bibles if you could stand let's look at psalm 100 psalm 100 tonight okay in verse one what a wonderful psalm right here and the title of the message tonight the joy of thanksgiving the joy of thanksgiving look what it says verse 1 make a joyful noise unto the lord all ye lands serve the lord with gladness come before his presence with singing know ye that the lord he is god let's let's read this together okay let's read um let's read it together all right this is a church family tonight let's see let's start from the beginning Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, O ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before his presence with thanksgiving. Know ye that the Lord, he is God. He is he that made us and now we ourselves. We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise. be thankful unto him and bless his name for the lord is good as mercy is everlasting and his truth endured to all generations thank you lord let's pray heavily father thank you lord what a description of your goodness what a description of how we as your children are to walk into your church lord help us help us when we are discouraged lift us up lord help us to be an encouragement to our brothers and sisters when they are discouraged may we come here anticipating and praising and singing with the song in our hearts in jesus name i pray amen you may be seated well november is what i call thanksgiving month right i've been saying thanksgiving month but we have a day in what we call thanksgiving you know in november that our nation celebrates thanksgiving as a national holiday it is a time of the year when we take a side supposedly to give thanks to god for what he have done and provide in our lives let me put it this way across this nation how many people actually even thank god on thanksgiving day and one day i get to turkey in the hymn and get you know how many people really at the table say hey one minute one minute let's all give thanks to god for his goodness i thought about that how many people really do that i hope you do i hope you do you see when the pilgrims got together to celebrate the first thanksgiving they did it to give thanks to God for his guidance, his provision, his blessings on their lives so the purpose of the first thanksgiving was to give thanks to God and the purpose of thanksgiving every year should be to give thanks to God to give thanks to our God for his goodness, his love, his mercy you know God is so good to us may we not be the ones that blame God when bad things happen to us you know it's God's fault no it's not his fault God loves us too much bring evil upon us see but today thanksgiving have changed in many ways people have changed people are we live in a nation or many people don't even go to a church know, they make, they actually look at you when you say you go to church on Sunday, you go to church on Sunday, yeah, they're looking different because they're not church people, they don't go to church, they don't, they were not raised that way, some of them even say, if I go to church, the whole building is going to collapse, what excuse anyway, so yeah what times i've done unfortunately when it comes to thanksgiving many people do not remember need acknowledge god at all like i said oh thanksgiving for many people is just about listen to this family food football christmas list and argue with each other especially if you push politics in the middle of thanksgiving if you push religion or politics that is going to be a brawl inside the thing uncle manny and uncle this and auntie this you know there the other and listen keep the politics away from the table okay there's something wrong with those i mean there's nothing wrong with those things but they got to come in place you see it passes so you don't listen i really love to watch the lions on thanksgiving day that's what he plays every year and the cowboys right same thing like oh they're gonna lose they might win this year because they're good this year but the cowboys oh goodness they're destined for losing anyway but you know it's it's good it's good I coach these things you know listen if you sit with me I coach these things so from my couch nobody listens to me that's why they lose all the time patriots losing all the time you know why because they don't listen try to coach them and then I can forget it you know anyway it's not about patriots tonight but anyway uh but you know god first right we put the lord first we start with the lord give thanks to him for his goodness for his love you know what listen i'm not going to be i'm not trying to be callous here cold i know some people live live alone others people live with other families but let me say if you spend thanksgiving by yourself thank god for it are his child he loves you his spirit is inside of you if you spend thanksgiving with friends be grateful thank the lord for it don't forget god have a good time enjoy it but thank god for it remember if you make it to thanksgiving is a blessing if you wake up that day is a blessing god loves you okay so We live in a day where too many people have no need for