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[0:00] This is the First Mustang Pulpit Podcast, a podcast of the weekly preaching and teaching at First Mustang.! Thank you for joining us. Psalm 100. Let me just say as we begin Psalm 100 this morning that Jeff has already read to us, that I am thankful for you as a church. Psalm 100 is all about thanksgiving, and by being in this text the last number of days, it's just made my heart immensely thankful for you as a church, as a family, as a congregation. I'm thankful that you love His Word. I'm thankful that as a church, you love the Bible and care about it, that you see it as our authority, as our standard.

[0:49] I love that you come to church each Lord's Day with a hunger to study, with an expectation to be fed His Word. I love that you care about the things that the Lord cares about.

[1:05] I'm thankful as a church that you serve and sacrifice and give the way that you do. For so many who are part of our church, week after week after week, you find ways to use your spiritual gifts to bless others. For those of you who teach, for those of you who pray, for those of you who sing, for those of you who are faithful in evangelism, for those of you who encourage so many different ways that you're able to express your spiritual gifts, and I'm so thankful for that. Every Sunday is a reminder that it takes all of us for us to be the church that God has called and designed us to be, and I'm just thankful for the way that you do that. I'm thankful for the way that you give, for the way that you love and believe in what God is doing. Because you give, our church is able to take the gospel to the neighborhoods here in our own city and around the nations and around the world.

[2:09] Because you give, we are able to not only have ministry at this local church, but we are able to be a part of providing ministry to churches and missionaries and church planters and seminaries all across the globe. That happens because you give and you do it joyfully and you do it generously, and I'm so thankful that you do. I'm thankful that you are a church that loves biblical unity. There's a false unity. False unity is where you don't believe anything and just say nothing. That's not the kind of unity we enjoy. Ephesians 4 calls us to a unity of the faith. The kind of unity that comes because we believe God's word. And I'm grateful that I get to be a member of a church that enjoys unity because you care about it and protect the unity the Lord has given to us. I'm thankful as a church that you don't get discouraged or distracted by silly things. Our church is not a place of infighting. Our church is not a place where people fight for position or recognition. And I'm so thankful that that's true. And this week, I've just been thinking day after day after day about all the many things that I'm so thankful for about you as a church, you as a people, and about what I as a member of this church enjoy because of what God has given to us and done for us here in this place. And we recognize that as James 1 17 says, every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of heavenly lights who does not change like shifting shadows. Every blessing we enjoy, every reason for which we have to be thankful ultimately has been given to us by God.

[4:08] And it's fitting and right that we would be thankful for the good things the Lord has done for us and the good things the Lord has given to us. Psalm 100 gives us in these five brief verses a way not only to think about our thankfulness, but also reminds us of the foundation of our thankfulness.

[4:38] As we look through these five verses that Jeff read for us a moment ago, let's look at it with a few words to write down to help catch the flow of this psalm. Number one, write down the word reverence.

[4:52] Verse one and two, make a joyful noise to the Lord all the earth and serve the Lord with the gladness and come into His presence with singing. That opening phrase to make a joyful noise to the Lord speaks of greeting a king, king. This is why we think of worship as with a heart of reverence because we are worshiping the king of kings. We don't we don't enter into our time of worship. We don't enter into the presence of the king thoughtlessly. We do it reverently. We do it with our heart and our mind fully engaged. This is a triumphant declaration that the God we serve is the very king of all kings. Our worship is with our heart and our worship is vocal. It makes sound. The psalms that we read here is the way that the people in the Old Testament would give voice to their worship, give voice to their exuberance.

[6:02] God deserves to be worshipped in all the earth. Look at verse one again, make a joyful noise to the Lord all the earth. Our God is a God who is rightly worshipped all over the earth.

[6:16] Everywhere you go on this planet is a place where his glory fills the earth, where he rules over all things and has the right to be worshipped in spirit and in truth.

[6:35] It's fitting for us to join together and to remind ourselves that we make a joyful noise. We make an exuberant expression to the Lord because of who he is.

[6:50] Verse two tells us to serve the Lord with gladness. You can think of serving here in the fullness of our worship. We worship the Lord with gladness.

