Celebration of Thanksgiving
God is _____________? How would you fill in that blank this morning?
(Bring down a chair) This is our Thanksgiving Chair. I would like to give an opportunity for anyone who would like to come up, sit in the chair and praise and thank the Lord for what he is doing in your life?
Our God is worthy of our praise and thanksgiving. He deserves it because we are His people, we are His creation and He loves us with an everlasting love. That’s our big idea this morning that God deserves the praise and thanksgiving of His people.
Praising and thanking God is an act of worship to Him. The basis for Israel’s faith and worship was that the Lord was true to his covenant. And the same for us today. The Lord has been faithful, is faithful and will always be faithful to us and that should cause us to want to continually worship Him with our praise and thanksgiving.
Psalms 150 is all about praising our Great God. And we see that the Psalm tells us a few things about praising Him. First, it tells us where the Lord is to be praised. The Lord is to be praised in his sanctuary and in his mighty heavens. What this means is that the Lord is to be praised in heaven and on earth. There is nowhere that the Lord is not to be praised.
Second, the Psalm tells us why the Lord is to be praised. The Lord is to be praised for his mighty acts of power and for his surpassing greatness. God’s qualities of strength and greatness are demonstrated to us as His mighty acts in history. This includes Creation, the Exodus and the Conquest of the Promised Land. Any and all of God’s mighty acts of power show the world and us His surpassing greatness.
Third, the Psalm tells us how the Lord is to be praised. The Lord is to be praised with all kinds of instruments. By piling up a number of instrumental names the author communicates that the whole orchestra is to be involved in praising God. We can also praise God with dancing. Goldingay suggests that these instruments include those ‘that would be played by the priests (the trumpet), by Levites (harp, lyre, cymbals) and laypeople (tambourine, strings, pipe).’ The Lord is to be praised in any and all ways by all people.
Finally, the Psalm tells us who is to praise the Lord. The Lord is to be praised by everything that has breath. The author concludes with the most important instrument of all, the human voice. Longman says, “The Hebrew word for ‘breath’ is used in Genesis 2:7 and reminds us that God gave humans the breath with which they are to praise him. Indeed, there is no more important use of that breath than to worship God.” We are commanded to praise the Lord!!! This is not something we can choose or not choose to do. It would be sinful to not give Him our praise and thanksgiving.
Lastly, I want to say something about the video. I believe the application of the video is that we are to praise the Lord in the good times and in the bad. We are to praise the Lord in the easy times and in the hard times. We are to praise the Lord in the highs and in the lows. We are to praise the Lord at all times and in all circumstances.
So how can we apply this attitude of praise and thanksgiving to our lives? Here are some next steps we all can take this week and each and every week to come. The first next step on the back of your communication card is to Continually praise and thank the Lord for who He is. We should be praising and thanking God for His many attributes, and this should not be a one-time or once a week occurrence but a daily routine in our lives. The second next step is to Continually praise and thank the Lord for what He has done for me. Again, we should be praising and thanking God for what he has done in our lives, and it should be our daily routine. Lastly, our third next step is to Continually praise and thank the Lord for what He has done for Idaville Church. God has been so good to Idaville Church and so we want to praise and thank Him continually, even daily, for how He has provided for us, seen us through the good times and the bad times, the easy times and the hard times and in the highs and the lows. All praise and thanksgiving be to God alone.
Laurin and Bev are going to come and shred the bank loan at this time.
As the praise team comes to lead us in a final dong and the ushers prepare to collect the tithes and offerings, let’s close out time in prayer. Heavenly Father, we worship you this morning with our praise and thanksgiving. You are truly Jehovah Jireh, the God who provides, and we thank you with all of our being. You have provided for us individually and as a congregation in small ways and in big ways and we worship you. Lord, help us to continually remember throughout the year who you are and what you have done for us. Help us to praise and thank you in the good times and the bad times, the easy times and the hard times and in the highs and the lows. Lord God you are deserving of all our praise and thanksgiving, and we stand in awe of your goodness towards us. In Jesus’ name, Amen.