Steve Gentry
[0:09] I’m going to have a seat. [0:10] Welcome to Village Church. [0:11] This is your first time here. [0:13] My name is Steve, one of the pastors here at Village Church. [0:15] And as always, I’m thankful and grateful to see each and every one of you. [0:18] If you have a Bible, go ahead and open it to Psalm 100.
[0:22] That’s where we will be this morning as well as other texts. [0:26] But before we get into that, I do want to talk just for a moment about the [0:30] Lottie Moon Christmas Market that is coming this Friday night. [0:34] And so, of course, during the Christmas season every year, [0:37] if you’re a part of Village Church, you know that we take part in what’s called [0:41] the Lottie Moon Christmas offering.
[0:43] This is an offering that we’ve taken for years and years now, [0:46] and 100 percent of it goes to the cause of international missions [0:50] through a partnership with the International Mission Board. [0:53] We cooperate with many churches throughout the nation to support [0:56] international missions. [0:58] Now, the key is that we finance and we in part give to the International Mission
[1:03] Board so that missionaries can spend their time overseas, [1:08] reaching people that haven’t been reached with the gospel. [1:10] And so they don’t have to worry about the financial element of that. [1:14] And so fantastic program. [1:16] And every year, our kids try to find a way in which they can be a part [1:21] of the Lottie Moon Christmas offering so that they can have a tangible way
[1:25] to say that they are supporting missions all over the world. [1:29] I don’t know if you know this or not, but our government will not allow them [1:31] to have jobs. It’s frowned upon. [1:34] They won’t let 10 year olds go to good factory union jobs like they used to. [1:40] But so the kids have to get creative every year. [1:43] And so this year, they’ve decided to have the Lottie Moon Christmas Market.
[1:47] That’s this Friday night, November 17th, starting at six thirty. [1:50] You can drop by anywhere between six thirty and eight. [1:53] And I hope you do. My kids are taking part in it. [1:55] And so if you don’t come, it’s going to hurt their feelings. [1:58] And if you hurt their feelings, well, guess what? [2:00] You hurt my wife’s feelings.
[2:02] And if you hurt my wife’s feelings, well, that makes my life complicated. [2:06] And so I’m just going to get mad at you. [2:08] So you need to be here. [2:10] You need to bring some money. [2:11] You need to buy. [2:11] They’re going to have Christmas ornaments, Christmas decorations.
[2:14] They’re going to have many crafts. [2:16] They’re going to have desserts that they’re going to sell you. [2:18] There’s there’s really no limit to the things that they’re going to be selling. [2:22] I don’t even know what all of them are. [2:24] But please just mark out some time this coming Friday night, [2:27] maybe right before dinner, right after dinner.
[2:29] You can come stop by, buy some of their things. [2:31] And here’s the big key. [2:33] A hundred percent of this is going to go to the Lottie Moon Christmas [2:37] offering that we will take up later in December. [2:40] And so I want you to support our children, because as W.A. [2:44] Criswell used to tell his church, it’s through things like the cooperative
[2:47] program of the SBC, it’s through things like the Lottie Moon Christmas offering [2:50] that you can very much understand that we as a church are represented [2:54] all over the world through missions, efforts that are reaching people [2:58] who have never been reached with the gospel of Jesus Christ. [3:01] And so I believe in the International Mission Board. [3:03] I love that we as a church have partnered with them for almost 15 years
[3:07] now, the entire life of our church. [3:10] And this is just a small way [3:12] that you can take part in what God is doing all over the world. [3:17] Sometimes they’re in countries that we can’t even talk about [3:20] reaching unreached people groups with the gospel. [3:23] And so I hope that I’ve sufficiently guilted you into being here
[3:27] this Friday night somewhere between six thirty and eight [3:30] and buy some of the goodies, especially if you see a gentry kit attached to it. [3:36] Because if you don’t buy it, I’m going to have to buy all of them. [3:39] And I’m running out of money. [3:40] All right. So so please help us with that this Friday night. [3:43] Well, we are a week and a half from Thanksgiving.
[3:46] That’s hard to believe 2023 has flown by. [3:51] I barely knew it. [3:52] But when we get into the Thanksgiving season, it kind of [3:56] makes me reflect on our culture at large. [4:00] And I believe that we have a pandemic of ingratitude in our culture. [4:05] I think that as a culture, we define our lives by what we lack
[4:09] before we give gratitude and thankfulness to the God [4:13] that has given us all that we have. [4:16] Well, we’re more anxious in our culture about what we can’t do [4:20] than we are thankful for what we can do. [4:22] We’re more focused on the bad things that might happen to us [4:25] than we are glad about the things that have already happened that are good for us.
[4:30] And I think that we do this to the detriment of our very souls. [4:34] I believe Thanksgiving is a vital holiday, especially for Christians. [4:38] And it gives us an opportunity to showcase our thankfulness [4:42] to God for all that he has given us and all that we have been given by him. [4:46] Of course, the non tangible things, the immaterial things like redemption, [4:51] like the gospel of Jesus Christ, like the life that we have,
[4:54] where Ephesians puts it, that we have been blessed [4:57] with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. [5:00] You cannot exaggerate the level of blessedness that that is, [5:04] but also the material things around us. [5:07] There’s not any material in your life that has not been brought to you by God. [5:12] From the clothes on your back to the food that you will eat after
[5:16] this service that I’m not going to get until after the next service. [5:19] You should be thankful you get to eat before I do on Sundays. [5:24] But we also need to be thankful for the fact. [5:26] I mean, this morning I drove a truck that had heat in it. [5:29] I remember I one summer spent time driving a truck [5:31] that did not have air conditioning in it, and I was not thankful for that.
[5:36] We should be thankful for every single thing in our lives, [5:39] but we must also go beyond those things to realize that every single one of them [5:44] has come from the hand of their creator, God. [5:48] A fascinating thing has happened in my lifetime. [5:51] That’s how Halloween has really overtaken Thanksgiving. [5:54] And in some ways, it even competes with Christmas
[5:57] on the emphasis that people put into it, on the the amount of attention [6:01] that people give towards it. [6:03] We have to ask ourselves, why is that? [6:06] I’m not here to give you any type of legalistic mandate, [6:08] but rather a question of why society celebrates the macabre [6:13] more than we celebrate things like love, joy, peace, hope.
[6:18] We have to ask ourselves, because my assumption and my thought on that [6:21] is because we as a society have grown more comfortable [6:25] with focusing on unhappy elements than we are focusing on joyful elements. [6:30] I mean, let’s be honest, Halloween emphasizes fear, [6:33] misery, death, the macabre, while Thanksgiving and Christmas, as I said, [6:37] focus on joy, peace, love and hope.
[6:40] I think part of it is because we celebrate what we are familiar with. [6:44] And I think as a society, we’ve grown more familiar [6:47] with misery than we have with happiness. [6:50] We’ve grown more familiar with anxiety than we have hope for tomorrow. [6:55] I think in many ways, we’ve become more comfortable, even with the macabre [7:00] than we are for the joyful, because for many of us, celebrating joyful things
[7:04] represents something that we believe we lack, [7:08] something that we believe God maybe even is holding out on us. [7:13] Would rather be fearful than we would be faith filled. [7:16] And that is why really for the next six weeks, I want to delve into [7:19] Thanksgiving and Christmas as really one combined celebration of worship [7:24] to God for all that he has given, of all that he has done for us.
[7:28] These are feasting seasons of which should be celebrated loud [7:32] and proud for all that God has done, not because of anything that we have done. [7:37] And we’re not celebrating loudly how great we are. [7:39] We’re not proud of all that we contribute into the gospel. [7:42] Rather, we are so thankful for what God has done that we are unapologetic [7:46] for the lives of gratitude that we live in a culture that desperately needs
[7:50] to see that type of gratitude. [7:52] Maybe you feel ill equipped to defend the faith in intellectual [7:57] or even academic ways, and you’ve reduced your ability to defend [8:00] the faith to those things. [8:02] They get questions about how to defend the faith all of the time. [8:04] But the fact is, one of the key apologetics of the faith in Jesus Christ
[8:08] is your own gratitude for what God has done. [8:11] A watching world does not look at your misery and say, [8:14] Hmm, I want some of that. [8:16] A watching world does not look at your anxiety, look at your unhappiness [8:19] and say, man, that’s something I would like to take part of. [8:22] But a watching world does look at an overwhelming sense of gratitude,
[8:26] even in the face of despair and in the face of pain and say, [8:29] how are you walking every day with faith in light of all that is going on in the world? [8:35] That is what an unbelieving world wants to have. [8:39] I believe Christians should live daily with joy, daily with things like laughter, [8:43] because we know and focus on what God has given in abundance [8:47] to the glory of his name.
[8:50] That’s what we see in Psalm 100. [8:53] The psalmist writes, starting in verse one, [8:55] make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth. [8:57] Serve the Lord with gladness. [9:00] Come into his presence with singing. [9:02] Know that the Lord, he is God.
[9:05] It is he who made us and we are his. [9:07] We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. [9:10] Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. [9:15] Give thanks to him. Bless his name. [9:18] For the Lord is good. [9:20] His steadfast love endures forever.
[9:23] His faithfulness to all generations. [9:27] Number one, this morning, I want you to understand that thanksgiving is an issue of worship. [9:31] Thanksgiving is an issue of worship because praise and thanksgiving really work together. [9:37] It is impossible to worship if you are unthankful. [9:40] It doesn’t even make sense. [9:42] Yet I so many times I see people complain and they’re like, oh, I just don’t feel worship.
[9:47] Well, have you considered the ingratitude that you live with every day? [9:52] If you aren’t grateful for all that God has done, [9:55] then you can’t look at him and ascribe worth and glory to his name. [9:59] Ian Bounds, the great writer on prayer, wrote this. [10:02] He said, praise and thanksgiving are so near alike that it is not easy to distinguish them or to define them separately. [10:10] That’s why Psalm 100 is not solely just a psalm of worship.
[10:14] It is firstly a psalm of thanksgiving. [10:17] Note that it is dependent on a posture of worship, though, [10:20] because it is honest about what Thanksgiving cultivates. [10:24] Thanksgiving wells up from a heart of praise, [10:27] reflecting on what God has done and responding in kind. [10:32] It’s cultivated in the believer’s life because we know what we deserve.
[10:37] Yet we are also thankful and grateful for what God has gifted us with. [10:43] As Thanksgiving is interchangeable with the atmosphere of praise, [10:47] because it looks to God and thanks him for his work, [10:50] as you have the privilege of entering into his presence. [10:54] And you cannot be thankful to God without praising his name. [10:58] That’s why he notes that he comes into the presence of God in verse one with a joy,
[11:03] because that joy is rooted on the privilege of entering into the presence of a holy God [11:09] that you do not deserve to enter into, but rather should be condemned by because you are so unholy. [11:17] Note that this joy filled heart [11:19] wants to speak of the knowledge that God has revealed through his activity. [11:25] Worship, as I said, is ultimately a statement of what you think someone or something is worth. [11:32] That’s why we so often give it into things that are material rather than God,
[11:36] because the material is what’s right in front of our face. [11:39] Psalm 100, though, speaks of the worth that God has in the life of this psalmist. [11:45] There’s no way to read it without seeing how valuable he thinks the presence of God [11:49] in his life is. What I hope jumps off of the page to you is the emotion [11:55] with which he praises the name of God. [11:58] The author isn’t just stating facts about God.
[12:01] He is talking about the effects that those facts have had in a very real life [12:06] in his response to them. [12:08] The grace that God has given to him is the way that he knows God, [12:13] but also understands that he is known by God. [12:17] This is the proper reaction that comes to a life of faith, [12:23] because thanksgiving points us to a God who provides and it’s the necessary reaction.
[12:30] But a good question is, what do you do if you don’t feel that type of emotion? [12:34] What do you do if you read this passage, you feel nothing about it, really? [12:37] Doesn’t well up anything within your soul. [12:39] You just kind of go through the motions, read the scripture, walk away. [12:42] So that’s great. [12:44] I can tell you, I am naturally not a very emotional person.
[12:47] So I get this question and this concern from other people like me a lot. [12:52] You focus on two things. [12:54] The first thing that you focus on in the text is not a feeling. [12:58] So the problem is, is that some of you base your life too much on feeling. [13:02] And that’s been the story of disaster, hasn’t it? [13:05] You do whatever you feel like.
[13:08] Well, what if you feel like an idiot? [13:11] Well, then bad things will ensue. [13:14] If you just go through life, living one feeling to the other, honestly understand, [13:20] sometimes you will make foolish decisions, if not more times than not. [13:25] What the psalmist is doing, though, isn’t that he’s basing his relationship [13:30] and his his understanding of God on an emotional feeling.
[13:33] No, he’s basing his feeling on facts. [13:37] Your feelings must necessarily be anchored [13:41] to objective reality for them to have any credence in your life. [13:46] And that’s what the psalmist does. Look in verse three. [13:49] He says, no, that the Lord, he is God. [13:53] That is a fact that he is digging his life into and he is rooting his faith in.
[14:01] Facts are what you base your faith on.
[14:06] Faith doesn’t necessitate you feeling anything. [14:10] Faith is a cognitive choice that you make with your life [14:14] on the facts of who God is and the facts of what God has done. [14:18] Faith really is leaning your life onto the facts of who God is, [14:22] the fact of what God has done and the fact of what he promises to do [14:26] through you, for you and in you.
[14:28] And so you lean your life, you give all of your trust into those facts [14:33] and you begin to live a life of faith. [14:35] But when you live a life of faith, you cannot help [14:39] but realize all that God has done when you begin to note through [14:43] all of the goodness that God has given into your life. [14:46] Even if we just begin with the gospel that redeems you,
[14:49] the gospel that you’ve placed your faith in. [14:51] God loves you to the extent that he sent his son to die on the cross for your sin. [14:56] When you lean your life into that, there’s no way for you to be [15:00] in that type of faith for an extended period of time, [15:02] to not look at it and be filled with gladness, [15:05] because I am so thankful for what God has done for me.
[15:10] When I was a young man, my church would sing a song [15:14] thanking the Lord for all of the good things that he’s brought into my life, [15:17] for the roof that is over my head, for the shoes that are on my feet, [15:21] because we must understand that as Gnostic, as we pretend that our spiritual lives are, [15:25] the material is also provided by God. [15:28] Are you thankful for that?
[15:31] All of you are clothed by God’s grace.
[15:36] Have you thanked God for that today? [15:39] Have you thanked God for the reality that you most likely will have at least one meal today? [15:46] I have lived a life where I am often overwhelmed with the privilege [15:49] of what God has done for me. [15:51] I’ve lived a great life. [15:53] There is not a moment of my life that I can remember,
[15:56] that I did not know the name of Jesus Christ, [15:58] that I did not know that the name of God is Jesus Christ. [16:03] I’ve lived with that reality. [16:05] I’ve often told you I’ve been in the Church of Jesus Christ physically my entire life. [16:09] I came to faith in Christ at a very young age. [16:12] My parents ensured that I was raised in a Christian home,
[16:15] and that is to the glory of God. [16:16] And I am so thankful for that, that I seek to provide that same atmosphere for my children. [16:21] And I seek to cultivate environments for you to build your life, [16:24] for your children around the exact same things, because it is good. [16:27] And it has been provided by God, and I am overwhelmingly thankful.
[16:33] I spend any amount of time with me, I love to tell stories. [16:36] My parents have told me I have an uncommon memory of things that happened to me [16:40] when I was five, six and seven. [16:41] I just remember detail after detail of my entire life. [16:45] And I love sharing stories. [16:46] I love sharing embarrassing stories.
[16:48] I love sharing all stories. [16:49] I have had a great time in my life. [16:51] Other people will talk about their middle school and high school experience. [16:54] But it was so awful. I had a great time. [16:57] I loved middle school. I loved high school. [17:00] I loved college. I loved seminary.
[17:03] I’ve loved being a pastor. I’ve loved planning a church. [17:05] I’ve loved leading you for the past 15 years. [17:08] I’ve loved every part of my life, and I know that that is uncommon. [17:14] And I am thankful.
[17:17] By God’s grace, I got up this morning to a wonderful wife [17:21] who didn’t get up as early as I did, but I was thankful for her. [17:24] She puts up with me. [17:26] She loves me. [17:28] I got three kids God has graced me with, and I am thankful for all three of them. [17:33] I got a roof over my head.
[17:35] I didn’t have to sleep out in the cold last night. [17:36] I am thankful to God that he’s provided that for me.
[17:42] After church, one of my favorite parts of the day, food.
[17:47] It’s coming. [17:49] I’m thankful. [17:50] I’ve got the money to get it. [17:52] I’m thankful. [17:53] My wife, so good to me, she’ll bring it to me. [17:57] I’m thankful.
[17:58] I’ve got dogs. Love them. Thankful. [18:02] Friends, so often, [18:05] the feelings of your life are rooted in what you think you lack. [18:11] But most of it is because you haven’t been paying attention [18:14] to everything that you have, everything that you’ve been given. [18:19] If you will, every morning when you wake up,
[18:22] this is an exercise that I try to do every single day. [18:26] I try before I begin my day because I might be unemotional, [18:30] but that’s only because my emotion is usually grumpy. [18:33] All right. That’s the one emotion I’m very capable of. [18:36] And I’m an expert at it, buddy.
[18:39] But I try to remind myself, [18:40] I try to set a standard for my life every single morning [18:43] where I spend time saying, I am thankful. [18:46] I’m thankful for this. [18:47] I’m thankful for this. I’m thankful for that. [18:49] I’m thankful for that.
[18:50] Do you do things like that? [18:52] What you don’t understand is that is worship. [18:57] That is worship. [18:59] Psalm 126 puts it this way. [19:01] When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. [19:05] Then our mouth was filled with laughter, our tongue with shouts of joy.
[19:09] Then they said among the nation, the Lord has done great things for them. [19:13] The Lord has done great things for us. [19:15] We are glad. [19:17] Do you see it begins with a fact of what God has done? [19:21] Then they have faith that God not only did it, but God will continue to do it. [19:26] And then they felt glad.
[19:29] But note that other nations were noticing their gladness.
[19:34] See, that is a contagious type of faith. [19:37] There is fact, then there is faith, [19:39] then there is the response in the activity of gladness in the life of the believer. [19:45] Friends, there is a difference between stating the facts of God’s attributes [19:49] in a format of praise and feeling gratitude for them deep in your inner being. [19:55] These are not dry facts.
[19:58] The Christian life is not an academic exercise. [20:01] If the truth of God never brings affection at Thanksgiving for God, then friend. [20:06] Problem is, you probably don’t have faith. [20:09] It may take time to build. [20:12] But Thanksgiving is not an option. [20:15] It is the justifiable outcome of a life lived through faith
[20:20] and what God has done and is doing. [20:23] John Piper once wrote, minimizing the importance of transformed feelings [20:28] makes Christian conversion less supernatural and less radical. [20:33] We have to be honest that if you have a Thanksgiving problem, [20:36] yes, you have a worship problem, which could reveal a real faith problem. [20:42] Because understand, Thanksgiving, number two this morning,
[20:46] is the pathway of obedience. [20:48] It is the pathway of obedience. [20:50] If you are unthankful for any period of time, [20:53] I need you to understand that disobedience is close at hand. [20:57] Sin is close at hand in your life because living thankful [21:01] builds trust in God, which cultivates obedience.
[21:07] Thanksgiving has to be awkward for atheists [21:10] because it doesn’t make a lot of sense. [21:12] It terminates on itself because it can never transcend the material world. [21:17] Thanksgiving assumes a God to whom we are thankful. [21:21] It must. [21:22] I would hate to spend my Thanksgiving and Christmas
[21:25] with men like Neil deGrasse Tyson, the astrophysicist, [21:29] who’s so quick to tell you that you are a fool [21:32] for trying to thank some transcendent being out there that made everything that is. [21:37] And he’s going to try to give you 17 mathematical equations [21:40] why the existence of God, it can’t be real. [21:43] And you are a fool. What a bummer.