[7:03] We serve him. We worship him. That means our singing, our study, our fellowship, our prayer, our giving, using our spiritual gifts. Every way that we worship the Lord, we do that in front of him with gladness.

[7:20] This is important for us to remember that if we are to be an obedient people, then everything we do in this place, and not only in this place for sure, but everything we do in this place is to be done joyfully.

[7:34] That we don't do things begrudgingly. We don't do things because we just feel like we have to. We worship with gladness because it's the desire of our heart to do these things.

[7:47] This is not a call merely to sing. It's to sing with joy. We're not just simply to give or to give with joy. We don't simply teach Sunday school. We teach with joy.

[7:59] We don't just fellowship with each other because we have to. We fellowship with joy. We serve each other with joy. If joy is not marking your worship, something is wrong.

[8:14] And what inevitably will happen is there will be people who will try to do the things that we're supposed to do without the heart and motive with which it's supposed to spring from, and that will inevitably lead you to feel weary.

[8:33] Heartless worship will leave you dry. Joyless worship is an oxymoron in and of itself because our joy, if it is biblical, is rooted in the Lord, and because of who He is, we have joy, and the expression of that joy comes out as we serve the Lord with gladness.

[9:00] We should be a people that are serving, yes, but serving with joy, eagerly anticipating gathering with God's people. If in your own heart you don't look forward to the Lord's Day each Sunday, begin to pray through that.

[9:20] Because we don't want you simply coming here because you feel like you have to. We don't want you simply coming on Sunday because of tradition. We don't want you simply coming on Sunday because your parents or your spouse or your children beg you to.

[9:33] We want this to be the joyful expression where you get to gather with believers of all ages to express your love for God, for who He is.

[9:45] And that should be a joyful thing for us. It's not that every week is easy. We know that. It's not that every Sunday is a simple thing to worship.

[9:57] Sometimes we sing with a broken heart. Sometimes we worship and study with burdens on our mind, for sure, because we're real people in a real world.

[10:08] But there should be a sense of joy that compels us to long to be here. Now, I don't want to say this in any way in a way that makes you feel guilty.

[10:20] I want to say this in a way that helps you to understand what God has for you. If you can miss church on Sunday and not miss being here, something is wrong.

[10:36] There are things that come up and you're sick and you travel and you're on vacation or you've got business. There's things that we're not being legalistic that you can't ever miss a Sunday. I'm just simply saying this. If you cannot be here and not miss it, something's wrong.

[10:54] And if that's you, I just want to speak honestly to you and just say, understand that in Scripture, the call and the command to worship the Lord is something to produce joy in your life and to produce gladness in your life.

[11:09] And that's right at the very beginning of the psalm. Make a joyful noise to the Lord all the earth and serve the Lord with gladness. This is the emotion that should be attached to our praise, joy and gladness.

[11:23] And if that's not what you experience as you gather here to call upon the name of the Lord, let me just encourage you not to ignore that, but to pray through that and to ask the Lord, as Psalm 51 says, to restore to me the joy of your salvation.

[11:42] There's a joy and a gladness as we serve. Let me just add, for those of you who have kids at your home, make the worship of God a joyful thing.

[11:58] That needs to be true in your home. As together in times of family worship, you joyfully spend time in prayer and joyfully spend time in the Word.

[12:10] And those of you that have little ones at home, make the Lord's Day a joyful day for your family. Mom and dad, one of the greatest gifts you can give your children is the consistent assurance that they never wonder what they're going to do on Sunday morning.

[12:35] They just know. Sunday's the Lord's Day. And we go to church to worship. It will help them know on Saturday night what they're doing the next morning.

[12:52] It'll help them to wake up on Sunday to know what they're doing that morning. And as a family, do whatever you can to make sure your Sunday mornings, as much as possible, aren't rushed and hurried and stressful.

[13:06] I understand things happen. I understand that it can be sometimes a challenge just to be here. I get that. I just want you as parents to give your children the gift, the gift of knowing that in your home, the Lord's Day is a priority.

[13:24] It's protected. It's revered. It's a joyful privilege to get to come and to worship. If we don't give our children that, then we're communicating to them that going to church is a bit of a disruption.

