Highlights from Sunday: Give Thanks
Psalm 107:1-3 “Give Thanks”
Introduction
Big Idea: Give thanks for He is good!
On Thanksgiving, we have the opportunity to consider the things for which we are thankful… As you can see, many of our Fifth Street family members are thankful to the Lord. He sure is gracious to us and I am thankful for that! Sometimes we are thankful for things that didn’t happen again, right? Twitter shared their 20 best Thanksgiving horror stories and I’ve picked out six for you!
- Thought I’d somehow forgotten to order most of the ingredients I needed for thanksgiving cooking. Turns out my husband just forgot to get any of them out of his trunk 7 hours ago. Botulism here we come!
- The oven door just broke off mid turkey bake #thanksgivingfail
- First Thanksgiving, forgot to take the liver, neck and giblets out of the body of the turkey. Also salt instead of sugar in the pumpkin pies. Next Thanksgiving was at my sister-in-law’s. She set her deck on fire frying the turkey.
- Our cat ate a chunk out of the turkey that was resting in the sink before going into the oven. My mother cooked anyway and we ate it. No one died.
- I was making stuffed mushrooms and put them in a glass pan to bake them and after 15 minutes in oven I heard this horrible noise come from oven—the glass cooking pan had shattered all to pieces in my oven!! #ThanksgivingFail #FarmRich
- Earlier this year I used the turkey baster to suck power steering fluid out of the ps fluid reservoir before changing the ps pump in our car. I forgot to replace the baster it and now it’s a crisis. #ThanksgivingFails
I am sure you have a story or two about Thanksgiving fails!
Today I want to take a few minutes and encourage you to be thankful to the Lord for His miraculous work in your lives.
Why should I give thanks to the Lord?
1 Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, For His lovingkindness is everlasting.
The Word tells us to do something here: “Give thanks to the Lord.” The Bible tells us to give thanks 83 times and to give thanks to the Lord 26 times. In fact, in this chapter of Psalms alone, the Psalmist tells us to give thanks to the Lord 6 times, so it is probably an important thing for us to do, right? It’s critical for us to recognize that this isn’t a suggestion. It doesn’t say: you should give thanks. It says: Give thanks! This means “to give an expression of praise for a person, with a particular focus on the subject being engaged in the expression of thanks or praise” - Swanson
We should express our thanks to God. When you tell your kids to do something and it seems obvious to you why they should do it, but they don’t understand the reason, what do they say? Why do I have to do that? Well, why should we give thanks to the Lord? There are an almost infinite number of reasons why we should give thanks to the Lord.
This passage gives us 2 important reasons: “He is good” (3 dimensions of God’s goodness - See Millard Erickson: Christian Theology)
This means that God is morally pure, truthful, and the ultimate expression of love.
1) God is morally pure: He is holy, righteous and just
God always does what is right.
He never has and never will commit an evil act.
His holiness means that He is completely unique and separate from all of creation demonstrating absolute purity (He is unstained by evil)
His holiness propels his actions to be righteous.
This means that everything He does is righteous and fulfills the standard of righteousness that God established for creation.
Thus, the standard of right and wrong is rooted in God’s holiness and demonstrated in His acts in creation. (This contradicts pop culture’s view that morality is subjective)
God’s holiness and righteousness compel Him to administer justice in all of creation.
He shows no favoritism and God’s justice will be fully realized upon the return of Jesus.
2) God is truthful.
2) God is truthful.
He is genuine (EX: knock-off bags in New York)
He is the real God among a sea of imposters.
He perfectly represents the truth.
God doesn’t lie, He doesn’t mis-represent the truth, and He always does what He says He will do….ALWAYS!
He is faithful
God keeps all of His promises
3) God is love.
He is benevolent.
God cares for those whom He loves and seeks after our welfare.
He ultimately demonstrated this through Jesus and the cross.
He is gracious.
God relates to us according to our need and not according to our merit.
He is merciful.
God is tenderhearted and shows us compassion during our times of need.