God today. Need to acknowledge the goodness of God at all. They are more thankful about their accomplishments, their success in life, than they are about knowing God as their personal savior. But we should not forget that Thanksgiving started by people who love the Lord, who wanted to give thanks to God. And that's what they did. So you see, God is very concerned about the way we think. Why? Because the way we think affects the way we live. All right? So we need to learn to be thankful and to express our thankfulness towards people and towards God. We are to express our thankfulness towards our family members, our friends, our co-workers. You know, nothing wrong about saying to your co-worker, hey, I'm thankful that I work with you. They don't say that about you. So what? I'm thankful for each one of you. I'm not saying this to say this. I'm thankful for you. You see, thankfulness is a learned behavior. Because by our very nature, we're not very thankful people. Actually, we're selfish. Look at little kids, selfish. Put kids, you know what? Put it like this. We have a little kid here, right? Let's say she brings all of her toys here. And put her toys right here. Let's say we bring five or six kids here. and let them play for a little while before you know they take possession of the toys because that's how we are that's our nature we're very selfish so thankfulness and gratitude is a learned behavior you know for us christians we are to learn from the example of jesus are to be thankful the things that we have, for the place where we are in life, for the things that God provides for us. The very fact that we are here today, the very fact that we are together here today should say thank you Lord for all that. So thankfulness towards what people do to us and what God provides for us should be always in our minds. But in order to have an attitude of thankfulness our thanksgiving is to be right and we need to do that look what it says actually in Philippians chapter 4 verse it says finally brethren whatsoever things are true that's a way to give thankfulness whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any virtue if there be any praise Think on these things. Why? Because all these things that I mentioned in the Bible, it gives us that attitude, the spirit of saying, thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. You see, you thinking affects the way we live, and living affects the way we think. Follow that. So let's look about some things right here that I want to give to I'm not going to be I know I'm looking at the time and I'm not going to be uh careless about the time. I want to be uh, give you about I think four or five points about the joy of Thanksgiving listen Thanksgiving is a joy when you say thank you lord for my salvation you say that with joy or complaining with joy right is an a joy of the heart you can say thank you lord for my salvation with tears in your eyes right you can say that you you understood what you have done and you understood what god have done for you so you're grateful you say thank you lord you mean what you're saying right then i never seen a christian to this day that that never would say i'm not grateful for my salvation they always say thank you lord they're all grateful for their salvation so but so let's look at this psalm right here uh several things here in this psalm about about the joy of thanksgiving number one the annual outline make a joyful sound unto the lord look at verse one make a joyful noise unto the lord all ye lands so as we read this verse we see the expression of the psalmist as he invites every land to make a joyful sound and to the lord see not just me but I invite you to join me that's what the psalmist is saying it's like listen let's make oh he says let's look what he says he says make a joyful noise unto the lord and he goes oh he lands everywhere let's make a joyful sound unto the lord because he is the lord so everywhere we go we make a joyful sound unto the lord hey somebody complained today because I was singing at at work I was I was singing in the songs of Zion well they sing their rock songs I was singing my songs you know I was listen I was joyful singing and uh my brother-in-law he works second shift he comes to me he goes hey the guy was complaining about you singing I didn't realize that I said I was singing that loud he goes oh yeah because i wasn't i was fixing some jobs i was you know in the area that is so dust and stuff doesn't come out of there and i was you know i was i was joyful i was you know doing my job and praising the lord and i have my little music then i was saying i guess my song went too high the guy was complaining maybe i said i said maybe i should no i said i didn't want to you know didn't want to be mean to him but I'm like I'm just singing to the Lord you know I make a joy for him, he should just join me you know my voice you know sometimes you know invite somebody else to sing but you know the psalmist right here he says oh he learns he invites everyone listen this man knows that knows the joy of the Lord he's singing unto the Lord with great joy and he invites everybody else to join him isn't that great Listen, when we come to church here, we make a joyful noise unto the Lord, don't we? Those who are online, I say many times, don't be a couch potato. Why? Participate, make a joyful noise, sing with us. You know, people even that come visit, you know, listen, when we meet together, we meet together as a church family. Those who come from outside, they're welcome to come in to join us. Let them make a joyful noise with us. We invite them. You see, that's why a church should be a happy place to be. We walk like this, we walk like this. Oh, when we go out the door, God is good. We come into the church, oh boy, this week was tough. We walk out of the church, God is good. I made a joyful noise unto the Lord today, but no. We see the different sounds that the world have. Let me give you two. We see the sound of the lost. You know, the lost make their sound. The lost of this world are making a sound loud and clear, but the sound that they are making is not a sound that glorifies God. Listen, the lost people of this world are making sounds loud and clear, but their sound don't glorify God. You follow that? Listen, there are people that we love and care. We even rub shoulders with it. We work with them. They're good people. They're sincere, but they're lost. They're not praising God. When it hurts, sometimes they want to, oh, I need God, but that's only when it hurts. When life is good, they forget about God altogether. So the lost are making sounds too. It's been making sounds since the beginning of time. But we have the sound, that's letter A, the sound of the lost. Letter B, the sound of the saints. Now the sound of the saints are totally the opposite of the sound of the lost. We get it together here and we make a joyful sound. We make a sound that reaches heaven. We make a sound that reaches our God. We make a sound that glorifies our God. And Psalm 101 says, make a joyful noise unto the Lord. Listen, a church should not be a morgue. follow that a Christian should not be a morgue either listen and sing unto the Lord listen goodness I mean you know what God is good regardless of we're going through God is good you know we are to make a joyful son unto the Lord so why if you walk in the grocery store singing the songs of Zion so what oh you know I one time I had a guy said to me so oh we oh I guess we have in church at work today I look back I'm like I'm sorry you know I'm just you know I'm singing my songs that I know and I love when I'm singing but I don't try to offend you are you offended he goes oh no no keep singing thank you you know you don't try to offend anybody you know we we should have the a joyful sound in our lips oh pastor I'm not much of a singer I didn't ask you if you're a good singer or not. I mean, I asked you what I told you what the psalmist says right here. Make a joyful noise unto the Lord. You know what I saw yesterday? It touched my heart. I saw a video, a little small video. I don't know if that was fabricated, if that was real. I don't know. I'm still grasping on that. guy you know is a construction worker and before they get to work in the morning he says guys come over here take your hats off let's pray that the lord will give us a good day in the workplace he's the you know he's the owner of that thing i mean it was somebody point of view but but what a thought what a thought we got to the workplace and say lord thank you i want to glorify your name here today See we see the sounds of the lost, we see the sounds of the saints. Why am I making a joyful noise into the Lord? Because Christ is risen from the dead, because I serve a living God. look what it says Psalm 95 verse 1 if you want to jot these ones down oh come let us sing unto the Lord let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation Psalm 96 verse 1 it says oh sing unto the Lord a new song sing unto the Lord all the earth Psalm 97 verse 1 says the Lord reigneth let the earth rejoice let the multitude of islands be glad thereof Psalm 98 1 says oh sing unto the lord a new song for he had done marvelous things his right hand and his holy arm have gotten him to victory we see over and over the psalmist is inviting god's people to sing unto the lord music is good isn't it i mean some people i don't like music what i feel bad for you music is wonderful music started with whom with God. I mean some people have corrupt music in many ways but music start with God. All right so we see make a joyful sound unto the Lord. Number two, perform joyful service unto the Lord. Look what it says in verse two, serve the Lord with gladness see there are two types of christians okay you ready for this there are two types of christian i'm not going to talk about the carnal mind of christian and the spiritual mind of christian i know that there are two those two types but i'm going to talk about two types of christians here in a different perspective you have the the pessimist uncommitted unreliable christian and you have the joyful visionary enthusiastic christian follow that that's all they are there are two types of