Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro: Plenty to Be Thankful For (by Bing Crosby) [to 1:13]

Thanksgiving Song - Psalm 100

It’s good for us to be thankful for what we have, like Bing Crosby’s song says.

But that alone can actually be pretty shallow without a deeper understanding and appreciation for the the Giver of what is truly best for us.

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights” (James 1:17a).

Should not our very lives be a song of thanksgiving?

Read again...

Should not our very lives be a song of thanksgiving as described in Psalm 100?

PRAY

What is Thanksgiving?

First, what is being thankful?

What is gratitude?

Thankfulness/Gratitude =

Thankfulness/Gratitude is being conscious of benefit received.

- Thankfulness is heartfelt appreciation to God in response to his goodness.

Thanksgiving =

Thanksgiving is the practice of expressing thankfulness to another, often in speech or with celebration.

- So today we’re considering the importance of giving thanks to God, both as an expression of dependence on him and gratitude toward him.

So Hannah’s prayer in 1 Samuel was one of… Thanksgiving, right.

God answered her prayer and gave her a son, and she gave him thanks in a celebratory song as well as with (what I would call) a sacrifice of thanksgiving.

She and Elkanah expressed thankfulness to God by giving their son Samuel fully to the Lord’s service at the temple.

Another example I realized in this study this week: We celebrate birthdays as an expression of thanksgiving for the person and another year of life.

Of course, we should most certainly also be celebrating with thankfulness to God for God giving us this person in our lives and his continued grace at work in their lives.

[REVIEW] Thankfulness is a response of heartfelt appreciation, and thanksgiving is the expression of that thankfulness (whether in speech or celebration or sacrifice) toward the object of that appreciation.

Opportunity for Growth!

I can guarantee you that we need to grow in gratitude!

- Unless you’ve exhausted your knowledge of God and expression of his goodness, you need to grow more in gratitude.

Before I go any further, I think I need to help us see how ungrateful we can be!

(How dangerous, divisive, and soul-burdening it is to have an attitude of ingratitude...)

Do you tend to notice that it’s too hot or too cold in a building and feel kinda grumpy about that and wonder who’s responsible?

Or are you a bit grumpy when people change things up and don’t quite do it the way you’re used to?

I believe the source of that is ingratitude.

Do you find it easier to talk about people’s good qualities or bad qualities?

Are you kind of sharp and cutting about the foolish decisions that other people make?

I believe the source of that is ingratitude.

Are you rebelling against your parents?

I believe the source of that is ingratitude.

Jealous?

Coveting?

- Ingratitude.

Your attitude toward leadership that makes you complain about the stuff they do and think that you know better?

I believe the source of it is ingratitude.

Are you letting worry about finances consume your thoughts?

I believe the source of it is ingratitude.

You need to be truly grateful to God that he can be trusted to care for your needs...

Are you tired of fighting the same battle over and over again with a child?

Or tired of the messes they make?

Or tired of the same old routine tasks day after day.

I believe the source of that is ingratitude to God.

Do you know what the cure is?

This attitude right here: Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.

I once was lost, but now I’m found, was blind but now I see.

- The underlying attitude behind such words is true gratitude, which in then expressed in thanksgiving.

What the maturity of our faith often lacks is deeper thankfulness, greater gratitude.

- We want our very lives to be a song of thanksgiving because our God is worthy of nothing less.

So let’s put our minds to work this morning considering the importance of this attitude and how can we grow in thanksgiving.

The Importance of Thanksgiving

Why is gratitude so important?

…besides what we’ve already expressed as the detrimental impact of being ungrateful… - Let me be so bold as to say: Thankfulness is one of the single most important attitudes of the Christian life.

My goal today is to convince us of the critical importance of gratitude in the Christian life.

Let me give you three major reasons why expressing thankfulness is so important: [list first, then discuss]

Thanksgiving corresponds to a true response of saving faith in Jesus.

Thanksgiving directly reflects our knowledge of and appreciation for God.

Thanksgiving impacts our maturity and effectiveness for God.

Thanksgiving corresponds to a true response of saving faith in Jesus.

Allow me to illustrate this from Luke 17.

In a passage there Jesus heals 10 lepers, and only one returns to express thanksgiving to his healer.

*How important is this gratitude?

- Listen to the episode and pay close attention to the last part of it:

There is a direct connection between this healed Samaritan’s saving faith and his gratitude for not only the gift but the Giver of the gift.

It had the impact on him of causing him to worship Jesus—on his face before him, giving him thanks.

And Jesus accepts that worship and even describes it as “giv[ing] praise to God.” - Notice the result of this man’s thanksgiving... for the result of physical healing but also especially his worship of the Healer.

The result was Christ proclaiming to this man that his faith gave him spiritual healing.

The text literally reads “your faith has saved you.”

This is far from the only time that Jesus spoke in the context of healing about his power to forgive sins and make the recipient of faith spiritually healed.

But what makes this particular episode so poignant for our purposes is its emphasis on the grateful response in connection with saving faith.

The one who is saved from more than his physical leprosy is the one who fully recognizes the Healer as the one to be celebrated, to be worshiped.

This is how critical gratitude is: Thanksgiving corresponds to a true response of saving faith in Jesus.

Thanksgiving directly reflects our knowledge of and appreciation for God.

Let’s look more closely at our central text, Psalm 100.

This is the last in a set of enthronement psalms, celebrating God’s sovereign rule as King over all the heavens and the earth (Psalms 93 & 95-100): Psalm 95:3

God is enthroned on high!

(Is he enthroned in your heart?

Who sits on the throne of your heart?) - Psalm 100 culminates this group of Psalms with Praise and Thanksgiving to God for his universal rule and his goodness to his people and to all the earth.

We enter the presence of the supreme and benevolent King with Thanksgiving!

Verses 1,2,&4 have the celebratory commands to praise and give thanks, and vv.

3&5 have the WHY of praise & thanksgiving.

Yes, verse 3 is a command too, but it really is the overarching command to comprehend why we praise the Lord with our mouths, our sacrifices, our lives.

v. 3 Why - Who He is:

Know (with the sense of experiencing him and being confidently assured of who he is) - that Yahweh (the covenant God of Israel - the name God gave to them thru Moses), he is Elohim (the one true God).

He is the Creator who has made us (and not ourselves)

And he has made us his own, a people for his own possession… whom he, as the great Shepherd-King, cares for in his perfect provision and guides in his perfect wisdom and guards in his almighty hand.

If we know God for who he is, then we have every reason to respond according to the instruction of the Psalm:

v. 1 Our lives should shout the goodness of God.

(that’s the term here, just like raising a battle cry in unison)

v. 2a Our lives should joyfully serve the Lord.

- not ourselves… and not “stuff” - I serve amongst you in our church family with great joy, and I think you can tell it.

Most of the time you guys make it a great joy… most of the time I experience the benefit of such service… but the true joy comes in knowing that such Christian service, whatever the trials and whether the benefit is seen or unseen, the true joy is in knowing the God whom we serve.

So we serve the Lord with gladness.

v. 2b Because of who He is and what He has done, we not only have access to his presence (his face), but we therefore do so with not only reverential awe but also here with joyful song! - Our lives should carry the joyous melody of God’s saving work!