(This sermon was preached on November 18th at Cornerstone Baptist Church in Cherry Log, Georgia by Pastor Paul Mims.)

Psalm 100

My mother loved to tell this story: A pastor had a parrot. All the parrot would say was, “Let’s pray, Let’s Pray.” He tried to teach him other things, but that is all that he would say. Then he learned of a deacon who had a parrot. The deacon’s parrot would say, “Let’s kiss, let’s kiss.” So he invited the deacon to bring his parrot to his house and they put them in the same cage to see what would happen. The deacon’s parrot said, “Let’s kiss, let’s kiss.” And the pastor’s parrot said, “Thank you Lord, my prayers have been answered!”

One turkey said to another turkey, “I don’t know about you, but I always give thanks the day AFTER Thanksgiving.”

Have you ever thought about the words “thankful” and “grateful”? These words mean “full of thanksgiving” and “full of gratitude.” If we are full of thanksgiving and gratitude, we recognize that there is a giver of the gifts by which we benefit. To be not filled with gratitude or thanksgiving is to say, “All I have and all I experience I did it myself.”

It was Sarah Hale who wrote “Mary Had A Little Lamb.” She was editor of a women’s magazine. In 1828, she began a campaign to try to get Thanksgiving as a national holiday. Finally, in 1863 President Lincoln cause the Civil War to pause on this one day and he said to the north and to the south, “For one day let’s put aside the enmity and the fighting and let’s give thanks to God.” Isn’t it interesting that it took place in the midst the War Between The States? Sometimes it takes a desperate situation for us to recognize just how thankful we are. Did you know that Thanksgiving as a holiday although practiced thereafter on the fourth Thursday in November was not ratified by the Congress until 1941. And again we were in a war. And in the midst of World War II, there was a national need to give thanks to God. So, it may well be that our need for thanksgiving comes at times when we are in the depths of our struggles. Something Divine takes place in such a situation. We can find it all in Psalm 100. There are four things that take place when we give thanks to God.

I. WHEN WE GIVE THANKS WE ACKNOWLEDGE GOD’S SOVEREIGNTY. (vv.1,2)

This psalm of praise has God as its object, God as sovereign, God as supplier, and God as the blesser. Notice how that is expressed. “Shout for joy to the Lord…” Worship the Lord and come before him. This implies that the sovereign God is in control of my life. He can do anything with me that he wants to do. He can do this through time – through the natural and through the super-natural. We have to be reminded that God really is sovereign and in control. We often live making decisions without consulting him, going our own way thinking that we are in control. But when we come to give thanks we acknowledge his sovereignty.

Is God sovereign in your life? Sometimes we feel that God is far away from us. We haven’t heard from God in a long time. I heard of one who came to this country from India and said, “My god’s have forsaken me.”

Perhaps we feel that way sometimes. We go along with our lives on even keel and we don’t hear from God and we don’t see any visible acts of God in our lives. I heard about a pastor from Washington state who had a wonderful ministry. He led his church to do marvelous things. Yet, there came a time in his life when he wondered whether or not God was really working in his life. He became tired and discouraged. He became insensitive to God. He wondered whether or not god was really using him and doing anything at all in his life. It reached a point that he and his family had to get away for awhile. So they loaded the family into their van and drove all the way across the country. As they travelled, he said to his wife, “I just don’t understand why God isn’t revealing himself to me. Why doesn’t he show me that he can use me?” Although good things were happening in the church, he felt that way.

They came to Indiana. They stopped for lunch at a Pizza Hut. He did not want pizza. In fact he wanted a few minutes to himself. Right next door was a Dairy Queen. So the family went to Pizza Hut and he went to Dairy Queen. As he was walking through the door he saw a pay phone. The phone was ringing and he stood there and listened to it ring several times. Finally he picked it up and the operator said, “Is this Rev. David Smith?” The voice on the other end said, “It sounds like him.” He said, “Yes, I am David Smith.” He thought to himself, “Am I on candid camera or something?” A lady said to him, “I’ve been trying to contact you but I didn’t know how. I’ve seen you on television and I have thought that with what I am going through now, if there was one person in all the world who could help me it would be you. I have been thinking about taking my life and in the midst of that I cried out to God, “O God, help me.” As I prayed some numbers came to my mind. I thought I was calling your office.” He said, “Lady, I am 2,000 miles away from you at a pay phone!”

He talked to her and gave her scripture and led her to Christ over the phone. He put the phone back up and walked about six feet off the ground back over to greet his family and said to his wife, “God’s got my number!”

God is sovereign. He can do whatever he wants to do through natural means or through supernatural means. You may feel like the pastor did. He was dry and burned out and felt that he could not get through to God. But let me tell you, he can get through to you!

II. WHEN WE GIVE THANKS WE EXPRESS LIFE’S GREATEST CERTAINTY. (v.3)

“Know that the Lord is God.” Know! There are some things that you can know without any doubt. God is indeed a mystery. The Bible, in some places, is mysterious to us. But in the midst of mystery there are those verities that we can base our lives on and say, “I know this!” When we give thanks, as in thin hymn of praise, we are acknowledging life’s greatest certainty. God is God. We are his people. He has made us. He has redeemed us. From time to time the church needs to rediscover that we are the people of God.

You see, when you know who God is, then you know who you are. The church is his people. You are his man, his woman, his youth, his child.

