[0:00] It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord. It's especially good to do it through song. And that's what just happened there. Psalm chapter 92.
[0:11] Annalise, that was beautiful. And Charlotte and Jonathan. On Saturday, just a quick story. I can't tie it into my message. I'm just telling you a story, okay? And on Saturday, we had the Indian event.
[0:23] And Greg was in charge of ordering the food. He took care of so many things. And I went over to the food. And I was looking for the Indian dishes that I knew. And I got on one side of it.
[0:33] And I read it. And it said, Annalise. And I thought, Greg, this isn't Indian food. That doesn't sound Indian. Annalise. And then I stepped over.
[0:44] And it said, Abu Cook. And then I'm like, what are these things? And I realized it was Annalise and Abby Cook. He had written their names. They were supposed to stand on the other side of the dishes and hand the food out.
[0:54] And I got real nervous. I was thinking, this isn't Indian food, Greg. You ordered something called Abu Cook and Annalise. And they were there in their spot to serve.
[1:05] And we had a lot of fun and a lot of Indian food, which goes hand in hand. Psalm chapter 91. I know these don't go into chronological order. But it just kind of reminds you. We're hit underneath the wing of His truth.
[1:17] And what a great place to be. Psalm 92. The heading for it is a song of the Sabbath. Sabbath. Which reminds us that the Sabbath was just, it was not a burden. And it wasn't just about working.
[1:27] But it was about rejoicing in the Lord. They had songs set aside for the Sabbath. We set aside Sunday, as we saw in the New Testament. When we went through that. And just a few weeks ago, we looked at the Lord of the Sabbath.
[1:40] We set aside Sunday as a day that we come together. We call it the Lord's Day, as seen in the Bible. And Revelation 1.10 referred to that. But obviously, we come together with the same praises to the Lord.
[1:52] And the rejoice in Him. It's an important part of our lives. The delight that is found in finding rest in Him. That is an everyday Sabbath that we've been given in Jesus. That every day is resting in Him.
[2:03] We have found that in Jesus. So this psalm is applicable to you in every day. In the morning and evening. As I read through it, I showed you a flourishing at the beginning. There's a type of flourishing that the world has.
[2:15] But it's quick-lived. And it's eternally sad. But ours is eternally joyful because of what He has given us. And the flourishing that is given. So we say it's a good thing to give thanks to the Lord.
[2:25] Because of who He is. And who He overcomes. And how He causes us to flourish. We all want to flourish. Jonathan Sykes and I went to lunch today. And there's a bread company. And it said a free loaf of bread.
[2:37] And it says this will change your loaf. This bread will change your loaf. Super cheesy. Jonathan loved it. That's his type of humor. He laughed for hours about it, I'm sure.
[2:48] All right. But we talked about this. And he's like, this is going to show up in a sermon. I'm like, oh, it is. All right. And here it is, Jonathan. Is that it's a selling point to say that your product is going to change people's lives.
[3:00] Because the stated premise of life is that we all want our lives changed. Like as a believer, I'm thinking, I don't want you to change my life with your bread. You know? If you're altering my life over bread, I shouldn't be eating that.
[3:11] All right? That is too big of a demand or too big of an expectation over life-changing bread. But it's basically saying, we know you want your life changed.
[3:22] Our product will do that. Jesus changed my life. There's no Elrods in here. Hamilton wrote something for school. And he says that he was writing about his baptistry and how the water was cold.
[3:33] And he said, I wanted the people to know that Jesus changed my life and he will change yours as well. And that seems heavy for fourth graders, right? Fourth graders are like, I didn't even know I needed my life changed.
[3:44] And Abel said, well, you certainly do. All right? And, but this idea that people know that they want their lives changed. They want their lives and their loaves or whatever it is to be changed by product.
[3:57] And then we know what they're looking for. And it's a flourishing. It's a thriving in life. It's not just surviving. But it's really having a purpose and a meaning which is found in Jesus Christ that was given to us.
[4:08] And he has made us glad. So it is good to sing praises unto the Lord because he is the most high. You know, true worship never needs to be compelled. It is the natural response to seeing something altogether glorious.
[4:23] When you see him as he is, you just want to worship him. Psalms 147, 1. Praise ye the Lord for it is a good, the same praises unto God. For it is pleasant and praise is comely.