[13:43] That it's something that we're just kind of forced to fit in every once in a while. Don't rob your children of the joy and the gladness that worship is intended to be.

[14:00] This takes intentionality. This takes consistency. I'm not pretending that you and your children get up on Sunday morning singing holy, holy, holy right off the bat.

[14:11] Sometimes we've got to get our hearts ready. I get that. But moms and dads, let the Lord's Day be a day of joy and a day of gladness.

[14:26] In the Old Testament, they worshiped on the Sabbath on Saturday. In the New Testament, Jesus rose on the Lord's Day, the first day of the week. And the church began to worship on Sunday because of the resurrection, the Lord's Day.

[14:41] And every day we gather in this place on a Sunday morning, we do so on Sunday as a reminder that Jesus died for us and He rose again.

[14:54] Amen? That's what gives us joy. Not because your work week was easy. Not because school was always fun. Not because everything went your way.

[15:05] But because the tomb is empty. That's why we worship on the Lord's Day. And in that alone, there should be joy and gladness that should compel us to long to be here with God's people.

[15:22] Verse 2, come into His presence with singing. And we looked at this last Sunday. In fact, the entire Sunday message from Ephesians 5 last week was just on the blessing and the gift of congregational singing.

[15:37] This is one of God's gifts to His people. And I just want to say again to you, people who are faithful to the Lord and obedient to His Word are a singing people.

[15:48] So just to make sure that we don't just say things without believing them, let me just ask you this morning, did you come into His presence with singing?

[16:08] Our congregation did. But did you? Did you? Did you lift up your voice?

[16:21] And if you say to yourself, but I'm not a singer, the Lord knows the gifts He's given you and the talents He's withheld from you, and yet it is His call to all of us to sing to the Lord.

[16:36] If this morning you watched and listened as everybody else were singing and you did not participate and you think to yourself, well, that's my choice. This is just I can sing or I cannot sing.

[16:49] In one sense that's true, but you can't be pleasing to God and not obey His Word. And you may say, well, that's such a small thing. Who cares if I sing or not?

[17:00] I have an answer for you. You know the answer. He does. Think about that. He delights in hearing His people sing.

[17:15] Now that's a great privilege to me because God is the only person in the universe who's delighted when I sing. That may not be true for you.

[17:26] That is absolutely true for me. I've never had anyone hear me sing and ask for more, ever. I've never had anyone hear me sing and say that's so good.

[17:39] But the Lord delights when I sing. So you don't like my voice, but God does. Deal with it, alright? Come into His presence with singing. Do you realize that on a Sunday morning or any time, not just any time, the church gathers for worship and we sing, we're doing that because God's called us to.

[18:03] And to not do it is to grow comfortable dishonoring God. The people who love the Lord and love His Word, one of the ways it gets expressed is by joyful, glad singing.

[18:27] Write down a second word. It's the word relationship. Verse 3, know that the Lord, He is God. I want you to make this connection here.

[18:38] Our worship, our singing, our expressing of our worship, verses 1 and 2, is built on knowledge. Verse 3, know, know that the Lord, He is God.

[18:53] This carries the idea that we understand. The word here to know is to perceive and to understand. We are to know something.

[19:05] This isn't mindless worship. This isn't mindless singing. This is to know truth. Know who He is. Mark 12 reminds us that we are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, and mind.

[19:21] We sing because we know things. We serve because we know things. Namely, verse 3, we know He is God.

[19:34] This is the confession of our heart, verse 3, that the Lord, He is God. And the knowledge we have should not make us cold or lifeless or passionless.

[19:52] Remember in verse 1, it's a joyful noise. It's serving with gladness. The knowledge you have in verse 3 produces the joy you express in verse 1, which means knowledge and joy are perfectly linked together.

[20:17] Knowledge and joy. This is so important for us as a congregation to remember because whether it's Sunday school or a discipleship group or a Sunday morning worship service sermon, whether it's the Men's Institute, whether it's Ladies Night of Theology, whether it's youth on Wednesday night with Elevate, whatever the ministry is, we're doing our very best to train you in the knowledge of the Word.

[20:48] We want everything to be biblical, everything to be Word-centered. Why? Because true worship comes from what you know, know that the Lord, He is God.

[21:00] But that knowledge that we have produces in the heart of a true follower of God a joy that must be expressed.

[21:14] It must be expressed. So we know the Lord, verse 3, we sing joyfully, verse 2, meaning as we understand His character, that's what drives us to praise.

[21:35] So make note of this. This is so important for us to understand in our worship. Verses 1 and 2 call for us to feel something. Joy, gladness, that's what we feel.

[21:47] It calls us to do something, serve, and sing. Then verse 3 calls us to know something.

[22:00] And that is who God is. The Christian life we are called to live is what we feel and do and know.

[22:11] And my friends, if any one of those three things is missing, we've missed it. If you say you have knowledge but no service, then that knowledge just puffs up.

[22:34] If you say I have joy but I have no knowledge, then you're just happy about a God you don't know. If you say I serve but I have no joy, then we're serving with the wrong motive.

[22:51] Psalm 100 makes it so clear for us that there are things we should feel, there are things we should do, and there are things we should know, and all of them together produce exactly what honors the Lord, namely the worship of His people.

[23:11] So when we gather in this place, we come in here to study with an open Bible because we want to know Him. And then we want to take what we know and apply it and that means we want to go and do what He's called us to do.

[23:28] That's the serving, that's the singing, and as we serve and sing and bless the heart of God and bless our church family that creates within us this sense of a way to express the joy and the gladness that we have.

[23:44] So let me just say this, if you're missing any of those three things, what you feel, what you do, and what you know, don't take that lightly because that should be true for all of us who are followers of the Lord.

[24:05] If one of those three things is missing, begin to pray through that in your heart with the Lord. Lord, help me to have a greater knowledge. Help me to spend more time in Your Word that I can know You better.

[24:18] Lord, I know Your Word, but help me to serve joyfully. Help me to live out what I'm learning in a more faithful way. Or Lord, I know Your Word and I'm even serving others, but I don't have a sense of joy and gladness.

[24:34] Lord, would You give me joy as I serve other people and serve You? This is the way that God's people are called to worship. Not a cold, lifeless, boring way of worship and living, but a devoted, deep, sincere, authentic, joy-filled, glad way of saying, God, I know Your Word and I'm obeying Your Word and as I do that, there is joy and gladness in my heart.

[25:12] Not because everything is easy, not because everything goes my way, but because You are God and because You are, there's a reason for me to joyfully serve God's people and to worship You and to come into Your presence with singing.

[25:30] My prayer and my longing for each and every one of you would be that you would know something that's true from God's Word, do something that's right from God's Word, and feel something that's joyful as you live out what He has taught us.

[25:48] The psalmist makes this so clear. we do and we feel because, verse 3, of who we know.

[26:01] Know the Lord, He is God. Keep looking at verse 3 with me. It is He who made us and we are His. We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. This speaks of relationships.

[26:14] So, note these two things. He made us, that means He's our sovereign, and He cares for us, that means He's our shepherd. If you're looking for reasons for it to be joyful today, if you need something to take your heart and remind you of a reason you have to be joyful, here it is.

[26:35] God is our sovereign and He is our shepherd. He is the one with all the power and yet the one with all the power is the shepherd of your daily life.

[26:46] These are the two things that comfort my soul every single day. That I know who the sovereign is. This world's not going to spin out of control because God is sovereign.

[27:01] It is knowing the sovereign God of who He is that gives my heart security. However, it's knowing that He is my shepherd that provides me my daily needs.

[27:20] Our God is sovereign and our God is our shepherd. He is the God with all the power and He is the God who is always near.

[27:34] And so, if you would, in honesty, would say to me today, Pastor, I'm singing and I'm serving but I don't really have much to be joyful for. Let me remind you, if you're His, the God who saved you is the God with all the power and who daily is right with you.

[28:02] You have reason to be joyful. You have reason to be glad. And you have a song to sing. In the New Testament, of course, Jesus identifies Himself as the good shepherd.

[28:18] He says He's not a hireling. He's not just there for a job. He's giving His life as the shepherd for His own. And of course, it's Christ who lays down His life for the sheep that in His death we would find our life.

