Gladness and Thanksgiving

The following is from Montrose Baptist Church's AM worship service on November 22, 2009.

Thankfulness seems to be a lost art today. Warren Wiersby illustrated this problem in his commentary on Colossians. He told about a ministerial student in Evanston, Illinois, who was part of a life-saving squad. In 1860, a ship went aground on the shore of Lake Michigan near Evanston, and Edward Spencer waded again and again into the frigid waters to rescue 17 passengers. In the process, his health was permanently damaged. Some years later at his funeral, it was noted that not one of the people he rescued ever said, “Thank you.”
Our current culture does not value the contributions of others. It does not typically seek to offer a word of recognition or appreciation. In short, it seems that people as a whole have forgotten the two little words, “Thank you.”
This morning I want to look for a few moments at our Biblical call to gladness and thanksgiving. I want us to consider the instruction we are given in God’s Word about an attitude of gratitude. I want us to rediscover our thankfulness to God.
But before we dig into our Biblical investigation this morning, many of you are probably wondering why you’ve been given a few sticky notes. I want to invite you this morning, as we are looking into God’s Word to think about some things that have happened in this sanctuary that you are thankful for. What are some reasons that you have to come into his courts with thanksgiving?
Perhaps there was a difficult time that you were going through and someone offered you a timely word of encouragement- if that is the case, write it down. Maybe it was on this altar that you surrendered your heart and life to Christ, and you discovered the fullness of life that comes through Him- write that down. Maybe you are thankful that God would allow you to identify with Him through baptism- and you were baptized in this baptistery. If that is the case, write it down. Maybe there’s something God spoke to you through a former pastor behind this pulpit that changed your life- write that down.
For many of you, you have decades of memories in this church building. You have a plethora of reasons to be thankful that God gave you in this very room. I believe that it is time that we rediscover those.
I would invite you to look with me at our call to gladness and thanksgiving.

Read text. (Psalm 100:1-5)

It seems to be apparent that this short passage was actually a call to worship. It was a beckoning of the Jewish people at the temple to enter into the courts with joy and thanksgiving in their hearts. It was literally an exhortation for people to arrive for worship and thanksgiving.
While this psalm is very short in comparison to the majority of the rest in that book, it carries a heavy message. It will challenge us, and teach us about the effects of a truly thankful heart.
As we look at this call to worship, the first thing that we note is…

1.) The Disposition
“Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before Him with joyful songs.”
As we come into God’s presence, we are called to come with the proper disposition. We must possess the proper attitude.
Look at how we are instructed to come before our God to worship Him. We are told to “Shout for joy.” Now, I know that as conservative Baptists, you would probably get a few surprised glances if anyone actually shouted during a worship service. But we are called to come with such excitement and overwhelming joy that a shout is all we can muster.
I know that we’ve adopted this idea that joyful shouting is irreverent and inappropriate. But, just think about the way we approach football. We yell and cheer when our team scores a touchdown. We celebrate when the clock runs out and our team has secured the victory. Why is it that we don’t come through the doors with a shout of joy for what God has done for us? Why is it that we may muster a begrudging “amen” or a “that’s right” during a sermon, but we don’t shout for joy at what God has done?
We are called to shout for joy to the Lord, but then look at what comes next. We are told to worship the Lord with gladness.
Well, that might hit the root of our problem right there. We are called to worship the Lord with gladness. Listen, if we don’t muster a little gladness in our worship, we will never shout for joy to Him.
This passage tells us about the expected disposition of a thankful worshipper. We must be worshipful and happy that we have that opportunity.
We must be glad that we can worship Him. Yet, let me ask you to be honest with yourself. What kind of attitude do you have by the time that the service begins? Are you glad? Are you happy and excited? Or are you just ready to survive another Sunday so that we can have some fried chicken and watch some football?
Do you truly worship with gladness and excitement?
We must shout for joy, worship with gladness, and even come before our God with joyful songs.
Do we sing joyful songs? I believe that we do. I believe that there are plenty of times when we come into this place and offer joyful songs to our Lord. We have songs like Serve Him with Gladness, Heavenly Sunlight, When We All Get to Heaven, and Victory in Jesus.
Do you know what the problem is in the average church though? The words in the songs don’t match up to the attitudes in our hearts.
Let me explain. I’m a people watcher. I love watching people in public. And where I sit in this place, I have a good vantage point to see everyone during the worship service. But do you know what the average face looks like when we sing these “joyful” songs?
I’ve seen children look happier at the Health Department waiting on a shot than we often look when singing joyful songs of praise. We don’t look joyful- we look sour.
We must understand and possess the right disposition. We should be joyous and happy. But then we must understand why we should possess that disposition. We should be joyful and glad because of…