it we're children of God but you know one is joyful and glad and loves the Lord the other one is like oh my goodness you know you know pessimism doesn't help us grow Pessimism does not help us grow. The Bible says right here serve the Lord with gladness You know what? I mean with happiness and joy in your heart, you know what glad you glad heart, you know glad heart You don't listen. I always tell the people like this when we serve in the local church. It's not a job It's a ministry because if I tell you is your job It becomes your duty becomes a job. No joy on that. He wants to go to work anyway I don't want to go to work. I have to go to work. I don't want to work. You follow what I'm saying? You went to work for many years, right? You have to. Like, oh, I'm glad. I hope I didn't retire. I think you're celebrating when you retire. Can't wait till I get there. But you see, but when we do it as a ministry, there's joy. Some people say to me, so Pastor, you spent so many hours preparing a message. So? I don't, if I put, if I look at the hours and put us, you know, like put that, oh, I spent eight hours, nine hours, you know what? I'm going to quit. You do it with joy. You do it with joy. That's how you prepare it. You sing with joy, you serve with joy, everything you do. Look what it says, serve the Lord with gladness. We should serve the Lord with gladness. we should okay this was a short point let's go to number three be a joyful sheep of the lord look what says in verse three verse three of psalm 100 know ye that the lord he is god what a strong statement know ye that the lord he is god it is he that had made us oh we didn't make ourselves that's right we didn't make ourselves god made us is very I mean this is a strong strong statement right here and look what it says uh and and and not we ourselves we are his people and the sheep of his pastor see make a joy a joyful sheep be a joyful sheep of the lord the problem many sheep is the problem of the heart They love Jesus, pray in Jesus' name, sing and praise Jesus, tell others about Jesus. They love everything about Jesus, but they won't surrender their lives to Jesus. You follow that? They don't want to follow, they want to lead. Listen, when you were a sheep, a sheep follows the shepherd, right? Right? The shepherd doesn't follow the sheep. The sheep follow the shepherd. See, we follow Jesus. We don't tell Jesus what we want him to do. We follow his leadership. If ye love me, keep my commandments. It's very specific what he says. You see, be a joyful sheep of the Lord. Listen. Our God doesn't want to harm us. He doesn't want no evil for us. He loves us too much. He loves us beyond our imagination. He loves you and me more than we love ourselves. And we take care of ourselves, don't we? We look in the mirror, make sure you're okay. Make sure you smell good, you know, all that stuff. We love ourselves. We will never love ourselves the way God does. Look at the sheep letter, the sheep security. Psalm 23 describes the security, trust, and satisfaction that the sheep have in the shepherds. You have no need for worries. People worry about everything, but listen, when we follow the shepherd, when we individually as sheep follow the shepherd with a joyful, glad heart attitude, look what it says in Psalm 23. This is the way you feel. the Lord is my shepherd he says I shall not want I mean I have no want he making me lie down in green pastures he leaded me beside the still waters you ever been beside still waters the Lord says he restored my soul what does that mean when I fall he has forgiveness he restores me to sweet fellowship with him he said he leads me in the path of righteousness for his namesake Look what it says, I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. Sometimes we go to deep valleys. Okay, we go to deep valleys. It says, I will fear no evil. You see, when we go to the deep valleys of life, and we do, and many of us, or many of you, or us, even me, through this year have been through valleys. and it hurts they're painful and sometimes when you're in the valley you don't know how to get out of there but when we trust the lord when we fear no evil you know what when we get to the other to the top of the mountain you look back you're going to see he was there the whole time with you That's what it is to let the shepherd guide the sheep and be joyful trusting the Lord and look what it says it says How if you know evil for thou art with me thy rod and thy staff they comfort me New heaven and a new earth one day with the Lord forever in God's good be a joyful sheep a joyful sheep let it be the shepherds creation in verse 3 Luke says he is his he that made us as believers as we as believers believe that God is the creator of all regardless what people say regardless what these smart minds think they think they know you know what God made us we are his creation and we understand that you can look at the mirror when you get home tonight and look as look when you look at yourself look at God's handiwork let us see the shepherd salvation look what it says the sheep of his pastors right in Psalm 