How to Open the Door to His Presence
November 24, 2025
Turn your Bibles to Psalm 100. Psalm 100. By the way, when you are singing congregational songs, I hope you think about the words. There are great words. If you may be a line or two you cannot figure out, dwell on it a bit. And great hymns. I hope you get the full meaning of them. Psalm chapter 100. We are going to read the whole chapter this morning. Some of you are like, “Oh no, my goodness.” Relax. It is only five verses. Amen. We are good to go. We are all right now, you know. Psalm 100. And we are going to start in verse number one.
I was going to do something different besides Thanksgiving. You know, every year, you just expect it. So I was going to go elsewhere. But I just feel like the Lord said, no, because the importance—I am telling you, it will change your life. Gratitude, whether you have it or not, it will make a huge difference in your life. It is so vital.
We could go at it about 2,000 different ways, but you would leave. Amen. Brother Garrett sent me an article about a guy that broke the record. He was wanting to preach. He did not meet his goal, but he broke the record. He was trying to preach for 100 hours straight. I think he got 96, 98 hours in, and he had to quit because his tongue was split, and on and on.
I do not know, man. I was not there. I am not sure now, you know. Ask Garrett about it. He can tell you. I am not sure. I told Garrett, I said, maybe I will try that. Come to talk about it. I do not think I will try that. I do not want to split my tongue, you know. But that is, man, so come on, I am not that long, all right, now, you know. We will not cover all the different ways. There is so much about gratitude, but just a little different look at it. I believe the Lord would have us focus on a couple different things this morning in Psalm 100. If you are there, would you say amen? Good.
Would you please stand as we read God’s word together? Psalm 100. We are not exactly sure who penned it, but we know it is the word of God. It is from the Lord ultimately anyway.
So here we go. Verse number one: “Make a joyful noise unto the Lord all ye lands.” Now, I typically talk about when I use that verse, I am typically talking about singing. I cannot sing, so make a joyful noise. But actually, singing is included in it, but it is not even talking about singing yet. Let me just put it this way: sometimes it is easier to explain what it does not mean. A joyful noise unto the Lord does not mean, “Oh, everything’s bad. Mad at the world. It is beautiful weather today, but tomorrow it is going to be raining. It is going to get cold soon.” That is not what He means when He says, “Make a joyful noise unto the Lord all ye lands.” Okay, so He starts off like that. It is a good song.
Look at verse number two: “Serve the Lord with gladness.” That is important. You never do this, but every once in a while your pastor can get sucking his thumb—a pity party. I sucked one of them off. “Oh, woe is me. I got to do this, I got to do that?” You never do that, do you? Do not act Holy Joe now. Come on now, you know.
“Serve the Lord with gladness.” Here it is, we are getting to singing: “Come before His presence with…” Old Lesterloff, an old preacher, he is in heaven now. He used to say every Christian ought to give the Lord a concert every day. I like it in church. Music has been good this morning, but everybody sings really good in the shower. But you are singing to the Lord. I can sing good to the Lord when I am in the car alone. Then as soon as I see somebody, they are seeing me, I am quiet. I do not like to sing. But you sing sometimes, everybody. “Come before His presence with singing.”
Verse number three: “Know ye.” He is kind of explaining why we ought to praise and sing to the Lord and glorify Him to make a joyful noise. “Know ye that the Lord, He is God. It is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves.” You are not self-made. “Well, I came up the hard way.” Hard knocks. You are not self-made. None of us are. Oh, no. Oh, no. “It is He that hath made us and not we ourselves. We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.” Boy, I like this verse or before. It is my favorite verse of this whole psalm.
“Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise. Be thankful unto Him and bless His name. For the Lord is God. His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endureth to all generations.”
Now, that verse number four, we are going to focus on that verse number four. Let us go back to that. And would you read verse number four out loud with me, please? Here we go. Verse number four, here we go: “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise. Be thankful unto Him and bless His name.” Good.