He is persistent.
God withholds His judgment on us and this world to offer salvation and grace
over long periods of time.
God’s love is steadfast, unfailing, and perseveres over time.
God’s lovingkindness is not the temporary, hedonistic love celebrated in our culture today.
That’s not really love at all. It’s lust, passion, and desire.
God’s lovingkindness is a love that prevails over time and continues on forever.
He’s chosen to love you and His love for you isn’t based on anything you can offer Him!
That’s really hard for us to understand.
The best example for us is the love between a parent and a child.
Parents love their children no matter what even when that child doesn’t appear to love them back.
This special kind of love that God has for you is everlasting.
It doesn’t last a day, a week, a month, or a year.
Church, God’s love for you lasts forever.
It is immeasurable and infinite in nature.
“Throughout the psalm the love referred to is the committed, un-changing, loving determination of the Lord who will never give up those whom he has chosen for himself.” - Carson
The redeemed of the Lord should give thanks to the Lord…Who’s that? That’s anyone who has received Jesus as their Lord and Savior. In the Hebrew the word redeemed means: “pertaining to an object or person who has been delivered from danger by being purchased from indenture or slavery, with a focus on the relationship to the new master” The people of Israel called God their redeemer because God redeemed them from slavery in Egypt.
God also redeemed us through Jesus Christ. What does that mean? All of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Consequently, we are slaves to sin… That means we can’t help but to sin (like a drug addict sin’s infected us and drives our thoughts and actions). Jesus came and lived a perfect life. He died on the cross and received God’s wrath for our sins on our behalf. He was buried but resurrected to life on the third day and conquered sin and its consequence: death. If we believe that Jesus did this for us and repent of our sins, then God forgives our sins and our relationship with Him is restored. In that moment of belief and repentance, we are redeemed from our slavery to sin through the blood payment (atonement) that Jesus made for us while on the cross. Also, in that moment God’s Holy Spirit indwells us and we are born-again. Thus…
Before Jesus redeemed us, we were also slaves to Satan, the adversary. He is a very real and powerful spiritual being who deceives and enslaves all people on this earth who do not have a relationship with Jesus. We followed him, obeyed him, and he controlled our thoughts, actions, and led us down a pathway to hell. Jesus freed us from the control of Satan.
Look again at Col 1:13:
We were once slaves to and living under the domain of darkness. But Jesus redeemed us from the power of the enemy Satan and his dark world!
When we properly understand our sin, we are thankful to God.
One scholar (MacArthur) describes the way God redeemed Israel from the east, west, north, and south writing: As a nation Israel was delivered, redeemed, rescued and restored by God through the centuries.
Israel was redeemed from Egypt to the south.
Israel was redeemed from Syria and Assyria to the north.
Israel was redeemed from Philistines to the west.
Israel was redeemed from Babylon to the east when brought back from Babylonian captivity.
So literally verse 3 was Israel’s experience. They were gathered from lands in the east, the west, the north, and the south. God has redeemed His people from the hand of the adversary and gathered them from lands in every direction. Give thanks church because God is currently redeeming lost sinners from the lands. Right now, our Lord Jesus is fulfilling His promise to save people from all over the world.
One day, Heaven will look like this:
He is the real God among a sea of imposters.
He perfectly represents the truth.
God doesn’t lie, He doesn’t mis-represent the truth, and He always does what He says He will do….ALWAYS!
He is faithful
God keeps all of His promises
3) God is love.
He is benevolent.
God cares for those whom He loves and seeks after our welfare.
He ultimately demonstrated this through Jesus and the cross.
He is gracious.
God relates to us according to our need and not according to our merit.
He is merciful.
God is tenderhearted and shows us compassion during our times of need.
He is persistent.
God withholds His judgment on us and this world to offer salvation and grace
over long periods of time.
“His lovingkindness is everlasting”
God’s love is steadfast, unfailing, and perseveres over time.