103 see with a grateful heart with grateful hearts can give thanks to our great shepherd for his great salvation his salvation was very costly His salvation is simple to attain. His salvation is available to all people. His salvation is free. His salvation can reach you. It can reach me. You see, when Jesus hang on Calvary's cross, He had you and me in mind. The great shepherd went to Calvary's cross to give us salvation. So we as Christians should never lose the zeal, the gratitude, the blessing, the joy of our salvation. Let's go to point number four. Have a joyful look at verse 4 actually of Psalm 104. Have a joyful spirit before the Lord. Luke says, enter in into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise. Be thankful unto him and bless his name. The psalmist makes here a personal invitation to each one of us to come unto God's house with words of praise and a heart of gratitude. listen there was a lady that came not here in this church okay before i started with the example not here in this church it was a lady that came to the pastor and said pastor i'm leaving the church he said she said he said i'm sorry he said why he said well it's too many people too many things and i'm too distracted i can i can i hear you i it's too many things going on in here you know this is not there's not a church i want to be i need to look for a better church than this the pastor looks at her and said okay can i can you do me a favor before you leave And she said, sure. Pastor went and got a whole full cup of water all the way to the top. He said, can you sit in your seat and make sure you don't drop one drop of water to this cup? She said, I can do that. Before you leave, do that favor to me. She said, yeah, I can do that. At the end of the service, the pastor approached her and said, so how did you do? Well, I was very concentrated on this cup. not a drop not even one came out of this cup the pastor said did you see anything bad going around you she said how could i was busy looking at the water the pastor said if you do that if every service you will come here with joy and gratitude in your heart listen folks it's the same thing in any church you and i can go you see have a joyful spirit before the lord the lord wants us to have a spirit of thankfulness a spirit of thanksgiving so we come to his house and we blast and praise his name now you must learn or we must learn and i expressed this before here that joy is the opposite of happiness Okay. Happiness is based on what? Circumstances. I say this all the time. If everything is favorable, I'm happy. Hey, I got a new car. I'm happy. Hey, I got a new bicycle. I'm happy. I just had a beautiful ice cream cone out there. I'm happy. You know, I had a beautiful pepperoni pizza. Oh, my belly is full. I mean, I'm so joyful. I'm so happy. But you will get hungry, right? The bicycle can't get a flat tire. The car can get old and stink. See, happy is based on circumstances. Joy is a different thing. You can be homeless and be joyful. The Lord says, walk in my courts with a joyful heart. Happiness source is always based on circumstances. Joy is, on the other hand, is inner. and attitude of the heart let's go to point number five we're almost done point number five uh how we do how we do uh i'm sorry how to have the joy of thanksgiving understand the joyful shepherd look at verse five the for the lord look what it says is good his mercy is everlasting and his truth endure it to all generations folks let me put it this way If Jesus doesn't come, His words will go to the next generation, and the next generation, and the next generation. His truth stands forever. And forever the Bible stands. And people will take it as the word of God, or they will reject it. You follow that? It's going to happen to every generation. in the average generation people are going to make a decision to follow jesus or to reject jesus that's what they're going to do so he says right here but this is our god for the lord is good as mercy is everlasting as truth endured for all generations letter a god is good all right regardless what people say regardless how people curse him regardless how people put his name on the trash regardless how people throw his name all over the place and foul language and all that God is good nobody can deny that Nobody can say God's not good. God is good. Let me put it this way. We have a universe that God created. He's good. We have a planet full of life. God is good. We have the rain and all the seasons because God is good. We have oxygen because God is good. We have grass and trees and birds and eagles and fishes and all because God is good. You're still living because God is good. I just kicked the pumpkin. I'm going to play soccer in a second here. So you know what? God is good. That's the nature of our God. He is good. Not just good when things are good for us. He is good all the time. Listen, when it's raining, when you're crying, when you're sad, whatever, God is still a good God. He's still good. Let it be. God is merciful. Oh goodness, I like this characteristic of God. He's so merciful to me. He's