Gratitude - Gratitude Overflowing - Psalm 100

Welcome to South Sub Church. We are so glad that you've decided to worship with us today. Whether you're in the room right now or watching from home, wherever it is, we're just so glad that we get to spend this time together and worship the Lord together as one. Here at South Sub Church, we believe we are one church with two expressions of worship, but we have one mission to bring people to Jesus Christ and together become passionate followers of him. Another way that we worship is through our ti and offerings. And here at South Sub Church, we believe that we give the Lord back what he gives us. And there's a couple ways that I want to invite you to do that this morning. One is giving online at southub.urch/give. Another way is by texting the number that's on the screen right now. Or there's an envelope in your seatback pocket. And here's what I want to invite you to do. No matter what gift you give, big or small, we believe that whatever we give, the Lord multiplies that and we are able to be the hands and feet of Jesus here where we are right now. If you're new, we invite you to fill out a connect card. We would love to get to know you, pray for you, and find a way for you to get more connected with our church. And if you're watching us online, make sure you leave a comment wherever you are. Maybe you're going to the mountains, maybe you have a soccer game to go to. Whatever it is, we're just so glad that you've decided to join us for worship. You picked a great week to be here. Let's jump into God's word together. Let's worship him today.

Oh my god.

There's a story about a man who complained every single morning he woke up. He would complain about his job. He would complain about the weather. He would complain that his car wasn't nice enough. His house wasn't big enough. Anything he could pick out, he he would complain about absolutely everything. And one day he spoke to his friend and his friend kind of looked at him and he said, 'You know, is there ever anything that you are grateful for? Because his friend had gotten to a certain point where he was just tired of every single time they had a conversation, he always complained about every single thing. And the friend that was the complainer, he he kind of looked at me and he said, "You know what? No, there's nothing I'm grateful for because it seems like every single time in my life there is always something that is wrong. And his friend kind of looked at him and he said, "Well, have you ever thought about what in your life is right? What in your life is good?" And I kind of thought to myself, you know, how many times are we that man? We complain about the smallest things, the biggest things. We look on social media, we think about, man, you know, those friends of mine, they're going on vacations. They're going to Disneyland. Their house is huge, better than mine. Their car is better. And we complain about every single thing that we wish we had instead of thanking God for what we have, for what he's given us. You know, we're currently in our series called Gratitude, and we're looking through different Psalms, and today we're going to be in Psalm 100. So, if you have your Bible, if you have your phone, or if you want to look on the screen, but let's jump into God's word together today. And I love this psalm because the title of Psalm 100 is specifically a psalm of thanksgiving, right? It's a psalm that calls us to give thanks, to give joyful praise, to lift up a song, to remember who God is, and to remember that God does not change. So, you know, I grew up kind of old school, different Hispanic church. So, I want to invite you to do this this morning. I want to invite you to read. We're going to read the entire passage together. Ready? So, if you look on the screen, it'll be right up. So, on the count of three. Ready? One, two, three. Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness. Come before him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his. We are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever. His faithfulness continues through all generations. Let's pray together this morning. Father, we thank you because you are in this room right now. Father, before we ever walked in, your presence was already in here. And Lord, I pray that today that you would open up our hearts, our ears, our minds, Father, our lips to worship you, to give you praise, to give you glory, to give you honor. Father, most of all, I just pray that you would be in our midst right now. Father, I pray for any any need that is in this room. Lord, I pray that that we would not not walk out of this room the same, but that something would be transformed in us because we are here in your house. And father, you said that your house is a house of prayer and a house of worship and that is why we are here. And everyone said, "Amen." I want you to write this down. This is our first point this morning. And it is this. It is gratitude is never silent. It overflows with a song. I'm going to say it again. Gratitude is never silent. It overflows with a song. You know, there's 52 Sundays out of the week, and you know, one of my main roles here is is to lead worship every single week. And so, I don't I really rarely ever get to sit out and just listen. And as I was sitting back standing back here with you and and I was singing and we were worshiping together, can I just say something special happens in this room when we come together to lift up our song to God. And as I was standing there and singing and and we were singing about how God has been so good and it just it shifted my heart in a direction where I was like, God, I'm ready. I'm here because you are good and I get to sing and I get to lift up a song of praise and we get to do it together. So I want to kind of talk to you about that this morning. The first one it says this. It says, "Shout for joy to the Lord all the earth." You see what the psalmist is saying here is he's specifically inviting all the nations to worship God. It's no longer just God's chosen people. is no longer just the Jews, but he's calling everyone. He says all the earth, all the people, every tribe, every tongue, every nation, everyone needs to sing and shout for joy that God is here, that he is real. And I don't know if you've ever thought about this, but think of how many churches are gathering right now across the entire world. Like their worship may look different. It may it it's probably in a different language. They might worship in a different way, but we are all worshiping the same God. And what I love about what it says is in the meaning that it says shout for joy. It's talking about that we are welcoming a king, right? We're