목양연가(牧羊戀歌)

Deuteronomy 16; 9-17  Truthful thanks

Since we are having an Installation ceremony for the kwonsa next week Sunday, I’ll deliver Thanksgiving message today.  The churches in the Old Testament time observed Passover, