Amen. Well, if you have a Bible, go ahead and open it up to Psalm 145. And on behalf of all the pastors here at the church, we want to wish you and your family a very happy Thanksgiving. And when I was growing up, I loved Thanksgiving because it meant two things for me. It meant a week off of school, and it meant hanging out with my cousins. And I come from a small family of six kids, and if you think that's a small family or a big family, my cousins, they had seven kids in their house, so when we got together, just the two families, there were thirteen of us running around, and we had a great time playing in the backyard, a great time with family food and football. And I just grew up loving Thanksgiving, and now that I'm a Christian, I really appreciate Thanksgiving so much more. Because when I was a kid, well, I was thankful for just certain kind of material things or things that I received, but I wasn't giving thanks to the person who gave them to me. I was more focused on the gift than really the giver. And this week, all over America, we will have people sitting down together, eating a meal together, and the question is, who are they thankful to?
You see, sometimes we get so wrapped up in the gift that we forget the one who gave it to us. And we've been reading through the book of Romans, and we remember in chapter one, where it talks about a group of people, a nation that's being turned over to their sins. And really it says here in Romans 1:21, it says, ‘For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” And so, you see even a culture or a nation or a group of people, that when they forget God, when they turn away from God, and they stop acknowledging him, and they stop giving thanks to him, well then that's going to lead to all kinds of sins, and God just turns people over to their sins because they've forgotten who God is, because they're not thanking him or being thankful to him. And so, as we gather together this morning, and as we maybe have a time and even our nation where we're stopping and we're giving thanks, we want to do is we want to get together. We want to think through who are we thankful to? Because God has been such a good God to us. And so, as we read Psalm 145, let's stand to our feet, and let's give this text our full and undivided attention, and let's see how we can have a heart that's really here to praise and worship God. This is a Psalm of David. It says,
“I will extol you, My God and King, and bless your name forever and ever. Every day, I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever. Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. His Greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall commend your works to another and shall declare your mighty acts on the glorious splendor of your majesty and on the wondrous works, I will meditate. They shall speak of the might of your awesome deeds, and I will declare your greatness. They shall pour forth the fame of Your abundant goodness and shall sing aloud of your righteousness. The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. The Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made, all your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord, and all your saints shall bless you. They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom and tell of your power to make known to the children of man your mighty deeds and the glorious splendor of your kingdom. Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations. The Lord is faithful in all his words and kind in all his works, the Lord upholds all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down. The eyes of all look to the Lord and you give them their food in due season, you open your hand, you satisfy the desire of every living thing. The Lord is righteous in all his ways and kind in all of his works, the Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him. In truth, he fulfills the desires of all those who fear him. He also hears their cry and saves them. The Lord preserves all who love him but all the wicked he will destroy. My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord and let all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever.”
You guys can go ahead and have a seat. And David, I mean, you can see here that his heart is just overflowing with praise, with thanksgiving, with worship. And this is the last recorded Psalm that we have of David. And so, there's thought that this is well into David's life. And when David was older, he was the king of Israel. And so, as King of all the land, David, there was no one that was above David as the king. There were people that would come and they would pay homage to him. But here David, in verse 1, look at how he starts this psalm. He calls God his king, that even though David, he's the king overall, he's actually acknowledging that no, there is one greater than me, and it's God. He says, I will extol you, my God and King. Extol, to lift high, I'm going to lift high God. I'm going to exalt his name because he is my God, because he is my king. And he says here in verse 1 that he's going to bless his name forever. He actually says it twice. In verse 2, He says it again. He says, “Every day I will bless you and I will praise your name forever and ever.” You see, the name of God, that's, that's all that God is. It's all of his character. That's all of his attributes. It's who God is. And David is saying, hey, I'm going to bless your name forever, and not only forever, into eternity. Well, I'm going to bless your name, day by day, because your name is great. Look what it says in verse 3. I love this. It says, “Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. His greatness is unsearchable.” Did David think God was a great God? I mean, look at the way he says it there. He's great. His praises should be great, and his greatness is unsearchable.
You see, as much as we know about God here this morning, we should admit that God's greatness, there's more to know about his greatness. There's more that we could learn about the greatness of God. And before David even gets to how great his works are, before David even gets to what he has received from God, and before David gets to all the blessings that God has given to him, David actually starts with God, you are great, that you your name is awesome. Your name is worthy of my consideration. Your name is worthy of my praise. Your name is worthy of my thanks. Before David talks about the gifts that he's received from God, he begins by talking about his name, and this is really all over the Psalms, this idea that I'm going to worship God because of who he is, because of all his attributes, because of who God is. I'm going to worship him and him alone.
Let's go to Psalm chapter 44, let's look at a few of them here. In Psalm chapter 44 it says this in verse 8, it says, “In God we have boasted continually, and we will give thanks to your name forever.” Hey, we're going to boast in you, God, and we're going to give thanks to your name for all time, forever and ever. Look at Psalm 45:17, “I will cause your name to be remembered in all generations. Therefore nations will praise you forever and ever.” So, this word “praise” is this word “yada,” and it's this word, it can mean praise or to give thanks. So here it says that all the nations are going to give thanks to you forever and ever, as we're remembering this in all the generations. Hey, we're going to be praising your name, and it's going to go from generation to generation. And all are going to praise you. They're going to give thanks to you.
Psalm, chapter 54, Psalm 54:6 says it like this, “With a freewill offering I will sacrifice to you; I will give thanks to your name, O Lord, for it is good.” God's name, Yahweh, he says here, it is good who you are, God. We're going to give thanks to you forever, because you are good.
Go to Psalm 75. Psalm 75:1, it says “In you, oh Lord, do I take refuge. Let me never be put to shame in your greatness. Deliver me and rescue me. Incline your ear and save me.
Go to Psalm 97:12. Psalm 97 verse 12, says, “Rejoice in the Lord O righteous and give thanks to his holy name.” See, this is just a small sampling, and there are so many psalms that we can turn to this morning. And the idea here is that they're praising God and they're thanking him, and they're worshiping him because of who God is. They're worshiping him because of his character, because of his greatness, because of his goodness.
Go back to Psalm 145 and we're going to look at really one thought today that kind of bleeds into two different things here. And it says here in Psalm 145:5, here are the two things we're going to think about here today. It says, “On the glorious splendor of your majesty, right on who you are, God, on your great name, and on your wondrous works, I will meditate.” So, I know what you think of when you when you think of this word meditate. If you think about it the way our culture thinks about it, then you probably see yourself on a nice beach with the crashing waves, maybe sitting on a rock with your legs crossed for some reason, and you're just really emptying your mind of everything that's in there, and you're just meditating, right? And really, the Bible, when it talks about meditation, it talks about the opposite way. The word for meditation, it means to ponder. It means to think upon. I'm not emptying my mind. I'm actually pondering. And what am I pondering? Well, I'm pondering the glorious splendor of God's majesty. You see, I'm taking time to stop. I'm taking time to think and consider and ponder who God is in all of his greatness. I'm pondering his name. I'm pondering who God is in his character. And you see, meditation is really a lost art in in church. I mean, we are so quick to kind of move on to the next thing. There are so many things in our lives that need our attention. And how often do we really just stop and meditate and really stop and think and ponder, and the idea even to whisper to myself to really chew on who God is and what he has done? You see, I don't know a lot of Christians that are really meditating on God's word. Day and night, we're really slowing down and thinking. And today we want to take time to really consider, well, who is God? What is his name? And maybe this week you have time off. Maybe you have a few days off from work this week. Maybe some of us are out of school this week. Maybe you have Thursday off or Friday off, a longer weekend. Hey, could this be a week where we set aside purposeful time to meditate and ponder, not just what God has done for us, but can we start with just who God is? That even if I am not receiving something from God, I could still say that God, he is great, like, regardless of what I've received from God, it doesn't change who God is, that God is a great. Here's the outcome of that.
If I'm really meditating, if I'm chewing on God's Word and it's getting into my heart and I'm thinking about God, well here clearly in the Psalm, well, I'm going to praise him. I'm going to worship him and extol him. But also, it says in verse 4, it says like this, “One generation shall commend your works to another and shall declare your mighty acts. Verse 12 says “to make known to the children of man your mighty deeds and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.” Hey, as I'm growing in my knowledge of God, in my love for God, in my worship and adoration of God, well then, I'm going to take it, I'm going to pass it on to another generation. I'm going to be speaking the things of God and sharing the things of God, because it's on my heart, and like David, it's going to overflow. You see how many of us are thankful that a generation before us passed on the works of God to us. How many people are thankful that the generation before us was faithful to pass on the Word of God, who he is? And now we, all of us who have heard the good news of the gospel, have responded, and now we can worship God because the gospel has come to us. You see, now that we have received this good news, because now that we know who God is, well, our job is now to take it and to pass it on to that next generation. Right? Where are the people, the fathers and the grandfathers and the grandparents, the people who have known God for years, and they're ready now to pass it on to other people. And look at what it says here that we're going to pass on
I mean, who is God? Here it says in verse 8, this is a quote from Exodus 34. It says, “The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.” Hey, when I think about the name of God, well, who is God? Well, right here in Exodus, it says that he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and he's abounding in steadfast love. Let's actually go to Exodus chapter 34. A couple weeks ago, we were actually with the next generation. We were with the fifth and sixth graders, and we had a club 56 event, and we were filling their faces with pasta and meatballs and having really a lot of fun over there, in the other building there, and we looked at Exodus 34 because we asked all the fifth and sixth graders here at the church. We said, hey, who do you think God is?
That's an important question for all of us to consider this morning. Who would you say that God is? Because the answer to that question is going to have ramifications in your entire life. The way that you think about God will determine how you live today. The way you think about God will determine how you live tomorrow. If I'm really thinking right about God, well, that's going to show me not only who God is, it's going to show me who I am and God. Well, at that event that we had, we said, hey, let's maybe stop and let's not think about who we think God is. Let God speak for himself. Let's let God, for a moment, tell us who he is. Because we might come into church, we might have different backgrounds, we might be thinking about different things. We might have different thoughts about who God is. Well, let's just stop and let's just let God tell us who he is.
And if you remember, if you know the story of Israel, they were slaves in Egypt, and God did this amazing work of salvation for them, where he brought all the plagues on Egypt, and Pharaoh let the people go. But then, as their backs were against the water, Pharaoh's men came. They're coming to chase God's people down and kill them or bring them back to Egypt. And God does this amazing work where he parts the Red Sea, and the people that thought they were about to die are now saved, and they go through the parting of the Red Sea, and then God saves them. And there's this time of worship, and there's this time of rejoicing, and there are these songs that break out, and they're worshiping God. They're worshiping Yahweh, oh, Yahweh, thank you. Thank you for saving us. You are such a mighty, awesome God that you would deliver us in such a powerful way that the whole world would hear about this. The whole world would proclaim your glory. And if you go real quick over to Exodus 32, this is what happens after the people are parting through the Red Sea. Well, they begin to forget what God has done as Moses goes up on the mountain and he's with God. Well, then the people, they grow tired of waiting, and this is what it says in Exodus 32:1, it says “When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said, up make us Gods who shall go before us, as for this, Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt. We do not know what has become of him. Hey, Moses is delayed. Moses has been gone a long time. Hey, Aaron, will you make us some gods that we can now follow? This is what God thinks about that. Look what he says in verse 7, “The Lord said to Moses, go down for your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly, out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said,” this is what the people said, “these are your gods, oh, Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.” Man, what a sad story that these people that saw amazing acts of God, amazing power displayed, they were once filled with worship and song, and now they're like, hey, these are the gods that brought us up out of Egypt. And because of their sin, because of the they turned away from God, God is going to destroy this people, and it's only because Moses goes before God, and Moses, he's so passionate about God's name. He’s so passionate about God's glory that he says, hey, God, if you wipe these people out, after all these nations have heard how you save them, then what will the nations think of you? What will the nations think about your great name, God? And so, God, he spares the people. And then he says this, let's go down to Exodus 34. Look at verses 6 and 7 as God, he hides Moses in the cleft of the rock, because if Moses saw God in all of his glory, Moses would die. And so, God just shows him the backside of his glory. And God tells Moses, right here who he is. It says in verse 6, “Yahweh passed before him and proclaimed Yahweh. Yahweh, a god merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty. The iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation.”
You see, God is telling us right here who he is. God is declaring his name to us this morning, and the first thing that he says about himself is that he is a God who is merciful. Hey, how often do we consider that God is a merciful God? How often do we thank him and praise him because he is a God whose name is mercy. You see, mercy is when I don't get what I deserve. And when I said that to all the fifth and sixth graders, some of them look kind of confused, because they're like, wait a second, I deserve all kinds of good things. I'm a pretty good kid. Like, hey, I've been following the rules in here. I've been playing the game the right way, like I brought my Bible here to church. I'm a good kid. What do you mean? I'm not going to get what I deserve. I get all kinds of good things, right? And you see, when we really see God as exalted, we see him in his holiness, when we see us in our sin. Well then we're going to come before God and say, hey, God, I deserve to be judged because of my sin. I mean your glory. If I were to see God face to face like Moses, if Moses saw God in all of his glory, it would be like looking at the sun like he couldn't do it, and really, he would end up dying. And God, if God is a merciful God, he is withholding what we deserve. Mercy is when we deserve to be judged, but instead, God is withholding his judgment from us. Can we take time this week to remember that God, in his character, he is, by nature, a merciful God, and he has withheld what we actually deserve.
See, God deserves praise for that. He deserves to be thanked for that. It goes on to say that he's not just a God who is merciful, but he's also gracious. See, God who is gracious that's now going beyond just withholding what I deserve. God's actually taking a step forward, and now he's giving me goodness that I don't deserve. He's not just withholding judgment from me. Well, now he's coming, and he's giving me his grace. He's giving me good things. You see, God, he is so good to us, and what ends up happening over time is we start just thinking that this is the way life is, and all the good things that I have that's just part of life, or that's something that I've earned because I've worked hard when really it's an act of God's grace. It's God giving us grace. It's him giving us something that we do not deserve. It says that he is slow to anger. See, God and his character, he's a patient God. He's a God who is slow to anger. And the reason why he's slow to anger in 2 Peter, chapter 3, verse 9, it says that God is slow to anger, that he's been patient because he wants more people to repent and turn to him.
The reason why God is delaying his judgment is because he wants people to know him. He wants people to worship him. He wants people to see how great he is, and he wants to save them. The reason why God is being patient right now is because he wants more people to come to know him. You see, God is great in his mercy. He's great in his grace. He's great in his patience. It says that he's abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. He has all the love. He has all the faithfulness that all of us need. God does not run out. He does not run low. He does not grow tired. He has all the love that every single person in this room, every family member that you're going to see this week, everyone in America, he has all the love, he has all the grace. He's abounding in these things. He's abounding in goodness and grace. He's abounding in steadfast love. It will never run out. God does not grow weary in love, and he's also faithful, alright, and it says that he's keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression of sin. But who will by no means clear the guilty. You see, God's not just full of love, but he's full of truth. And if you follow this theme throughout the Bible, steadfast love and faithfulness, or grace and truth, you're going to see it all over the Scripture. And the idea is that God is ready to forgive, but he's by no mean going to clear the guilty. That if I'm not going to turn to God and with all my heart, well, then there's nothing that I have except for the judgment waiting for me. And you see, God, he's full of grace and truth. And this is what it says about Jesus in John 1:14, that Jesus is “full of grace and truth,” because Jesus, he is God.