Would you pray with me that God would speak to your heart and my heart about how to open the door to His presence? Would you pray that God would speak to your heart and my heart about that subject? Father, we do come, Lord. Many a time I have tried different keys, if you will, at the door that did not work. Lord, thank You for the key, the secret here in this passage. Lord, I pray that many people would be helped. Maybe prayer times be changed and people’s lives be brightened. They enter into Your presence better because of this morning. Would You do that? Would You help people through that truth? And we will thank You for what You do. It is in the name of Jesus we ask, Father. Amen.
Thank you so much for standing. You may be seated.
Be honest with me. Be honest, but raise your hand. Do not just raise. How many of you have ever locked your keys in the car? That is why modern-day cars have a safety where you cannot lock them in anymore. Because pretty much anybody who has been driving very long has locked our keys in the car before. I probably ought to raise a hand and a half on that, you know?
How many of you have ever been out there with a coat hanger? Yeah. And you have to bend it. And then it is too flimsy, wimpy old. They do not make them like they used to, you know. What happened to real? You know, back when men were men and women were two? Where is that? You know, and you have to reach in, you are just trying that certain way, you know. And if it is at nighttime, somebody else has got a flashlight, or you have one of those headlamps, you know, and you are trying to… And here is the thing: the whole time you can look in there and you can see those sneaking keys right there.
Anybody taking a baseball bat and busting out that window? Anybody wanted to? Oh, somebody is raising a hand now. Maybe they did. Oh, somebody had. All right, we will leave that alone.
Has any Christian out there ever felt like that when you are trying to enter into the presence of the Lord? You feel like you are trying to get in His presence, into the gates. I have been there. Can I tell you some things I have tried that did not work? Here it is again: the pity party. “Lord, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this.” And I got it so bad. “And nobody knows. And do You care? And did You allow that?” You know, that coat hanger just kept bending. I did not get in.
I have tried so many different ways to get in. I have tried complaining. This is what I can be bad about. I know you never do these things. I understand. But, you know, for your pastor, all right? Just bear with me as I admit some of them. I know you do not do these, but sometimes I spend a lot of my prayer time, some of my prayer time, just contemplating my problems. And I will say I am thinking them over with the Lord. Well, the honest truth is I am not really praying. I am just kind of contemplating all my problems in life. Now, the bad thing with that is when I come out of the prayer closet, I am worse off because I just spent however much time thinking about all my problems. Anybody out there? You have never done that, have you? Good. I am glad you are. We need to get you a cape for your back, right? You know?
Here is the key. Look at the—here is the key right here in this verse number four. This whole psalm, I think, is talking about entering, just really getting into being close to the Lord. What does He say in verse number four? What is the first word of verse number four? “Enter into.” I mean, I like to get in the presence of God. If you get inside where the presence of God is, it is amazing. It will simply change your life.
There is a man in the Bible called Isaiah. There is a book of the Bible, the book of Isaiah. Isaiah was a young man in Isaiah 6. He got into the presence of God, and God—that is where his call—God put His hand and said, “I want you to be a prophet, a minister to the nation,” and he said, “Here am I.” But it all came when he got into the presence, and it changed his life. He spent his life serving God. We do not know for sure—but tradition is not Bible—but tradition says Isaiah was martyred, and tradition says he was put inside a hollow tree and the tree was cut in half. Now, just him getting in the presence of God changed his life to the point that he was willing to lay down his life. Wow.
I am not there all the time, but there has been many a time I am down in the dumps, discouraged, and God, in His graces, lets me get in His presence, and man, everything changes. There is this verse in Psalm 16:11. It says, “In Thy presence is fullness of joy.” I like joy, but fullness of joy. That is pretty amazing. You say, “What is the good definition?” Think about the most joyful—bless you—the most joyful day you have had and magnified maybe a couple times over. I would think that would be a good definition down here of the fullness of joy. Now, when we get to heaven, get fully in His presence, that is when it is going to be multiplied a million times, totally fulfilled there.
