Amen. Now, Psalms 100 is just basically a call to praise. And really you can divide it up into two parts, and that's what I'm going to do, divide it into two parts. You'll have a call for praise, and then it gives you reasons to praise. A lot of the Psalms does that. That's a lot of the Psalms you can divide up that way. They'll call on God's people to praise, and then in the Psalm it'll give you reasons that you have to praise. Now really, we have a lot of reasons to praise, do we not? So what we're going to look first of all is ways we praise. Ways we praise. Now I pray as we're getting ready to look at ways we praise that that's a way of life for you. I mean, if you really want to do something for the Lord, one of the greatest things you can do is praise Him. And that should be, like I said, a way of life for God's people. We all should praise the Lord. How often? We should do it every day. We should do it multiple times a day. Praise pleases the Lord, but praise also has an effect upon you. Praise will actually raise you up. You've probably done this and if you've anything like me I've done this. I've got caught myself in complaining a lot before and you know when you're complaining are you happy? Have you ever seen a happy complainer? I've never, never to this day seen anyone that was complaining that was happy. Now on the opposite end of that, praise on the other hand, you'll see happy praisers. You know, have you ever really seen anybody that was praising the Lord that wasn't happy? So you see just a little basic illustration like that. You can see that we need to choose to praise Him, and we need to choose to do that. Every day. Certain ways we do that, which we're just about getting ready to look at, but it should be something we choose to do every day. You gotta praise, like I've said so many times, you gotta do it when you don't feel like it. I mean, a lot of times you got to do it when you don't feel like it. Sometimes you don't feel like praising, but if you would get alone with the Lord and praise, then you'll find that it has a tendency to raise you up. So you'll catch yourself in that. Every day it's a choice. Am I going to praise him or am I going to complain? You're going to do one of two. I'm either going to praise him or am I going to complain? So make that choice first thing in the morning. And it's a good thing to, when you wake up, give the Lord your first thoughts. And one of the things that I've done often in my life, I'd like to say I've done it every day, but sometimes you forget, you tell the good king good morning. Good morning, great king. Thank you for another day to live on this, your creation. And just praise, take a moment to thank him and praise him for things. And it'll, it's a better way to open your day. It kind of sets the groundwork for the day. All right, let's look at verse one. That'll give you that introduction. Psalms 100 called for praise is going to be our title. It says to make a joyful noise unto the Lord. make a joyful noise unto the Lord now one way i think we make a joyful noise i think if you'll go back to psalms 95 psalms chapter 95 i think one of the ways we do that is by singing I think some people don't like to call their singing joyful noise, but that indeed is. Just basically, it's to be a song of joy, or to sing the song joyfully. You ever sing a song joyfully? Buddy, when you sing a song joyfully, like when you realize you've been saved by His grace or washed clean by His blood, and you're singing about the blood, many times it will fill you with joy. And when you're singing it, you're singing it with a lot of I love to see people sing with what? Sing with joy in your hearts. That's what the book of Ephesians, book of Colossians, when it talks about being filled with the Spirit, it's singing with melody in your hearts to the Lord. And it gives you, it's a singing with joy. See, that's how the Lord likes it. Psalms of chapter 95, it says, Oh, come and let us sing. We're talking about making a joyful noise. And what I'm telling you is one way we do that is through the means of singing. Now watch this. Let us sing unto the Lord. Let us make a joyful noise. to the rock of our salvation. See it says let us sing unto the Lord and then it right follows that up but telling you how you do it and how you do that is singing is I should say making a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Look at verse 2, let us come before his presence with thanksgiving and make a joyful noise unto him with songs. Notice you make the joyful noise with Psalms and that's of course the Psalms are songs. That's one of the ways that you make a joyful noise to the Lord. I love good hearty congregational singing. I remember years back, I was up at Uncle John's. We was up at Green Bank and he was trying to get a church started there out of his house. Boy, you never did want Uncle John to lead the singing. If anybody else didn't sing, he'd get mad. And we was up there one time where I was basically looking at what I was getting ready to teach on, and John was singing, and after the first verse got done, he said, getting a little tired of singing up here by myself. Wouldn't everybody pitch in? You talk about cranking it up a notch. Everybody indeed did. Congregational singing, everybody should sing. So I can't sing. That's the biggest excuse, really, I've ever heard. Honestly, we