welcoming someone that's important. It's saying don't be quiet. Don't be silenced, but shout, be excited, be ready, anticipate that the king is coming, that he is here. You know, I last week I remember I saw tons and tons of Broncos jerseys in here. Can you just raise your hand if you wore one last week? I know there's a lot of you in here, but I was kind of I was watching the game as well and I remember when you got to we got to the fourth quarter, there were seconds left in the game, right? And you know where exactly where I'm going with this, right? The game was tied 1919 and you were probably you were with your jersey, maybe you were crossing your fingers, maybe you had your hands like this, but you knew if the kicker made the field goal, game's over. Broncos win, right? So, you were ready. You were anticipating. You were sitting. Some of you probably held on to a pillow and maybe you lifted up a prayer, whatever you did, but you were ready for that moment, right? And as the kick went up, you were like, "Please go in. Please go in. Please go in." And then as soon as the ball goes through the uprights, were you silent? No. Right? You shouted for joy. You celebrated. You You probably punched somebody too hard. You probably gave somebody a high five that dislocated the finger. But whatever it was, but you were excited, right? You were ready. You were anticipating. You celebrated that moment. And that is the same that the word is telling us, right? Shout for joy. Be happy. Be excited. Be ready that the king is here. That Jesus is in the room. And here's what verse two says. It says, "Worship the Lord with gladness, right? Come before him with joyful songs." Right? Worshiping the Lord with gladness. That means that I am ready to receive what God has for me. Right? I'm excited. I'm happy. I I get to worship the King. I get to lift up a song of praise to him. Right? I get to bless his name. or no matter what is happening around me, I get to come to his house. We get to come to his house and worship him because he is worthy of my praise. And the second thing is come before him with joyful songs, right? That means that my song it has to have it has to be a song that is full of gratitude. Right? A song is never silent, right? And he's saying, "Bring your joyful song, right? Bring a song that you can lift up to Jesus." And here's what it doesn't tell you to do. It doesn't tell you to sing well. It doesn't tell you to sing on pitch. It doesn't tell you to to sing what the Italians would call belcanto. Beautiful singing, right? It simply says to sing. And here's what I believe that happens when we sing. It is the one time in the service that we all get to come together and lift up our song, lift up our voice to God and lift it up to him, right? And there's a song that is in your heart that I can't sing for you because you know your why, right? You know what God did in your life. I know what God did in my life. And that is why that is reason enough for me to sing. That is reason enough for me to not be silent, but to lift up my song to the King. And I want you to write this down for a second. Your song of gratitude not only impacts you, but those around you. I'm going to say it again. Your song of gratitude not only impacts you, but those around you. You know, as I was kind of thinking about how many times we are called to sing, the word of God says, I kind of Googled it up and it and it said this. It said that there are over 50 direct commands for us to sing and that singing is mentioned in the Bible over 400 times. I don't know about you, but that tells me that singing is very important to God. And I want to tell you how your song of gratitude, it doesn't just impact you, but it impacts the people around you. One of my favorite stories is is a story of of Paul and Silas. And and if you don't know who they are, Paul and Silas were they were two men that they were followers of Jesus. And what they would do is they would go from city to city to town, different towns, and they would simply just share the good news of Jesus, right? They would preach the gospel. They would talk about who God was. They would talk about who what he had done in their lives. And they would share the good news with other people. And the story talks about how one time they got to a certain city, right? And they were doing this. They were preaching. They were teaching. They were sharing the the gospel of Jesus. And in this particular city that they were in and the leaders of this town did not like what they were sharing. And what ended up happening was the people didn't rejected what they were teaching and they grabbed Paul and Silas and they threw them into prison. They beat them. They changed them. They rejected everything that they were teaching. You know, you you might think to yourself, what would I do in a situation like that where because I'm sharing the good news of Jesus, I am put in the deepest part of the prison. Right? Some of us may give up. Some of us may stop. Some of us may doubt. But you see, Paul and Silas, they had a gratitude in their heart because they knew what God had done in them that they chose to not be silent. And something powerful happened. It says that around midnight, Paul and Silas, they started to pray. And when they started to pray, then they started to sing hymns to God. But even in the deepest moment, the darkest moment of their life, they were praying and they were singing. They chose to not be silent. And here's one thing that I believe. Even though maybe their arms were chained, even though maybe their legs were changed, you see the enemy made a huge mistake, because their lips were open, they could not be silent because they had a heart that was full of gratitude. They chose to praise God even in their circumstance that they were in. And it says at around midnight when they were praying, singing, it says suddenly a giant earthquake just started to shake the entire prison to its foundation. And I want you to listen to this. Everyone's chains were loose. And all the doors of that prison open wide because two men chose to not be silent. Because two men chose to sing. Because two men chose to believe in the power of what God could do. And I want to tell you this because when Jesus is in the room, the atmosphere changes not only in your life, but it changes in your in your home. It changes in your heart. And it has the power to change the people that are around you. So don't be silent. And I want to share with you kind of a just a personal story of mine. And a couple years ago, I was curious about, you know, how I was born. I never had really asked my mom kind of what that looked like. And if if you don't know me that well, my I have