Psalm 100 verse 1, Bible says make a joyful noise unto the Lord all ye land. Part of the sermon
is make a joyful noise, joyful noise. Just like I was standing out there outside and I was hearing
you guys sing, you know what I heard? I heard a joyful noise. The Bible says make a joy,
this is a commandment, a commandment, make a joyful noise unto the Lord. You say I can't
sing, I haven't got a good voice, it doesn't matter. The command is make it. Let's say if you
have a good voice make a joyful noise. It just says make a joyful noise unto the Lord all ye lands.
So even though this is written at a time when we had Old Testament Israel as the people of God,
that God was working in them in that Old Testament covenant, the command still,
the desire of God was that all the lands would make a joyful noise unto him. And of course
as we see the rapture take place and then in Revelation chapter 7 it speaks of an innumerable
number of people of every tongue, of every tribe, of every nation. You see there are people all
across this world that are saved and God wants a joyful noise to be made from all corners of
the world and that includes Australia. We're down under, we're kind of by ourselves with
New Zealand a little bit right? We're by ourselves but God wants to hear a joyful noise
even here in Australia. Verse number two, it says serve the Lord with gladness. You see
making a joyful noise, coming and praising and singing his praises is serving the Lord.
Okay it's a service that we're giving to the Lord, we're giving him honor, we're giving him
uh honor, worship and just the love and the praise that we can give his name.
But God asks us not just to serve him, he wants us to serve him with gladness. He wants
you to have a joyful heart as you sing praises to him. Please when you when you open the hymn book
you know please have your hearts in the right place. God is seeking your heart, he knows
internally what's going ahead, what's going on there. Yes you can praise him with your lips, we
can see that but God is looking at your heart. Are you serving him with gladness? You know
sometimes serving the Lord is hard work. Going out soul winning especially in hot weather is hard
work but he wants you to serve him with gladness. Everything that you do in service to this
church, the body of the of the um body of Christ or to the Lord in general, whatever service you
do even in your workplace you ought to be serving the Lord in your workplace. You ought to
be working hard as setting Christ as your master all right. Whatever you do in the service
of the Lord he wants you to do with gladness, with a joyful heart. And then it says come
before his presence with singing. Come before his presence with singing. Yes brother Jason
got your song leading up here. You're coming in the presence of the Lord, you're doing it with singing
with praises all right. That's all that ought to be something that gives us great joy okay. Great
joy as we come to serve the Lord. Let's not be people in church with a sour face you know
with a sad heart with the wrong spirit. Whenever you come to church always come and say hey I'm
going to the house of the Lord. I'm going to see God's people there. I'm going to see my
brothers and sisters in the Lord. And if I come with a sour face, if I come depressed full of
sorrow, hey that can have a negative impact on others in the way they serve the Lord okay.
Now there are times that you're going to have sorrow, times are going to be sad all right.
But try to set that aside when you come to the house of the Lord okay. You can come to his
house, you can pray about those things, find comfort in the Lord and that will help you to make
sure that you serve him with gladness. You know one sure way to you know just to have gladness
is try to put a smile you know on your face a little bit. You know one thing that I learned
to just start working as a customer service manager, I never dealt with our customers all
that much. I never was really on the phone. But one thing that was very clear in the teaching
with call center people on the phone, because the customer cannot see your face, they cannot
see your body language, if all you do is have a smile on your face, I'll try to smile.
If all you do is have a smile on your face while you're talking to someone on the phone,
it comes across on the phone. It brings a good pleasant spirit across the phone,
whereas if you're downcast, you've got a frown, that also comes across on the phone okay.
So and of course you know we're seeing each other, but make sure you've got a smile,
make sure you greet one another, make sure you make an effort to greet the people of God.
Verse number three, know ye that the Lord, He is God. And today we heard about you know
the Lord God created all things, but you know our Lord, He is God. Such a strange thing,
you know we have many people, we have many animals all right. There are many things
you know when we think of life, we can see many multiples of that life, but when it comes
to our Lord, He is God. There is nothing else that we can compare God to, there is the one true
God and this is just a somber thought for us to remember, that as we serve Him, as we praise Him,
as we come with gladness, we need to remember He is God. He's our creator, you know He's all
powerful, almighty. It ought to remind us that how frail that we are and how much we need the
Lord and yet even though we're frail, even though we're weak, even though we have sin, the Lord
says look praise me, give me your worship, give me your service. It's such an honorable thing for
the Lord God of the universe to want your service. That's how special you are in His sight
and it says here, it is He that made us okay. He created us, I already mentioned this in the
sermon this morning, but He created, He made us for the purpose of what? For His pleasure,
but for the purpose that we would come and serve Him, that we would have glad hearts as we
worship Him. Look, it is here that hath made us and not we ourselves. If you need to be reminded
of that, hey, we did not come to be by our own will, you know, we didn't create ourselves.