[21:46] I wish he was related to me. [21:48] He wouldn’t be eating turkey at my table. [21:50] Be like, bro, I’m going to live thankful. [21:53] Get your math out of here. All right. [21:55] But what he’s doing through it is not giving you a justifiable [21:59] or what philosopher Alvin Plantech calls you a warranted disbelief in God.
[22:04] Rather, what he is doing is giving you a show to anoint himself as deity. [22:10] But if I am the autonomous materialistic deity in my own life, [22:15] what a pathetic existence that my thankfulness and my gratitude [22:18] can never transcend my own hands. [22:22] You imagine how miserable it must be to not be thankful. [22:29] Friends, there is a part of the image of God that was given to us
[22:32] in the very soul of who we are that just wells up gratitude [22:37] for all that is good in our lives. [22:40] Don’t you understand that that is God drawing up from within us [22:45] a worship that must go beyond the material to our transcendent God [22:49] who is eminently involved in our lives. [22:54] And first, Thessalonians, Chapter five,
[22:57] closing the book, the apostle Paul writes to the church at Thessalonica [23:00] in almost a bullet point fashion, describing what a life of faithfulness [23:05] to the gospel of Jesus will look like right in the middle of it. [23:09] In verse 18, he tells them that they must give thanks in all circumstances. [23:13] Why? Because he says this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. [23:19] Why would he say something like that?
[23:22] Because along with all the other commands,
[23:25] thankfulness is the will of God for your life. [23:28] To put it the opposite way, to be unthankful [23:32] would have been for them to walk outside of God’s will. [23:36] And that is a dangerous thing for so many of us. [23:40] We’re not thankful for the will of God because we kind of reduce [23:43] God’s will to our lives for the material things of this world.
[23:46] And we think the will of God is consumed with our spouse, with our education, [23:50] with the vocation that we’re going to choose in our lives. [23:53] And many don’t slow down enough to wrestle with the things [23:56] that the Bible is very specific about what the will of God for our lives is. [24:02] For many of us, we don’t understand the will of God [24:05] because we look for it only in material ways.
[24:08] Friends, that is practical atheism. [24:11] God’s will goes beyond what is right in front of your face [24:15] to the source of all things, God. [24:17] And so what is the will of God for you to be thankful? [24:22] When you begin with such a notion [24:25] that God would have me worship through Thanksgiving, that is his will.
[24:29] If I am not thankful, I am out of God’s will. [24:32] Therefore, I will seek to be in his will to always be filled with gratitude. [24:36] Don’t you understand that all of those other things will fall into place [24:40] in your life because you will have a clear perspective as to why you exist [24:44] and why everything around you exists. [24:47] It exists to point glory to God.
[24:49] And when you begin with that, all the other things tend to be very simple [24:53] to figure out. God has designed us to live in the type of reality [24:58] where we look to his hand as gifting us with everything [25:02] that God gives us in our lives. [25:05] But so many of us, especially in our culture, [25:09] we focus on what is wrong with life before we’re ever cognizant
[25:12] of what is right in life. [25:15] We’ve built, really, in our society, a culture of complaining. [25:19] And you look at others who are thankful and being like, [25:22] well, have you seen the way that the world is? [25:25] I say, well, yeah, we’ve got eyes. [25:27] I see the news.
[25:28] I know things are messed up. [25:30] I know the world is not in many ways as it should be, [25:33] but it is out of God’s will for you to feel sorry for yourself [25:39] and seek to be a victim rather than seeking to attempt to be a hero in this world. [25:44] I’ll not apologize for that. [25:46] I believe it is overwhelmingly biblical
[25:48] to seek to victimize yourself in any and all circumstances [25:51] is detrimental to your soul, and it will kill your future. [25:57] It is God’s will for you to be thankful for everything [26:02] that he has given into your life. [26:04] What has he given in your life? [26:06] Everything that is in your life.
[26:09] This brings with it the glad assumption that everything [26:13] in every circumstance you will encounter in this life [26:16] will be from the hand of God. [26:19] And God has designed us to live in that reality. [26:24] That means that even when pain enters into my life, [26:28] I must look to the God who brought it and be thankful because
[26:31] the alternative is chaos.
[26:35] I look to the turmoil that God brings into my life at times. [26:39] I must ask myself, how can I be thankful? [26:42] How is God going to use this circumstance that I’m not going to enjoy? [26:47] How is he going to use this circumstance to give himself [26:50] glory through my life? [26:53] And according to the word of God, it’s going to be through Thanksgiving,
[26:56] at least in part.
[26:59] Friends, I know during the holiday season, [27:01] you understand the suicide rate climbs. [27:04] It doesn’t go down. [27:06] It climbs because so many people in this world
[27:11] believe that they’ll never get through the pain, [27:13] they’ll never get over the turmoil. [27:15] People are lonely because whether they’re just out of step [27:19] with others in relationship or whether they just have no family, no friends, [27:23] they’ve lived an isolated life where they’ve isolated themselves unhealthily [27:27] from others, whether it is that you lost something or someone
[27:31] during a holiday season or this is your first Thanksgiving or Christmas [27:35] without someone or something that you thought would be in your life [27:38] for a very long time. [27:40] But now it’s gone. [27:41] Whatever the reason, so many have so many [27:45] viable reasons for their melancholy during this season.
