Sunday Sermon 11-22-2020: A Time To Magnify

The Old Testament reading is Psalm 100. A Psalm for giving thanks.

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come into his presence with singing.

Know that the Lord, he is God. It is he who made us and we are his.

We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise.

Give thanks to him, bless his name. For the Lord is good, his steadfast love endures forever and his faithfulness to all generations.

New Testament readings in Colossians 3, 12 through 17.

Put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness and patience, bearing with one another.

And if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other as the Lord has given you, has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.

And above all these, put on love which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts to which indeed you were called in one body and be thankful.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

In whatever you do, in word and in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the

Father through him. You may be seated. Well, let's take our

Bibles this morning and let's turn to Psalm 69. Psalm 69.

You follow as I read this Psalm. Our attention will be drawn to verses 30 through 33, but we need to read the whole

Psalm if we want to understand all that's said in these verses. Psalm 69, verse one.

Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in deep mire where there is no foothold.

I have come into deep waters and the flood sweeps over me. I am weary with my crying out.

My throat is parched. My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God. More in number than the hairs of my head are those who hate me without cause.

Mighty are those who would destroy me, those who attack me with lies. What I did not steal, must

I now restore? O God, you know my folly. The wrongs I've done are not hidden from you.

Let not those who hope in you be put to shame through me, O Lord God of hosts. Let not those who seek you be brought to dishonor through me,

O God of Israel. For it is for your sake that I have borne reproach, that dishonor has covered my face.

I have become a stranger to my brothers and alien to my mother's sons. For zeal for your house has consumed me and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.

When I wept and humbled my soul with fasting, it became my reproach. When I made sackcloth my clothing,

I became a byword to them. I am the talk of those who sit in the gate and the drunkards make songs about me.

But as for me, my prayer is to you, O Lord. At an acceptable time, O God, in the abundance of your steadfast love, answer me in your saving faithfulness.

Deliver me from sinking in the mire. Let me be delivered from my enemies and from the deep waters.

Let not the flood sweep over me or the deep swallow me up or the pit close its mouth over me.

Answer me, O Lord, for your steadfast love is good according to your abundant mercy. Turn to me.

Hide not your face from your servant for I am in distress. Make haste to answer me. Draw near to my soul.

Redeem me. Ransom me because of my enemies. You know my reproach and my shame and my dishonor.

My foes are all known to you. Reproaches have broken my heart so that I am in despair.

I looked for pity but there was none and for comforters but I found none. They gave me poison for food and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink.

Let their own table before them become a snare and when they are at peace, let it become a trap.

Let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see and make their loins tremble continually. Pour out your indignation upon them.

Let your burning anger overtake them. May there can't be a desolation. Let no one dwell in their tents for they persecute him whom you have struck down and they recount the pain of those you have wounded.

Add to them punishment upon punishment. May they have no acquittal from you. Let them be blotted out of the book of the living.

Let them not be enrolled among the righteous but I am afflicted and in pain.

Let your salvation, oh God, set me on high. I will praise the name of God with a song.

I will magnify him with thanksgiving. This will please the Lord more than an ox or a bull with horns and hoofs.

When the humble see it, they will be glad. You who seek God, let your hearts revive for the

Lord hears the needy and does not despise his own people who are prisoners.

Let heaven and earth praise him, the seas and everything that moves in them for God will save Zion and build up the cities of Judah and people shall dwell there and possess it.

The offspring of his servants shall inherit it and those who love his name shall dwell in it.

Let's pray. Father, now we pray that you would, by your mercy, by your grace and by your spirit, fold these words that we will look at into our hearts and make them part of our lives.

Help us to think carefully now about thanksgiving. Help us, Lord, to do what this psalm teaches us to do.

Help us not to be satisfied with merely a perfunctory annual thanksgiving to you, but make our lives one of thanksgiving, especially as we consider this in your word.

So help us, Lord, for the glory of your name and our good, in Jesus' name, amen.

The pilgrims came to this land 400 years ago next month,

December of 1620, looking for the religious freedom they could not find in their homeland.

They landed in Massachusetts, a very inhospitable place at the worst time of the year.

The winter of 1620 was terribly, terribly difficult, more difficult than we could possibly imagine because of the 102 people who came on the

Mayflower, less than 50 saw spring. Less than half of them saw the coming spring.

Those who were left labored that year, and in the autumn of 1621, when all the crops were gathered in, they celebrated with a feast.

One of those pilgrims was Edward Winslow, and he wrote about that first feast.