But getting in His praise brings joy, and you have got all these burdens. And when you get inside and you get a good glimpse at God after a while, the bigger He becomes, the mightier—you get a good glimpse of Him—and you know, the bigger He is, the smaller your problem seems. Someone said, “Instead of telling God how big your problems are, won’t you tell your problems how big your God is?”
And that happens when you get into His presence. And the Bible here is telling—it is giving us a key to how you can unlock or open the door to get into the presence of God. And He says it in verse number four. Look at it, verse number four: “Enter into His gates.” Now, the gates is the outward part. You are getting into the courtyard. You are not inside the building yet if we are talking about the temple, tabernacle, one of the two.
But watch, help me out. How do you, just the first getting into the courtyard, how do you enter it? You enter in with—what does it say? No, it does not say praises. Look at it, look at it. He says, “Enter into His gates.” Excuse me, I said courts, my fault, my fault. Take the blame of it. Enter into His gates with what? And it is very important in order. Now, I want you to notice very carefully the wording of it. Would you say that word out loud again, please? Thanksgiving. Now, later on in the verse it says, “thankful,” but not right now. It is very interesting. You know the Bible only uses the word “thankful” three times? And this is one of them right here. It has only got two other ones. But it starts off, it starts off with thanksgiving. It is like you have some thanks, and then…
By the way, this does remind—I think this is legit here too. This was not part of the sermon. Are we not supposed to give this to someone, Brother Marlin, for about three years? I am about to give something out. I was supposed to give this out three years ago, maybe 40 years ago. It is honest truth, folks. We have. We have someone, John Moore and Associates, that have given to our radio station. And whoever gives a certain donation, we have a little packet for them. And I was supposed to give this to Miss Louise about 40 years ago. And so I have something to give to her, but I have not given it. That is a pretty good illustration. Let us give it to her. Hey, John Moore Associates—her and her husband started that company years and years ago. They have given to the radio station. I am going to give her a hand. Amen. Thank you. Thank you.
Now, here, I am a perfect illustration of what not to do. Do not say, “Well, I am thankful in my heart.” That is not what God said. You enter into His gates with what? Or, if you will, giving thanks. That is where it starts from. That is so very, very important.
Look, if you will, over in Hebrews chapter number 13. He gives some details about this thing. Look over here, Hebrews 13, and I will tell you the verse in just a second here, because if I tell you the verse, you will not listen to me anymore. And I want to say a couple things before we get to this verse. Hebrews 13. Once you find Hebrews 13, would you say amen? Good deal. Hebrews. Proves the man ought to make the coffee. There it is. Hebrews. Chapter 13.
And let me give you a couple numbers here on a couple things for all the number of people. I already mentioned this: “Thankful” is only found three times in the Bible. Use that hand for that. One of them we are going to study in just a minute here, one that is already listed there in Psalm 100, verse number four. Listen to this: “Thankful” is only three times. “Thanksgiving” is found 28 times in the Bible. Did you hear that? Look right this way. Look right this way. We will get to Hebrews in a second here. “Thankful” is only three times. “Giving thanks” is 35 times. Excuse me, “give thanks.” “Giving thanks” is five times. Here is what I am getting: there is a difference.
And these—Thanksgiving, giving thanks, give thanks—much, much more. “Thankful” is only three times in the whole Bible.
Now let us get some detail on this giving thanks or thanksgiving over here in Hebrews 13. Now look down the bottom of that chapter, Hebrews 13. Look at verse number 15. Hebrews 13, Hebrews 13, look at verse number 15. He says, “By Him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually.” Is that, the fruit of our heart? Is that what it says? No, that is not a bad deal, but it does not say heart. Fruit of our pen, is that what it says? I like writing it, but it says what? It says the fruit of our what? Lips, giving thanks to His name.