[27:51] But I want you to understand that none of it happened outside [27:54] of the purview of a sovereign God who has promised that since [27:59] he used the murder of his own son to bring about the resurrection [28:03] of his own son, to bring about the redemption of so many, [28:07] even the pain and the turmoil that you will face during this season. [28:10] And friends, I know some of you will.
[28:13] Friends, even that will be used by God to bring himself glory. [28:17] And for that, we must be thankful. [28:21] Is it easy? No. [28:25] Friends, life is overwhelmingly difficult.
[28:31] If you have not experienced pain in this life, you must not have gone outside.
[28:37] Life is hard. [28:38] Life is a struggle. [28:40] And so many suffer for so much of it. [28:44] But we do not serve a God who has detached himself from the difficulties. [28:49] Rather, we serve a God who has inserted himself right in the center [28:54] of those difficulties and through his son, sunk himself into the deepest
[28:58] depths of suffering that anyone has ever known in all of creation. [29:02] And he has done it to redeem you. [29:04] But he has also done it so that you can know on the dark night [29:08] of your own soul that not only do you have a God who cares, [29:12] but you have a God who can redeem pain for his glory. [29:15] And for that, we must be thankful.
[29:21] We enter God’s gates with thanksgiving [29:24] because we believe that the God who worked to save us [29:28] will continue then to carry us into a future by his design. [29:34] Hebrews, chapter 11, verse six states, [29:36] there is a direct connection between faith and seeking reward. [29:40] He says, without faith, it is impossible to please God for whoever would draw
[29:43] near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. [29:49] That trust is cultivated through thanksgiving rather than giving God [29:54] our list of grievances of how bad everything is every day. [29:58] Even if life hasn’t turned out the way that you wanted it to. [30:01] And I know for many of you, it hasn’t. It isn’t.
[30:06] Even in light of that, you need to understand [30:09] that there are a thousand markers of grace of how God has endured you, [30:13] even through the moments of pain and all of your despair, [30:17] all of your grumbling, all of your complaining. [30:20] If you ever stop for a moment to ask the question, [30:23] how have I endured through every moment of it?
[30:27] Well, if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, I’ll tell you how you’ve endured [30:30] because the power of the Holy Spirit is what has endured you. [30:34] You weren’t strong enough.
[30:37] You weren’t mighty enough. [30:40] You wouldn’t have made it if God hadn’t carried you every step of the way. [30:48] See, friends, if you believe the gospel, then you know God isn’t holding out on you. [30:56] But envy and jealousy will cultivate that type of environment in your life. [31:02] It will tell you, oh, you should have that rather than them. [31:06] Oh, you should be that rather than that person.
[31:09] Oh, you should have that type of life. They don’t deserve it. [31:12] I’ll tell you, I deserve so much more than some people. [31:16] I tell you, I live that reality. [31:17] I look at what people have and I’ll be like, loser, I should have had that.
[31:22] I got a problem. It’s called envy. [31:25] Maybe you have it, too. [31:27] But see, the issue is, is that that can very quickly turn into a posture [31:31] of believing that God is somehow holding out on you. [31:37] Friend, God hasn’t held held out on you. [31:38] And I know that’s true because he sent his own son
[31:42] to pay the penalty for your son, not his sin, your sin. [31:46] That’s not the type of God that holds out on us. [31:48] Look at James one seventeen. [31:50] Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the father [31:54] of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. [31:58] When we do not
[32:01] have all that we want in this world and from this world, [32:06] we tend to grow resentful towards God, not realizing [32:10] that not only is he our designer, [32:13] but he is the designer of everything that is good for us. [32:18] Therefore, when he doesn’t give into your life something that you want, [32:22] it’s either coming later or it would have somehow destroyed you.
[32:27] Some of the greatest things that God has ever done is not give you [32:31] exactly what you asked for, because if he had done it, [32:35] it may have led you away from him into worshiping the gift [32:39] rather than worshiping the gift giver. [32:42] If your Thanksgiving is overwhelmed by only also being thankful [32:47] for material gain, then you don’t understand what good is.
[32:51] Don’t get me wrong. [32:53] I’m no Gnostic. [32:54] I am so thankful for every creature comfort that God has blessed me with. [32:58] But the greatest gift is the blessing of knowing him, [33:01] the blessing of being redeemed by him, the blessing that as Ephesians, [33:06] as I said, says, I’ve been blessed with every spiritual blessing
[33:09] in the heavenly places. [33:10] I will never know the wrath of God. [33:13] I will never know it. [33:16] As soon as my life on this earth is through pleasure forevermore [33:21] in glory with a God who, when he looks at Steve Gentry, [33:26] he sees the very righteousness of his son, Jesus Christ.
[33:31] On my worst day. [33:34] That’s still true. [33:37] And for that, I’m thankful. [33:40] We are so tempted to measure our lives [33:44] and the worth of our lives apart from the eternity [33:48] afforded by God, that it does create disobedience.
[33:53] And many of us pursuing lifestyles that God never intended for us to have, [33:58] thinking that that is where we’ll find happiness. [34:00] That is where we’ll find joy. [34:01] You will never find it outside of the presence of God. [34:05] When you live thankful to God in every moment, [34:09] it focuses you on what he created you for and the commands that he has given.