don't care what you sound like. It's not the sound that the Lord hears the song in the heart anyhow. And if a person's embarrassed to sing, I realize some people are that way, you can open the hymn book and read it. You can do that. That's something, if you wanna really participate, you can open up and you can read along the wording of the songs, and then you can do that in your heart. And that's participation in the singing service. I think everybody should indeed do that. Sing out, watch the words, and sing to Him from your heart. Turn to Psalms 47. Psalms 47. Verse six, now you can go to Psalm after Psalm that tells you to sing to him. It says, sing praises, it's verse six, Psalms 47, sing praises to God, sing praises, sing praises to our king, sing praises for God is the king of all the earth. Sing ye praises with what? With understanding, you need to understand, you know, you need to understand the preacher when he preaches, but you need to understand what the song's about. That's why sometimes, sometimes if I lead the services, sometimes I'll explain the meaning of a song. I remember Jeremy Shamlin said, oh no, he's preaching out of the hymn book. You ever heard a preacher doing that? You get up there and start talking about the hymn, he said, oh, he's preaching out of the hymn book again, just teasing. with me, but one of the ways we make a joyful song is by singing. The Lord likes us, for His people, to sing praises to Him. Let's go back to our text now. So we're making a joyful noise, and one of the ways, we could look at other ways, but one of the main ways we do that is through the use of singing. It's one of the ways that we indeed do that. Now notice he says, all ye lands in verse one, all ye lands, I think that's interesting. So he's calling upon all the lands to rejoice. And of course, our God's God of all the earth, isn't he? He's just not the God of Israel, he's God of all the earth and he's the creator and he's sustainer, but he's also redeemer. When you look at the book of Revelations chapter five and look at the book of Revelations chapter seven, you see in heaven a multitude which no man can number of every kindred, tribe, nation, and people. So he's calling on all lands to give him praise. And I dare say in every nation on this planet, I guarantee you, that God has His people there. So He's calling on all lands. He has people that He saved by His grace in all lands. As a matter of fact, when He sent the church out in Matthew chapter 28, He told them to make disciples of all nations, all lands. So every continent and every nation are to make a joyful noise to the Lord, and one of the ways we do that is through the means of singing. Back to Psalms 100, let's move on to verse 2. So, ways we praise, number one, by making a joyful noise in singing. We don't care what you sound like, and the Lord don't either. Long as you sing to Him, you can get someone who can sing real pretty, but if they're not singing for the right reason or from their heart, the Lord don't enjoy that. But when you sing and you're singing from your heart and you mean it, the Lord enjoys that. He smells a sweet smell when you do that, I believe. Verse two. It says, serve the Lord with gladness. Serve the Lord with gladness. Now this is the second way we praise, is by serving the Lord. One of the ways we bring glory to the Lord with our life is by serving Him. And it says to serve the Lord with what? Gladness. Serve the Lord with gladness, is what we're to do. Gladness means that it's a joy to serve Him. We shouldn't grudge our service to the Lord, begrudge it. Oh, I'm gonna go to church, but I don't wanna go. I mean, many times, yeah, I'll teach that class, just cause somebody else won't do it. There needs to be a gladness in service. and that's what he says here see where it says serve the lord with what just don't say serve the lord doesn't it says to serve him with what gladness because it's a it's a privilege and it's an honor to do so so we serve him uh with gladness we worship him with gladness come to church because we're glad to come That's why we come to church. I don't come to church because I'm forced to, or because it's my job. I come to church because I'm glad to. It's a gladness there in my heart. Ain't you glad? Scripture says in, I think it's Psalms 1 and 22, I was glad when they said unto me, let us go up to the house of the Lord. There's a gladness associated with worshiping Him. or given to His work. Of course, that's a gladness. I mean, we don't begrudge what we give to the Lord's work. It's done for a good reason, to spread His commission, spread His gospel. We don't begrudge that either. The Bible says the Lord loves a cheerful giver. Let me say it one more time. The Lord loves a cheerful what? give her. You should give because you want to. That's why we have the offering box in the back. People have to find it and look at it and they give because they want to. We don't stick nothing underneath your nose or anything. We want you to give because you want to. So it's a giving, it's a service with gladness. We do this in our worship, we do this in our giving, we do this in whatever we do for the Lord is because we're glad to. Let me show you a little something here that I thought was remarkable. Let's go to the book of Malachi. Malachi ain't hard to find. Last book of the Old Testament. Malachi