You enter into His gates by giving with your lips, with your tongue. That right there, you give thanks. It is not just, “Well, I got it in my heart.” No, it goes out of your heart to your vocal cords and out through your lips, you give thanks.
Before that, you are outside. I have been so many times outside the house, if you will, and the Lord is inside. He is still here. He is compassion. He is good. There is one of them—not regard and sin in my heart—but it is like we are distant. “Hey, Lord, are You in there?” And the Lord says, “Yeah, you big dummy, why are you yelling out there?” And I am knocking, trying to get into the door. And the Bible told me how to enter into His gate. The Bible says, “Enter into His gate by giving thanks.”
Now, friend, you say that is so simple, but it is so profound. So very important. It is amazing when you just stop all the rest and you just start thanking Him, giving thanks. It is amazing the difference. You want inside. I need to get in His presence. You start. You enter into His gates with thanksgiving.
It is so simple, but it is so God’s Word. And so right. Giving—then emphasize that enough. Y’all get it, giving thanks? Can we go point two? Y’all got it, right? You are always going to practice it every day, every second of your life, right? Amen. All right, good, good, good. Okay, all right. Let us say this. We will get a little bit more verse before in a minute here, but let me say this: Give thanks.
Well, maybe you have been backslid and you are distant from the Lord and you are trying to get back close to Him. Have you ever been like that? Man, I have been like that. “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” We are all there from time. All of us.
Look, if you will, over in Jonah, the book of Jonah. The book of Jonah, chapter number two, and Jonah, chapter number two, would you please? I am telling you to turn there. I have got to turn there. And Jonah, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Back right, Malachi. Jonah, if you cannot find it, look at the table of contents, find it that way. If you cannot find it after that, just hold your Bible open. We will never know you have not found it. Act like you found it. We will be good. Jonah, and we are going to read a little bit in chapter number two here in just a minute, all right? But let me talk to you once you find it, Jonah and chapter number two. And it is one of those minor prophets that is harder to find. And Jonah, chapter number two, and if you found that… Brother John is ahead of it. Say amen. Good deal, good deal.
What do we always say? Jonah and, or Jonah in the… You know the story of Jonah. God called him to go to Nineveh, basically where modern-day Iraq, Mosul, where they had a big, major war in Iraq—the war was over there. That is basically over there in Nineveh. And God called him to go there. And Jonah did not want to go there. I think he was—they were kind of the enemies of Israel—and he was more loyal to his country instead of the Lord. By the way, I love America, greatest nation on the face of the earth, but I love the Lord more. Somebody say, “Me too.” Loyal to Him first. But Jonah did not want to do that, and so he went. He went basically the opposite direction, over to Tarsus, remember that? Got in that boat to sail over there, and the Lord sent that storm up.
Man, it was a bad storm, and those sailors said, “We are all going to die out here. And what is going on?” And finally, Jonah, he said, “Well, fellas, it is me. I am running from the will of God, going the opposite way.” And they said, “No, I cannot be.” So they cast these lots, type thing, and flip a coin, if you will, and take that lightly, and it landed on Jonah. They said, “All right, buddy.” You know, and they gave him a life vest and all that. They tossed him out there—and I am teasing about the life vest—they tossed him out there, and this big old fish—I mean, you remember all those—you know, every fisherman, you know that was a big fish. You know, I like that. And it was one of those—it really was a big fish—and it swallowed Jonah.
And Jonah is in the fish’s belly. And he decides this running from the Lord stuff is not any good. I mean, I do not know about you, but being in the belly with all the slime and everything else in the fish’s belly—I would, you know, and some of that slime and the guts and everything—I would let somebody else do that. You know, and Jonah thought, “Well, I may try this some other way,” you know.
