# Entering into His Presence

Key Passage: Psalm 100
Date: June 7, 2024

Would you take your Bibles and turn to Psalms, Chapter 100? We have been focusing on Sunday mornings on the subject of your walk with God or getting alone with God.

Perhaps a little combination of that and Thanksgiving all in one. I’ve not been good at it, but I’ve heard a preacher, Jack Treber, actually. He kind of challenged me at the beginning of the month of November to make the whole month Thanksgiving month. I’ve tried to work at that. I’m not doing good at it, but I’ve tried, and I hope you do the same. So, a little before Thanksgiving, I like to get our hearts and our minds going that way, specifically in this area of meeting with the Lord, growing our time alone with the Lord.

But we’re going to start over here in Psalms 100. We’re going to read the whole chapter.

It’s only five verses, all right. I’ve got a lot of you worried for a second there. Brother Steve Page is about to get them to walk out, I’ll tell you what now.

In Psalms 100, we’re going to start in verse number one. Would you please stand if you’re able to, just to show the Word of God respect? Psalms 100. We’re going to start in verse number one. And the Bible says, “Make a joyful noise.” Some of us that can’t sing say, “Amen” right there.

Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. That’s what we do in the shower when we sing, amen, you know. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before his presence with singing. Know ye that the Lord, he is God. It is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves. We are his people and the sheep of his pasture.

“Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise. Be thankful unto him, and bless his name. For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting; His truth endureth to all generations.”

Our focus is going to be verse four. In fact, the title for the internet is “Entering Into His Presence.”

Would you read verse number four out loud with me, please? Here we go: “Enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise. Be thankful unto him and bless his name.”

We’re going to pray. We’re going to try to just drive right into it. We are running a little late because of everything today, so we’ll just try to get back to the point pretty quickly this morning. Would you pray with me that God would speak to your heart? Let’s pray that.

Father, thank you for people coming to church. Lord, the choir special was so true. Thank you for even that, Lord. Everything has been good—the fellowship, singing, all that, Veterans Day, the remembering. But, Lord, your word changes lives. When we come to the time when we are to feed, if you will, from your wonderful words of life, Lord, I do pray that you would bring life to every person here. Lord, be working in their hearts in some way, and make this passage real to us and apply it to our lives. Lord, thank you for what you do. Lord, I ask for that in the name of Jesus. I pray. Amen.

Thank you so much for standing. You may be seated.

I promise you, every person here wants to enter into His presence. You say, “Well, I don’t know. That kind of sounds like a ritual type thing.” I’m telling you, if you ever experience entering into the presence of the Lord, you’ll want that.

You find, really, if you will—and I think I’m accurate in this, I’m not totally accurate, but if you get what I’m saying—you’ll find everything when you enter into His presence.

I think about the young people here. Oscar, how old are you? Twelve. Daniel is older. How old are you, Daniel? Fifteen. Daniel’s fifteen, twelve, fifteen, whatever the age. Think about all the years they have ahead of them. If they could learn to enter into God’s presence, man, they get direction there. I mean, Husset’s like, “What am I going to do? Whom am I going to marry?” Husset says, “No way. Them boys are too mean and ugly.” Anyway, the direction for life, they can get it there. He knows everything. He knows the future. You talk about somebody that can give you direction for your life—getting along with God, man, getting in His presence is awesome.

The things our soul needs—really, you can bring it down to three basic things we need: love, peace, and joy. Maybe we can add hope. We look for that in so many different things in life, but really you can get it down to those basic things. You can get all those things found in the presence of God.

Sometimes we’re so needy out here in front of everybody, like in Matthew 6, because we’ve not been getting what we need here in the presence of God. Really, everything you need is found in the presence of God—financial, health-wise.

Anybody out there ever just get tired? We used to have a fellow who used to say—maybe it’s the second building, you’ve seen these buildings—he’d say, “My tides are hanging out tonight.” He’d come Wednesday night and say, “My tides are hanging out tonight.” He’s an old country boy; he’s saying he’s tired. Sometimes you just get tired of life, a little weary.

The Bible talks about that over in Isaiah 40. He talks about how even the youth get like that from time to time. Then he says, “But they that wait upon the Lord.” Really, he’s talking about getting along with God and waiting upon the Lord. “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up as eagles with wings as eagles. They shall not weary. They shall run and not faint.”

We don’t see many eagles in our area, but this morning we had a bunch of buzzards. Now, I know that’s a sorry comparison, but they do have a big old wingspan. We have horses out back in the fields over there, and they had found something. There’s a bunch of buzzards over there fighting over some kind of… I don’t know what it was, hopefully it was a dead skunk, amen, so it won’t come around my house. But they had found something, and all those buzzards, man, when they just get a little lift, they can just soar, and the wind just lifts them up.

