Thanksgiving Worship & Warning

Thanksgiving Worship & Warning

Psalm 95 Emmanuel Christian Church 11.5.23

INTRODUCTION: Thanksgiving is a mere 17 days from now!

PROPOSITION: What better place to turn in preparing our hearts and minds for that day, than the Psalms? This morning, we begin our lead-up to Thanksgiving with Psalm 95 and...

An Invitation To Thanksgiving (vs. 1&2)

Psalms 95:1 Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. 2 Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song.

- This is a call and an invitation for us to gather together for the purpose of giving thanks to God.

- “Come, let us”

- Can you give thanks to God when you’re alone? ABSOLUTELY! And we should! Every day is filled with the blessings of God and I regularly pray that He would make me sensitive to them so that I can, in that moment, be triggered to worship Him with thanksgiving!

- BUT this invitation to thanksgiving its different. It points to a GROUP EFFORT! Why is that?
- ENCOURAGEMENT. When we gather together to give hanks to

God, we end up encouraging each other!

Hebrews 10:25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another — and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

- ACCOUNTABILITY. Not only are we encouraged when we meet together, It’s also a safeguard from our being fooled by the enemy’s propaganda as we share Biblical truth with each other.

Hebrews 3:12 See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. 13 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you

may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. 14 We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first. 15 As has just been said: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.”

And just a note of interest: that last sentence is a direct quote from the last half of our Psalm for today. But more about that in just a bit...

- Sing, music & song - three references to the one thing! Maybe, just maybe- the act of singing may be more important than we thought!

mentioned over 30 times! They were actually an organized group

under the King’s direct supervision.
- When King David made plans to bring the Ark of the Covenant to

Jerusalem:

1 Chronicles 15:16 David told the leaders of the Levites to appoint their brothers as singers to sing joyful songs, accompanied by musical instruments: lyres, harps and cymbals.

- Leading the army into battle, Judah’s king:

2 Chronicles 20:21 ...Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the LORD and to praise him for the splendor of his holiness as they went out at the head of the army, saying: “Give thanks to the LORD, for his love endures forever.” 22 As they began to sing and praise, the LORD set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir who were invading Judah, and they were defeated.

- At the dedication of the reconstructed wall around the city of Jerusalem, Nehemiah had two choirs lead the people around the top of the wall in opposite directions- giving glory to God. (Nehemiah 12:38)

- “Sing for joy to the Lord”

- Could it be that singing is as important a spiritual activity as praying? Let me see if I can make that case...

• -  The entire collection of Psalms are a songbook!

• -  Singers were so important in the Old Testament that we find them

APPLICATION: In worship, in battle and in celebration God moved the leaders of His people to lead the people to SING! So, why is it that we don’t sing more? I think the reason is that we’ve allowed ourselves to become confused about its purpose. We tend to see singing as ENTERTAINMENT done by entertainers (and we’re NOT entertainers!). But for us as God followers, singing is so much more! It is WORSHIP done by worshippers!

- I want to address some of the reasons people give for NOT singing: - “I can’t sing. ” This is probably the MOST often cited reason. But

the truth is, (with the exception of some physical damage or malformity of the vocal cords) EVERYONE can sing. We were actually created for it! No other member of Creation can do it- only US!

- “I don’t know how to sing.” Now, that’s a completely different issue! Like any musical instrument, the human voice requires instruction and practice in order to develop the God given gift of singing. For most of us, it doesn’t come naturally- it takes effort.

- “I don’t like to sing.” This one concerns me the most- here’s why: it could be a symptom of a deep spiritual problem.

APPLICATION: Listen to God’s New Testament call for us as Christians to SING:

Romans 15:9 ...“Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles; I will sing hymns to your name.”

Romans 15:11 ...“Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and sing praises to him, all you peoples.”

1 Corinthians 14:15 I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my mind.

Ephesians 5:19 Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord,

Colossians 3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.