[28:38] So, in Psalm 100, the psalmist says, the Lord has made us. In Christ, He has redeemed us. We are His people and have every reason to joyfully serve Him.

[28:52] So, you understand with me, friends, that if you don't, if you're not living your life with a sense of joy, it's not first about your circumstances, it's first about your theology.

[29:12] Your joy springs from what you know. So, if you don't know who God is, then your joy is going to be easily taken from you.

[29:26] If you don't know the promises of His Word, then you're going to be easily shaken. But if you know who our God is, if your faith is rooted not in an emotion, but in a relationship, then that knowledge is going to spring forth from you the emotion of joy and gladness, not because of circumstances, but because of who God is.

[29:59] This is why you fight for joy with what you know to be true about God. God. Let me give you a third word from verse 4.

[30:10] It's the word response. There is a response for us. The things that we know produces a response. Verse 4, enter His gates with thanksgiving, His courts with praise, and give thanks to Him.

[30:25] Bless His name. In the Old Testament, of course, they would go to the temple to worship. In the New Covenant, we recognize that we are blessed to be able to have direct access to the Lord, and we can worship Him any time.

[30:42] Yet, in the book of Hebrews, for one, it reminds us that we are to never forsake assembling together, and our response to who God is is what drives us to be here each Lord's Day.

[30:58] Why did you come this morning? I hope, I hope you came today because you thought to yourself, this is the Lord's Day.

[31:09] The tomb is empty. And the reason why there's a tomb that Christ was laid in is because He died on the cross. And the reason He died on the cross is because He was paying for our sin.

[31:21] And the reason why He was paying for our sin is because I'm a sinner deserving of death. But in Christ, my sin has been forgiven, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ is what shows that that debt was paid in full, which means as a believer, I have nothing to dread and nothing to fear.

[31:43] That's why we come on Sunday to worship. That's what compels us to be here. That's why you're teaching Awana. That's why you're teaching Sunday school. That's why you sing in the choir.

[31:54] That's why you're a greeter. That's why you share the gospel. That's why you give your offerings to the Lord. That's why. Because we have nothing to fear and nothing to dread, and the gospel that has saved your soul is so alive within your heart that you want the neighborhoods and the nations to hear this glorious truth.

[32:17] That's our response. And notice, as some have already pointed out in other places and helpfully so, verses 1 and 2 speaks of joyful acts, making a joyful noise, serving the Lord, singing, those are our joyful acts.

[32:40] Verse 3, our things to know. Know that He is God. Know that He made us. Know that we are His people. Verse 4, another joyful act.

[32:53] Enter His gates with thanksgiving. Give Him praise. Give Him thanks. Verse 5, something else to know, that the Lord is good.

[33:03] And so what you have in Psalm 100 is this intermingling of knowledge and response, doctrine and obedience, truth and joy.

[33:16] there is no way to truly know God and not know the joy of His salvation.

[33:27] Not if we're walking in obedience with Him. I can give you one last word in verse 5. It's the word reason. The reason for our joy, the reason for our singing, the reason for our gladness, verse 5, for the Lord is good.

[33:47] This to me is one of the most important, crucial aspects of the entire Scripture right here. Verse 5, with this one connecting word.

[33:58] For the Lord is good. You could translate it because. Same idea. Look at this in verse 4. Enter His gates with thanksgiving.

[34:10] So be thankful. His courts with praise. So we're giving Him praise. Give thanks to His name. There's thanksgiving again. Bless His name.

[34:21] Now just stop. Why? Why be thankful? Why be joyful? Why the praise? Why the thanksgiving? The way you answer that question will determine everything about how you worship.

[34:40] Everything. If you say, I give Him praise and I sing and I'm thankful and I'm joyful because I got the job.

[34:57] Because my family is all healthy. because my problem went away.

[35:10] If that's how you view worship, circumstances will always drive your joy. And you are one heartache away from losing all your joy.

[35:28] That's not what the text says. enter His gates with thanksgiving. Verse 4. His courts with praise. Give thanks to His name or give thanks to Him.

[35:41] Bless His name because here's the reason. Here's the foundation. The Lord is good. Not about circumstances.