And so chapter number two is really Jonah praying to the Lord and describing a little bit. And I want you to see a little bit what all he goes through. Look in Jonah two. He is trying to get back, if you will, into the presence of God. “Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish’s belly.” I have heard someone say the only way you can pray is on your knees or standing or laying prostrate. Well, tell you on to that, buddy. I heard an old country preacher. He said, “The best place to pray for potatoes is at the end of a hoe handle,” you know, where you are holding for them. He is praying right in the middle of the fish’s belly. Amen. That is my… Anyway, verse number two: “And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord, and He heard me.” I think he is outside the house yelling. God said, “I hear you.” “Out of the belly of hell cried I; Thou heardest my voice.” By the way, there is something to that—hell is a resemblance of—but verse number four: “For Thou hast cast me into the deep in the midst of the seas, and the floods came past me about. All Thy billows and Thy waves pass over me.”
We are not going to read it all, but I want you to jump down, jump down. He is trying to get right with the Lord. And look what happens in verse number nine. Verse number nine. What does he say? Verse number nine. He is trying to get inside, back right with the Lord, trying to get back in His presence. “But I will sacrifice unto Thee with the voice of…” What is the next word? “…thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord.” And the Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.
And here is what I am getting: when you are trying to get right with the Lord and you are in the fish’s belly, there is a part of it is just humbling yourselves to where God has you, and you give thanks. Right there in the midst of all the throw-up. Has your life ever offered you a throw-up? Ever feel like you are surrounded by it? Everywhere you go, everything is falling apart. And you want to get right with the Lord and you want to get close. What do you do? It is a little tough to do. But I am telling you, when you are trying to get right with the Lord and God has been chastening you, give Him thanks.
Part of it was Jonah. He just said, “Hey, I am going to stop all this.” And he has been talking about how it is horrible. And I am literally, he is saying, “I am in hell,” and I am brought to the bottom of the ocean, which is a representation there. And he said it is just awful. But when he gets down to that bottom, he offers up this sacrifice. He said, “I am just going to—I am just going to submit all my complaining, everything else—and I am going to give thanks. And I am submitting to what You are doing in my life, Lord.” And God said, “All right. Let us get you out of that fix. Let us get you on dry land.”
By the way, you know the story. After that, the fish threw him up, he took off running and got there in about, you know, a quarter of the time that he was supposed to get to where God had called him to do. Friend, we are all—it may be a big backsliding, or it may be just a half an hour or three hours of backsliding, a bad attitude—but we all backslide. But when you are there and you lose His presence, you lose this joy, that is the beginning of His chastening, His training in your life. When you are there, you say, “What do I do?” Start giving thanks.
And God said, “I hear that boy down there, and he is in the middle of problems. I have allowed those in his lifetime to get his attention.” And God says, “But he is giving thanks to be right down there. I am going to get him out of that.” And God will do that for you. But giving thanks, giving thanks, is so very key.
Now, look back, if you will, over in Psalm 100. Back over in Psalm 100. And I want you to go back to verse number four, all right? We have covered this giving thanks. It is not just, you know, being thankful. It is giving thanks.
And I want you to see this thing here. Psalm 100, verse number four. If you are back there, would you say, “Praise the Lord”? Good, good. Verse number four, Psalm 100, verse number four. He says, “Enter into His gates with…” What is the next word? Thanksgiving. All right. Here is the next step. “And into His courts with…” What? Praise.
Now notice it starts off by giving thanks. If people would debate about this, this is what I believe, and I have studied it out. This is the conclusion I came to: Giving thanks is more giving Him thanks for the good things He has done in your life. By the way, He has done good things for all of us. If you are born in America or you live in America—we have one of our dear people, precious people, and they said, “Would you pray for our home country of Nigeria?” Friend, we are blessed here. You can say, “I got a bad life, a rough life.” Can I be honest with you? In many ways, we do not know what bad is.