[4:35] Psalm 33, 1. Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous, for praise is comely for the upright. Do you know what comely means? It means it looks good on you, right? Praise looks good on a believer.
[4:47] This is how we're supposed to look. This is how we are supposed to live out our lives. Here's a few ways that it's good. I'll show you in Scripture, but let me show you in Spurgeon first, which is in Scripture.
[4:59] Spurgeon says, It is good ethically, for it is the Lord's right. Like, it's good to praise the Lord because he deserves it. He's the Lord of the universe. It's the right thing to do. When you're in a situation and you don't know the right thing to do, worship the Lord.
[5:12] Give thanks unto the Lord because ethically it's the right thing to do. It is good emotionally, for it is pleasant to the heart. It doth good like a medicine. It is good for you. No matter what the doctor describes to you at the top of the list, it ought to be rejoice in the Lord.
[5:27] It is good practically, for it leads others to render the same homage. It's good to give thanks unto the Lord because you're surrounded by a bunch of people who don't know they need to give thanks unto the Lord.
[5:38] And you doing that is going to provoke them to want to do the same. And we do it because he is the most high and he's worthy of praise all throughout the day. It doesn't just command to love him in the morning and in the evening, but it says show forth his loving kindness in the morning and his faithfulness every night because all throughout the day there's examples of his loving kindness to us.
[6:01] Every time you take in a breath, every time you see the sun come up, every time you'd have a meal, you see his care for you. And then also his faithfulness at the end of every day. You say, God, in a million different ways, I drove up 400, you're faithful, all right?
[6:16] I've ridden with some of you, God is faithful, all right? And so all throughout the day, this is not saying do it evening and night, it's saying throughout the day you're going to have all kinds of opportunities to see his loving kindness and his faithfulness and then show forth his loving kindness to let people know about it.
[6:33] Bethany and Mackenzie, some years ago, had this video they watched over and over again. They thought it was just so funny. This guy was going to buy a used car and he said, would you look at that?
[6:43] He tried to see how many times he could say, would you look at that? Just look at that. And he pointed at this car like 300 times, all right? Some of you know, or Nate Dillard's looking it up right now, all right?
[6:53] And just the whole time he's saying, look at that, just look at that. And that is the life that we should be living. I spoke to my brother-in-law this week and they went on a trip and he said, you won't believe it. We needed an Uber ride and it just showed up.
[7:06] Then we were looking for a place for lunch and this buddy told me about the perfect place. Like he explained his days as saying, would you just look at how good God's been to me? Would you just look at that? That's what we ought to be doing through life.
[7:18] We ought to be a tour guide for everybody else and say, hey, would you look at that? Look at God's faithfulness. Look at that. Uncle Sam does that for me in life. He'll say, he'll bring me close. He'll say, Trent, look at that family God's given you.
[7:29] Just look at them. There's been, God's been so good to you. And I appreciate that. And we ought to show forth this kindness. I ought to help you see God's loving kindness. You ought to help me see it.
[7:40] There's so many reasons to praise him. The saying of the mercies of the Lord forever with my mouth, I will make known what? His faithfulness to whom all generations, older, younger, everybody that I meet.
[7:53] Then it tells us that it's good to praise the Lord with music upon instruments of 10 strings. Matthew Westcott, I don't see him in here. He's probably serving. He plays the accordion and I wanted him to play the accordion tonight.
[8:05] Matt, I didn't get ahold of you. I thought that would have been awesome. Okay. The accordion. Because I wanted you to know that we ought to use all measure of instrument to praise the Lord. My Church of Christ friends growing up, they didn't have instruments in their church.
[8:20] And they were so serious about that. As I study the Bible and know that a song means a song accompanied by an instrument. It names dozens of instruments. I don't know what brought them to that conclusion.
[8:33] But the Bible tells us, unless there's any doubt, let me read Psalm 150 for you. Praise you, the Lord. Praise God in the sanctuary. Praise him in the firmament of his power. Praise him for his mighty acts.
[8:43] Praise him in court of his excellent greatness. Praise him with the sound of the trumpet. Praise him with the psalter and the harp. Praise him with the timbrel and dance. Praise him with stringed instruments and organs. Praise him upon the loud cymbals.