Hebrews 2:12 He says, “I will declare your name to my brothers; in the presence of the congregation I will sing your praises.”

James 5:13 Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise.

Three Reasons For Singing God’s Praises: “God is Great”

Psalm 95:3 For the LORD is the great God, the great King above all gods.

- God is the MOST Extreme! There is no one and nothing that is more than He is.

- He is NOT the product of human imagination as was the gods of the Greeks and Romans or as is the “Allah” of Muslims.

- He IS the eternally self-existent, supremely righteous, self revealed, singularly unique God of the Old and New Testaments of our Bible.

• -  He IS the ultimate foundation of all existence and absolute truth.

• -  He IS beyond the limits of human comprehension.

• -  He IS beyond the ability of words to fully describe.

APPLICATION: When we praise God for being great, we honor Him and keep ourselves from Satan’s sin of thinking himself equal to God.

“God is Creator”

Psalm 95:4 In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him. 5 The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land.

- From the highest mountain to the lowest valley, from sea to shining sea, and all the land in between- all held in God’s hand.

- It sounds like the most brief summation of the Creation account found in Genesis chapter 1. But even more than the blue marble we call “Planet Earth”, God the Son (Who came to us, and died on the Cross for our sin) spoke the entire universe into existence, and up to this very minute, holds it all together with His powerful word!

Colossians 1:15 (Jesus) is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by him all things were created: things in heaven

and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

APPLICATION: In order to praise our Creator God, Jesus Christ our Savior, logic demands that we must first reject the unscientific myth of materialistic evolution. Unshackled from that lie, we will then be free to praise our Creator as He alone deserves.

“God Created Us”

Psalm 95:6 Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker; 7 for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care.

- God not only made us, He made us in HIS IMAGE! - “IN HIS IMAGE” means we can PRAISE God that:

• -  We have MORAL clarity (knowing what is “right” and “wrong”).

• -  We do not suffer confusion of GENDER (God made them “male” and

“female”.

• -  We flourish in the ROLES for which we were created: husband, wife,

  parent, child.

• -  Like our Creator, we are ETERNAL beings with an eternal destiny

  made possible through our redemption in Christ.

  APPLICATION: Because we were created by God in His image, our lives have form, purpose and meaning. The ignorant and unbelieving suffer pointless lives for the lack thereof, and even worse they will suffer an eternity separated from their Creator.

  TRANSITION: Which brings us to one final (sobering) point in our Psalm for today:

  A Warning To Heed

  Psalm 95: “... Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, as you did that day at Massah in the desert, 9 where your fathers tested and tried me, though they had seen what I did. 10 For forty years I was angry with that generation; I said, “They are a people

whose hearts go astray, and they have not known my ways.” 11 So I declared on oath in my anger, “They shall never enter my rest.”

- This is what happens to those who refuse God the thanksgiving He deserves!

- The failure of God’s people to give Him thanks is what landed them in their desert wandering for 40 years.

- God miraculously delivered them from Pharaoh’s slavery in Egypt, and instead of giving God thanks, they started complaining when they saw Pharaoh’s army hot on their tail! Even worse, (in fear) they wanted to return to their Egyptian slavemasters!

- God miraculously shielded them from Pharoah’s pursuing army, and even parted the Red Sea so that they could cross over on dry ground- and again, instead of giving thanks to God, they began to complain for lack of food and water!

- God miraculously provided them food and water, and again, instead of giving Him thanks, they complained about the menu!

- God promised to miraculously lead them into a land of “milk and honey”, instead of trusting Him and giving Him thanks, they began to complain again about the dangers they might encounter in the land God had promised them!

- NO WONDER God said of them, “They shall never enter my rest.”!

CONCLUSION: The surest way to avoid eternal condemnation is to live a life of thanksgiving to God. Such a life can only begin with your personal transformation in Christ.

Concluding Song: “DOXOLOGY” A CAPPELLA