He said this, our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling that we might, after a special manner, rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labors.

The four in one day killed as much fowl as served the company almost a week, at which time, amongst other recreations, we exercised our arms, which meant they went out skeet shooting, right?

Many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest, their greatest king, Massasoit, was some 90 men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five deer, which they brought to the plantation and bestowed on our governor and upon the captain and others.

And although it be not always so plentiful as it was this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty.

Isn't that an amazing thing? You see, the pilgrims turned from pain to praise.

Now, in the psalm before us, you see a man like the pilgrims turning from pain to praise.

He describes the pain he suffered in the first 28 verses of this psalm, as we just read it.

He cries out to God like one stuck in the mud, and the water's starting to come up, first to his ankles, then to his knees, then to his waist.

You have a picture of the waters coming right up to his neck. In fact, that's what he says, right? And he's crying out to God to rescue him before it sweeps over his head.

He's in desperate straits. The powerful people around him have attacked and reproached him, making accusations and portraying him in such ways that even the drunks are composing songs that mock him.

He's terrified that the way he's being pictured is going to bring dishonor on the people of God.

In desperation, he calls out to God for deliverance. He reminds God of his steadfast love and his mercy.

He must have help from God, because in his despair, he cannot find comforters anywhere.

There's no one anywhere around him to comfort him in his distress. Finally, he calls on God to bring down the curses of judgment, a righteous judgment on his enemies.

And then verse 29, he looks up and he says, but I am afflicted and in pain.

Let your salvation, oh God, set me on high. Out of this pain comes a desperate cry for deliverance, and out of that pain comes a desperate cry for justice.

And then, suddenly, in verse 30, he turns to God in thanksgiving.

He turns from pain to praise. How does

God motivate you to praise, to thanksgiving in this song? Well, let's look at our verses.

Verse 30, I will praise the name of God with a song.

I will magnify him with thanksgiving. This will please the Lord more than an ox or a bull with horns and hoofs.

When the humble see it, they will be glad. You who seek God, let your hearts revive, for the

Lord hears the needy and does not despise his own people who are prisoners.

First thing I want to note here is we ought to thank God in our pain. Thank God in your pain.

Do we turn from pain to praise? Do we turn from tragedy to thanksgiving? We thank our

Heavenly Father when things go well, when the table groans under the weight of all the food, the turkey, the mashed potatoes, the gravy, the sweet potatoes, the peas, the corn, the steaming freshly baked bread, and apple and pecan and pumpkin pie.

Man, yeah, it's easy to be thankful then. It's easy to be thankful when we have a steady job with a steady income, when we have a nice place to live and a rather comfortable lifestyle that includes a couple cars, a rider mower, a nicely decorated house, nice furniture, not to mention unlimited streaming and PlayStation 5 on our smart

TVs. Yeah, then it's easy to be thankful. But we live in a broken world with wicked people who make life difficult for us.

Like the psalmist, people whisper about you at work, trying to ruin your reputation. Are you in the mood for thanksgiving then?

Neighbors revile you and they may even take you to court because they're angry about some silly little property thing that's going on.

And it doesn't seem like that would put you in the mood for thanksgiving.

Maybe you've even suffered abuse and thanksgiving itself triggers ugly memories of the past.

Are you in the mood for thanksgiving then? You live in a broken world that brings tragedy.

The baby with the birth defect, the news of the brain tumor you just got, you just received last week, the car accident that took your grandchild two months ago, and this crazy pandemic that's turned the world upside down and now we can't even have thanksgiving like we're used to celebrating it.

In the midst of pain, the psalmist turns to God and starts singing a song of thanksgiving.

In the midst of this pain, he starts singing a song of thanksgiving. Now, songs are so powerful.

They reach our hearts and through the music, they impress upon our hearts powerful lyrics.

This last week, Beck and I have been watching a Ken Burns documentary on country music.

I've never been a fan of country music. It's just never been. But this was rather interesting, rather fascinating.

And I was struck. I was struck by some of the songs.

I never paid attention to these songs, but there's one in particular that struck me, Hank Williams, I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry.

I never paid attention to that song, but this documentary got me. I never thought of these words.

I mean, he writes, hear that lonesome whipperwill. He sounds too blue to fly.

The midnight train is whining low. I'm so lonesome I could cry. Did you ever see a robin weep when leaves begin to die?

That means he's lost the will to live. I'm so lonesome I could cry. Man, those lyrics are powerful, right?

