TRANSFORMING GRATITUDE: GRATEFUL PRAISE

Happy Thanksgiving week! At St. Johns, we want to emphasize the power of gratitude and giving thanks.  We are losing the celebration of Thanksgiving in our society.  The marketing wants us to spend more for Christmas, so Thanksgiving Day is simply a prelude to Black Friday.  Yet, there also seems to be a genuine loss of being thankful in our society and world.  The messages in the marketplace are often about caustic consumption: want, need, desire, entitlement, and self-focus! Unfortunately, despair grows abundantly in the corrosive soil of ungratefulness!  The purpose of our series, Transforming Gratitude, is to fertilize the seeds of gratitude so that they will grow into a towering forest of faith, hope, and love! The last sermon in this series is Grateful Praise, and it is based on Psalm 100.  This Psalm is only 5 verses, but it is packed with the power of gratitude.  It is a joy to read and recite, but it also gives us some important insight into bringing praise into our lives that will bring victory out of defeat, joy out of sorrow, and hope out of the darkness of despair.  If we pay attention to this guidance, it will help us find a living water in the driest wilderness.  We pray that you will sense the celebration, joy, and powerful praise in this little Psalm, and that as you read it, the Holy Spirit fills you to overflowing with the glorious presence of the Almighty Shepherd. 

Psalm 100 (NIV): ​

¹Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth. ² Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. ³ 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. ⁴ Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. ⁵ For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.