And so, we want to take time this morning, and we want to think about two things. And we want to be thinking, first off, well, who is God and how can I give thanks to the Lord? So put it down like this for point number one: We want to “Give thanks to the Lord.” Hey, God is so deserving of our thanks. God is so deserving of our praise, not only because of what he's given to us, but because of who he is. God is a good God. He's full of grace and truth. He's full of steadfast love and faithfulness. We should worship God for that this week. So, give thanks to the Lord for he is good.
And you have a dash there: “Give thanks to the Lord for who he is.” Alright, let's give thanks to the Lord this week for who he is. Let's stop and meditate on who God is, and let's give thanks to him. The first thing we want to give thanks for is who God is. Now, if you really stop, and if you take time this week to meditate on who God is, well, it's not just going to be like one thing that you can find in the Scripture that this explains who God is. Like you might need to make a whole list of who God is, and I've actually brought a list with me. Here are some of the things that it talks about who God is. In the Scripture, it says, the first one is that God, he's a sovereign God. Hey, can we give thanks this week? Because God is over all, because he's in complete control of all things. Psalm 113:4-6, talks about how he is sovereign, how he's ruling and reigning, how he's in control. You see, if I really think about God being sovereign, if I really live my life based off of him being in complete control, that's going to change the way that I live this week. See, I mean, how am I going to be anxious? How am I going to be worried if I know that God is in control and I'm trusting in him? You see, God being sovereign is something that I can give thanks for. It also impacts who I am. It impacts my day.
How about his immutable presence? His unchanging presence. Psalm 139:7-10 talks about his immutable presence. How I can go here, and I can go there, and I can be brought low and I can be brought high. But guess what? God's presence is unchanging. There's nowhere I can go where I can get away from God. And maybe for some of us, the holidays are difficult. Maybe for some of us, Thanksgiving is hard because we feel like we have loss. Well, can we think about how God is with us? Can we find comfort in knowing that his presence is unchanging? I mean, some of you might be going to visit family this week, and you might be the only Christian that's going to be there, and that might be hard for you. That might be a difficult thing for you to be a part of a family that doesn't worship God, and the things that they love are things that God hates. Hey, when you go to that gathering, you can be reminded that God is going with you, and his presence, it's unchanging. There's nowhere that you can go that God is not there.
God is holy. Isaiah 6:1-3 talks about how God is a holy God, how he is perfect and he is set apart from sin. I mean, who's thankful today that God is not like us? Who's thankful today that God, he's set apart from sin, and he is holy. See, this week, we should worship God. We should think about his holiness. Psalm 43:3-4 talks about how God is marvelous light. In the Gospel of John, Jesus says that he is the light of the world, that in darkness, as though there's darkness all over planet earth, Jesus, he stepped in as the light, and he's ready to shine the light. He's ready to bring the truth, and he's ready to save. God, he is marvelous light. And if you follow the theme of light throughout the Bible, you will be greatly encouraged. It starts in Genesis, chapter 1, when God spoke, and it ends in Revelation, when Jesus lights up the city. That light is a major theme of the Scripture, and God, he is light.
How about his eternal Gospel? Ephesians 1:3-6 talks about how God, in His love, predestined us before the world began. We will be praising God forever, in eternity, because of his gospel, because of the good news, and that started long before any of us were ever created.
How about the love of the Father? Romans 8:15-16 talks about the love of God, the love of the Father, that God is a good father to us. And maybe some of us didn't have a good example of a father who loved us. Hey, can we take heart knowing that God is a loving God, that in his name, his character, that he is a loving Father to us, that he treats us like his children, that he would adopt us into his family.
How about the faithfulness of God? Psalm 33:1-4, that God is a faithful God, and he's going to do every single thing that he said, that all the promises in here that are for us, God will surely do it. When I look at the promises of God, when I meditate on what he has said, does that fill me with hope and trust and encouragement? Because God is going to do the things that he has said he's going to do. See God, he's a faithful. It's who he is.
God gives life. Psalm 119:93. Not only does he raise people from the dead, not only does he give us eternal life, but also, as Christians, when I come to his Word, well, he's going to revive me. He's going to give me life according to his Word, according to who he is. And even as a Christian, I might come to God and I'd be feeling low or tired or burnt out, but when I come to the law of the Lord, oh, it's perfect, and it revives my soul. You see, God is the God who gives life. He created life. He created every single person in this room. He grants us spiritual life, and he's even here to revive us, to give us life each and every day.
How about God is our rock. Psalm 18:30-31 that God is a rock. And when we're standing on God, when we're standing on his Word, on truth, we will never be shaken. God is a rock. He is our refuge. He is our hiding place. When we are in trouble, we can run to God, and he is our fortress. He is a rock.
And maybe one of my favorite ones, Titus3:4-7 says that God is our Savior, that by nature, God is a saving God, that he loves to save people, that he loves to take people who are dead in sin and gives them life. God is a Savior. And you see, as we meditate, as we think about the character of God, I mean, what kind of response should we give to such a great God, or if we're still in Exodus, look what it says in chapter 34 look what it says in verse 8 after God declares who he is, Moses, in verse 8, “quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped.” Moses was overwhelmed with God's glory. He was overwhelmed with God's character, that he fell on the on his face, and he worshiped Yahweh. He worshiped God. See when we stop and we meditate and we chew on and we ponder how great God is, well, it should lead us to praising God and worshiping God.
Look at what it says in Psalm 111:1, it says, “Praise the Lord. I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart in the in the company of the upright in the congregation.” See, when we gather together after a week of spending time with God, meditating on his Word, learning about who he is, well, then we gather together as the people of God, and our hearts should be bursting with thanksgiving, and now we're addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, and we're gathering in the company of the upright and in the congregation, we are giving thanks to God.
You see, some of us, we take worshiping God far too casually. We come into this room not thinking about God but thinking about what we have to do tomorrow or what we have to do this afternoon. You see some of us, we're not coming into the presence of God full of worship and song, because we're not thinking about who God is. We're not meditating on his Word. See, sometimes at the end, after we've heard, after we've heard a sermon, and after we've been encouraged and built up or strengthened because of the Word of God, and then we get up here and we sing worship as a response to what we just heard, as a response of who God is, and what we've learned here in the Word. Well, then some of us are just so quick to leave. It's like, hey, can we stop and can we worship God for who he is, right here in his word and in full disclosure?
This list that I just read for you guys, this is actually not my list. I don't know if you guys have heard of this guy named Ryan Pierce. He's usually up here playing the guitar. This is actually his list. I stole it from him. This list is a list that he actually shares with all of us each and every week. So, ten weeks ago, he started this thing called WOW, Worship of the Week. And all ten of the things I just read for us, those are the ten things that Ryan has given us for the last ten weeks right here, because Ryan, as he comes up and as the worship team comes forward, they want to give us something to think about. They want to get our mind set on the things above. They want us to think about who God is, that he's a sovereign God, or a saving God, or a holy God, or a God who's full of marvelous light. And as he reads us the Scripture, well, the idea is that we'd be stirred up in our souls, and now we would come, and we would praise God and worship him. So, this list here is maybe something that Ryan has been sharing with us, and maybe some of us, when we come in the morning, oh, when Ryan's sharing that Word, and he's reading the Psalms, or he's reading the Word of God, and then we're stirred up, and now we're ready to come and sing to him this week. As we have time, let's make our own list. See, these aren't the only ten things about God. There are actually more things that we can go and learn. There are more things that we can really dive deeper into.
In fact, if you turn your hand out over, we don't have Fellowship groups this week, but there's a question on there, and it says, hey, can you just take time this week to sit down and come up with your own list about who God is? Hey, can you take time and sit with God in the Scripture? And can you really meditate on who he is? And can you fill up a page with who God is? See some of us, I mean, some of the problems, some of the sins that we face on a day-to-day basis, those things would be greatly diminished, greatly help if we just think about who God is, if we if we spend time meditating on his Word. Let's actually go to Titus, chapter 3. Let's think about how God is our Savior. Because not only do we want to worship God for who he is, we also want to worship God for what he has done. And in Titus, chapter 3, it tells us just how good God has been to us, and really, this is something that we want to be thinking about this week. We want to really be passing this on to the to the next generation. And this is what it says in Titus 3:4-7. It says, “But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” God is not just great. He's not just awesome in who he is, but how great he is. I mean, you see how that then he pours out, and his greatness is now translating into how he’s saving us by providing his son for us.
See, the thing that will kill your thankfulness this Thanksgiving, the thing that will take away your joy, is by starting to think, hey, I can do this on my own. See, the enemy of thankfulness is pride. And so many people in churches grow up thinking that they are good people, when the Bible is screaming at us that we are not good people, that it doubles down multiple times. He says, here in verse 5, that he saved us. He says, this is not done by works of our own righteousness. This is given to us, that God is washing us, that we're getting regeneration, that he's renewing us in the Holy Spirit, that he's pouring out richly through Christ Jesus, our Savior, being justified by his grace. You see, grace, it's a gift of God, and being justified by God, well, that is a gift that he gives to us in his grace. See, no one here today is justified because of anything that we have done. No one here today can walk up to God and say, hey, God, here's all my good works that I have before you, and God is going to accept those things. See, justification, it comes through faith and through faith alone.
And so, not only do we want to worship God for who he is, but put it down like this, for our second dash: “We want to worship God for what he has done.” Hey, give thanks to God for what he has done. And maybe the greatest thing that he has done is that he sent his Son in love to die for sinners like us, and this is something that we want to share with everyone. We want to pass this on to the next generation. Because this is what happens a lot of times when people grow up in church, as they start to think that they know who God is, and because they're looking at people at their schools, or people in their neighborhood, and they're starting to compare themselves to other people, we might start thinking, if we grew up in church, that we are good people, we might start thinking that God, of course, he would accept me because I have some sort of goodness that I can bring to God. Apart from him, no one's getting justified by our own, no one's getting justified because of our goodness. We're being justified by his grace; it is a gift that is being offered to us. There's nothing that you can do to earn this gift.
