Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise

A psalm. For giving grateful praise. 1  Shout 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[a];
    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

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:34):
Shout for joy to the world. All the earth worship
the Lord with gladness, become before him with joyful songs.
Know that the Lord is God. It is he who
made us, and he we are his. We are his people.

(00:58):
The sheep of his pastor. Enter his gait with thanksgiving,
and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and
praise his name. For the Lord is good, and his

(01:19):
love endures forever. His faithfulness continues through all generations. What
do you know a psalm specifically pointed and aimed at gratitude.

(01:45):
Do you ever notice that when you're truly grateful for things,
more of those things show up? You ever noticed that
when you sit down and you reflect and give thanks
for what is around you, more of it comes. And Well,

(02:11):
there's some kind of kind of sums that up ter
his gates with thanksgiving. It doesn't mean enters gates on
Thanksgiving Day, as we have the h the our friends
in the United States are about to celebrate by having
a large feast of a meal and having and the

(02:39):
gathering with family and friends around that meal. It isn't
just about that one day. It is about living your
life in a way that invites people to that table.
It is around having a life that provides service to

(03:02):
all those in your community around you, no matter who
they are and what they look like. It is about
having a country, a global society that serves everyone without question,
that when we see a person who is in need,

(03:28):
no matter how they look, that we offer whatever assistance
we can. There was a saying, and I believe that
Jesus did say this, however you treat the least of

(03:49):
my brothers, is how you treat me. Is that God
is in each and every one of us. And if
we see one of our brothers and sisters, or for

(04:13):
those of you who prefer the non binary, yeah, will
exclude you, because all of everyone is included. That we
see one of our siblings in need, that we offer
the help we can. So to talk about this with

(04:40):
a bit of a story, because I think that a
story is warranted in this particular case. My wife and I, well,
my wife has has a delivery root that runs from
midnight to about seven am in the little town that
we live in. And there was one particular night, it

(05:08):
was a snowy night, and it was probably about minus
ten or so on this snowy night at the minus
ten in of course, in the Celsius scale, not the
fahrenheit scale. For my American friends, you can convert that

(05:32):
later on. But it was cold enough for someone to
make sure that they were wearing a hat, coat, gloves,
warm pants, boots. But no, this particular person was running

(05:54):
around in his fruit of the loom briefs. I'm being
graphic his food loom breaths, bare feet and a smile,
and he stops. He's stops us up and he and

(06:18):
and he says, I think that my medication isn't working.
I don't know how I got out here. I don't
know where I am. Well, if we live in the
age of the cell phone, uh, my wife and I
we pull out the phone and we call call nine

(06:42):
one one, and we wait with him. We don't just
call nine one one and then drive away. We wait
with him until please show up. Well, the police shows
up and instead of the ambulance that we requested, the ambulance,

(07:03):
so he was the first one to respond. So I
sent my wife on because it's her delivery, has her job.
She needs to continue and we can't can't hold her
up forever because it needs to get done. And I
waited with the with the police and this gentleman, and

(07:25):
until an ambulance showed up and the police officer asked,
he's He said, why are you still waiting? I said,
because this young gentleman, UH needs assistance, I say, And

(07:51):
I said, said that you're you're standing standing there representative
of the law, of course, which isn't necessarily a bad thing,
but if he becomes a little out of hand, you
might need assistance also. So I'll stay. And he seems

(08:13):
to become with me standing here, so I'll stay, and
he says, but you don't need to do that. It's
like and I looked at him and said, I know,
I don't need to do that because because it is
your job. But I do need to do that because

(08:35):
he needs me to do that. So the moral of
the story in the end is the end of the
story ends happily. We get this person into ambulance and
an awful way that he goes to the emergency room

(08:57):
where he'll where hopefully he was assessed and then found
this found his way back to getting on track with
it with his medication and and UH and his mental
health needs. But I want to focus on the fact

(09:18):
that I stayed because when someone is in distress and
you show up with guns and weapons. There is a
need to make sure and we have to recognize what
the need is and if we can fill it is

(09:39):
the point It happened to be that particularly, I could
feel that need of keeping a person calm because I
was grateful for the police to show up, because he
showed up with his lights on and everything, and we
were visible on this so he kept us safe. I

(10:04):
was grateful for that. Don't understand understand me wrong, But
had had left him with a person with mental health
and all they see are all the bright lights and