chapter 1. I want you to take note of what I'm about to say because what we're talking about is the ways we praise. One way we praise is by making a joyful noise in singing. Another way we do so is by serving the Lord with gladness. In other words, what we do, coming to church, giving, whatever we do to contribute to this local body, God wants us to do that with joy. Now in Malachi, he's addressing some of the, he's addressing the priests, those that offer the sacrifices. And this was special. This was a special office to be given by the Lord. The sons of Aaron, they were, I'm sorry, the Levites and the priest is two groups of men that worked at the temple. And the priests, of course, were the ones that offered the sacrifices. And it was a full-time job. And they labored at the temple. Now, I want you to notice how they viewed their labor. Are you ready? I want you to notice how they viewed their labor. And I want you to listen to this. And who heard them say these things was God. And when God sent this message to Malachi, He addressed what these men were saying in secret. Are you ready? Notice what he said, verse 13, I'm sorry, verse 12, but you have profaned it, talking about the offerings, and you can see that in verse 11, but you have profaned it in that you say, the table of the Lord is polluted, the fruit thereof, even his meat is contemptible. You said also, behold, what a weariness is it. In other words, what they're doing is they're looking at their labor that they were doing for the Lord at the temple, And it names all the different aspects that they would have been over at the temple in verses 11 and in verse 12. And it says, behold, what a weariness it is. What a what? weariness it is, and you snuffed at it. And the word snuff means to puff or to blow. It's basically this, I got to go and go down there and work at the temple. That's their attitude. They didn't consider the what? They didn't consider it a joy. They didn't consider it a joy and they never considered it a gladness. So here's an example of men that had a great work and had a great duty and had a great privilege at God's house. They considered it a what? Behold what a weariness, what a weariness it is. And God took note of that, because God didn't want them to do their service out of, you know, out of feeling obligated. God wanted them to do it with joy and gladness. So, second way we praise Him is by serving the Lord with You give with gladness, you preach with gladness, you teach with gladness, you attend with gladness, you sing with gladness, you do everything with gladness. If you can't do it that way, you adjust your attitude and do it that way because God don't accept it any other way. God don't deserve it any other way. Okay? Number three, let's go back to Psalms 100. And let's notice, let's notice verse, let's skip down to verse four. Entered to his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise. Be thankful unto him and bless his name. Now yes, it says enter to his courts with what? Thanksgiving. So it mentions Thanksgiving in verse four. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving and enter into him and I'm sorry, enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise. Be thankful unto him and bless his name. Twice in verse four it tells you to be what? Thankful. Two times it says it. And that's a problem in the Old Testament. It's a problem in the New Testament. It's a problem today is getting people to be thankful. And especially if you're born again, you always have reason to be thankful, of course, when you're saved. So when we enter His courts, we enter His courts with thanksgiving. We indeed do that. Psalm 69, let's look at that real fast, Psalm 69. Now I want you to notice verses 30, and 31. I've read this to you a bunch of times in the past because I stress Thanksgiving and the reason why I do it is because God enjoys it but there's another reason why I do it. Do you know what that is? It lifts you up. It'll make you better if you do it. I mean sometimes folks have a tendency to drift into the depression range and one reason for that many times is because they just don't focus on Thanksgiving. They focus on losses rather than gains. They focus on rough things instead of the blessings they have in the Lord. So Thanksgiving again changes. The Lord enjoys it But it has an effect on you too. Verse 30 says, I will praise, Psalm 69 verse 30, I will praise the name of the Lord with song. That's one of the ways we praise, we haven't talked about that. I will magnify him with thanksgiving. You know what magnify means? Lift him up. Lift him up. It lifts him up when you give him thanks. I will magnify him. I will praise him with song. I will magnify him with thanksgiving. Look at verse 31, what thanksgiving does for the Lord. Now, notice what it says. This also shall please the Lord. It specifically tells you it pleases Him when you do it. Better than an ox or a bullet that has horns and hooves. Now the reason why he throws in the ox and the bullock was that was the most expensive sacrifice you could offer. When you wanted to bring the biggest offering, that's what you brought. You brought an ox or a bullock. So he said, if you'll give me thanks, he said, that's more pleasing to me than the most expensive sacrifice you could offer. without Thanksgiving. So, we are to enter into His courts or gates with