an identical twin brother. And I am the older twin by one minute. And I will claim that title forever. So don't forget, you have the older twin here. Okay? no matter what he says. I'm the older twin. And so I I called my mom and I started to ask her like, you know, mom, like what was it? What was that process like? I mean, you you had twins. I'm sorry, but you had twins. Um, and she started to tell me, you know, well, your dad and I, we kind of got to a certain age where, you know, all your brothers and sisters are they're much older than I am, so they were out of the house. And, you know, we kind of got lonely. And next thing we know, we were pregnant, and I wanted a girl. So, I went for an ultrasound. We found out we were pregnant. And the doctor was like, "Hey, okay, so I see one. It's a boy. Sorry, but hold up. There's a second one. There's two boys in here." And she was like, "Surprise number one. Instead of one girl, I got two boys. I got twins." And so she began to kind of share that with me. She told me, you know, they told me from a very early stage that that there were going to be tons of complications with my pregnancy. There were going to be tons of complications with your health to to the point where my mom told me that they told her, you know, the quality of life that your boys are going to have, like if they even make it that far, it's it's not going to be a great quality of life. like to the point where they told her, you know, we think it's best not only for you, but for the boys, we think it's best if you just abort them. We think it's best if you just don't don't have them. And I remember when my mom told me that, she said, "You know what? Instead of fear coming over and taking over my life, she said the first thing that came to my mind was if these are the kids that God gave me, then they're going to be healthy. And she said that she kept hearing the same thing every time she would go back and and they would do other exams. She was like, they told me the same thing every single time. They're not going to have a great life. You should like, let's end it here for your health, for their health. Like it's not going to happen. And my mom, she said, she said, 'I never for once accepted what they had told me, but I knew that the boys that God gave me were going to be healthy, were going to be great. And and she said, "You guys were going to be fine." I believe that with my heart. So then my my brother and I, we were born and we we had a lot of complications. Like my mom told me that I had problems with with my lungs to the point where they had to put me on a machine that would beep every time I would forget to breathe. and they would have to come wake me up and do different things so that I would just remember how to breathe. And they told her, you know, your boys are alive and but she said, but you know, especially Daniel, he she said, he's probably never going to be able to play a sport. He's probably never going to be able to do any type of rigorous activity. And and here's a funny thing. They found out that my mom sang in church and they looked at her and they said, "And I don't think your son will ever be able to sing. His lungs just won't take it. He won't have the capacity to sing." I laughed so hard when she told me that. And but here's why. I thought about how no matter what they had told her for I'm almost 30 years old now and all I can remember in my entire life is that I have always wanted to use my voice to worship God. And when she told me that I thought to myself, how can I ever be silent? How can my praise, how can my song not be joyful? How can my song not be full of gratitude? How can I be silent when I have seen God do miracles in my life from the very beginning? And if we took a moment, if I told you my entire life story of how I have seen God's faithfulness day after day and moment after moment, we'd probably be here for a long time. You wouldn't watch whatever game is happening today. But when she told me that, I thought about I can never keep from singing. I can't be silent. I can't be quiet because God has been so good in my life. Here's the second point I want you to write down this morning and that is gratitude flows from knowing who God is. Right? Gratitude flows from knowing who God is. Verse three says this. It says, "Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us and we are his. We are his people, the sheep of his pasture. And here's one thing I want you to remember this morning. That is gratitude begins with perspective. In James, he says it beautifully. He says this. It says, "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." Right? When I recognize that every single thing that I have in my life that is good, that is perfect, that is beautiful, right? Everything comes from him, everything comes from God, everything goes right back to him. I have no choice and I have no response other than to simply give him thanks because the word tells me that no matter what happens, right, God does not change. It is not in his character to change, right? We we've been waiting for how many months and days for it to finally snow, but it's coming, right? But but God says he does not change, right? He is the same God yesterday, today and forever more. And when I know who God is, that is when I am able to understand that if he made me, that if he created me, that if he is for me, then he's going to do whatever he wants to do in my life. Here's how Ephesians 1 says. It says, "I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation so that you may know him better. And here's what gratitude is. Is gratitude isn't just saying thank you for what God gives. It's saying thank you for who God is. Right? Knowing that there is a God that that loves you and I. Knowing that there is a God that has cared for us every single step of the way. Knowing that there is a God that even when seasons change, when times change, when everything around us can change, he is the one that remains the same. Right? He is the one that is constant. He is the one that has cared for you. He is the one that has loved you. He is the one that has forgiven you. When I understand and I know who God is and how much he loves me, I simply have to say thank you. You know, and one of the reasons why I love the Psalms so much is because David isn't someone that God told these things. This isn't David the one that a friend of his, a friend of his, uncle of his, a cousin of his said, "Hey, you know what? This is who God is." No. David experienced the fullness of God's love, of God's mercy, of God's forgiveness, of God's redemption, right? He got to experience everything that God was. So, he can tell you and me today that it is good for us to