You see, what are one of the things that we hear every time we have a baptism? We just had a baptism last weekend, and something that we hear every time is people will get up in that tub and they'll say, hey, I grew up in church, so I thought I was a Christian. It's so common for us because as people, in our sin, we compare ourselves to other people. And when we compare ourselves to other people, we will always think that we're better. There's always somebody that we can compare ourselves to, where we can look down on them, and that would make us feel good about ourselves. See, when I compare myself to the holiness of God, then I will see that I don't deserve his grace. I don't deserve his goodness. How could I bring anything to a sinless God? How can I show him anything that he would then look at and then pardon me from all my sin because of all the little good things that I have done. And this is a real problem for us. This is a real problem for people that are in church, because we might walk in here today thinking that, well, there's something that I can show God or bring to God. I might think today that I have in myself this innate goodness, my own righteousness, that I somehow earned favor with God. You see, that's not what Psalm 145 talks about. In verse 18, David says that all those who come to him in truth, those of us who come to him in truth, he will say, and the truthfulness about us is that there's nothing that we can bring to God. There's no sort of righteousness that we have in and of ourselves. God has to wash us. God has to cleanse us. Have we taken time? When was the last time that we worshipped God for saving us? Can we meditate on that this week? Can we think about how God has not only withheld his judgment, but now he's given us his righteousness that Jesus would come down, that he would, in love, die and shed his blood for us because we have sinned against him.
See, the Bible has a lot to say about who God is. The Bible also has a lot to say about who we are. Here are some of the things that the Bible says about us. In Ephesians, chapter 2, it talks about how we are dead in sin. Dead people can't do anything. Dead people can't bring any goodness to God. We are dead in our sins. It also says that we are children of wrath, like, by nature, God's wrath is on us, because, by nature, we are sinful. It says in Ephesians, chapter 4, verse 18, that we are separated from God, that we're not born Christians. We're not born righteous. We're not born good. We're actually separated from God because he is holy. You see, in the book of Genesis, before Adam sinned, it says that God walked with Adam in the cool of the day, but as soon as Adam sinned, well, now there's this separation. Why? Because of sin, God is holy, and we are sinful. See, Ephesians 4 calls us separated. In 1 John 1, it says that we are sinful. Right? And if we say we don't have sin, well, then we're liars.
The Bible describes people like us as sinners. Isaiah 56 talks about how we have gone astray. We are people that are lost. We're astray. John, chapter 3, verse 20 talks about how we are lovers of darkness and workers of evil. 1 Corinthians 2:14 tells us that we are unable to understand spiritual things. That the reason why I can come to God, and the reason why I can understand his Word, the reason why I can put my faith in him and believe upon him and call upon him is because God, he's opening my eyes. You see, apart from him, I can't understand spiritual things. 2 Corinthians 4:4 says that I'm blind, that in my sin, I am a blind person, that I can't see the goodness of God. Romans 6, verse 16 says that we are slaves to our sin and that we obey our masters. Romans, chapter three, verse 10 says that we do not seek God. Romans, chapter 5, verse 10 says that we are enemies of God. Romans, chapter 5, verse 18 says that we are condemned. This is the way that the Bible describes us.
And you see, maybe the reason why we're not giving thanks to God, maybe we're not worshiping and praising God, is number one, because we have pride in thinking that we've done something, and we've earned our own righteousness. We're not seeing that this is who we are before God, that we're spiritually bankrupt, that there's nothing that I have to bring to God, that I am a dead sinner, that I can't see the marvelous light of God unless he opens my eyes. So maybe some of us, maybe we have put our faith in Christ, and we have been saved, but we've forgotten. We're not thinking, we're not meditating on the goodness of God in our salvation. And so, now we’re kind of just going through our Christian life, and we might start getting puffed up into thinking that we have good things that we can bring before God, apart from him. Maybe some of us have forgotten our own testimony. Have forgotten who we were before we came to Christ, and that's why we're not full of Thanksgiving this week.
In Isaiah, chapter 64, verse 6, it says that our best works are like polluted garments. They're like filthy rags. And every time I hear that, for some reason, I think of a mechanic, because this week I’ve got some car issues. I’ve got to take my cars into the shop, and I've got to get some oil changes and some other work done. And whenever I think of this, for some reason, I just think of that oil, greasy rag, you know, not the actual mechanic, right? The rag, and the rag they use, the tool that they're using, right? And as they're changing out my oil, and they're fixing my car, well, on that rag, all this grease, and they got all this oil. I mean, imagine if they're taking that greasy, oily rag, and now they're going into the inside of my car, and they're starting to wipe down the dashboard, and they're cleaning off the steering wheel, and they're wiping off the seats and all the kids’ car seats in the back, they start doing that all over my one year old's car seat, to start cleaning it up. I mean, what's going to happen to my car? It's not going to be clean if there's oil all over it, there's grease all over it. Some of us, were coming to God, and we're saying, hey God, look at all these good things I'm doing for you. We have to see that apart from God, we can do nothing, that apart from God, our best works are filthy rags.
You see, before Christ, when I'm trying to come to God, there's nothing good that I can present to God. See, God, in his goodness, when he saves us, well now he empowers us. John 15 talks about when I'm connected to Christ, well, then I will do great things. Why? Because I'm getting that energy from God. See, God is using me now to do good works for him, whereas before, I'm just coming and saying, hey, look at all these good things that I have for you, God. God is not impressed with those things. You see, maybe some of us need to admit here today that I have never admitted that I need God, that I've never admitted that I am spiritually bankrupt before God, that I've always thought that I've obtained my own righteousness. See, God, he's not impressed with our good works. And this is something that happens in churches all of the time. We always have to be reminded. We have to constantly be thinking that the only reason why I am good, the reason why I can be declared righteous, is because Jesus paid it all, and I want to worship him for that this week.