[34:14] Because it assumes that he knows better than I do what I need in my life. [34:18] And I trust him with that. [34:20] But also understand number three, [34:22] Thanksgiving puts you in a posture of truthful, excuse me, trustful rest. [34:28] Thanksgiving puts you in a posture of trustful rest.
[34:33] Hear this in gratitude is arrogance. [34:38] Plain and simple is a sin against God. [34:42] When you consider the world that surrounds you, [34:45] all of the evidence that points to a creator, God, who is the source of all things, [34:49] but not just the source of all things, he’s the maintainer of all things. [34:53] And then you consider the grace that he’s given you
[34:55] through the gospel of his son, Jesus Christ. [34:58] The only way you can respond is with gratitude. [35:02] He has revealed himself in so many ways. [35:07] He has done this in so many personal ways in my life. [35:12] And I’m sure that he has done the same for you as well. [35:16] But what about those who are unthankful?
[35:19] What about when I’m not thankful? [35:21] I have to be honest. It’s arrogance.
[35:24] That is the great depravity of sin with which we must understand we struggle.
[35:31] I seek to be thankful in every day of my life. [35:34] But don’t misunderstand, there is the temptation every single day [35:38] to be filled with ingratitude. [35:40] There is the temptation every single day to define my life [35:44] by what I lack rather than what I have.
[35:48] And every one of those moments, I must repent of the ingratitude that I feel.
[35:55] There’s a temptation, the older you get, [35:57] it takes you longer to unfold out of bed in the morning.
[36:01] You want to be like, why do I feel this way? [36:05] Why has God allowed this to happen?
[36:08] I said, in gratitude speaking, [36:11] that’s just a reality of life. [36:13] But for so many that I’ve met and so many that I talked to that in gratitude [36:17] that we begin the day with, it begins to define every other moment. [36:21] And you only experience the pain. [36:24] You only see what you lack.
[36:28] Friends, that’s rooted in the pain. [36:30] And that’s rooted in sin in your life. [36:30] Look at Psalm 136. [36:34] Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. [36:36] His steadfast love endures forever. [36:38] Give thanks to the God of gods.
[36:40] His steadfast love endures forever. [36:42] Give thanks to the Lord of lords. [36:44] His steadfast love endures forever. [36:46] To him who alone does great wonders, his steadfast love endures forever. [36:50] To him who by understanding made the heavens, his steadfast love endures forever. [36:54] To him who spread out the earth above the waters,
[36:56] his steadfast love endures forever. [37:00] Are you catching a theme?
[37:03] And it continues the rest of the chapter [37:07] repeating and repeating and repeating to be steadfast is to have endurance. [37:13] He’s saying that God’s steadfastness is a trustworthy endurance [37:18] that will not fade, rather, it is an unfailing attribute [37:23] that will never fade away, and he applies it to his love.
[37:30] This psalm uses historic events in which God moved in the life of Israel [37:35] and follows it with the continuous refrain of God’s trustworthiness. [37:40] Are you sick? His steadfast love endures forever.
[37:45] Is there a relationship in your life that hasn’t reconciled yet? [37:49] His steadfast love endures forever. [37:51] Are you in chronic pain? [37:53] His steadfast love endures forever. [37:55] Are you anxious his steadfast love endures forever? [37:59] Do you need money?
[38:00] His steadfast love endures forever. [38:04] Do you need a job? [38:05] His steadfast love endures forever. [38:09] Are you worried about your kids? [38:10] His steadfast love endures forever. [38:14] Do you feel like you lack compared to other people?
[38:18] His steadfast love endures forever. [38:21] Are you entering into a week that you know is going to be difficult? [38:25] His steadfast love endures forever.
[38:31] Regardless of the situation, [38:34] the psalmist wants you to understand that none of it changes [38:39] the enduring faithfulness [38:43] that God’s love will always afford you into eternity.
[38:51] And for that, I am thankful.
[38:56] And this psalm, he makes these statements. [38:59] He says, God is good. [39:00] God has worked. God is still working. [39:04] God will always work, always proceeding it with his steadfast love endures forever. [39:09] How do I know his steadfast love endures forever? [39:12] I can look to the cross of Jesus Christ and promise you
[39:15] his steadfast love endures forever. [39:18] God not only says it, but God continuously proves it. [39:24] When things are going right [39:25] and when things are going wrong, according to my standard, [39:28] doesn’t change the steadfast love of God for me. [39:31] Because when I have that, I always have hope.
[39:38] The cure for much anxiety in this life is not complicated. [39:44] Don’t get me wrong, I’m not going to go as far as to say all I want to, [39:48] but I won’t because I know some of you have real medical conditions. [39:52] You have real chemical imbalances. [39:55] But I want you to understand that none of it is disconnected [39:58] to the faithfulness of God’s word.
[40:01] So much of the anxiety and the numbers involved with it have skyrocketed. [40:05] I believe that it is a pandemic of peer pressure [40:08] that makes many of you as anxious as you are.
