Dependence Day

Some of you are woken last night.
And you're wondering, what was going on yesterday?
Dogs were hiding, kids were crying, people were shaking, and you're like, what on earth going on?
Well, let me explain to you what happened.
At precisely 8:21 p.m., right?
8:21 p.m., my granddaughter was born.
Yeah, so what started in Iwasa with fireworks spread through the whole country.
There was lightning flashing, fireworks going off, and now it all makes sense, doesn't it?
That poor little princess, every July 4th from now on is going to think she is something special.
And she is.
Our Psalm that we look at this morning might be one that's very, very common to you.
It was probably one of the first I learned as a child.
It is a default call to worship.
If you ever get stuck and they say, "Hey, will you do the call to worship?" You're like, "I don't know what a call to worship is.
I never been to seminary." You can go right to Psalm 100.
It is this beautiful default Psalm that calls God's people to worship.
It's like it is fireworks going off.
It's like that siren that goes off at noon on some days?
I don't I still don't understand Awasso.
There's always sirens going off.
All the time.
That and stop signs.
I still haven't figured that out here.
But the siren goes off and if it's noon, you're okay.
That's what I've learned.
If it's right at noon, you're okay.
If it's any other time and it even looks bright and clear, you better find some shelter.
But the siren goes off and it's a reminder, isn't it?
Something is happening.
We don't mind bothering you whatever you're doing because something really important is happening and it demands your attention.
It is no small thing, oh people of God, that He himself beckons you to worship.
And he lights up the sky.
And he makes birds sing and flowers bloom and brings abundance of color and seasons.
It's no small thing that he says, "Come and meet with me.
I am the one who did that.
I am the one to put a lion and play these in place.
I am the one who's done this and I I am calling you to my worship, to my presence.
And such is Psalm 100.
Let's stand for the reading of God's word.
Psalm 100, a Psalm for giving thanks.
Make a joyful noise to the Lord all the earth.
Serve the Lord with gladness, come into his presence with singing.
No know that the Lord, he is God.
It is he who made us, and we're his.
We are his people and the sheep of his pasture.
Enter his gates with Thanksgiving and his courts with praise, give thanks to him, bless his name, for the Lord is good.
His steadfast love endures forever and his faithfulness to all generations.
grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.
This is the word of God.
You may be seated.
Father, we pray that the words of my mouth, the meditation of all of our hearts would be pleasing and acceptable to you.
We will humbly We seek your face and we will never ever get over the fact that you are calling us into your presence, that you are asking us to enter your gates and your courts.
Oh, may we never ever consider that a small thing.
We ask this in Christ's name and for his sake.
Amen.
Enter his courts, his joyful noise in his place.
The first two words in this psalm, these uh Uh and and for those of you, sorry, if I'm going over things you know, but sometimes when you read your Bible translation and they've got words indented and in a different font, you're not always sure.
Is this just an editor saying, "Here's what's going to happen next." or is this the actual text?
And so, in Psalm 100, the actual text says a Psalm 4 giving thanks.
The Hebrew, it's two words, right?
It's me is more latoda.
Thanks.
Give, thanks, sing, thanks.
Now, it's interesting that that is the start of a song.
Right?
And so what we're going to see in this song and and I the reason I gave you such a long outline is because I know I can get confusing.
And I'm going to use the word verse one, verse one, and it's not a verse one in this text.
It's verse one in the in the song and so hopefully we'll make sense of it.
But I'd like to take this song and to break it down as it were into two verses of a song.
Two verses of a song.
and in those two verses we get instructions.
God is telling you, you are to do this.
Here are the things you are to do.
Right?
And then he is giving us information.
Here's why.
It is wise and reasonable and necessary for you to do these things.
Now, often we go about it the opposite way, don't we?
We want all the information first.
Tell me the good news.
Tell me what's worth celebrating and I may sing thankfully about it.
Let me know if God indeed is good and how has he shown that he is good and if he proves himself to me, then I will give him praise.
And so it's a bit back to front in Psalm 100.
And you may even feel that on a normal Sunday when you come to Trinity.
And you're like, "Okay, that bald guy's going to yell at us, tell us to sing, tell us to sing louder, remind us who we are." But you know what?
I've had a pretty tough week and I don't feel like giving.
Thanks.
Here's the good news.
You don't have to.
You don't have to feel like giving.
Thanks.
There are certain things about our God you can rest assured.
are true.
They're true if you've had the greatest week and you've welcomed a new granddaughter into your life.
They're true if you've had a dark, horrible week, someone you love has lost a child.
These things are true.
And so it is right and good for our God to tell you, give thanks, sing songs of thanks to me.
We think maybe it's hypocritical if we do it when we're sad and yet we're called to none the less.