One of the greatest secrets to victory in our troubled world is to have an attitude of gratitude. This is one of the most powerful attitudes that we have because it purges the negatives that can destroy such as envy, anger, resentment, and self- pity. Gratitude purges the soul of impurity and expresses life’s greatest certainty: God is God.

In the eighteenth century there was a famous sculpture named Johanne Heinrich von Danneker. He had the amazing ability to take a piece of marble and bring life out of it. He wanted the crowning work of his life to be a statue of his Lord Jesus Christ. He wanted his understanding of Jesus to be conveyed to others through his work. For two years he chiseled away and polished the marble. He wanted eyes that would not lie to him, so he went out on the street and brought a young woman into his workshop. He said, as he unveiled the statue of Christ, “Do you know who this is?” “No sir,” she said, ‘It must be someone very important.” Danneker knew he had failed because he had not been able to project the Lordship of Christ through the work of his hands.

He started all over again and this time it took him six years. He chiseled and polished, and worked diligently on the statue. This time he brought a child in to evaluate his work. “Do you know who this is?” he asked the child. “Yes sir,” the child said with excitement, “That is a statue of Jesus Christ.” Then he knew that he had accomplished his goal. He told a friend of the six year struggle and said that his prayer had been, “Lord Jesus, come and be with me in this room daily.” He said, “Every day I felt the nearness of the Lord and I sensed the glory of his presence. Then I transferred it to that marble.” When we know that God is with us, we can transfer it into the lives of others.

III. WHEN WE GIVE THANKS WE EXPRESS LIFE’S INNER ATTITUDE. (v.4)

“Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and praise his name.” That is the inner attitude of the believer coming out and focusing on the object of the blessings. Inner attitude is so important.

A lady wrote to her granddaughter, “I hope you like the dictionary I sent you for your birthday.” The granddaughter replied, “I just can’t find the words to thank you!”

Sometimes our gratitude is not in the words but in the attitude. This is when thanks giving becomes thanks living. Someone has written, “Forgive me when I whine.”

“Today upon a bus, I saw a lovely maid with golden hair; I envied her — she seemed so joyful, and how, I wished I were so fair; When suddenly she rose to leave, I saw her hobble down the aisle; she had one foot and wore a crutch, but as she passed, a smile. Oh God, forgive me when I whine, I have two feet — the world is mine.

And when I stopped to buy some sweets, the lad who served me had such charm; he seemed to radiate good cheer, his manner was so kind and warm; I said, “It’s nice to deal with you, such courtesy I seldom find”; he turned and said, “Oh, thank you sir.” And then I saw that he was blind. Oh, God, forgive me when I whine, I have two eyes, the world is mine.

Then, when walking down the street, I saw a child with eyes of blue; he stood and watched the others play, it seemed he knew not what to do; I stopped a moment, then I said, “Why don’t you join the others, dear?” He looked ahead without a word, and then I knew he could not hear. Oh God, forgive me when I whine, I have two ears, the world is mine.

With feet to take me where I’d go; with eyes to see the sunsets glow, with ears to hear what I would know. I am blessed indeed. The world is mine; oh, God, forgive me when I whine. (Source Unknown.)

IV. WHEN WE GIVE THANKS WE BUILD OUR LIVES ON GOD’S GOODNESS. (v.5)

“For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.”
Isn’t it a great thing to be able to say, “I am building my life on the goodness of God.” That is the view that God wants us to have of him. Some people have the view that he is a tyrant who is trying to harm us. But when we know that God is good we have a healthy view of him.

Corrie Ten Boom said, “Often I have heard people say, “How good God is! We prayed that it would not rain for our church picnic, and look at the lovely weather!'” Yes, God is good when He sends good weather. But God was also good when He allowed my sister, Betsie, to starve to death before my eyes in a German concentration camp. I remember one occasion when I was very discouraged there. Everything around us was dark, and there was darkness in my heart. I remember telling Betsie that I thought God had forgotten us. “No, Corrie,” said Betsie, “He has not forgotten us. Remember His Word: ‘For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His steadfast love toward those who fear Him.'” Corrie concludes, “There is an ocean of God’s love available–there is plenty for everyone. May God grant you never to doubt that victorious love–whatever the circumstances.”

Last week, our daughter had what we thought would be a routine surgery. She got back to her room about 12:30. At first, she seemed to be coming out of the anesthesia in a normal manner. About 3:00, we noticed that her blood pressure began to drop. The nurses checked her every few minutes. About 5:30, our son, Joe, came in the room and saw that her blood pressure was dangerously low, she was pale, and was losing consciousness. He immediately diagnosed that she was bleeding internally and called her surgeon and said that she must be operated on immediately to find the internal hemorrhage. While we were waiting for the surgeon to come, I said, “Let’s call in the Great Physician.” We joined hands around her bed and prayed for God to intervene. After prayer, we noticed that her blood pressure started rising. They took her to the operating room and we waited for about an hour and a half. When she returned to the room, she had her normal color and was alert. They had given her blood to replace that which she had lost which was about two thirds of her total supply. I spent the night with her in the hospital and watched her very carefully. The next day various other complications set with which she is still dealing. Last Friday evening, we had dinner together and as Joe was leaving, Janice and I walked him to his car. He said, “I have never known anyone with hemoglobin of 2 to survive. It was a miracle.” Even though this has been difficult for our family, it has brought glory to God for his marvelous grace.

WE GIVE PRAISE AND THANKSGIVING TO HIS NAME