merciful to you. If it was not for God's mercy, we would go to hell, all of us. He's so merciful. How many people are not very merciful? Well, I forgive you this time, but next time don't ask me because I ain't forgiving you. You already did this five times and I'm going to forgive you again. There's no mercy. Mercy ran out. You know God is so merciful That's why he calls us as children because we fail And we grab the same toy back again Then God says put it down and we put it down then we look at it. We pick it up again Talking about sin, right? So God is merciful That's Lucas as mercy is everlasting. It's not just for time. It's is everlasting. It's forever now Let us see God is truthful his truth endure it to all generations listen our God is truthful you can tell people the bible is the word of God and is the word of truth and they can say I don't believe it well that's your choice you follow that because you made your choice right I made my choice I believe the word of truth I couldn't let somebody put in my ear that's not done a word of truth somebody said to me one time actually one of my kids hey dad dad I don't know nobody can bend you so no because I love God I believe in his words somebody comes you want to believe that go ahead and do it I ain't gonna bend so God is truthful God's word is the word of truth you can trust him and God says try me you know what try see if God is not truthful he is truthful God doesn't lie to us. He's not a man that shall lie. You know what we do today? You know what the liars do today? This is what they do. They don't say, when you say, well, you lied. I didn't lie. You lied. No, I didn't lie. I just changed my mind. That's today's people. I just changed. I mean, really? I mean, I see this at work all the time. No, no, I didn't lie. I just changed my mind. You lied. No, no, I just changed my mind. God is not like that You know because when they say I just see you I mean they're lying But anyway, so God is truthful Listen folks, I can conclude with this tonight Praise and Thanksgiving always comes from a grateful Heart a thankful heart. We don't have to wait until Thanksgiving season to be thankful Father that we should be thankful every day. Listen, we should have that word in our mouth. Thank you towards people and towards our God. Every day. For the little things and the big things. Thank you goes a long way. Don't feel like people have to do that for you. Say thank you. Thank you. Goes a long, long way. Listen, I'm in a workplace. I'm not trying to boast here, but just me. I'm in the workplace and I'm doing something and somebody else has to do their job, but it's my job and they come and do their job. You know what I say to them? Hey, thank you. I don't have to say anything, but thank you. My job moves forward. I can do something else now. I thank you. Listen, thankfulness towards the Lord, thankfulness towards people. should be in our lips constantly all the time you know and people appreciate when we say thank you we say well i work in look i'll give you an example i work in the church nobody says thank you but i don't care because i do it for the lord i understand that people do it for the lord but the thank you goes a long way doesn't it it warms our heart we feel appreciated i mean we should not work for serve the lord for a thank you from others You follow what I'm saying? But a thank you goes a long way. It warms your heart. You know what? What about praising Thanksgiving to the Lord? Lord, in the morning I wake up, thank you, Lord. Oh, I have a roof on top of my head. Thank you, Lord. One bad. Thank you. Got heat in the house. Thank you. Go down downstairs or whatever you are. You do it. Open the refrigerator. Sometimes you go, what can I eat? I don't know what I'm going to eat. Thank you, Lord. I have so much choices I can choose. Thank you, Lord. I can be picky. I like this food. I like that food. I can eat this food. And many people don't even have that. But it's one thing tonight. I wanna leave with you. Let's be people that express thankfulness and say not just on Thanksgiving day, but throughout the year, every day, be who we are. Thank you. Towards the Lord and towards people. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you, Lord, so much for tonight. Thank you, Lord, for the privilege you give me to be a preacher of your word. What a Lord, what a responsibility. What a blessing. Thank you, Lord, for the hours that I spent preparing messages. What a joy just to be me and you writing those things down. Thank you for this, dear people who took time out of their life to be here tonight. And I pray for their hearts, Lord. Help us, including me, to be grateful and thankful. each and every day. Thankful for who you are, for who we are. Thankful, Lord, for people, friends, family, food, shelter, all those things, Lord. Thank you for this church. Thank you for this place you give us. We can worship you. And Lord, we pray for something more, that you will give us something bigger. But we're gonna trust you. Bless the fellowship, in Jesus' name I pray. Amen. All right, so we have our prayer sheet.