[8:55] Praise him upon the high-sounding cymbals. Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise him, the Lord. Anything you can get your hands on to play, if you've got the spoons and you're in Kentucky, use them to praise the Lord.
[9:09] And so use the instruments that God has given you. And they're not just instruments, anything you can get a hold of. As I said, Moses, what is in your hand is the rod. Whatever God has given you in life, use it to praise the Lord.
[9:21] We have a trombone player and a bassoon player in our house right now. And they've been working on Silent Night because Miss Kristen gave them the music for it. And if God can use that bassoon, he can use any instrument.
[9:32] All right? I promise you. She's not in here. But pray for us. All right? He has many reasons to praise God. One, he has made us glad. So we ought to praise the Lord because he has made us glad.
[9:44] And if you say, God didn't make me glad, we'll give him a chance. He will, okay? He can. And honestly, I'm not trying to be judgmental here, but I am preaching, okay? It's not his fault if you're not glad.
[9:55] He's doing everything in your life to meet and flourish your life. He wants to make you glad. And he has done great works. Creation, he did that. Salvation, he did that.
[10:06] Overcoming enemies here, he did that. Anything good in your life, he did that. And so it's good to praise the Lord. And his thoughts are very deep. Isaiah 55, 8, 9. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.
[10:21] For as the high as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than yours, and my thoughts than your thoughts. The psalmist is especially referring to the way that God allows the wicked to flourish for a time while the righteous suffer.
[10:35] You don't understand. If you really think that the people who are not honoring and serving God, and they're flourishing, and you're envious, like Asaph in Psalm 73, was envious at the foolish, you just need to understand that you don't understand what's happening.
[10:53] You just don't get it. That God's ways are higher than yours. You can trust him. They are better. If you're in a situation and you say, God cannot be glorified, there's nothing good that can come out of this, your ways are not the highest ways.
[11:05] His ways are. We can trust him. It is a good thing to give thanks to the Lord because we overcome who he helps us overcome. Matthew 25, 46, And these shall go away in the everlasting punishment, but the righteous unto life eternal.
[11:19] So after those who not have honored the Lord with their lives, those who don't believe in him, those that have lived for themselves, they appear like the grass for a minute, then they wither away, but the righteous will live eternally.
[11:31] It says, When we cease to worship God, we do not worship nothing, but we worship anything. Have you heard that before? You don't have the ability to not worship. You only get the choice of where to direct your worship.
[11:43] And so people worshiping all the time. See, the brutish man, neither a fool understands this. But the wicked spring as a grass, and the workers iniquity, they flourish. It is that they shall be destroyed forever.
[11:55] They don't know this. They don't know that's their future. They say the day is good, and I've earned this for myself, and everything's going to be like this. But their life is going to be short-lived. So what do they delight in if it isn't the things of God?
[12:08] The Bible answers that for us. Psalm 62, 4 says, They only consult to cast them down from his excellency. They delight in lies. They bless them with their mouth, but they curse inwardly. That there are people that delight in living lies.
[12:22] There's those that delight in war. Psalm 68, 30, Till everyone submit himself with pieces of silver, scatter thou that people that delight in war.
[12:33] There's people that find delight in drama and hatred. Today is Veterans Day. On Sunday, we'll honor our veterans. I know it fell on the day, but Sunday we'll have more of our veterans here.
[12:44] And one of the thoughts that has overwhelmed me is this idea that I know so little about war because my grandfather knew so much about war. And I'm grateful for him.
[12:54] But you know my grandfather did not delight in seeing people hurt, right? And that's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about a group of people that delight in the misery of others. And you ought to think that doesn't even make sense.
[13:07] But you've met these people, right? Some delight in the strength of the horse. Lamar, are you in here today? This is for you. If you don't want to do leg day, this is your verse, all right? He delighteth not in the strength of the horse.
[13:17] He taketh no pleasure in the legs of a man. Eli, that's your verse for no leg day, okay? He doesn't take pleasure in the legs of a man. There's people in this world that take delight in their own strength, but not just their physical strength.
[13:31] The strength of their horse is what they can overcome. It's just naming for you. If you don't find your delight in the Lord, where are you going to have to go delight in? And you're going to go find your delight in things that are just so shallow.
