“Thanks!”

Preached by Rev. Ed Brouwer at The Gathering Place, Osoyoos
Pulpit Series Volume 18, Issue 30, October 12, 2008

Psalm 100:4 Enter His Gates With ThanksgivingWe are gathered together today to count our God blessings. We are gathered together to give thanks to our God Who has provided us with life itself!Listen to what the psalmist says: Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs… Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.
A little boy went to a birthday party. On his return, his mother queried, "Bobby, did you thank the lady for the party?" "Well, I was going to. But a girl ahead of me said, 'Thank you,' and the lady told her not to mention it. So I didn't."
Of course we should always say thanks to our host or hostess. This is true for God too. When it comes to thanking God, we can't remain silent and we must not remain silent.The psalmist tells us to rejoice in the Lord. We are to shout for joy to the Lord. We are called to serve Him with gladness. We are urged to come before Him with joyful songs. We’re to be filled with an enthusiastic, overflowing joy.In the Hebrew, joy or rejoicing is an inward emotion that simply has to express itself as praise to and for God!
The Old Testament shows God’s people were filled with joy they couldn’t help but come into God's presence with clapping, singing, shouting, and dancing.
Joy, all joy, expresses itself in praise!
Though joyful thanks is to be given in all of life, it is especially worship that the psalmist has in mind: Serve the Lord ... come before him ... Enter his gates ... and his courts.
Our life is to be a time of joyful thanks. Thanks Living!
Why? The psalmist tell us: For the Lord is good ... Good is a word so common we use it without thinking. "How was work?" Good "How you doing?" Good “How’s supper?” Good We use the word a lot, but what does it mean?God is good, says Scripture. God is good; He wants to share Himself, His life, His love, with others.
When we read through the first chapter of Genesis we come across that word good 7 times. Not only is God good; God saw all that he had made, and it was very good Genesis 1:31On this Thanksgiving Day we rejoice in our God Who has shared His goodness with us by giving us life itself.
God is good. He satisfies us, fills us to the brim, and meets our God created needs.
God is good. He satisfies the needs of all His creatures. We all can testify that God satisfies our need for shelter, food, drink, clothing, fellowship.God is good. He satisfies our biggest and greatest need.
As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? Psalm 42:1,2
God Himself is our biggest and greatest need. That is why the Psalmist can say, The Lord is my shepherd, I shall lack nothing Psalm 23:1
David probably wrote this while out in the wilderness. He may have lacked food, drink, clothing, shelter, safety, and or protection. Yet, he said he lacked nothing. Why?
Because he had the Lord and in that he had the most important thing in life. Having the Lord, nothing else is really needed.
He who has the Lord, lacks nothing.God is good. He satisfies our need for Himself.To satisfy this need, our need for Him, God had to come to us in Christ.
There was a time that man could come to God without Christ. In fact, there was a time when he lived, talked and walked with God. He was so completely in God that he had no knowledge of life without God.
This wasn’t a religious thing - it was completely natural!
But then came man’s fall into sin and man became incapable of coming to God on his own. Man was incapable of satisfying the deepest need of his heart – fellowship with and in God.
So God sent His son Christ Jesus. Christ took on human form, He died on the cross and rose from the grave so that we could once again have fellowship with God, satisfying the deepest need of our heart.
On this Thanksgiving Day we rejoice in our God Who shared His goodness with us by satisfying our need for Himself in and through Jesus.God is good. He is so good. God is loving and faithful in His goodness. His love endures forever; his faithfulness through all generations, says the Psalmist.
This means that God continues to share Himself with us, He continues to satisfy all our needs. He is always good.
Our God is good. He is so good. That is why the Psalmist says, Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.
Our God is good. He is so good. That is why the Psalmist says, Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.
The Lord is good. He is so good.
Only one response is possible: we must now give Him our joyful thanks, by thanks living!