Special

We're gonna read, and then Tommy's gonna come and open this, lovely Psalm up to us.

We did read it at the beginning of our service, but we're gonna read it again. It's Psalm a hundred, found in the Old Testament part of the Bible, a Psalm for giving grateful praise, shouts for joy to the lord or the earth. Worship the lord with gladness come before him with joyful songs. Know that the lord is god. It is he who made us.

We are his. We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture, enter his gates with Thanksgiving. 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. Tom?

Hi. Good morning, everybody. As Pete said, my name is Tom, the third Tom, to feature in this morning's service. We do normally have more name diversity, up the front, so sorry about that. You'd have to forgive another 1.

But it is lovely to have you and, welcome to anybody again who couldn't be here today, but is joining online and a special warm welcome to all the friends and family who've come for this Thanksgiving service. 20 odd years ago, a psychologist called Robert Emmons, was trying to understand or trying to work out why people benefit so much from gratitude. Actually, if you have a look, there there are loads of studies that have been done, showing that gratitude has a positive effect on just about everything. Graditude can help reduce the symptoms of depression. And anxiety, gratitude can increase our own self esteem, gratitude can help us to be more satisfied with daily life, and gratitude obviously benefits just about all or all of our interpersonal relationships.

But what they discovered in this study was that to actually reap the benefits of gratitude, 2 important things need to happen. Firstly, you need to believe at the level of conviction. So really believe that much of the good in your life has come from outside of yourself. You can't just pay lip service to that idea. You've really gotta be be believed and convinced that much of the good in your life has come to you from outside.

But secondly, and this is a really important thing. To reap the benefits of this emotion gratitude, gratitude needs to be expressed. It has to be articulated and spoken out. In other words, what they found was that to just be grateful in your mind is not enough. There's something about actually expressing it and saying thank you and being specific about the things your thank for 4, which intensifies our own experience of the emotion gratitude.

So those 2 things, you've gotta believe it that good has come to you, and you've gotta express it to get the most from gratitude. Apparently, what they also discovered is that gratitude is so powerful. It even benefits those who witness it. And so that's an amazing thought, isn't it? That you might be here this morning and you're not part of the immediate family of Tom and Rose or Tom and Safron, but even to be here this morning and to witness a Thanksgiving is going to do your soul some measure of good.

It's good for us to even witness acts of Thanksgiving. That's something positive for us. And so if you're happy to assume that all of that is true, then it follows, doesn't it that to not make Thanksgiving a habit in our lives is gonna be an all around bad thing? Our mental health is gonna be less than it could be. Our relationships are gonna be less than they could be.

If Thanksgiving and gratitude is not part of the habits of our lives. Everything else is gonna be less than it could be. And I say all of that because here before us is a Psalm which begins with the title for giving grateful praise. That's why it's here. That's why God put this Psalm in the Bible to help us give grateful praise.

And therefore, partly, the reason that we are looking at this this morning is for our own good. It's for our own good to give grateful praise. Just look at the words again. Here we are. Verse 1.

Shout for joy. Verse 2. Worship with gladness. Verse 2, come with joyful songs. Enter with thanksgiving.

Give thanks and praise his name. Thanksgiving is the unmissable theme of this Psalm. And why are we to be thankful? Well, because as we're gonna see, God is worthy of our thanks, and he's worthy of our praise. But also we're to be thankful because it's good for us.

It's good for us. You and I here this morning were actually created to receive good from the hand of the lord and then to express it. That's why he made us. Not to believe that everything good in our lives came from self, but to actually believe that we have received good from the hand of the lord and that that needs expressing. We were created for that purpose.

So it's just interesting, isn't it? That secular studies and Christian thinking both say that gratitude gives you humanity. That's what it means to be human. It's a humane thing. To recognize that good has come to you and to express it with thanks.

But okay then. Let's look at the Psalm. What exactly should we be thankful for? Because it might be that in a week of tariffs and rising bills and council tax increases and car tax increases and TV license increases in a in a month that many people are calling awful April. You may not this morning feel very, very thankful.

And without wishing to minimize, any of those pressures according to the Psalm, no matter what month it is, and no matter what we happen to be going through in our lives, this Psalm says that we still have every reason to praise the lord. 2 reasons why. Firstly, because he made us and secondly because he loves us. Firstly, praise the lord. He made us.

Have a look just at verse 1 again. A Psalm for Giving grateful praise. Shout for joy to the lord, all the earth. Worship the lord with gladness. Come before him with joyful songs.

Know that the lord is god. It is he who made us, and we are his. Now in some of the older translations, and this is actually reflected in the footnote, if you've got a a hard copy of the Bible on you, that second bit of verse 3 says it is he who made us and not ourselves. It is he who made us and not ourselves. So the translation that we're looking at today just restates the positive, and that's a good thing.

It is he who made us, and we are his. Both of those are positive. But I wonder in our day whether we need to hear the negative side of that sentence as well. It is he who made us and not ourselves. 1 phrase that you hear from time to time.

I don't really I don't really need anybody else. I'm a self made man or I'm a self made woman. What does it mean? It means that really the life that I've got and the life that I'm enjoying, I'm I'm made that. I made that.

I created that. I brought all the good into my life. I'm a self made man. Or others might say, no, no, it it was the world that made me. And so, yes, I'm willing to concede that there might have been a god who in the beginning created the universe and set everything up, but he's not a personal god, not 1 that we can know, and he's just sort of stepped back since that original creating act.

And he's let matter give birth to matter. The world made me. I came from the world. The world created me. But according to the Psalm, verse 3, It is he who made us.

He made us and not ourselves. And you know, I wonder if this is 1 area. In which our words can often betray us. You see, when it comes to babies, particularly babies, I think, but also the fine tuning of the universe and other things like that, even folks who normally wouldn't claim any faith in god will tend to use or they'll often use the language of design. Just look at those little fingers.

They're perfectly made, aren't they? Look how perfectly designed they are? Or look at the conditions for life on the universe and the planets, someone's that's perfectly designed. And we sort of can't help speaking that way because even when things go wrong with the human body, At some level, we do all know that Cleo and Zara are not self made and they are not universe made. They bear all of the hallmarks of a divinely designed thing.

You look at them and you can't help but see the fingerprints of someone greater and more glorious. Than ourselves. That's the claim here in this song that every individual from Cleo to Zara to you and me is a unique act of creation. And so you see at some level, there is crossover between what the Bible says and what the world says. Graditude is good for us.

Everybody can see that in lots of ways. But the Bible wants to give us some deep root for that thankfulness. Someone to express it to. It is he who made us. He made us praise the lord.

Enter his courts with Thanksgiving. Shout for joy to the lord. Know that the lord is God. He made us. He made us.

And not ourselves. And clearly in the Psalm, this is something that's worth singing about. Just look how the sentence moves in in verse in verse 3. It is he who made us and we are his we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Now, primarily, that part of the song can only really be sung truly by the people of God.

It is he who made us, and we are his. We are the sheep of his pasture. We live under his leadership and care. That's what god's people see. But it's also the reason that we were created, isn't it?

It is he who made us and not ourselves. Why did he create us? That we may be the sheep of his pasture and to live under his care and leadership. In other words, the lord god when he created us did not do so so that we might live independent of him. Guiding ourselves, shepherding ourselves, leading ourselves.

He created us that we might trust him, our maker, and then live under his loving shepherding care. That is the purpose for which we were made. Created to be in his field under his care. Earlier on, we heard on the stage these words from the Thanksgiving Service. It is your duty to provide At every stage of growth, instruction in Christian teaching.

Especially, you must teach Cleo and Zara to trust in Christ as the only way of forgiveness and salvation with God's help. Will you love Cleo and Zara and take responsibility for their Christian upbringing and pray for them regularly? Now, think of that. What what what is behind those words and that kind of prayer? What what is behind that?

It is the conviction that these girls were created by god for god. They were made by him in order to live under his care and leadership. And shepherding. So pray for them. Will you pray for them?

And teach them the gospel and tell them of Christ and tell them who they were made to be because that's why they were made. God made them for him. So that they might both grow and in their own ways live under his care. And so do you see why being made by god is a cause for Thanksgiving. Because if you know that god made you, you have discovered the ultimate purpose for you.

You don't have to join in with the general lostness. There seems to be all over the place. An uncertainty about who you are and what your life is for. A kind of subtle frustration that everything you seem to try delivers something in the short term but ultimately hollows you out and you have to push restart again and go looking somewhere else. The search is over.

If you know god made you, you know the reason for you. Which is to live with god as your shepherd and as your king. And so praise the lord. Praise the lord. It is he who made us.

Second reason then. For joyful thanks, the lord made us but also the lord loves us. Look at verse 4. 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. Why should we give grateful thanks verse 2 because of what god has done? Why should we give grateful thanks in verse 4 because of who god is? He is good and his love endures forever. Surely, 1 of the most rage inducing things on the road is a lack of Thanksgiving.

Isn't it? Then we then we all know that. If you don't know that, you wait till you turn 17 and get behind a car and you will know it. There there is almost nothing that is so provocative on the road than a lack of thanksgiving. You know the moment.

It's that moment when you pull over and at great personal cost to yourself, you have decided to move in so that somebody can come past you. And as they're passing, your eyes are locked on the windshield. Will they give thanks. That's the question, isn't it? Laser like focus.

Are they gonna thank me? Are they gonna thank me? Yes or no? Do they realize I'm gonna put my indicator on so they know I'm planning to pull out, and I've done a kind thing here. All the passive aggression.

You learn this, thank you, everybody. And so as they pass by, and if they do, you know, thanks or something like that, it's everything's fine. Isn't it? Everything is fine. Doesn't matter what it costs you.

If it's been acknowledged, everything is fine. But my word, if they don't. It's like, you know, if there was a grenade launcher in the glove box, it would be it would be out, wouldn't it? And and it I mean, it's dreadful, isn't it? Suddenly you regret the whole thing.

And you actually think if I see that car again, I'm not gonna do it. I'm gonna I'm waiting there. I know I've got their registration. Know, looking in the wing mirror, you know, writing it, writing it down. Yeah?

But seriously, they I mean, unthankfulness like that really does stir the heart, doesn't it? When people aren't thankful to us, Well, how about god? I mean, he's nothing like me in the car, thankfully. But there he is, and he's made us, and he's given us life. And every good thing that we have is from his hand and he pulls over as it were and he invites us down the road of this life to trust in him and to believe in him and to enjoy his shepherd in care and what do I do?

Self made man drive straight past him without even looking without even looking. That was the story of my life. I became a Christian at 21 years old for 21 years not a word of sincere thanks to god for anything that he had given me. 21 years of just driving past with my head down without putting my hand up or a thumbs up. No expression of thanks whatsoever.

In Romans chapter 1, and hopefully this will come up on the screen. Paul says, since the creation of the world, god's invisible qualities His eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen being understood from what has been made so that people are without excuse. For although they, and this is all people, knew god. They neither glorified him as god nor gave thanks to him. It's a bit of a religious word, particularly if you're not used to coming to church.

But when the Bible talks about sin, we mustn't think that it is just the wrong things that we do. It is at root a thankless heart, which will not and does not acknowledge any good from the hand of the lord. And that's our problem. That's all of our problem at at root, you know, swiped by nature. We come to a Psalm like Psalm a hundred and we read it, and we can find no place for it in our lives.

We see no place for it. We don't wanna say it. We're not convinced by it. We don't wanna live as if it were the case. We wanna drive by.

They neither glorified him. What an amazing way to describe the root of our problem. Who who of us would have included a lack of thanks. They neither glorified him nor gave thanks to him. And so friends no wonder we can be so downcast.

So much of the time and so miserable. When we were created to look out and give thanks, but we don't. We don't. We thank ourselves. Any wonder why we're so miserable so much of the time.

But wonderfully, the god who made us is the god who loves us. Have a look at Romans 5 0 7. Paul goes on after diagnosing our main problem. To tell us about God's love. Verse 7.

Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person. Though for a good person, someone might possibly dare to die. But god demonstrates his own love for us, and this is the same love that Psalm a hundred is talking about. Same type of committed love. God demonstrates his own love for us and this.

While we were still sinners. And let's change the language for the purpose of this morning. While we were still driving by, thankless, not acknowledging, passing him on the road. Whilst we were still doing that, living that way, Christ died for us. It may seem like a small thing to us, not being thankful to god.

I mean, what's the big deal? What's he's upset about? He'll get over it. What's the big deal? But to god our creator, the thankless heart is so so serious that only the death of Christ in our place could make it right.

For most of us, not being thankful to god would not be at the top of our sin list. Would it? We could probably point to things that we think are a lot more serious. But it required the blood of the son of god to put it right. The god is a very, very serious thing.

And so then what is this love that is spoken of? In Romans 5, and Psalmah hundred. Well, it's a type of love that sees us in our thankless rebellion and says I'm coming to help them. I'm coming to save them. It's a form of love, which does not fade or grow weak with our with our feelings and over time, and it's a form of love that is cemented in commitment and promise and not just in how we feel on any given day.

It's a form of love which sends Jesus into the world. To die for thankless people. Praise his name and give thanks. For the 1 who made us is the 1 who loves us and the 1 who loves us is the 1 who came into this world to die for us. And the 1 who died for us is the 1 who can take my empty thankless heart and fill it with proper praise.

That is tutor god. And so as we close, I wonder if I can put this simple question to you. Are you a thankful person? Are you a thankful person? Look again at verse 4 with me.

Enter his gates with Thanksgiving. It's a command, really, but it's also an invitation. Enter his gates with thanksgiving. That's the word of god from us from him to us this morning. Enter his gates with thanksgiving.

Why not enter in? How long are you gonna leave it? It's never too late to enter his gates with Thanksgiving. A little bit like sin. Repentance can be an unusual word if you're not used to coming to church.

But in the context of this psalm, you know what repentance means? It means to start giving thanks to the right person for the right things. That's all it means. Repentance is to stop thanking myself for being self made and stop thanking the world for making me and is to turn around and say, I'm gonna give thanks to the right person for the right thing. To god.

Who made me and who loves me and who died for me. And so I hope this morning whether you would call yourself a a Christian or not, you feel that to have just witnessed a Thanksgiving has done you some measure of good. But best of all is to take these words upon your own lips and maybe for the first time to offer them back to the lord. In grateful, praise. Let's bow our heads.

We thank you again heavenly father for Zara and for Cleo. We thank you that they are not self made, and it was not this world which made them, that it was you who made them uniquely in your image for your glory. And we do pray as we have done already this morning that as they grow, they would move from being your creation to the sheep of your pasture. That they would live their lives knowing the purpose of their lives, which is to be under your care. And we thank you father that despite all of our thanklessness.

That the lord Jesus has come into this world and has died and risen. To save us from our sin, to make us new, and to give us a heart which genuinely wants to praise you. For making us and saving us. Help each of us to apply these truths to our own lives in the way that we need to in Jesus' name.