2.) His Designation
“Know that the Lord is God. It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His people, the sheep of His pasture.”
Why should we have a joyous disposition? Why should we be thankful? Because of His designation. We should be joyous and grateful because He is God.
We should be joyful because He is supreme. He has shown us grace and mercy. He is the one that has offered salvation full and free. He is the one that loves us. We worship and come before Him with joy and thanksgiving because of who He is.
I think if we are honest, we have truly lost sight of who it is that we are worshipping and serving. Life has become about appointments and things to do. It has morphed into a complex compilation of responsibilities and obligations. Even church and the worship service have fallen prey to this mindset.
I want everyone to stop for just a second. In the quietness of the next few seconds, I want you to think about who is really here this morning.
We are not gathered to perform a program. We are not here to see what the preacher managed to write for the sermon. We are not even here just to fill our pew.
We should be here because our desire is to come together as a people and community into the presence of God. We are here- and so is the God of creation.
If we ever truly recover the purpose for our gathering, if we ever really stop and grasp the magnificence of the One that has granted us His company we will rediscover our excitement and appreciation.
We should be joyful, excited and appreciative because God has given us the opportunity to spend the day with Him.
Let’s stop and do a little comparison.
Now I know that our current president is not very popular. In fact, I think I’ve been pretty open about my displeasure with his performance and priorities. But I’m sure that there has been at least one in your lifetime that you have liked. Think back on the president that you admired the most. Does everyone have a name and picture in the back of your mind?
What would you have done if you could rewind the hands of time and if that president called you on the phone and invited you to be his guest of honor for the day? What would you do if you were given the opportunity to fly on Air Force One, to sit in the President’s desk, and to eat at his table?
Who would you call? How excited would you be?
Yet, week after week, we come to God’s house without any excitement or anticipation. We come to the house of our president’s superior- and we don’t bother to be joyous about it.
We must possess the proper disposition because of His designation- because He is God.
If we possess the proper disposition, if we realize His designation, it will eventually bring us to…

3.) The Destination
“Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name. For the Lord is good and His love endures forever; His faithfulness continues through all generations.”
We mentioned just a moment ago that this psalm was probably a call to worship for those waiting outside of the Jewish temple. It was a bid for people to come into the courts of the temple for worship.
When we apply that to more modern times, we find that a proper attitude and a true recognition of the person of God will influence you toward a particular destination. Rather than us being called to the Jewish temple, I believe that the proper attitude and a true recognition of the person of God will encourage us to gather for worship in the church. It should bring us together for the sake of collaborative worship.
This last week, I have really struggled with a question. If one of the primary purposes of our gathering at this destination is to excitedly worship our God, why is it that so many times we gather together while frustrated and ill?
Why do we come to the destination without considering our demeanor and the person that we are gathered to worship?
As we return to the passage, as we look again at the destination, there is reiteration of the way that we are to approach our God. We’ve talked about the proper disposition, and we are reminded again of the attitude that we should have.
It says, “Enter His gates with thanksgiving.” The very thing that should characterize our arrival, our entrance, is an attitude of thanksgiving. Think about that for just a moment. As we part through the doors of the sanctuary, our thoughts should be centered around our appreciation of God’s goodness.
Now, let’s have a little confession here. I know that there are plenty of weeks when I enter through that door without appreciation. Instead, I am thinking about the class I am supposed to teach. I’m thinking about the business that needs to be taken care of. I’m recalling the message that I plan to preach. So many times, I am guilty of coming into the house of God not with appreciation, but with a misguided concentration on the mechanics of the services.
Am I alone here? Or do many of us come through those doors not thinking about the greatness and goodness of God? Do we come through thinking about the conversation we just ended? Do we arrive wondering just how long the preacher is going to ramble today? Or do we come with an appreciation of God’s blessing through the past week?
As a people, I believe that there are times when we need to regain our bearings. We need to truly consider our motivations and thoughts.
As we look at our call to worship in Psalm 100, we actually find an exhortation to gladness and thanksgiving.
We find a reminder of the way that we ought to approach our worship.
We must come to the proper destination in a right disposition because of God’s designation.
Our attitude must be one of gratitude. We must come into God’s presence with joy and thanksgiving in our hearts. We must rediscover the right heart.
This morning as we come to our time of invitation, things are going to be a little different. Rather than the congregation singing the hymn of invitation, I am going to ask you to do this: as the instrumentalists play, I would invite you to relive those reasons for thanksgiving that you have written down. As you look through those descriptions, I would ask you to place that sticky note in the place of your experience.
I want us to have to take action- to physically move to those places where God has done something for which we are thankful. And rather than taking another opportunity at that moment to ask for those things that we want- stop and pray and simply tell the Lord “thank you” for what He did there.
If it was on this altar that you found grace- or rededicated, or received the help you needed through a difficult time, I would ask you to place one there. If it was in the choir, place it there. If it came from the pulpit, place it there. Maybe it was right there in your pew- if so, place one there.
This is our opportunity to not only show our God how thankful we are, but to visibly remind ourselves of our reasons for gladness and thanksgiving.
As the instrumentalists play, show God a few places that you are thankful for.



Something amazing happened during the invitation that morning. Just look at the response!