(10:25):
a person standing there with a gun, a taser, uh
whatever else that because his job is to keep us safe,
so he has all this stuff to keep us safe.
He doesn't have all of the calming things to keep

(10:49):
us well and healthy. That would be on the ambulance
and it's a different set of lights, and that lights
are aimed differently than they are on the police car.
So I waited because I knew I could keep this
particular person calm, and the policeman alls he had to

(11:12):
do is guard us until the ambulance showed up, which
was his job anyway, and his way of helping and
he didn't have to cross boundaries into de escalation as
they put it, and all kinds of other things that
might have gotten someone hurt. So the point is we

(11:38):
have to do what we can. It doesn't matter if
you dig in your pocket and you produce a nickel
and you hand it to that person, because that's what
you have. Honestly, that's what you have to get give.

(12:01):
It doesn't matter dig in your pocket, bull out the
nickel and offer the nickel. If all you have to
offer is a phone number that helps them call a
shelter to get that person off the street, or get

(12:24):
them a job, or well, any number of things, but
that phone number is helpful, offer the phone number. Don't say,
well that's all I have. Offer it. Offer it with gratitude,
Offer it with pride, knowing that, hey, I'm helping another

(12:48):
human being, not pride, Oh look at me, what can
I do? And like, no pride of service of helping
a human being, because it says right here in this scripture,
in this psalm, which we do know that, I mean,

(13:12):
theologians do know that they can track the psalms back
thousands of years of prayers. It's what they are the
psalms are prayers. No, it says that we are His.

(13:33):
We are His people, the sheep in His pasture. That
means each and every one of us, they're no one
different than the other, belongs to God, each and every life,

(13:54):
each and every soul, however you want to say, spirit, energy,
and entity, whatever you say, however you want to say it,
we all belong to God. We are all his children,
We are his We're His sheep. However you want to

(14:17):
whatever makes you feel good and knowing that you belong
to our heavenly Father, whatever fills that faith, cup up
knowing that we all belong in this pasture, and we
all should be grateful that we are in His pastor

(14:41):
that we're under his care. We wake up every morning
knowing that our shepherd is right there and that we
can touch hands with our shepherd, knowing that we can
be grateful for everything that we have because He provided

(15:03):
it in one way or another. So onto another example,
another story that my wife and I we've been trying

(15:26):
to figure something out and that we have have a
vehicle that that has has always served us well. And
then one day the engine cocked out and we were
told by the mechanic that no engine is dead, it
ain't going to start again, and asked us about how

(15:48):
we could started talking about recycling the vehicle, and we
went and we looked and was it because that size
the vehicle, that type of vehicle is very useful to us.
So we started. Before we decided on that, we said,
give us a little bit and let's see how see

(16:09):
how much it costs to replace it. And we discovered
that replacing that vehicle wasn't that exact size and everything.
It wasn't really within our price range. So we started
asking other questions about how to replace the engine in
it and get it back on the road. So we've

(16:36):
been sitting on this project for a little bit, and
I would say we've also preyed on it, and we've
and trying to figure out how we can get the
vehicle fixed so that we can it can go back
to serving serving us and providing the things that some

(17:00):
of the things that are missing within our life right
right at the moment. So we try to figure figure
out financing and all that kind of stuff for a
new engine for and until we've been praying on until

(17:20):
recently something offer came up that would provide it, you see,
and the moral of that story is is that God
doesn't always answer us overnight. He takes takes what we

(17:43):
see to be time to get back to us with
with answers. But if you put your faith in your
gratitude into what He has done for you and what
He is doing for you at the time that he
does eventually get back, the answer and help will appear.

(18:11):
So for all of you out there who are listening
to this and hit a time of roughness, a time
of trial, keep your faith and be grateful for the
things that are around you that help you wake up
in the morning and ask God for his hand and

(18:33):
guidance and be surprised at the miracles that actually do happen.
So let's try that now. Lord. I asked for your

(18:53):
hand and guidance as I walk through through my life,
that you would walk with me and offer me the
guidance that I need to continue on my path, my
path back to your home. I'm grateful for everything that

(19:14):
you have done for me at this point and that
you have gotten me this far, and I want to
continue with your help, your guidance, and your conversation. I

(19:35):
want to strengthen my relationship with you, Lord, so that
I feel fulfilled knowing you're with me. I feel protected
knowing you're with me, And I feel loved knowing you

(19:56):
are with me. So please allow me to continue to
walk with you, with your hand and your guidance as
I fulfill my purpose to you. Amen,