Sunday Rewind 11.26.07

Last Friday, the world left Thanksgiving behind and turned full-force toward Christmas. We decided to be different. We focused the entire service on Thanksgiving, opening the floor to whoever wanted to share a testimony of thanks to God.

What a wonderful time of worship! God's kids, from 8-80 spoke about a variety of things for which they are grateful. I know how much I enjoyed it. I can only imaging how God must have smiled.

The only challenge was not knowing how much time I would have to preach. Having no idea if I would have 5 or 25 minutes, I prepared a sermon on Psalm 100. It's a psalm of thanksgiving which gives God's people opportunity to celebrate Him together.

But it also gives us five key words that help us understand the nature of thanksgiving. They are:

• Joy (verse 1)
• Gladness (verse 2)
• Dependence (verse 3)
• Thankfulness (verse 4)
• Gratitude (verse 5)

Next Sunday, we'll turn our attention to Christmas, launching a series of sermons called "Countdown to Christmas". During the series I'll be giving practical tips for getting ready for Christmas.