That’s what the Bible is talking about. You get the presence of God, and you’re tired of life, but God says you can just stretch your wings out. You don’t have to work, and God just lifts you up.

The presence of God—I’m telling you, every person here wants that. My old preacher used to compare it. He said, if you ever just get a taste of being in the presence of God, it’s like an old hound dog back in the day when everybody had chickens. I’m talking about way back in the day, depression times and all that stuff. Once that hound dog in the neighborhood tasted one chicken, it’s all over. You can chain that dog up, but once he tastes a chicken one time, he’s going to go after chickens. He’ll get off that leash one day. That dog was a Baptist preacher, amen. Once you’ve tasted of the presence of God, there are a lot of counterfeits out there, but nothing is the same.

This passage is talking about entering into the presence of God. We’re talking about being tired of life. Anybody out there ever get tired of yourself? We can’t even change ourselves.

There are several illustrations of people that really met God, and God changed them. One guy, he was so manipulative everywhere—his name was Jacob, meaning deceiver, supplanter, manipulator. He just always manipulated everybody, every angle of all the stories. But he got an encounter with God. It took all night long. God changed his name; his name was Israel after that, Prince with God. What a change.

Another guy, he was killing Christians. His name was Saul, and he met God on this road. God just showed up, Jesus just showed up in his life. His name was changed to Paul, and he became a great preacher. That’s what you want in life: entering into the presence of God.

Now here’s the problem. Y’all with me out there? Let’s go back to our verse. We’re in verse number four. I want you to look at it because I have a problem here with this thing. I know I want to enter into the presence of God, but here’s my problem. Look at verse number four.

He says, “Enter into his gates with…” What’s the next word? That’s my problem. You see, don’t look at me like that; you have the same problem. When I’m tired and discouraged and defeated, and I’m tired of myself or whatever, I don’t want to give thanks. I know that’s what I need, but during those times, that’s when I’m complaining about all my problems. I don’t want to give thanks at that time. In fact, so often, I don’t even try to get over there like I ought to. If that represents the presence of God, I’m so busy trying to cope with it the world’s way or my own flesh’s way that I’m not really spending the time trying to get into this presence.

Sometimes I’m so focused on that, I never focus on getting over there in His presence. I’m doing all these things, learning all my comfort zones and things to help—and I’m not saying they’re bad necessarily—but half the time I’m not even trying to enter into His presence. I’m just so stuck on my thing, my world, and the problems, and I’m just not trying to get over there.

Now, here’s another problem. When I do get over there and I’m trying to get into His presence, you know what I’m doing? I want to tell Him, “God, this is going on, this is going on, and did you see so-and-so? Did you see this? You know about this?” And God’s like, “Yeah, I know about all that.”

Here’s the thing: if this represents entering into His presence, when I come with all my complaining, there’s a little bit of a gate right there; I can’t get past it. I know I need to get past it, and sometimes I even work at it, but I can’t get past. They won’t let me pass because I’m trying to enter in with complaints. The Bible doesn’t say that.

And sometimes—I don’t know if you ever do this, you probably never do this—but your preacher sometimes does this. Instead of just praying in faith, I come over here and have a pity party. That’s pretty bad. But the Bible never says you enter into His presence by having a pity party. It never says that. Sometimes, even our bitterness comes out on this line, and the Bible doesn’t say I enter in His presence that way. Actually, I don’t enter into His presence when I’m there.

Can I say this: when I’m having a pity party, it really is all centered about me. And that’s a form of pride. You’ve heard it said many times, P-R-I, the middle letter, D-E. Even when I’m complaining, it’s all about me: “I don’t think I deserve all these things in my life,” or “Why is all this coming to my life? And it’s not fair.” These things are forms of pride.

Help me out; you know the verses. What does the Bible say? God resists it. He resisteth the proud. It never says he resisteth even the alcoholic, because if an alcoholic comes to him humbly, wanting his help and seeking God’s help, he’ll help him. But when it’s all about me, me, me, me, me, God says, “Hold on, buddy. No, you don’t enter in that way. You get resistance.”

That’s the bad part of this thing. That’s my problem with Psalm 100, verse number four. Do y’all want to go over to the good part of it? Y’all with me? Let’s get to the good part.

Let’s go back to verse number four in Psalm 100. We all know—I hope you realize—that we need the presence of God. I need that for sure. But help me out. Let’s read it again: “Enter into his gates with what?” What’s the next word?

I want you to notice that word. It doesn’t necessarily say, “Enter into his gates with being thankful.” Because when I’m mad and frustrated and tired, and I’m tired of myself and everybody else around me, it’s hard to be thankful. I’m being honest with you. Anybody in agreement with me on that? That’s the honest truth. So God doesn’t say you enter into His courts with being thankful, because for us old sinful people, that would be impossible. So he says you enter in with—I’m changing it up a little bit—with giving thanks. That’s what it says: thanksgiving.