Have you ever seen a whipperwill so blue it wouldn't fly or a robin despairing of life, right?

I mean, that's the sort of thing that just penetrates your heart. And so songs of Thanksgiving, they also reach your heart with those melodies that can reach you.

The three big Thanksgiving songs, and we sang two of them. Well, we sang another one that's not a big one for me, but the three biggies, we're singing two of them, three biggies for me.

We're singing them this week. And one of the songs, it just rings in my head.

Now thank we all our God with hearts and hands and voices, right? Doesn't that just, doesn't that reach you and say, man, this is what

Thanksgiving is about. It's hearts and hands and voices. It's our whole being. The songs reach us.

You know, we have opened before us a song book. The psalms are songs, you know, and there are times when

I wish that the music had survived, that went with them. It'd be interesting to hear how they sang these.

But I mean, we heard Psalm 100 today, right? We're familiar with it. Make a joyful noise to the

Lord, all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come into his presence with singing, right?

Doesn't it just reach you? It reaches in and says, this is what Thanksgiving is about. It's going about singing in the presence of God.

It's going across the threshold into the court and singing praises to God, all these things.

We heard it this morning in Psalm 100. And so he says, thank God even in your pain.

This is what the psalmist does. You heard those first 29 verses. You heard what he was going through.

And suddenly he turns from pain to praise in verse 30. You can praise

God in your pain, but how do you do that? How can you do that? Well, he tells us, thank

God in your pain because it magnifies his name. It magnifies his name.

Now, what does it mean to magnify God? What does it mean to magnify

God? Consider two different ways of magnification with me this morning. First, there's the microscope, the microscope.

There's microscope magnification. It makes something look greater than it really is, making a small thing look greater.

So use a microscope. You look at a cell or a microbe of some kind.

You see something that's so small, you can't see it with the naked eye, but with a microscope, it magnifies this little thing to such a place that you can see the details of that tiny little thing.

That's microscope magnification. And then there's telescope magnification, making something that may seem small or insignificant appear to be as great as it really is, making the big thing look as big as it really is.

Okay, so you point the telescope up there and you see a planet or a galaxy, and now that which appears insignificant appears almost like it really is.

It really is something significant. Now, David does not say, I will make a small

God look bigger than he really is, but rather, I will make a big God look as big as he really is.

We're telescope magnifiers when it comes to God. God has not called us to be microscope

Christians, conmen who magnify their product when they know the competitor's product is far superior.

That's not the case at all. God has called us to be telescope Christians. We have been called to feel, to think, and to act in a way that will make

God look as great as he is, because there's nothing and nobody superior to God.

And so, he says, our job is to magnify God, show the greatness of God as it really is.

How do you magnify God? Please note this psalm. I will magnify him with thanksgiving.

I will make God look great to those around me by thanksgiving.

God really looks great to the people around you when you thank God in the midst of your pain.

Now, what does that say about complaining? What does that say about complaining? Think of the flip side of that coin.

How have you responded to COVID these last few months? Have you been complaining? Maybe you've been cranky.

Maybe you're desperate. But even in these circumstances, we can give thanks to God.

And when we do, God looks great. Coming across this psalm was fascinating or was compelling to me, because I don't think we think this way.

We always talk, I mean, we all know the answer. What are we supposed to do? We're supposed to glorify

God, right? We're supposed to magnify God. We're supposed to make him look great to the people around us.

We can't add anything to God. We can't add glory to God. He's of infinite worth and dignity.

We cannot add glory and dignity to God. There's nothing more to add to God. But what we can do is to magnify that so other people see his dignity and his glory.

And we talk about glorifying God, but notice what he says here. What's one way of glorifying

God? Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving. What should motivate you to Thanksgiving in hardship?

Well, one of the things that ought to motivate you to thank God in the midst of hardship is the knowledge that Thanksgiving exalts

God, that gratitude glorifies God.

When you don't know how to glorify God in your situation, break out in a song of thanksgiving, thank him.

That's how you exalt him among the people in which you live. Now, how does that work? How is it that gratitude glorifies

God? As I meditated on this passage, I thought, how does that work? How is God magnified by our thanksgiving?

Well, here's one. Gratitude shows that God exists. Gratitude shows that God exists.

Let me explain. My brother -in -law does not believe in God. He's a self -proclaimed atheist.

But I'll never forget one day, as Beck and I were visiting with him, he said, I have this sense of thanksgiving, but I got no one to give thanks to.