So He starts off, He says, “Give thanks.” And that enters you into the outside gates. You are in the courtyard. But He said, “You want to get into the courts.” He said, “You enter into praise.” Now, praise is a little different. It is not thanking Him for what He has done for you; it is thanking Him for what He is. He gives all these things to us because He is gracious. The mercy of the Lord endureth forever. “Thy gentleness hath made me great,” David said. He is gentle to us. I do not deserve that. Thy loving-kindness—He is loving, kind. He is patient, the God of all patience.
He was talking with someone, one of our church members this morning, just His creation is amazing. You can praise Him for His creation. How about these leaves? They have been turning. They are about to all fall off, but, you know, it is just amazing. But you praise Him. It starts off with giving thanks. At that point, there is a good chance because everything is bad, if you will, sometimes in your life, and I use that lightly, that it is not really in your heart, but you give thanks. And after you are giving thanks for a while, then it begins to change you, where it is going from giving thanks to now praising Him.
And then watch the rest of the verse. What does it end up? Once you praise Him, you enter into His courts. And then what does it say? Then, now He says, “Be thankful unto Him.”
By the way, you know James 3 says your tongue is like a horse that has got the bit. Those horses—we have a horse, not ours, but a horse lives behind us. He has got a mailbox. He lives right there. No, I am joking about that. But our neighbor has a horse. Maybe that is more accurate, you know. And he is big, beautiful. And sometimes I walk across their field. They know that. And my wife cuts part of it. They are good with all that. But sometimes he will a little bit challenge me, especially when there are two of them. They will challenge me: “This is our field. You are not going to walk across here.” And if my dog Dixie does not get involved, which is not good, she will chase those horses all over the place. But we have a little standoff on that. You yell a little bit, raise your hands, no take off, you know. Why was I telling that story? What was it? Oh, the bit. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. My thing is, I am not putting on this. It is true. Bless you. But the… Those horses are big. They are just muscle, man. They are big and strong. And yet you control those big old horses just a little bit. And James 3 says that is how your tongue is. It compares it to a ship and a rudder. Big old ship, a little bit of rudder controls it. And so when you start giving thanks, you are turning your ship, your horse, and it ends up in praise. And then it changes your heart where you become truly thankful. Because at first, it is not really there, but you give thanks. And God knows we are sinful. That is why He says so much more about giving thanks than it has. If He can just get you giving thanks, you will get over there. But you enter in, you open the door by giving thanks. And then praise. He says, “Be thankful unto Him and bless His name.” That is so very, very important.
Brother Josh, can we get that image up there on the screen? And we are going to get that going here. And I want you to see this. This is the tabernacle. I have mentioned several times here in Psalm 100. Some will debate whether it is a tabernacle or temple. We are going to look at the tabernacle here. There we go. There we go. We have got the tabernacle. This is the children of Israel. Okay, that was the children of Israel. There—no, that is the… Can we go back to the tabernacle? We are going back, we are going back.
There we go. There we go. As I was saying, there are the children. They would camp around. The center of them was the tabernacle. Very interesting. Many were saying—I believe it is true—if you notice how the tribes were stationed around the numbers in the tribes, it makes you cross. Pretty amazing. But the children of Israel were gathered around. The center of them was the tabernacle. And here is the outer curtain inside of that. That would be considered the gate. Inside of that is the outward court. And you have got the brazen altar. You have got the laver there. And they had all for sacrifice. They cleaned up right there in the water and the basin. But here, here is where the presence of God dwelt. By the way, He said, “I want you to make the tabernacle because I want to abide among My people.” That was the purpose of it. He said, “I want to abide among the people, and I want to be with them.” Exodus 25. He said, that is the purpose of it. And really, the presence of God—that is why the cloud by day and the fire by night would come up. It all centered there.