[13:43] I mean, just really, that aren't going to matter, that aren't going to keep you. They delight in bird offerings. Psalm 51, 16, we're told that we shouldn't delight in bird offerings. There's people that delight in a religion and an outward appeal to the Lord.
[13:58] And it says that scorners delight in scorn. Psalm Proverbs 1, 22, there's those that delight in the frowness of wicked. Young people, you need to watch out for those people.
[14:09] Those people that just do wrong because wrong is fun for them. Like when you get with them, they just want to see how much wrong they could do because they take delight in it. Those are very dangerous people. Yes, they need Jesus, but it doesn't mean that you need to be the one that's going to be spending your days with them.
[14:25] Because Psalm 1 tells you not to walk or sit with those people. But there's people in this world that delight in that. There's people that delight in gold, Isaiah 13. And there's just people just delight in whatever is against God, Isaiah 65, 12.
[14:38] Therefore will I number you to the sword, and you shall all bow down to the slaughter. Because when I have called, you did not answer. When I spake, you did not hear, but did evil before mine eyes, and did choose that where when I delighted not.
[14:51] There's people in this world that just delight in the things that are not of God. And let that not be said of us, that we hate the things that are not of God. We hate the things that God hates.
[15:03] We delight in the things that God tells us to delight in. The wicked are no threat to the God that sits on high. For lo, thine enemies, O Lord, for lo, thine enemies shall perish. All the workers of iniquity shall be scattered.
[15:16] Those things that are in your way, those things, the enemies that you have in life or those problems, typically our enemies in this world don't have names. They're not people that you see.
[15:26] It's problems that you're facing. It's problems of this world that you're facing. It's a broken system that you're facing. It's the evil world that we live in. And you need to know that God has no problem overcoming any of those things.
[15:40] Because I show you in Luke chapter number 8, what does he do when the storm rises up? He says, be still. I mean, he has control over all of nature, over all things. This is what Nebuchadnezzar realized in life after he had to get humbled.
[15:53] Daniel 4.35, Somebody that really rose up against God, who fought him on every corner, his life ended with saying, all the inhabitants of the earth are nothing against him.
[16:14] All the enemies of this world combined are nothing against our God. And so the righteous affirm that the Lord is the Most High forever, but thou, Lord, art Most High forevermore. And the Lord exalts the righteous, and we get to see the destruction of the wicked.
[16:29] Lo, that enemies will perish, the workers iniquity shall be scattered. And then we see that we should give thanks unto the Lord because of how he has caused us to flourish. My horn shall exalt like the horn of a unicorn.
[16:40] I shall be anointed with fresh oil. God makes us strong, and he does a great work upon us. And it says that we shall see our desire on mine enemies, and mine ears shall hear my desire of the wicked that rise against thee.
[16:53] God will place the desire in your heart, and he will make it come to pass that we can trust him. And so delighting in God is the secret of flourishing in life.
[17:04] If you will delight in him, God will make you prosperous. Joshua 1.8. If you will delight in him, he will make your way glad.
[17:15] If you will delight in him, you will live free of the fear of your enemy. And God blesses the righteous with a fruitful, long life in his presence.
[17:26] We already read it, but it said the palm tree, and as the cedar, speaks about the length of life and the strength that we have as we are placed in his courts. And then it will bring forth fruit in old age that God will continue to allow you to grow in him throughout all of your seasons of life.
[17:45] Two different examples. One being Moses, if you remember how he died. In Deuteronomy 34.7, it says that when he died, his eyes were not dim, nor his natural force abated.
[17:56] He was a tough old guy, all right? His eyes were still bright. He still had his strength, and he died. But that wasn't what was said of David. David was weak, and he was feeble.
[18:06] But both of them were people that God allowed to have blessings all throughout their life. So we're talking about more than just the physical strength. I love what it said about Gaius in 3 John.
[18:17] It said that he, Beloved, I wish above all things that they may prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prosperous. What a great prayer. You know, as we get older in life, and that's what we're doing together daily, right?
[18:29] We don't have many older people in our church, and we'd love to see more older people. Our 4.30 meeting on Sunday is talking about how we can welcome more older people into our church. But one way that we're working on getting older people is we're all getting old together.