Now, think about that for a moment. Thanksgiving shouts,

God exists, and he's given you great things, and the sense of thankfulness that you feel can only be expressed to someone who's given you something, right?

Without God, there's no reason for this emotion or the action of gratitude.

Without God, it's a stupid emotion. It's a meaningless, dumb emotion if God doesn't exist.

You ever thought that? Why? Because you've got all these good things.

They're just random good fortune. You just happen to be here when this came along, where that guy, well, too bad for him.

But there's no reason for you to be thankful. You didn't, no one gave you anything.

It's just random. So this fact that you sense of thanksgiving is foolishness if there is no

God. Thanksgiving says loudly, God exists. And when you're thankful for what you have, you're proclaiming to the world there is a

God who gives. Gratitude says, God, you've been faithful all these years.

Look at all the things that you've blessed me with. Even in my hardship, Lord, I've seen you work.

How thankful I am, right? Gratitude says, God is faithful. Gratitude says,

God, you're faithful and I can count on you to keep your promises. I can count on you to keep your promises.

David in this psalm has experienced tremendous hurt from wicked men. I don't know if you picked up on that, but he's really hurting big time.

And that part where he says, I've looked for comforters and there's no one around that'll comfort me.

He's been hurt deeply, but even in horrific circumstances, he can say,

I will praise the name of God with a song. I will magnify him with thanksgiving because he knows that God promises deliverance.

He knows that God promises him salvation and that God will keep his promise. He knows that God is just and will not let his enemies sin against the people of God without justice someday.

He knows that God is faithful to his promises. That's why in the midst of difficulty, he can turn from pain to praise because he knows that God is faithful and he will keep his promises.

You can thank God because you know he'll be faithful to keep all of his promises.

That's how in the midst of difficulty, you can thank God because you know something good is gonna come out of it.

And you also know that at the end of all, there's gonna be glorious good for you.

Here's something we ought to learn and that is gratitude does not grow out of our circumstances but rather it is rooted in God's character.

It is rooted in God's character. In thanks, you proclaim that God is good.

In the midst of difficulty, when you give thanks, you are proclaiming that God is good, that the final word is not pain.

That's not the final word. But because God is good, he yet has good things planned for you.

Some of you out there, okay, some of you right now in this congregation are suffering from this virus.

You have COVID, all right? And it's hard and you may be starting to lose hope and you may still be starting to take a nosedive in terms of discouragement.

You need to remember that God has promised you good things. What is it?

God's working for your good. So you need to start asking the question, God, you're working good in my life.

Is this causing me to depend on you more? Is it causing me to pray to you more? Is it causing me to just throw myself on you in absolute dependence and say,

God, I don't know what to do. I'm so tired, I'm fatigued.

I want to do other things but this is what you have planned. Oh God, help me, give me grace for the day. Think that's a good thing?

God's working good. God's gonna change you through all this. And besides that, all of us, listen to me.

There's coming a day we're gonna be raised from the dead with a body that will never be subject to illness or sickness or anything like that.

Now, some of you young people, let's just sail right over your head. But as I look at the old people out there, including me,

I've grown old here, do you realize that? I came here, I wasn't even 30 years old. Now I'm 65,

I'm an old man now. I grew old in this little town. But I'll tell you what, that idea of a body that's never gonna be stiff, that's never gonna hurt, a heart that isn't gonna go crazy on me at times, that really appeals to me.

And that's gonna happen. So, if you think about you people are suffering with COVID, let me say to you, you of all people should know that God is gonna give you something better.

You're looking forward to a body that'll never experience this again. I'm looking forward to that. But you see, gratitude says that God is good.

And by thanksgiving, you proclaim not only that God is good, but that he's faithful. You're saying loud and clear,

God, I believe you're faithful. You will not fail to bring about good. If you're struggling trying to figure out how can

I glorify God, here's an answer. Start with thanksgiving. Because in thanksgiving, you're proclaiming the faithfulness and the goodness of God loudly.

You proclaim to others that there is a God to whom you can be thankful. Now, you say, that's a lot to handle.

That's a lot to take. Let me tell you something. Jesus stands as the guarantee that God is faithful and good.

What was the greatest pain ever experienced in the history of mankind? The greatest pain experienced was by Jesus when he became incarnate and walked on this planet, a perfect person amongst wicked people in a sin -cursed world.

Some people say, how could a perfect human being like Jesus ever know how we feel? I remember one of my seminary professors saying this.