So I might not feel like it. I’m not going to feel like it when I’m tired, discouraged, and defeated, whatever it may be. But I can come over here and start—I enter in by giving of thanks.

It’s amazing. I don’t necessarily feel it because I’m mad and tired and all the rest, but if I just start giving thanks… We’ve talked about this a lot over the years. Sometimes when you’re just riding down the road and the devil’s trying to get in your vehicle with you—does that ever happen to you?—this is how you get rid of it. How do you enter into the presence of God? Just start thanking God for everything you see at that moment.

“Thank you, Lord, for light poles because they bring electricity.” Praise the Lord, we have heat because of electricity. Thank you, Lord, for grass. Can you imagine what the world would look like without grass? If you ever go out West, you’d find out; it’s just all brown. Thank you, Lord, for streets. Man, that’d be a bumpy ride. Just start thanking Him for everything you see. I learned this from Brother Fontaine: “Thank you for the buzzards overeating that dead animal. You’re the automatic trash cleaner of this world.” Amen. Thank you for everything that comes to your mind or you see; start thanking Him.

It’s amazing: when I start giving thanks, then these fellows start letting me in a little bit. I can start entering into the presence of God. That’s what the Bible is talking about: “Enter into his courts with thanksgiving.” I start giving of thanks.

Now here’s the thing. This is what the devil’s going to tell you. This is what your own brain is going to tell you. I’ve been there. I know this is what’s going to happen. You’re going to start saying, “Well, I really don’t have that much to be thankful for.”

If you can get up and make it into church today, you have a healthy body. You have legs that can carry you. You have feet. You can put your own clothes on. Imagine everybody here today: you can move your hand. You can see. Can you imagine what it would be like to be blind? There are a whole lot of blind people in the world. You could have been born blind, not seeing a thing, having to have a cane or somebody to guide you every step of the way. Praise the Lord, you can see with your eyes.

I don’t know about you, but I can eat a good meal, amen. I can taste real good. I have hands. I don’t have both hands, but I have hands. I can do pretty much whatever I need to do. We all have so much to be thankful for. Shame on us when we complain and moan and grump. We live in the greatest nation on the face of the earth. If you’ve got two cars, you’re so much better than the vast majority of the world. The vast majority of us have two cars in the driveway. We’ve got so much to be thankful for.

If you think you have nothing to be thankful for, go up to Vanderbilt Hospital, go to the burn unit, and then go over there to the infants and find out if they have a drug baby in there. That baby didn’t do anything wrong, but that baby, sometimes for months, would just be breathing in pain, agonizing and whining because that body is trying to come off the drugs that the mom was taking. You could have been born like that. I could have been born like that.

We all have so much to be thankful for. Shame on me when I complain and moan and groan. I have a wonderful church to pastor. I have a wonderful wife, two wonderful kids in church serving the Lord. Praise the Lord. And I’ll complain and have a pity party, and I won’t enter into His presence either. God doesn’t respond to my pity. God doesn’t respond to my complaining. He’s a gracious God.

When I enter into His presence, His courts, His gates, it is with thanksgiving. That’s where it all starts: giving of thanks. Don’t listen to the devil, friend; you’ve got all kinds of things to be thankful for.

Now here’s the wonderful thing about it. God’s so wise. Watch what happens. So I enter into His courts with what? With Thanksgiving. Hebrews 13:5 talks about it. It’s even our lips, our tongue, and other places in the Bible. I start giving thanks, not just, you know, in my heart, thinking, “Well, I think that.” No, no, no, no. You start saying that.

I’ll start giving Him thanks, and here’s the amazing thing: James chapter number three talks about how our tongue is like a rudder on a ship. How many of you have ever seen an aircraft carrier in real life? Huge, massive. These moving cities on water are controlled by rudders. Comparatively, that rudder is so small, but it can steer that huge ship. The Bible in James 3 says our tongue is like that rudder, and it steers us.

So I’m down in the dumps. I’m having a pity party. I’m discouraged, defeated, no energy, tired, worn out, and all that. I know I need to get into His presence, so I start giving thanks. I don’t feel it, but I start giving thanks. And what happens? My tongue starts turning my ship. Your tongue is a steering wheel, if you will. I start turning that wheel on purpose. I don’t feel like it, but I start turning that way, and I start going, just giving thanks. I’m thanking the Lord for everything: thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you for all these things.

And here’s the amazing thing: my tongue starts turning my soul, my heart, my mind over here. If I keep going, it’ll turn down this road, and at the end of the road is called being thankful. If I keep traveling down that road, my tongue turns me too. Further down there is this thing called praise.