[18:43] We just do it. We work on it every week together. And what a compliment. When you get older in life, that somebody would say, I wish you physically were as healthy and as well as you are spiritually.
[18:56] And you've spoken to people like that, that God gave them understanding late into their years. And that ought to be what we would want as well, that we don't get old, we don't become bitter, we don't only talk about the old days, but all the way until God takes us home, we're doing something for Him and continue to grow.
[19:13] Hope some of you haven't stopped. Hope you don't think that learning is an Awana thing, or you don't think it's a young married thing, that you're a growth with the Lord, that every year you'll be like me in elementary school, you will get most improved player, all right?
[19:26] Every year you will decide that I'm going to grow. Some of you played basketball, and you know that's not a compliment, all right, when they gave you that one. And the most improved player, I pray that every year at any season of life, you'll recognize there's a lot of room for growth in my life.
[19:42] And so delight in Him, and this changes everything about us. This changes our desires. The desires of our heart, Psalm 37, 4, delight thyself, falsehood Lord, He shall give thee the desires of thine heart.
[19:55] The desires of the heart must be desires that are satisfied in more of God and more of His ways. Delight in God will be sufficiently intriguing that you will be ruined for anything else.
[20:06] As you delight in God, you ought to say there's more for Him to learn. I got to hear John Lennox teach, some of us went to hear him teach, and John Lennox chairs the head of mathematics at Cambridge University.
[20:17] I can't even explain how smart he is, okay? And he said, as a young boy, he said, when my dad talked about Jesus and the Bible, I knew that Christianity could be anything but boring.
[20:28] It's intriguing. Your whole life, you ought to be more curious about the Bible. You ought to want to know more. You should never just be satisfied. Like, say that you have enough, you ought to press towards the high prize of knowing Him. You should be looking for more opportunities to know more about God.
[20:42] We should delight in God and learn that He is sufficiently beautiful than all the other things in this world in comparison are ugly. And then we should know that He is sufficiently enjoyable, that everything else in life pales in comparison to Him.
[20:57] The time with Him is something that we wait for and we look forward to. 1 Peter 1.8, Whom having not seen ye love, and whom not though now you see Him not yet believing, yea, rejoice with unspeakable and full of glory.
[21:10] That we should delight in getting to know Him. He's so enjoyable. We should delight knowing that He is sufficiently good and that the ways of the world they are exposed are just nauseous, ugly, and deadly.
[21:23] That we want to know His ways. I would rather have a little information from God's Word than all the wisdom of this world, right? Is that we ought to continue delighting in Him and wanting to know Him more. And so as we delight in God, we see Him do a work in our lives, and it changes our relationship with the Word.
[21:40] We delight in the law of the Lord because we delight in Him. We delight in His statutes. And we take comfort in our soul. And the multitude of my thoughts were in. My comforts delight my soul.
[21:53] And we delight in His goodness. Nehemiah 9.25, And they took strong cities and fat land and possessed house full of all goods, wells digged vineyards and olive yards and fruit trees in abundance.
[22:03] So they did eat and were filled and became fat and delighted themselves in Thy great goodness. We should be people that are delighted in the Lord. You ought to do some inventory on your life and just realize He has been very, very good to you.
[22:17] And He's been very good to you. And I would like to remind you, it is good to give thanks unto the Lord. And we can sit under a shadow in great delight.
[22:27] Song of Solomon 2.3, As the apple tree among the trees of the woods, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under a shadow with great delight and His fruit was sweet to my taste. I sat down under a shadow with great delight.
[22:40] Just take some time to sit in there and to think about how good God has been to you. To sit in the shadow of it. Just to look around and to think about God's goodness. Because it is good to give thanks unto the Lord.
[22:53] And follow us on social media for more tips. Alright? So Psalm 92.15, To show that the Lord is upright, He is my rock and there is no unrighteousness in Him. I'm going to end with a story here and then we'll sing a song before we leave.
[23:07] Many times we end here kind of on a sad note or calling for a decision. And so the night's decision is this. Give thanks unto the Lord because He's good. And I just was, Psalm 92 called upon us to do that.
[23:19] And after recognizing that He is good, and after singing praises unto the Lord, and recognizing how He's helped us overcome all the obstacles in our lives and all the challenges that He has done, and who He is and worshiping Him, then show that the Lord is upright and He is your rock.
[23:37] Sometimes evangelism really struggles because we forgot how good Jesus is. Just as simple as that. If you find that you're just not that excited about talking about Jesus, well then don't just pump yourself up and find more people to talk to.
[23:50] Deal with that problem. Say, God, I forgot. And sit down in the shadow of His goodness. And just sit there for a while and do some inventory and talk about it and say, God, and then sit there until you're happy in Jesus and then you get to a point where it will overflow in your life.
[24:05] I read a story about a Scottish Presbyterian minister and he had a very serious church where people didn't say amen much, much like you guys in here, much like me, myself. All right?
[24:16] It was kind of reserved in the way that they would worship and they'd follow along. This was one lady to them. She just could not stop all the time. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. And she was always saying this and this pastor just had, he was so uncomfortable with it because he wasn't used to it.
[24:31] And he told him, he said, ma'am, would you please? He knew that she was poor and he said, ma'am, if you would just wait a full year, at the end of this year, I'll give you two woolen blankets. As I tell you this, what a chump.
[24:44] If you need woolen blankets, you don't have any conditions. We'll get you woolen blankets. But the story here says that he said, I'll give you two woolen blankets if you can go all year without making a scene in church and saying praise the Lord or hallelujah or doing something like that.
[24:58] Well, one day they had a guest speaker in and he was so full of the Lord and the bubbling over him that Betty, this joy became so bright and she got so excited for what was going on that she just kept, she forgot what was going on.
[25:12] And at last she stood up and she leaped from her feet and she cried, blankets or not, hallelujah. All right? As he said, forget about your blankets, just hallelujah.
[25:22] And it would be good if some things in our lives just became so small because of our desire to praise the Lord. Who cares what people think about me? Hallelujah.
[25:33] Who cares how peculiar it seems what I'm doing? Hallelujah. How illogical the step seems that I'm going to do this as opposed to what I normally do in my schedule? Just hallelujah.
[25:45] Because it is good to give thanks unto the Lord. And just like we are to take any instrument that is made, we ought to be taking it to use it to praise the Lord. We ought to be taking whatever is given in front of you and saying, God, with this, I just want to praise the Lord.
[26:00] And I want to encourage you, let's just praise the Lord. Because the Bible tells us it's good to give thanks unto the Lord. And so now we're going to sing a song and we're going to give thanks to the Lord.
[26:10] But then you're going to leave here and I want to challenge you. If you don't know that he's good, spend some time in the shadow of his goodness and then leave that and let's just rejoice together and let our evangelism, let our speaking of Lord come from the fact that it's, I just can't help it.
[26:26] Blankets or no blankets, hallelujah, right? You may think I'm crazy, but hallelujah, I'm jumping into this thing, all right? And just share with people around us about the goodness of God.
[26:37] And if you have forgotten about it, I promise you, it won't take you long to remember how good he is. You just need to slow down. You just need to look to him. You just need to open up his word and he will quickly remind you of a million different ways that you had forgotten how good he is.
[26:52] All right? I'm going to pray and then Steve will come up here and we'll sing a couple verses together. Heavenly Father, it is good to give thanks unto the Lord and I give thanks unto you.
[27:03] Lord, I thank you so much. Lord, I thank you for sending a teenager to share the gospel with me so that I could be saved. Lord, you are good. Lord, I thank you for saving my wife at a young age and her growing and being discipled before I met her and just knowing and loving you.
[27:19] And Lord, you have been good and I give you thanks to that. Lord, you have been good in the family that you've given me and the love that my kids have for you and for this church and for the ministry. I want to give you things for that.
[27:30] And then Lord, on a rainy Thursday night when there's no mandate to come and study your Bible, my friends and brothers and sisters in Christ come here to study a psalm together.
[27:42] And Lord, I give you thanks for that. Lord, in so many different ways that I've overlooked, I just want to say thank you. Lord, you have given me good meals. You have given me some incredible opportunities in life and I'm just so thankful for you and I want to give thanks to you.
[27:58] Lord, not just in this moment where it's very convenient, but in every moment of my life, Lord, I want to give thanks unto you because it is good and you are good. In Jesus' name I pray.
[28:10] Amen.