And I want to ask you this, if you're a Christian and you're described by someone in your office or in your family, would they say you're a thankful person?
Would you be described the person who gives thanks?
And I will argue that it has to be the mark of a Christian.
Doesn't mean giddy, stupidity, bubbly, it doesn't it doesn't have to always be that, but at the core of your being are you a person who is thankful.
And so this Psalm directs us to be that kind of person.
You may be a person that's struggling to thank God for what he's left undone or what he's allowed to happen or if you're reformed, what he has ordained to happen.
But as David says in Psalm 42 and 43, when he is in the dark night of his soul, he has the faith and the knowledge to say, "I will yet praise the Lord." A title the sermon Dependence Day because I'm kind of clever that way.
And when you become a Christian, you own up to your dependence.
You know?
You are all dependence.
If Jesus was doing a tax return, you would all be on there.
We all depend on God.
From the breath, to the food, to the life, to the sunshine, human beings are born dependent on another.
We don't like it, we wrestle against it, and yet a Christian is able to give thanks and praise Because I am dependent upon God.
And oh, what a wonder.
Oh, how amazing.
Oh, how thankful am I for who he is.
This Psalm is missional.
It is a call in verse one to all the earth make a joyful noise.
So we get to verse one.
Verse one of the Psalm, which I'm saying is verses 1-3.
There's a call now, come into God's presence.
That is an amazing call that we've talked about.
If you If you were with us when we did Exodus, this idea of God being on the mountain and Moses setting up boundaries and saying, "Don't come near me lest you die." That same God says now, come to my presence with a song.
Make a joyful noise all the earth.
Make a joyful noise.
All right, those fireworks were going off, we really know what they were for.
Right?
How do we show joy, gratitude, thanks, fireworks, songs, food.
Here we're told, make a joyful noise.
You are instructed, oh Christian, to use your mouths to make a joyful noise.
That the world might know what you are grateful and thankful for.
The world might might know what causes you gratitude.
Now, we get this, don't we?
When our uh soccer team wins, we don't just have a dead pan face, do we?
We smile, we say things, we might call people, we might yell and never forget.
One time uh we were playing cards, a couple that played cards with us, husband and wife, and we'd always play they men against women.
And the men were on a good role.
We We had run We had won a bunch.
It was almost getting boring.
We were so good.
Same thing, uh something happened.
Tammy had coached My wife Tammy had coached uh some girls in volleyball in Manitou Springs for two years, like eighth and ninth grade.
And these girls were crazy.
They were awesome.
They were wonderful.
Uh, Tammy coached them.
And we were going to play cards at this family house.
And those girls now seniors had won the state championship for volleyball in Colorado.
It was a big deal.
And so we're at this folks house and we're trying to play cards and my wife is consumed with this.
I can't believe that those girls won the state championship.
She was bubbly with joy.
They happened to win card game that night.
Tammy looked at her friend she goes, "I don't know, it just feels so good to win.
It's just so amazing.
And she's just going on and on.
It's just oh I can't I can't believe it after all this time we've won.
And her friend goes yeah they really have been beating us bad.
And then it's like I don't know not cards.
State championship.
The level of the noise and the gratitude and the thankfulness and the songs that you sing they reflect the importance of the event, and God is saying, "Oh, when you're called into my presence, you have every reason to make a joyful noise." Secondly, the instruction is you serve him with gladness.
Uh, we call it the regulative principle.
God himself says, "How do I wish to be worshiped?
How should you serve me?
Do you think of corporate worship in that manner.
Do you think when you gather in his presence that you're actually serving God?
We have to work on that in our minds, right?
Often times we come to worship and we say, "I need to be instructed.
Oh, I need to have my spirits lifted." And And all those things are wonderful.
I need to know how to be a better parent.
I need to know how to deal with loss.
I need to I need I need to know all those things.
But do you primarily think I'm coming into his presence to serve him?
But I get this opportunity opportunity to serve the Almighty God.
I get I get called into that.
Would you leave worship today rejoicing that God was praised and glorified by you?
More than you enjoyed the message, whether the people were really friendly.
Again, we hope all of those things happen, but primarily the Psalm is saying, "You're entering to sing and you're entering to serve and so verse the third part is you will come then into his presence with singing.
It is not optional.
It doesn't say sing if you have a good voice.
In fact, if you remember a few weeks ago someone I was trying to lead the doxology and someone in this section.
We're still looking at video trying to figure out who it was.
Was it was leading in a different key or a tone or something and we were trying back and forth.
One of those days it's Trinity.
But you know what?
Our God was delighted.
You know what the best thing we do at Trinity?
When we sing the Doxology and you hear those kids belting it out, isn't it?
It is.
It's wonderful.