Man will never create another living man. It's not in his, it's not his possibility. It's God
who is the creator of all things. It's God that has created us. This is just to remind us just
how weak we are in His sight and then it says we are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
You know what that means? God looks at us as sheep, as a flock that needs to be herded,
that needs to be brought forth in green pastures and Jesus Christ has given three titles in the
New Testament. He's given the title of the Good Shepherd, the Chief Shepherd and the
Great Shepherd. The Good Shepherd, the Great Shepherd and the Chief Shepherd and the reason
why He's given us these titles is so that we're reminded of God as our shepherd, as our
leaders, the one we're trying to seek after, that He's good, that He wants the best for us,
that He's great. There's nothing greater than He that we ought to follow and that He's our Chief
Shepherd. Okay churches, we're given shepherds, we're given pastors. I'm one of those things,
I'm one of those pastors but you know what? There's a pastor over me, that's the chief,
the primary one, the Chief Shepherd who is the shepherd above all of us. So reminded here that
we're the sheep of His pasture. Isn't a beautiful thing because shepherds have to look after the
sheep, right? They lead the sheep and that's what God wants for our lives. He wants to look after
us, He wants to protect us, He wants to comfort us. Verse number four, enter into His gates
with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise. Be thankful unto Him and bless His name.
Of course these gates, these courts is the Old Testament temple which is the House of God.
Again, once again, the House of God in the New Testament. What is it? It's the local church,
right? When we come into the local church or we come before His presence, even if we come
before Him in prayer, it says come with thanksgiving. Let's not forget to thank God for
the wonderful things that He's given us. I thank God for this church all the time.
You know and when we come we have our needs, we have our worries, we have our concerns
that we want to bring before the Lord but the best thing to do before you bring those
concerns, just remind yourself and of the blessings that God has given you. Remind yourself of the
answered prayers that God has answered for you and come before Him with thanksgiving.
All the wonderful gifts, all the blessings, the family, the friends, the people that you know,
your brothers and sisters, thank God for all these things and that will help you to have
that grateful heart. It will alleviate the heaviness of your burdens that you struggle
through life. It says be thankful unto Him and bless His name and that's what we do
when we come to church and we praise His praises, we praise the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,
that's what we ought to do, we ought to bless Him, bless the Lord. And verse number five,
for the Lord is good, you need to be reminded again the Good Shepherd, for the Lord is good,
His mercy is everlasting. Hey look, do you think if God has given us the Bible and He wants us
to walk after His past, do you think He does it to destroy us? Do you think He does it to
give us to put evil in our lives, for us to sin? No, He does it for our good, the Lord is good.
Whatever, listen, sometimes it's hard to obey the commandments of God, it is hard. Sometimes it
may seem contradictive, you know, to the way the world wants you to live, but His ways are good.
It says His mercy is everlasting. So when you sin, when you defile yourself, when you're in
wickedness, you know what? God, it says His mercy is everlasting. His mercy lasts forever.
Okay, this is why when we come to His mercy, we receive His mercy by believing on Christ,
it's eternal life. It's once saved, always saved, because His mercy is everlasting.
He's never going to run out of mercy for you, okay? And it says, and He's truth
endureth to all generations. You know what that means? That means in the generation today,
our generation, we have His truth. And I covered this not long ago, right? He's given us
His King James Bible. He's given us the Word of God, the perfect, pure, preserved Word of God
to all generations. And you know what? It says He's truth endureth to all generations.
It's not like He was true in the time of David or in the time of the Psalmist,
and now it's no longer true. No, once it's true, it's always true. When the Bible says
that marriage is between man and woman, that's the truth. It's always true. You know,
no matter what, how the government's trying to change things with our laws and redefine things,
hey, they're trying to make false things true. But no, the truth of God endureth forever
to all generations. It's never going to change. Thank God that we can make
a joyful noise unto Him. Let's pray.