Thanksgiving. So, those are three ways we praise, making a joyful noise to the Lord, serving Him with gladness, and entering into His gates with Thanksgiving. Now, let's close this out by looking at reasons we praise. Remember, I divided it up for you in two parts. Psalms 100. Let's look at some of the reasons we praise. I'm just going to give you two in the text, I think, unless I get worked up. Notice the first reason to praise. Notice it says in verse 3, know ye not that he hath made us. Now of course we realize that God is the creator and he deserves the glory for creation and that certainly is true. We should glorify him, praise him for creation and we indeed do that. But I think it is linked with the latter part of the text. He hath made us, and not we ourselves, we are the people and the sheep of his pasture. And I think that's the reason to praise him, verse 2. Certainly we glorify him for creation, but what's another reason we glorify him? That's in verse 3. Would you look at it? The last part. That's two reasons in the last part that we glorify Him because we are His people and His sheep. Now, is that a reason to glorify Him? Is that a reason to glorify Him? It is. He's made us His people. One of the things the Lord said of Israel is please the Lord. He has pleased the Lord to make you His people. Let me say it one more time. It pleased the Lord to make you His people. That's a reason to do what? That's a reason to praise. It wasn't for His grace and His mercy that He bestowed upon us, the opening of our eyes and the opening of our hearts and things. We'd still be in our sin. He made us His people. That's a reason to praise. Reason number two, it says we're the sheep of His pasture. He made us sheep. He made us what? He made us sheep. One of the things the Lord said in John 17, in talking about His sheep, He said, other sheep I have, which are not of this fold, them also I must bring. You want to know who that is? That's us. We're that other sheep. So He's made us His people. And He's made us His sheep. Now, we could stop right there and say that's the reason to glorify Him every day, isn't it? That's the reason to thank Him every day of our life. He's made us His people. He's made us His sheep. And last of all, number five. Here's the next reason to praise. He's made us His people, made us His sheep, as we've seen back in verse three. But the next reason is that the Lord is what? The Lord is good. The Lord is good. That's the reason to praise him. He's always good. That's never be questioned by us. This old Satan will try to get you to question. Anytime you question God, you're questioning God's goodness. Did y'all realize that? His goodness never, I mean, God is good. He's incapable of doing anything that's not right or that is not good. The Lord is good. Always keep that in mind. I'm going to tell you my little story of Isaac again, then I'm going to quit. And Nahum 1 and verse 7, when my little grandson was sick, and such a skinny little boy when he was first born where he had that heart defect, and he couldn't drink. I'd watch him, I'd cry is what I'd do. I'd watch him drink his little bottle and he'd get just into it a little bit and pant like he pulled a shift to work because he was so weak. Man, I tell you. It was in the first couple months of his life that he had to have that old open heart surgery. I just didn't have no peace with that. I didn't. I thought, he's too weak to have that done. You know how you are. I'm not no doctor. He's just too weak to have that done. So when I went down there, I knew I needed a text. A battle text is what I always call it. When I'm facing something, I get me a battle text to remember. So I got this battle text, and it's Nahum 1 and verse 7. It says, the Lord is good. That's when I read this, that's what I thought of. The Lord is what? The Lord is good. Now that's never to be questioned. Even when things happen that you don't understand or can't figure out or can't see the good, you always go to that. The Lord is good. Whether you can figure it out or understand it or not, His goodness is never to be questioned. He's always good. The Lord is good. So that's what I did. When I had bad thoughts, that's what I'd attack it with. That's what I went after. I would go after the thoughts with Scripture. That's what keeps your mind. The Lord is good. Here's the rest of it. He's the Lord is a stronghold in the day of trouble. What's a stronghold? It's a fortress. It's a place you run to when you see danger come. You see danger coming, you run to your what? Fortress. You look at them old movies, and somebody's got a fortress city, and they see danger coming, where do they run to? They run to their fortress, and they get behind the walls. We got a fortress to run to that's never been broken into or tore down, and that's our Lord. We run to our Lord. The Lord is good. He's a stronghold in the day of trouble, and here's the last part of it, and He knows them that trust in Him. He knows them that trust in Him, so the Lord is good. Reasons to praise is because He's made us and because the Lord is good. Let's close with a word of prayer. Father, we're thankful, Lord, for these great reasons You give us to praise You. May we do so. May it start in this little class today that we get together and worship and praise You today. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.