know who God is and what he wants to do in each and every one of us. And here's our last point this morning. I want you to write this down. Gratitude is our gift to God. A gratitude is our gift to God. Or verse four says, "Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him. Bless his name." You see, in ancient Israel, worshippers, they would enter through different gates and different courts. And and what the psalmist is saying here, he's saying, "Don't come emptyhanded, right? Don't come to the Lord's house emptyhanded. Come ready. Come expectant. Come ready to worship God. Come ready to praise him. Come ready to give him your best song. Come ready to to receive what he has for you. You know what I I think what happens sometimes is is instead of coming in with our thanksgiving and and coming in with our praise, we think about what we can get out of it. You know, if if they don't sing the songs I like, I won't praise. If someone doesn't greet me at the front door, it's it's not going to work for me. If it's too loud, I don't know. I'm not going to enjoy it. And and we put all these different things in the place of just simply coming in and giving God our best gift. That is our gratitude. Right? Because we have received the greatest gift of all. We have received God's love. We have received his forgiveness. But most of all, we have received his salvation. One of the things that my wife and I, we we love to do, and many of you, some of you probably received a gift from her, is that we just we've been taught since we were kids, I don't know if it's just a culture thing, but we were just taught you never go to someone's house empty-handed. You just don't. And a few weeks ago, we got to hang out with some friends of ours, and my wife is so thoughtful. She got flowers. She got them a candle. they have a little boy. So, she she got him some Play-Doh. But then then there was a fourth aspect that that she brought and she was asked to bring uh something that was gluten-free. So, she made an apple pie and she went through different ingredients and made sure traced everything to the point where we made sure nothing in there had gluten. And then so we went to our friend's house and we got to their door and they opened the door, let us in, and we're giving them the gifts, the flowers and the candle and the Play-Doh and the apple pie. And as soon as they received everything, it's like a weight had just been shifted. Like they were so grateful that that we took the time to to think about um bringing them what to bring them gifts and and you could tell it meant so much to them. And I think about this. There is nothing that you and I can do to ever pay back the gift that God gave us. Or we couldn't earn it. We can't deserve it. There is nothing that I can do, nothing that we can do to ever say thank you enough for what he's done. But what we can do, right, is bring is bring him the gift of our gratitude, right? A heart that is ready to receive from him. A heart that is ready to worship him. A heart that is willing to say, "Father, I don't know what you want to do, but my life is yours. Do what you want to do." And I want to just read you one more. And it says this in First Thessalonians. It says, "Rejoice always. Pray continually. Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. You know, you might be sitting here this morning and you and you think, you know, that sounds that sounds really nice. Rejoicing always, giving thanks in all circumstances, right? It sounds amazing. Like, I wish I could do that right now. But you might be thinking internally, "But you don't know what my situation is right now. I just lost my job. I haven't worked for x amount of time. I don't even know what I'm going to get my kids for Christmas. It seems like everything around my life is just running out of control. And it's hard to rejoice right now. It's hard to give thanks right now. It's hard to trust that that God has something better for me right now when when I just I just can't do it. Right? And maybe you're even looking around the room and you see maybe a couple people around you are like nodding and they're saying, "Yes, I want to rejoice always. I want to give thanks. I want to bring my song of gratitude to God and you feel like I just I just can't give thanks right now because of the situation that I'm in. And here's what I want to remind you of this morning. If there's one thing that you take away, this is the promise that God has for us. And verse 5, it closes so beautifully and it says this. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever. His faithfulness continues through all generations. I'm going to say it again. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever. His faithfulness continues through all generations. And here's the three things that tells me. One is God is good. Even when life doesn't seem fair, God is good. And you see, that's because his goodness is not measured by my circumstances. His goodness is measured because of his character, because of who he is, because of how good he is, because in every single moment, God has been faithful. God has been good. And there's the second thing it tells me is that God's love endures forever. Right? His love doesn't change. It doesn't weaken. It doesn't depend on how good of a believer I am, how my how great of of a performing Christian I am. Right? His love is still the same yesterday, today, and forever more. And here's the third thing is God is faithful throughout all generations. Right? Even when I am faithless, God is faithful. One of my favorite verses in scripture says this, that he who began a good work in you, he will be faithful to complete it. Right? It's not about what I can do. It's not about what I've done. It is who God has been in my life. Because you may may you may think to yourself, you know what? I'm not where I want to be today. But let me just tell you this, but you're not who you used to be because God is doing something new, something good in your life, right? Because our circumstances can change. People can change. But the psalm, it ends on on such a beautiful promise that God does not change. And I want to invite the band up this morning. And here's three things I want us to close with that I want you to write down. That is one. I want you to start your day by naming three things that you are grateful for. Right? Sometimes we can think about, you know what, Psalm 100, it it preaches so well to us on a Sunday, but how do I live it tomorrow? Just start your day. Start your day by naming three things that you are grateful for. And there's a second thing I want to invite you to do. That is to speak your gratitude. Right? Tell someone how God has been good to you.