Inside that back part is the Most Holy Place. It was the Ark of the Covenant, the Cherubim with the wings over it, and His dwelling was amongst the wings of the cherubim there. That is where, really, He just, in an amazing way, because He wanted to dwell among His people. And this right here is called the Holy Place. It is cut in half. There is a veil, a very thick veil, in the back part, the Most Holy Place. That is where the presence of God dwelt. That is what we are going to enter in at. Remember, Jesus went down the cross, He rent the veil from top to bottom.
Now let us look at the next one there. Would you please, Brother Micah back there, and let us get in the Holy Place here? Can we get that Holy Place? We are coming. We are working on it. And good. They showed me their finger. I do not want your finger down. And I am teasing with them there. That was not the middle finger, by the way. It was not. I had to clarify that. I am going to get in trouble this morning.
So the priests, they would come in here, and this is the Holy Place. Over here is a table of showbread, six pieces, six pieces—twelve, twelve tribes of Israel. And over here, the seven golden candlesticks, Menorah. And they come in here, and they would take care of these things every day, especially the candlesticks. They would trim them, put all representing the Holy Spirit in there. And this right here, the altar of incense. And they would offer up this incense, and it would give just a sweet aroma. And notice where it is positioned: right in front of the veil. About one time a year, the high priest would enter into the Most Holy Place. And the last thing before they entered in was that—it represents the praises of God’s people. And by the way, when you get someone that is giving thanks and then it leads into praise, you bring an atmosphere with you. It is not a mean, hateful, cutting on everybody attitude. It is a loving, sweet—it brings an aroma about it. And boy, when you offer up this sacrifice, it would bring, and the priest would do that. And that is the last thing, if you will, before entering in the Most Holy Place.
Now I am saying, you see the correlation over here with Psalm 100, verse number four: “Enter into His gates with Thanksgiving,” and offering Him your praise.
But how to get in this court? You are getting closer to Him. Friend, I am saying, “Well, I will complain about everything to God.” You are not going to enter in. We are out of time, friend. But I am saying, you need to give thanks. So many reasons, but it will change your life. It will help your prayer life. You will be closer to Him. You will have His presence. So much more. So much more. It is so very… And we had more we were going to give. Give thanks during your trials.
But I will finish with this because we have got to be done. We have got to be done. Look over, if you will, look over in Luke 22. We are going to be done. Look at Luke 22. We will be done. We ran out of time. And I want you just see this. This is Jesus. By the way, Jesus, He did not really teach a whole lot about giving thanks, but He practiced it. You will see Him over and again in the New Testament, giving thanks, giving thanks. Feeding the 4,000—several loaves, few fishes—He is giving thanks. Over and over again, you will find Jesus giving thanks, giving thanks, giving thanks. He practiced. He is a perfect example.
And this is Jesus. He is… He is about to go and be tortured all night long. The next morning, be crucified. He knows what is about to happen. And He is with His apostles. And He is having what we call the Last Supper. He knows what is about to happen. And He is giving them—He is giving them the bread and the juice, the wine. He is giving it to them. And He knows what it represents. He knows that represents. He is about to give His body and His blood. He is about to go through the roughest of times. And I want you to notice what Jesus does. And by this, I want to encourage you to give praise and give thanks during your tough times. Watch what Jesus does. Luke 22, verse number 19, would you please? Luke 22:19.
This is Jesus, and He took bread and what is the next two words? He is giving them bread that represents Him being beaten with a cat of nine tails. He is giving them bread that represents His beard being plucked out. He is giving them bread that represents a crown of thorns on His head. It is representing the bread. Jesus said, John 6:35, “I am the bread of life.” And yet He knows what it is all about, and He is giving it to them. And even in the midst of a trial, He is about to enter into the greatest trial anybody has ever endured—all sin of all mankind be placed on Him. And what does it say right there? “And he took bread and…” Help me out. And what are the next few words? “…gave thanks.” It will not take all your problems away, but it will sure help you through your problems. “In everything, give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” Not after. I am bad about it once it is all over. I can say, “God, what You had, praise You.” No, no. God says, “In everything give thanks.” Jesus is entering into the awful time, and He gives thanks.