All right, this is the last grandpa thing I've got.
Probably.
Uh, I have a video.
One of my grandsons singing his little brother to sleep with the song God is so good.
I couldn't ask for anything more with the grandpa.
May his brother, even though he'll probably beat him up, take his stuff, you know, break his toys, whatever, may he sing.
We come to his presence, we're singing, we serve him with gladness.
Those are the instructions he is giving.
Uh, it's nice to know what is God requiring of us.
He is requiring of us to do these things.
But then it's beautiful in verse three, it says, "No, these are the things you must know." Here's the Here's the information that in effect feeds the prayers and the songs and the shouts of God.
Here's the information.
And the first it says is the Lord is is God.
Have you ever done that?
Have you ever sat before the Lord and said, "I'm going to thank you for some things.
I thank you for my job.
I thank you for my whatever." I just thank you that you are God.
So, the Hebrew word in there when you see it in your Bible and it's all capitalized, l o r d and it's all capitalized.
Uh, for those of you scholars, you know that we call that the tetragrammaton.
It's four consonants that weren't pointed.
It means it wasn't given the vowels on it to keep for one reason, to keep from mispronouncing the name.
5,000 times it appears in the Old Testament.
The Lord is good.
I'm sorry, the Lord is God.
We'll get the good in a minute.
The Lord is God.
Not Baal.
Not the sun.
Cash is not king.
Not Shemosh.
Have you ever realized how wonderful it is?
What if one of those other gods was God?
What if one of those brutal gods What if Allah was God?
You ever stop and say, "I'm so glad.
Lord, I'm so thankful that it's you.
That is God overall.
You do as you please, but it's you.
Oh, thank you.
Oh, thank you that you are God.
Amazing statement.
That statement alone should bring eternal gratitude and thanks.
What if there were no God?
Oh, the Lord is God.
Therefore, we bring a joyful noise to him.
We come into his presence with singing.
We serve him because we are so glad that he is God.
Not a God, but God.
The God who is and says I am who I am.
He is God, the Lord, the covenant-keeping, making God of the Old Testament and the new is God.
Know that.
Know that the Lord is God.
Secondly in verse 3, know that he made us.
It's he who made us, the text says, and we are his.
We belong to him.
One of the first pictures I get of my granddaughter is her father holding her to his side.
God God says, "You're my people.
I have made you.
You belong to me." Do you realize what that means?
This Lord who is God has stretched out his fatherly arms around his church, around his world and says, "Mine, you belong to me." Oh, what a great shout of Thanksgiving should come from our mouths.
He made us not as slaves or vassals, but he made us as beloved children.
Made us to be his beloved children.
And it's further proved by the next part of verse three, he shepherds us.
Where his people, isn't that wonderful?
But we are also the sheep of his pasture.
There's a serious question before us, brothers and sisters.
Do you know him?
Do you know the Lord?
Currently in our culture, we can easily be consumed that people would know me, would know my story, would understand me well enough to relate to me in a way maybe different than someone who maybe has not suffered as much and and and and of course the gospel opens us up to be known, but how much more important is it for us than even to know ourselves, to know the God who's there.
The God who is not silent, but the God who speaks and acts can be trusted.
I wonder do you know him?
Are you on a quest to know him more and more?
You know the word know yada knowledge carries with it much more than facts, doesn't it?
Most of you know that.
It It carries with it this intimate relationship and God says, "My people will die from lack of knowledge.
They are going into exile because the lack of knowledge, the lack of yada knowing their father, their Lord.
Do you know him?
What has he provided for you?
What has he given to you?
That you should avail yourself to you so that you may know him more and more.
Let me get to this verse two.
Verse two.
in our song, and what happens in Psalms a lot, you'll see it and a lot of times it's the indents.
The first statement would be made and then the second statement in that verse kind of takes that first statement and drives it deeper.
We see that in both of these verses in the Psalms, you can almost reflect verse 4 and 5 back on to verses 1, 2 and 3.
I I would say that verse 3 is the high point.
Whoever wrote this wasn't a Presbyterian.
Their Their first point was 1 and 5, their second point was 2 and 4, and their third point was 3.
You know, it's tough to figure out.
But But if if you'll follow with me, what does he do?
The same thing.
He says, uh here's the instructions.
In verse 4, here's three more things to do here.
Here are the instructions.
We enter his gates with Thanksgiving, his courts with praise.
We give thanks to him and we bless his name first, we enter his gates with Thanksgiving.
Where all of the above is happening frequently in his gates.
The above singing belongs in the place of God's choosing.
Does it matter where we are on the Lord's Day?
Absolutely.
It matters where we are on the Lord's Day.
The Lord has ordained and given us a gift to us one day in seven.