Did you notice the last part of that verse? Look back to verse four: “Enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise.” Now, praise is stronger than thanksgiving, and it’s more about the Lord. It’s not just thanking the Lord for what He’s done for you; it’s thanking the Lord more for what He is. It’s getting your focus more on the Lord. “Thank you for your mercy. You’re so merciful. You’re so gracious.” David penned this: “Thy gentleness hath made me great.” Praise the Lord, He deals with us in gentleness. You thank Him for His gentleness. You get where you’re praising Him for more than just creation. Man, that’s beautiful. You see that beautiful mountain scenery? It goes beyond that. “Thank you, Lord, You’re so creative. Man, You’ve made a beautiful world for us.”

It gets our attention off of our problems and how bad we think it is down here in this messed-up world, and it gets our focus more on the Lord. We started off: we enter in His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise.

Friend, giving thanks during those times is so key because it’s the steering wheel. As I keep going down that road, and I get close… You say I start giving thanks, and the Lord says, “Well, you know what? I like that. I’m listening a little bit more down there. Brother Chip’s bragging on me now about what all I did for him.” The Lord says, “Well, Brother Chip’s starting to recognize that a little bit.” So the Lord says, “Let me listen a little bit more.” He listens better. If Brother Chip keeps going down that road, he begins to enter into praise, and God inhabits the praises of His people. Pretty soon, the presence of God begins to enter into your life. That’s what you need. That’ll renew your strength like the eagle. That feeling just entering into His presence—I think it would be the first time we’ll know what perfect love is all about. You’ll just feel it through your whole body: God loves you. You always will. You have a little glimpse of all those things, but it starts with giving thanks.

By the way, then it becomes thankful, and gratitude is the sweetener of life. It really is. Friday, my wife brought me—praise the Lord for a good wife—she brought me a peppermint mocha. Can somebody say amen right there? Now, it wasn’t sweet enough. She said, “Man, they didn’t add any sweetener in here.” And I tasted it, and I said, “Yeah, you’re right.” It wasn’t that good. A peppermint mocha—I was surprised it didn’t taste very good at all. That’s one of those fancy drinks that’s supposed to taste good.

A spoonful of sugar, amen, as they say. Just a little sugar in there, and I was like, “Wow, that’s good right there.” If you put that on top of my head and tied my hands behind my back, my tongue would beat my brains out trying to get to it. That’s good stuff. Just a little sweetener. And that’s what being thankful does. It’ll make your marriage sweet. It makes your walk with God sweet. It changes everything. Life’s bitter and cold; you get a little gratitude. Enter in those gates with thanksgiving.

The verses before were talking about how He made us. Even there, in that thanksgiving, you sing sometimes. Verses two and three talk about that. I’m not talking about singing to be heard by man. If it were me, I’d close all the doors and windows, but just singing to God—that’s part of it. Just give thanks through all this.

Then in verse five, your focus begins on the Lord; it becomes more about praise, more about the Lord, about who He is. It’ll change you. That takes faith. If you’re drowning—sometimes we feel like we’re drowning in life and problems are all around us, everything’s so bad—that’s why we want to complain and have pity parties. It’s hard to get your eyes off yourself when you’re drowning. It takes faith. By faith, you step out and say, “All right, I’m just going to start giving thanks.”

The ultimate fulfillment of that verse—“Enter into his gates with Thanksgiving and into his courts with praise”—is called heaven. One day we’re going to fully enter in bodily. But I must, for a moment at least, get my eyes off all this and, by faith, put my eyes on Jesus, trusting in Jesus to pay my sin debt.

Satan is so good; he’ll try to get us so focused on all the problems. He’ll show you the worst and allow horrible things to happen in your life. He’s trying his best to get your eyes off of Jesus and His love for you, to get your eyes on all the problems, all the bitterness, all the hate. But in order to fully enter into His courts, I’ve got to have a step of faith by getting my eyes off all that and devising Jesus. Look unto Jesus; look and live. I look to Jesus: “Jesus, you’re my only way to go to heaven. I’m going to put my full faith in you, Jesus, what you did on the cross.” That’s a step of faith.

One day when we go to heaven, praise the Lord, we’ll lay our robe of flesh down. But, friend, while we’re down here in this sin-cursed world, what we all need is to enter into His presence. That’s what we need. But I don’t enter in complaining. I don’t enter in with pity. I enter into His presence with thanksgiving. That’s where it all starts. That gets my ship turned that way. Then I get to praise, getting my eyes off of me and what all He’s done for me, and I get my eyes on who He is. Boy, I get a little bit closer to Him. I promise you, when you get close to Him, He has everything you need.

Original File: Pastor Paul Chisgar - Entering Into His Presence - Sunday AM 11132022