. May God help us to do just that. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank You for this glorious invitation and the revelation of our problem that by nature we are not thankful people. You have changed our desires and given us new life and hope through the Gospel. You have called us to Yourself. And yet we stand still in need of your help to actually be thankful as you call us and command us to be. Lord, take what has been helpful said tonight and use it in a powerful way. Remove what was not. Help us as believers to love you with all of our hearts and mind and soul and strength and to be thankful unto you and bless your name. You are indeed good and you are worthy of all of our praise and we pray this all in Jesus name, Amen.