Oh, my sheep, trust me, know me, better than working.
would be for you to take a day, dwell with my people, and come into my presence, and come into my gates with Thanksgiving, and to invite all the earth with you.
To enter his court secondly with praise.
Right, that's exactly what verse two was saying.
We We serve him with gladness.
His courts are filled with his praise.
And thirdly, to give thanks to him.
To bless his name.
Again, our instructions are quite clear.
We are told to do these things.
Our God tells them to do it tells us to do it because it is good and right for us.
It is necessary for our flourishing.
And he is God.
And he closes in verse 5 with these three things that we are to know.
And it says for, so that's you know for or because, again he is he is giving us information.
All right?
Christianity is a it is a religion of emotion, of intellect, of reason, right?
He's He is for the whole person, soul and the mind.
The Lord, he says is good.
Now, I don't know about you, but sometimes the circumstances around us, the pain and the suffering and the loss, maybe what we are hearing in our minds or in our soul is God is okay.
Maybe we get through some of the pain by by not going further in our knowledge of God, but actually stripping away from who he is.
This isn't going well.
Well, you know it's not God's fault.
He He doesn't like to act out of side of these certain ways and so don't don't be mad at him and we tend to try and make little of him in order to somehow prop up his character.
We must sing God is so good.
He's so good to me.
We must sing that.
And we must know that because the Lord is good.
Lord's good.
I think it's a cop-out answer I give my wife sometimes when she asks about something that's awful or I can't explain.
She goes, "Why does this this happen?
Or why is this here?
Why is that going?" And I look at Tammy and I say, "The only answer I have for you, sweetheart, is for God's own glory." And that's enough today.
Why?
Why?
Why?
For God's own glory.
The Lord is good.
And again, he fleshes out.
What is that mean?
How does it relate to us?
The second part.
His steadfast love endures forever.
We could have a whole sermon series on this.
His steadfast love forever.
What is he saying?
There is a type, a quality of love that comes only from God.
We get close to it.
We strive to be more and more like it, but there is a love from God, its quality is divine for it is steadfast.
Our love's ebb and flow is is steadfast.
It's staying power.
It's shelf life.
It holds regardless of my worth, my record, my beliefs, my words that I say, my forgetfulness.
His love is steadfast.
Why?
Because he is Lord, he is good.
And lastly, his faithfulness.
It says is is to all generations.
You know, allow me.
All generations.
What more could you want if you have a child or a grandchild to say, "The Lord who has been good to me all of these years is the same Lord.
and he always the same promise to my children and my children's children to be faithful.
That's who he is." His faithfulness, steadfastness, integrity, unchangeableness as he was to Abraham and all of his failures.
You know, he wouldn't have had him as an elder here.
He is to me.
And to you.
He was to Peter and doubting Thomas.
He is to you.
He is to me.
I wonder do you know him?
Will you make it your life's goal to know him?
I dive deeply into his character.
Do you know him?
Brothers and sisters, the psalm calls us to run our lives through what I would call this rubric of Thanksgiving.
Am I unable to praise God today?
Am I unable to come up with things that I am thankful for today?
Well, the answer is not, God, change my circumstances in order that I will be thankful.
It is God, change my heart and my knowledge of you, drive it deeper.
So my lips cannot do anything but praise your name.
If you struggle being thankful Please listen.
If you struggle being thankful, it isn't that you need more stuff.
The enemy will tell you that.
The culture will tell you that.
You'd be thankful if you had this.
It causes envy, the most accepted sin in our culture.
If I had what they had, I would be thankful.
And if your struggle with being thankful, it is not that you need more stuff or better circumstances.
You need better theology.
You need a better theology of God.
You need a better theology of humanity.
You need a better theology of the gospel of worship and eternity.
Do you know him?
Do you know he has invited you to know him more?
He has invited you into a dependent relationship.
Will you depend on him?
And he is glorified in that when we lean on him.
Let's pray.
Oh, Father, thank you for your word and thank you for the invitation to all of us to enter your presence, to enter through the gates, to enter into your Oh Holy Spirit, will you convict us of our ingratitude?
When we look at what you have done and we understand your gospel, how dare we say I would be more thankful if you just did this to the God who gave his own son to rescue us from eternal damnation and has given us his spirit.
Oh Lord, we pray that we would know you.
And it would drive us in times of doubt and sorrow and longing.
How can I know my father deeply?
Where is my trust waned?
Where am I lacking in understanding of what the Bible teaches about myself and about him, about his gospel?
Father, I pray for Trinity Church.
that we will be known as a people who gives thanks to you, who sings, not just a loud that sings with thought and emotion, for you are worthy of the greatest songs and the highest thoughts.

Sermon Transcript is computer generated.