Go with me to the book of Galatians. A couple weeks ago, I got to go and preach in The Press, and The Press is a ministry for anyone who's out of college and not married. And Pastor Josh has been leading The Press now since he's been here, and he's about to go off to Long Beach. And so, I have the great honor of taking over The Press and overseeing that ministry. And so, if you're out of college and not married, we'd love to have you come and join us in January. And I got to preach on Galatians, chapter 4 in The Press a couple weeks ago, and in Galatians, it's talking to these people who Paul came and he preached the gospel to these people, and then now he's coming back, because these Judaizers have come in, and they're starting to bring in this idea of being under the Law. They're talking about works of the Law. And these people in Galatia, they're starting to believe it, and they're thinking, okay, now I have to do all these good works to save me. And Paul's coming, and he's pleading with them. He's like, who bewitched you? Why? And he goes after these false teachers, and he's really going hard on them. And he says this in Galatians 4:1, as he's talking to the people that he says later on in the chapter, how he loves them like a mother, how he cares for them. He says, in verse 1, he says, “I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything.” But he is under the guardians and managers until the date set by his father. In the same way, we also were children, we were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, when God sent Jesus, his Son, born of woman, born under the Law, to redeem those who were under the Law so that we might receive adoption as sons and because, and because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of the Son into our hearts, crying, Abba Father. So you are no longer slaves, but a son. And if a son, then an heir, through God. See, God is saying that when we were under the elementary principles of the world, we were enslaved to our sin. But here now God, he has adopted us. He has brought us into his family. This is something that God does. This is something that God deserves credit for and glory for, that they're thinking, hey, I need to go under the works of the Law, and I need to do these good things to obtain righteousness. He's saying, no, God, he's the one who adopted you into his family. God is the one who's bestowing upon you all the richness, all the inheritance that he has. In Ephesians, chapter 1, it talks about how we have every spiritual thing in the heavenly places, everything that God has; his kingdom, all of his goodness, it's now being given to us because he has decided to adopt us and to give us his inheritance. Look what it goes on to say in verse 8, it says, “Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that, by nature, are not gods, but now that you have come to know God,” or rather to be known by God, “how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world?” Whose slaves do you want to be once more. Hey, now that you know the goodness of God, now that you know the gospel, now that you know that God shed his blood, that you would be saved, why are you then turning back to this false way of thinking where you're going to put yourself under the Law, under the elementary principles of the world? Why would you put yourself under that. Why would you start thinking that in your goodness you can obtain righteousness? Why would you think that in your goodness that you can show God something that he would be bewildered by, that he would say, wow, look at these people. They're so great. They're so awesome. No, God, he's saying that I've adopted you. I haven't changed. Why are you going back to being slaves?
And we had this guy come to our church a little while back, and it was so cool to meet this guy, because, when I first met him, he and his wife, he was talking about how he had come out of a false teaching, a false church, and he just started sharing that about how he's learning about Jesus, and how he's realizing for the first time that Jesus is God. And see, he grew up in a church that was teaching that Jesus wasn't God, but he was a god. And so, this guy, he's sharing with me, it's so cool to see and to learn that Jesus is God and that church actually kicked him out of their church because he started learning all these things about who Jesus is. And so, this guy, he's up joining our fellowship group, and we start really caring about him and his wife, and we start talking about who Jesus is, and we're sharing the things that we're learning about God. And you can see it's like, wow, these light bulbs are just going off in this guy's head. And it's so encouraging to be around this person. And then shortly after he moves back to where he was, and instead of going back to the religion he was a part of, he actually went to a different religion. And the religion he went from was a religion of works, the religion that he went to was a religion of works.
See, if you're sitting here today and you're like, oh yeah, I know that Jesus saved me, oh yeah, I know that I can't bring any righteousness before God. Well, then you should consider yourself very blessed, because what other religion is going to tell you that by faith, through grace alone we are saved. See, I have multiple groups of people knocking on my door throughout the year, multiple groups of people that come into my house and they knock on my door. They're very kind, they're very friendly, but every single one of them has something in common. They're all trying to tell me that I have to do good things in order to be saved. They're saying, yeah, hey, Jesus died for us. They're agreeing, oh, yeah, he rose again so that we can have life. But if you start asking a few question, it's like, if I don't get baptized, or if I don't do certain things, well, then I can't be saved. You see so many people all around us, we're not coming and thinking that it's only through Jesus that we can be saved. We're actually thinking that there's works that I have to do, plus Jesus, like Jesus gets me halfway and then I’ve got to go the rest of the way.
We’ve got to be so clear about that here this morning. The only reason why we can be saved is because Jesus paid it all. Because Jesus gives us his righteousness, that he declares us legally righteous before a holy God, and that is a reason for us to give thanks. Look what it says in Galatians 5:1-3. It says, “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law.” Hey, if you want to try to earn God's favor, if you think that getting baptized will save you, well, then you have to now keep the entire Law. He says in verse 4, “You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law, you have fallen away from grace.” If I'm trying to do something to earn God's favor, it says that I'm cut off from the grace of God. And so, as people of God, who understand who we've put our faith in God, if we have called upon him, we’ve got to say this morning, that because God decided, in his goodness, to step into humanity. He put on human form, and he came and gave us his life.