A few weeks ago, my wife and I, we were at You will always find us at Hudson Gardens. If you're ever there and we're there, don't be alarmed. That's our spot. If I could live there, I would. Um, but we were walking down the path and and she turned to me. She was like, "You know what? Let's just let's take a moment as we're walking around and let's take turns telling each other what we're grateful for.

and can I just say when I thought about every single thing that God has done in my life I could go on,

right? And if you look back at your life, how good God has been to you, how faithful he has been, the things that he has brought you through. You know, sometimes I have to look back to look forward. Sometimes I have to look back to remember what my life was like before I met Jesus. But now that I am in the place where he's placed you and I, I get to say thank you because of what he has brought me through and what he has brought you through. And there's a third thing I want you to do and we're going to get a a moment to do it right now. And that is I want you to sing your gratitude. Like make worship your weapon. As the psalm said, it's not calling you to sing well. It's not calling you to sing in tune, but it is simply calling you to bring your joyful song and give it to God. So, would you just stand with me this morning and as we pray and

I want to invite you this morning to sing with gratitude

we sing we sang a song that talks about how God has been so good.

But let me tell you, if you are alive today, if there is breath in your lungs, then he's not done working in your life.

And as you kind of got to hear some of my story, God has gotten you through something as well. Right? Because if I can stand, if I can breathe, if I can live today, then that is reason alone. Reason enough to sing to him. So let's pray together. Father, we thank you

because of who you are because even when when seasons change, when circumstances change, when when people change, Father, you remain the same.

Lord, I pray today that we would be able to sing with a heart that is full of gratitude because you came down to save us.

Lord, I pray that as we sing that you are good. Father, I pray that you would begin to work in hearts. I pray that you would begin to work in homes. And Lord, I pray that you would begin to transform lives right now as we sing as we lift up your name. Father, your word says that your name is great and you are greatly to be praised. Father, all we can offer you right now is a song of thanksgiving. All we can do is sing because you have been good. Because you have been faithful. Because your love endures forever. Father, I pray that we would worship you with a full heart today. And everyone said it. Amen.