Joyful Thanksgiving

Joyful Thanksgiving Psalm 95:1-11 It was October of 1942 and Captain Eddie Rickenbacker was on a mission in a B‑17 to deliver an important message to General Douglas MacArthur in New Guinea. But somewhere over the South Pacific the B-17 became lost. Fuel ran dangerously low, so the men ditched their plane in the ocean, hurling them into the most harrowing adventure of their lives. For nearly a month Captain Eddie and his companions fought the water, the weather, and the scorching sun. They spent many sleepless nights recoiling as giant sharks rammed their rafts. But the greatest enemy they faced was starvation. Eight days out, their rations were gone. It would take a miracle to sustain them. And then... a miracle occurred. Captain Eddie's own words describe what happened. "Cherry," that was B‑ 17 pilot, William Cherry, "read the service that afternoon, and we finished with a prayer for deliverance and a hymn of praise. There was some talk, but it tapered off in the oppressive heat. With my hat pulled down over my eyes to keep out some of the glare, I dozed off." "Then, something landed on my head. I knew that it was a sea gull. I don't know how I knew; I just knew. Everyone else knew too. No one said a word but peering out from under my hat brim without moving my head, I could see the expression on their faces. They were staring at that gull. The gull meant food...if I could catch it." And the rest, as they say, is history. Captain Eddie caught the gull. Its flesh was eaten. Its innards were used for bait to catch fish. The survivors were sustained, and their hopes renewed because a lone sea gull, uncharacteristically hundreds of miles from land, offered itself as a sacrifice. By now you know that Captain Eddie and his crew were rescued. But what you didn’t know is that he never forgot. It was gratitude that prompted the old man to visit an old broken pier on the eastern coast of Florida. Every Friday night, until his death in 1973, he would return, walking slowly and slightly stooped with a large bucket of shrimp. His bucket filled with shrimp was to feed the gulls...to remember that one which, on a day long past gave itself without a struggle to sustain life...like manna in the wilderness. If someone would ask you, “what’s the most distinguishing characteristic of a follower of Christ,” what would you say? Would it be love, faithfulness, obedience, or something else? I believe love is the most distinguishing characteristic of a Christian because Jesus said in John 13:35, “By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one to another.” But there are some other qualities that follow closely behind love. And we want to look more closely at one of those qualities today, the quality of gratefulness. A grateful spirit should be one of the defining characteristics of a Christian. When we realize who we are outside of Christ, and who we are in Christ, the only logical result will be a life of gratefulness. Our text today is Psalm 95. If you’re in a position where you can get your Bible and follow along, I invite you to do that as we look at this Psalm together. That’s Psalm 95. I’ve titled the message, “A Joyful Thanksgiving.” Read Psalm 95 This Psalm highlights three BLESSINGS that should call us to joyful thanksgiving. The First Blessing that should call us to joyful thanksgiving is, The BLESSING of Salvation The psalmist begins by inviting us to praise the Lord as the “rock of our salvation.” Our salvation is the greatest blessing we have from God. But how is God the “rock” of our salvation? This imagery is common in the Psalms. The Hebrew word