You ever walked around all day with a pebble in your shoe? It's really irritating.

It's really hard. Think of it as something worse than a pebble in your shoe and a constant little irritant.

Now, think a perfect human being immersed in a sin -cursed world, walking with sinful people.

Do you think that might be hard? I guess, right? The greatest pain ever experienced was that experienced by Jesus in his life and particularly in his death.

Yet, he never complained and he never acted like a GI who's trudging through the mud complaining about the duty he's got to do.

He doesn't do that. That's because he believed the promise of glory on the other side of the pain.

I love Hebrews 12 too. Look to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

He saw that God was good and he knew God was faithful. And because of that, he could take the pain because there was something better on the other side.

Glory, seated at the right hand of the Father. He knew that was coming.

And so he could endure the cross and despise the shame. You see, thanksgiving, even when you suffer, magnifies

God. It magnifies God. Never forget, John Piper said it so well.

God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.

Thanksgiving, even when you suffer, magnifies the name of God. Notice what else he says in verse 31.

This will please the Lord more than an ox or a bull with horns and hooves. Thank God in your pain because it pleases him.

Do you need another reason to turn from pain to praise? Here's the second reason. Thanksgiving pleases

God. How do you see God? Do you think of God as a father who's hard to please?

Let's be honest now, you know you think that. You think that, and you wake up in the morning with anxiety because you think you are gonna serve a father who's hard to please.

But think of this. God pours out good gifts to all men all the time.

Look around you. Certainly, we're in political chaos. We're in the midst of a horrible pandemic.

All these things are going on. Everything is uncertain and unsettled. And yet day after day, people are still experiencing good food, steady job, children and grandchildren, comfort, friends, a beautiful creation.

COVID has not wiped out beautiful sunsets or wonderful dawns, have they? Has it?

Hasn't done that, has it? There's still all the things that we love. There's the birds and the sunsets, the sky, the glorious mountains, the cornfields, the forests.

There's satisfaction in life that you get. All of it goes on and on. Now, what does

God require from you for this unending flow of glorious gifts?

A seven -year pilgrimage in the desert? Does he expect you to give up your firstborn child to him?

Does he want a tremendous sum of money? Does he say, if you're really thankful, you'll live your life in a monastery?

What does he say? Just say, thank you, that's all. I've done all these things for you and I do it continually, day after day, month after month, year after year, century after century,

I've poured out good gifts and especially to you, my people.

What do I want in return? Thanks. That's all.

That's all. A heart that turns to your father in thanks and thanksgiving pleases him more than the most expensive sacrifice.

He describes here an ox that's ritually clean. That's the idea of the hoofs, right? In Leviticus, only those animals with the cloven hoofs like cows, only those were pure for sacrifice.

Horns, this is a mature ox, right? He says, even him, the most expensive gift in worship, he says,

I prefer thanks over that. Now think about this. In an agricultural society where the ox, where an ox was used to plow your fields, you couldn't get by without that ox.

It's as if someone would say, I am so thankful to God, I'm gonna buy a brand new John Deere and I'm gonna donate it to whoever, right?

God says, look, I'm more pleased with just thanks, just thanksgiving.

God will take the simple song of thanksgiving over the most expensive, extravagant acts of worship.

You may wanna show gratitude to God and leave LaRue Baptist Church with a million dollars to expand its office space in Sunday school classrooms.

I would love it. I think that would be phenomenal expression of thanksgiving to God.

Let's do that, you know? Yeah. But, and that's a good thing, just in case you're thinking of it.

But, but remember this. God smiles with pleasure when you just give him thanks.

God smiles with pleasure when you sing a song of thanksgiving to him.

That's all. That's all. And listen, you may be sitting there saying, but am

I, how my motives are impure. I don't know if God will accept my sacrifice. Listen to this word of hope that tells us that God will always accept your sacrifice of thanks.

Of thanksgiving. Hebrews 13, 15. Through Jesus, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God.

That is the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do you see that? Through Jesus.

Jesus sanctifies all our worship so that God takes pleasure in it.

You may be saying there thinking, I don't know if God will accept my thanksgiving. He surely will. Because of your savior,

Jesus. He will smile with pleasure at your thanksgiving. So we can thank

God in affliction because thanks always pleases him. Thanks always pleases him.

There's one last thing we ought to note here in verses 32 and 33. Thank God in your pain because it produces joy in others.

It produces joy in others. Your thanksgiving will affect others.

He says, when the humble see it, they will be glad. You who seek

God, let your hearts revive. Who are the humble? The humble are those who suffer affliction.