Would you bow your heads and close your eyes? Or heads are bowed, or eyes are closed? I am not going to have you raise your hands today. I am going to ask—I am going to pray in just a minute here—and I am going to ask you spend a lot of time giving Him thanks. If the Holy Spirit is prompting you to come to an old-fashioned altar and give thanks, I think that would be wonderful. But you obey what He says, but I am going to ask you to give thanks. Just a moment. We will stand, we will pray, and as I get to pray, would you spend some time giving thanks?
And then I am going to ask this: Would you tell the Lord if you are willing to make the decision? “Lord, I want to give thanks in the trials, during the trials.” Not wait until it gets over in the fish’s belly. I want You—if you are willing to make that—you are not going to be perfect. None of us are, but I am going to try. I am going to seek to give thanks during, during the trial.
And then let me say this. We will stand and pray. If you are not saved, it will be mighty tough to give thanks because you do not have heaven to look forward to. The closer you get to death, and nobody knows what tomorrow holds, the gloomier it would be. If I did not know Jesus loves me and I have accepted Him as my Savior, I am going to heaven, it would be hard to give thanks.
If you are not saved, we would love to be a help to get you saved. Jesus wants to save you. He has offered salvation to you. He has purchased your salvation with His blood. He has offered it to you. If you are not saved, there will be a man standing down front. And if you do not want to go in front of everybody, there will be a man standing in the back. You go shake their hand and say, “Man, I want to get saved. I need to get saved.” And you will have a whole lot to be thankful for.
Would you please stand? All of us, would you please stand? All of us, we are going to have a word of prayer. Would you just spend a good amount of time giving Him thanks, giving Him thanks? I believe you. Tell Him. Say, “Lord, I am going to do my best. I am going to do my best to thank You during the—not after it is over, but during the trial.” If you are not saved, would you please come, shake these men’s hands?
Father, thank You. You want us to be close to You, just like You came and You dwelt in the tabernacle. You come and You dwell in us. And Lord, we want to enter into Your presence, Lord. We want to get to the Most Holy with You. Help us to learn from Your word to enter in with thanksgiving and then Your courts with praise. You have to be truly thankful people in Jesus. And we pray. Amen.
Would you spend time? Just spend time. Come to the old-fashioned altar. That is wonderful. However it leads you, giving Him thanks. Let us give Him thanks. Let us give Him thanks. Let us give Him thanks. Yeah, something special about an altar. You want to come give Him thanks. That is a great thing to do. Wherever you are at, however He leads you, let us give Him thanks. Do not wait until the trial is over. You have got it all figured out. That does not take much faith. And right in the middle of it, give Him thanks. That pleases Him.
If you do not know for sure having your home, we would love to be a help. He loves you so very much. He wants to save you. He wants to promise you. If you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, totally in Him, He promises everlasting life. You can truly enter into His presence fully—fullness of joy. Give Him thanks.
Yes, we all have problems. Yes, we all have things to complain about. But we all have things we can thank God for, all of us, all of us. You are a born-again Christian. Your name is written down in the Lamb’s Book of Life, written to the kingdom. You can praise Him for all—to turn to that right there, going to heaven. Amen. Help me out. Help me out. Help me out. Here we go. Here we go. Enter into His gates with what? Thanksgiving. And into His courts with… Yeah, be thankful unto Him and bless His name. That is how you open the door into His presence. Start off with Thanksgiving. I hope you have a great, great week giving thanks. I want to see it tonight. And then Tuesday night. That is a sweet, sweet service because we are giving thanks. Just something about it. And it is awesome. I hope you are here tonight and Tuesday night. I would love to have it come for all those things. Praise the Lord, you are in God’s house this morning.
Original File: 2025-11-24 - Pastor Paul Chisgar ＂How to Open the Door to His Presence＂ - Sunday AM 11⧸23⧸2025