[40:12] His steadfast love endures forever, even if you think you can’t handle your life. [40:17] And so going into this holiday season, [40:19] there’s going to be a temptation for you to enter into Thanksgiving and say, [40:22] Oh, I just can’t be surrounded by family. [40:24] I can’t be surrounded by people. [40:25] I can’t be expected to celebrate.
[40:27] I can’t be expected to be in a good mood. [40:29] I can’t be expected to this, that, anything. [40:30] Why? Because I’m so anxious.
[40:34] I believe that you are anxious, but I don’t believe you understand why.
[40:40] For many of you, the cure for anxiety is not denying reality [40:44] the way that it is, but rather it is looking to the steadfast love of God [40:48] and finding the rest that you need and want in him [40:53] rather than anywhere else. [40:55] When you are tempted to find your identity and anxiety, [40:58] you need to turn and look to the gospel of Jesus Christ and say,
[41:02] how can Jesus define me more than my anxiety defines me? [41:07] Don’t fret yourself to death this holiday season. [41:11] Doesn’t matter if your holiday is not going to be as pretty [41:13] as everybody else’s holiday. [41:15] It doesn’t matter that your turkey is not going to taste [41:17] anywhere near as good as mine.
[41:19] All right. [41:20] Chef Steve’s in the house.
[41:23] What matters is that you not only have a God who has saved you, [41:27] you have a God who’s going to endure you through this physical world [41:30] every step of the way and into the next into his kingdom. [41:34] When we consider the world around us and everything that is in it, [41:37] when we consider the next generation that is following us, [41:41] they don’t need to see people that can’t handle and won’t.
[41:45] They need to see people that trust God with thankful hearts. [41:50] They need to hear [41:52] proclamations of God’s trustworthiness in our Thanksgiving [41:56] for all that he has done. [41:59] Look at Psalm 139. [42:01] I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
[42:04] I say that in the mirror to myself every single morning. [42:08] You say, well, that sounds cocky. [42:10] I say it sounds like God’s word, so whatever.
[42:13] Some of you could use some of that faith filled cockiness. [42:17] Stop looking at yourself and seeing something that you don’t like [42:21] and don’t call people fat phobic. [42:23] No, I am fat. I shouldn’t be that. [42:25] But that doesn’t change the fact that I was designed [42:28] and made by a God who loves me,
[42:31] and I am exactly who he wants me to be. [42:34] I look how he wants me to look. [42:35] And I am thankful for every moment [42:38] that he allows me to be so good looking.
[42:43] I am fearfully and wonderfully made. [42:47] Wonderful are your works. [42:49] My soul knows it very well. [42:51] It’s not coming into this data. Am I enough? [42:54] No, this is my soul knows the God who made me. [42:58] My frame was not hidden from you when I was being made in secret,
[43:02] intricately woven in the depths of the earth. [43:04] Your eyes saw my unformed substance in your book [43:08] were written every one of them, the days that were formed for me. [43:12] When, as yet, there were none of them. [43:14] How precious to me are your thoughts, oh, God, [43:17] how vast is the sum of them?
[43:19] If I would count them, they are more than the sand. [43:23] I am awake and I am still with you. [43:26] I love the end of that because he’s basically saying [43:28] it feels like a dream because life is so great with God. [43:32] But even when I wake up, it’s still true. [43:35] Do you look at life that way?
[43:39] You can. If you will trust God, [43:44] if you will thank him, the only answer [43:47] is an always looking to God and being thankful. [43:51] Friend, be thankful that faithfulness is rewarded by God. [43:55] He is not some far off being who is not to be bothered [43:58] with real life circumstances.
[44:00] Rather, he intricately wove you in the depths of the earth. [44:03] He formed you has a design that he is calling you to walk into [44:08] for a future in which he wants you to join him in. [44:13] When you consider the design of God and you realize [44:17] that we are fearfully and wonderfully made, [44:19] the only option is verse 17.
[44:23] How precious are your thoughts, oh, God, how precious. [44:29] Friends, thank God for everything. [44:31] Live thankfully and then keep giving thanks. [44:36] A few application points this morning. [44:37] First, focus on the joy from God more than anything else. [44:41] Focus on joy more than anything else.
[44:44] You don’t deny pain. [44:47] You look for God’s design in pain. [44:50] There is no accident. [44:52] Secondly, focus your worship on gratitude. [44:55] If you feel like you can’t worship, start naming the [44:59] blessings that God has given into your life.
[45:00] They’re there. [45:02] Look for them. [45:04] Thirdly, build your feelings out of facts. [45:09] You don’t feel thankful.
[45:11] Look at the facts. [45:13] You should. Fourthly, trust God with what you don’t have [45:17] by focusing on what you do have.
[45:21] Focus on what you have. [45:23] That doesn’t create a world in which you get everything [45:26] that you want. [45:26] What it does is it says, man, God has been good to me [45:29] so I can trust him to either give it to me tomorrow [45:33] or keep it from me because I shouldn’t have it.
[45:35] And then finally, rest in God’s faithfulness [45:38] before you worry about tomorrow. [45:40] The God that was faithful yesterday. [45:43] He’s strong enough for tomorrow, even if I’m not. Trust him.