God’s lovingkindness is not the temporary, hedonistic love celebrated in our culture today.
That’s not really love at all. It’s lust, passion, and desire.
God’s lovingkindness is a love that prevails over time and continues on forever.
He’s chosen to love you and His love for you isn’t based on anything you can offer Him!
That’s really hard for us to understand.
The best example for us is the love between a parent and a child.
Parents love their children no matter what even when that child doesn’t appear to love them back.
This special kind of love that God has for you is everlasting.
It doesn’t last a day, a week, a month, or a year.
Church, God’s love for you lasts forever.
It is immeasurable and infinite in nature.
“Throughout the psalm the love referred to is the committed, un-changing, loving determination of the Lord who will never give up those whom he has chosen for himself.” - Carson
Application:
EX: My new white t-shirts and Jesus’ powerful atonementWho should give thanks to the Lord?
2 Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, Whom He has redeemed from the hand of the adversary
The redeemed of the Lord should give thanks to the Lord…Who’s that? That’s anyone who has received Jesus as their Lord and Savior. In the Hebrew the word redeemed means: “pertaining to an object or person who has been delivered from danger by being purchased from indenture or slavery, with a focus on the relationship to the new master” The people of Israel called God their redeemer because God redeemed them from slavery in Egypt.
Isaiah 43:1–3
1 But now, thus says the Lord, your Creator, O Jacob, And He who formed you, O Israel, “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are Mine! 2 “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, Nor will the flame burn you. 3 “For I am the Lord your God, The Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I have given Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in your place.
God also redeemed us through Jesus Christ. What does that mean? All of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Consequently, we are slaves to sin… That means we can’t help but to sin (like a drug addict sin’s infected us and drives our thoughts and actions). Jesus came and lived a perfect life. He died on the cross and received God’s wrath for our sins on our behalf. He was buried but resurrected to life on the third day and conquered sin and its consequence: death. If we believe that Jesus did this for us and repent of our sins, then God forgives our sins and our relationship with Him is restored. In that moment of belief and repentance, we are redeemed from our slavery to sin through the blood payment (atonement) that Jesus made for us while on the cross. Also, in that moment God’s Holy Spirit indwells us and we are born-again. Thus…
Ephesians 1:7
7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace
Colossians 1:13–14
13 For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Before Jesus redeemed us, we were also slaves to Satan, the adversary. He is a very real and powerful spiritual being who deceives and enslaves all people on this earth who do not have a relationship with Jesus. We followed him, obeyed him, and he controlled our thoughts, actions, and led us down a pathway to hell. Jesus freed us from the control of Satan.
Look again at Col 1:13:
13 For He rescued us from the domain of darkness,
We were once slaves to and living under the domain of darkness. But Jesus redeemed us from the power of the enemy Satan and his dark world!
Application:
EX: Ol’ Red - made it to Florida and I was thankful because she broke down before.When we properly understand our sin, we are thankful to God.
From where will the redeemed come?
3 And gathered from the lands, From the east and from the west, From the north and from the south.
One scholar (MacArthur) describes the way God redeemed Israel from the east, west, north, and south writing: As a nation Israel was delivered, redeemed, rescued and restored by God through the centuries.
Israel was redeemed from Egypt to the south.
Israel was redeemed from Syria and Assyria to the north.
Israel was redeemed from Philistines to the west.
Israel was redeemed from Babylon to the east when brought back from Babylonian captivity.
So literally verse 3 was Israel’s experience. They were gathered from lands in the east, the west, the north, and the south. God has redeemed His people from the hand of the adversary and gathered them from lands in every direction. Give thanks church because God is currently redeeming lost sinners from the lands. Right now, our Lord Jesus is fulfilling His promise to save people from all over the world.
One day, Heaven will look like this:
Revelation 7:9–10
9 After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands; 10 and they cry out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb."
Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, For His lovingkindness is everlasting.
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, Whom He has redeemed from the hand of the adversary
And gathered from the lands, From the east and from the west, From the north and from the south.
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