It's a word that is talking about those who suffer affliction. When the humble are those who also suffer affliction, see your thanksgiving, see your thanksgiving, they will be glad.

They will also turn from their pain to praise. When they see you thanking

God, others are in pain. They too have been slandered by powerful people.

They also look for comfort and find none. David's not the only one who's experiencing this.

There are others who are also in pain. And it says, they cry out to God for deliverance and justice.

That's kind of, I think, implied in the word, you who seek God. You, like David here, in all his pain, who's seeking

God and crying out. You also, who cry out to God. Listen, those folks, when they see you giving thanks, their hearts revive, they gain hope.

Through your thanksgiving, you exalt God before their eyes. You show, you are saying to them,

God is good, God is faithful. You proclaim it to them. And as they see your gratitude, they begin to hope again.

You see, they become thankful. Your thanksgiving produces thanksgiving in them.

I'm amazed at this because I, turn to 2 Corinthians chapter four. 2 Corinthians chapter four.

This is the do not lose heart chapter. It's one of my favorites in the Bible. We do not lose heart.

And here in this chapter, Paul is talking about the gospel ministry has, how difficult it is.

But that he doesn't lose heart. Why doesn't he lose heart? Let's pick it up in verse seven of 2

Corinthians four. But we have this treasure, the gospel, in jars of clay.

Us, weak human beings. We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.

We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed. Perplexed, but not driven to despair.

Persecuted, but not forsaken. Struck down, but not destroyed. Always carrying in the body the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies, okay?

We're suffering just like Jesus did so that the life of Jesus may be seen.

For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.

So death is at work in us, but life in you. Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written,

I believed and so I spoke, we also believe and so we also speak. Knowing that he who raised the

Lord Jesus will raise us with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. Wow, God's good.

Look what he's gonna do. And then verse 15. For it is all for your sake so that as grace extends to more and more people, it may increase thanksgiving to the glory of God.

Pain to praise, right? And we're doing this so that the grace of God will be extended to more people and thanksgiving will grow and God will be what?

Magnified. You can't be around a thankful person.

You can't be around a grateful person very long without being changed. Now think about that from your perspective.

Be a grateful person and be God's instrument in changing other people.

As you think, as you live a life of thanksgiving, God will be magnified. And others around you, other of your brothers and sisters will then also change.

Again, see the character of God as the ground of your thanksgiving. This is what he says in verse 33.

For, for the Lord hears the needy and does not despise his own people who are prisoners.

You turn to praise. You can revive your heart by looking at your

God. Why? Because the Lord hears the needy. He does not despise his people who suffer.

That is, who are these people? They are in the midst of pain like the psalmist.

These are the people who are experiencing the same thing. They're the needy ones. They're the prisoners. They're the ones who are suffering just like him.

And what do they need to know? They need to know that God is not only pleased with expressions of gratitude, but that he sympathizes with them.

Again, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect was tempted as we are yet without sin.

God can sympathize with you, even in your pain, because the Lord Jesus has walked in your shoes.

Everything you've experienced, Jesus has. Here is reason for your thanksgiving.

You can give thanks because God will never abandon you, but God will always hear your cry.

And he sympathizes. So you can give thanks in pain because you know

God is good and faithful. Again, good and faithful. He always listens to those who are in pain.

So, turn from pain to praise, for by doing so, you will extend grace to more and more people and increase thanksgiving to the glory of God.

You know, in this topsy -turvy, pandemic -ridden, wicked, uncertain, unfriendly, cruel world, can you turn from pain to praise?

You can. You can. You can turn from pain to praise, because thanksgiving magnifies

God, because thanksgiving pleases God, because thanksgiving produces joy and gratitude in others.

Yeah, you can turn from pain to praise. You can. And you can, as you look to Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.

He did it. He believed. He knew

God was faithful and good. And so he could as well turn from pain to praise.

God helped us to be a thankful people. To keep these reasons in mind, when everything gets intense, remember this.

Gratitude magnifies God. Gratitude pleases God. Gratitude produces joy and gratitude in others.

Those are good reasons for thanksgiving. Father, thank you again for your marvelous word.

It just is so amazing to see these things, these jewels in your word that give us hope, that produce a different people.

God help us in the midst of this crazy, wicked, cruel, bloodthirsty world.

Help us to be known by our thanksgiving.

And Father, work through us in that thanksgiving. And we'll thank you in Jesus' name, amen.