[35:54] Not about health. Not about relationships with people. Not about finances. Not about your job. The reason for your joy.

[36:06] The reason for your gratitude. The reason for your worship verse 5. Because the Lord is good. Which means friends, as long as verse 5 is true, verse 4 must be true for you.

[36:24] As long as God is good, you should be joyful. The problem is for so many people, the answer to the because is circumstantial.

[36:40] I'll sing, I'll give, I'll worship, I'll teach, I'll serve, I'll have joy if things work out.

[36:59] But that's not the biblical reason for our joy. The reason for our joy is grounded and rooted in this truth, our God is good.

[37:15] Brothers and sisters, this will revolutionize your life. This will revolutionize your worship. Our worship is never in response to our circumstance. It's in response to His goodness.

[37:30] He is loving, He is kind, He is merciful, He is gentle, He is faithful. Look at the end of verse five, His steadfast love endures forever.

[37:46] That's where your joy comes from. Not your job, not your health, not your boyfriend, not your retirement, not your favorite team winning, not your best friend moving home, not your boss recognizing your work.

[38:09] All those things are good and fine of themselves. None of those things can be the reason for your joy because if there's a reason for your joy, then when one of those things changes, your joy is gone.

[38:21] Here's where our joy comes from. The Lord is good and His steadfast love endures forever, which means, watch this.

[38:33] If you believe the word of God, what this tells us is the source of our joy is unending because the source of our joy is God who is eternal and His love that endures forever.

[38:50] This is why you have unending worship in heaven, because you have unending joy in heaven, because you have an unending love of God to His people forever and forever.

[39:05] This is so far away from man-centered worship, emotionalism, shallow.

[39:16] This is so far removed from what most people in our world consider to be worship and joy. This is a worship rooted in the character, in the nature, in the goodness, and the love of God that endures forever and forever.

[39:34] So when someone asks you, how can you have joy at a time like this? How can you have joy with what you're going through? How can you have joy with the pain and loss you're experiencing?

[39:46] Here's your answer, because my joy is rooted in God and His love that endures forever. And if you believe that, and if you confess that, your heart will long to gather with other people who believe that and to serve and to sing with joy and gladness, not because of circumstances, but because of a God we know.

[40:14] Amen? This is where our joy is rooted. God's and if you don't know this God, then the answer you need today is not to give an offering or not to find a place to serve.

[40:34] If you don't know this God, the answer is found in coming into His presence and asking for forgiveness and for grace, confessing your sin, acknowledging your need for a Savior and asking Him to forgive you.

[40:51] Here's the good news. The Father sent His Son, the Lord Jesus, who lived a perfect, sinless life. He went to a cross to take upon Himself our sin.

[41:02] He suffered in our place. He was laid in the tomb. He was raised back to life on the Lord's day to show that His sacrifice was perfect and He has now said, all who come to me, none will I cast aside.

[41:19] If you would reach out in prayer, in your heart, even this moment, asking Him to forgive you and to be your Lord and Savior, claiming nothing of your goodness and everything of His greatness, the Bible says you shall be saved.

[41:38] And for all who have been saved by grace through faith, you have reason to sing and to serve and to sacrifice because the Lord is good and His steadfast love endures forever.

[41:59] Lord, we thank You for Your Word and pray that You would use it even this morning to give us joy and grace and strength. We pray in Christ's name. Amen.

[42:09] I love you, church family. Look forward to seeing you at 5 o'clock tonight for our evening service. Please be back if you can. God bless you. You're dismissed. On behalf of First Baptist Church of Mustang, we want to thank you for joining us this morning for our live stream broadcast.

[42:30] We are so thankful for the gift of technology and that we are able to reach so many people not only across the state and in our nation but around the world. And what a truly indescribable gift that is.

[42:43] I do want to encourage you, if at all possible, if you are able to be here in person, there is no substitute for gathering with the people of God in person.

[42:54] So we encourage you to be here in person at any one of our services. But once again, if we can help you in any way, please feel free to contact us and we would love to serve you in any way possible.

[43:08] Have a great day. God bless you.

[43:40] God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you.

[43:51] God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. fathers you. Thank you.