And how should we respond? How should we respond as a people? Let's go to the Gospel of Luke. Luke, chapter 17. In this chapter, Jesus is going around, and he's doing miracles and people have heard about Jesus. They've heard his fame and so we have these ten lepers here that are here that Jesus is walking by, and they start calling out to Jesus. And it says in Luke, chapter 17, verse 11, “On the way to Jerusalem, Jesus, he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee, and as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices, saying,” I mean, you just hear the cry of these men, of these people as this disease is eating their flesh, as they're in torment. They're saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” Jesus, will you help us? Will you save us? “When he saw them, he said to them, ‘Go and show yourself to the priest.’ And as they went, they were cleansed.” Can you imagine being in such torment physically that you see the only chance for you to live is walking by? What kind of response would you have? Would you just kind of sit there, excuse me? Or would you cry out, oh, God, have mercy on me? Help me see. That's what many of us have done in our sin, when we recognize that we are dead, separated enemies of God. Well, that leads us to crying out to God, oh, God, will you help me? Will you have mercy on me? Will you save me, God? And these men, they cry out to God, and Jesus answers them, because Jesus is love. He's compassionate, and he heals these guys, and it says in verse 15, “Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, he turned back, praising God with a loud voice, and he fell on his face at Jesus's feet, giving thanks to him.” Oh Jesus, thank you for saving me. Thank you for healing me. He's worshiping God. He's praising him because of what Jesus has done. And Jesus answered and said to him, Hey, you're welcome. Have a great day. Look what Jesus says. Here. “Were not ten of you cleansed? Where are the nine?”
See, if we have received God's grace, we should be thanking Jesus. Shouldn't be continuing to live and just thinking, oh yeah, that was something that he did a long time ago. Now, you see, we want to give thanks to the Lord for who he is and for what he has done, and the greatest thing that he has done is that he has saved us from our sin. This week, as we're gathering around tables, as we're eating meals, as we're sharing things that we're giving thanks for, a lot of people are giving thanks for, for family or for a good job or a career or money, and those are all gifts from God. We know that every good gift comes from the Father. It comes from above. We should give God thanks for those things. But who here this week is going to stand up and say, thank you, God, for saving me? The greatest gift that you've given to me is my salvation. And the more that I meditate on that, the more that I grow in that, the more thankful I am for that is not old news to me. It's great. It's my entire life. It's who I am. And this week, we're going to be gathering around tables. We're going to be eating dinner. But there is a dinner that happened long ago. We call it The Last Supper, and it was the night before Jesus died. And he had dinner with his disciples, and he broke bread with them, and he gave it to them as a symbol to show what he was about to do on the cross for our sin.
As we get ready to take communion, let's actually go to 1 Corinthians, chapter 11, because this is what Paul has to say about communion. It says in 1 Corinthians, chapter 11. This is the night before Jesus died. This is verse 23. And God, he says, “For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you that the Lord Jesus, on the night when he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body, which is for you do this in remembrance of me.’” That word right there, to give thanks. It's that word Eucharisteo. It's the word we get Eucharist from a lot of us have heard that word. It's this word to give thanks, that I'm going to give thanks to God as I remember what he did for me. Verse 25 in the same way, “Also he took the cup after supper, saying, ‘ This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat of this bread and drink of this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.” You see, right now, we want to take a minute, and we want to thank Jesus by remembering how he poured out his body, how he poured out his blood, so that we as sinners could be saved. But if there's anyone in here who knows that you're still trying to be good on your own strength, if anyone in here knows that I don't believe in Jesus, that I have not trusted in him, that I have not turned to him and cried out to him, that I have not repented of my sin, that I'm not a new creation. If you know here today that you have not been saved, well then, hear the words in verse 27. It says, “Whoever therefore eats the bread and drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will bring guilt.” It will be guilty concerning the blood the body and the blood of the Lord. Let each person examine himself, then eat the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill and some have died. If you know that you're not a Christian here this morning, do not take communion. You don't need to remember. You don't need the example of Jesus dying. You need Jesus. And so, in a moment, the band's going to come up and we're going to listen to this song and really going to just spend time thanking Jesus for saving us. This might be a time that we need to examine ourselves to see if we're living in sin while thanking Jesus for saving us for our sin. We need to repent from our sin, and we need to be ready to come and remember what Jesus has done for us. And then I'll come out here after this song, and we'll take communion altogether. But let's pray.
Jesus, we want to say thank you because you are a God who is full of goodness and mercy and grace, Jesus, that you're abounding in steadfast love. And Jesus, we want to thank you that your body was broken for us; God, we want to thank you that Your blood was shed for us. And Jesus, as we come before you this morning, as we consider, as we remember, the great and awesome works that you have done, the great work that you have done when you stepped into time, and you put on human flesh, and you humbled yourself, and you were born in the likeness of man. And you lived a perfect, holy life that we all needed to live. And you died the death that we deserve, and you rose from the dead so that you can give us eternal life. Jesus, as we come into your presence this morning, I pray that we would be full of thanksgiving because of the great work that you have done, that although we were dead in our sin, although we were children of wrath, that we were enemies of God, that you decided, in your kindness, to adopt us. Jesus, we want to say thank you this morning for how good you have been. So God, we want to praise you and we thank you.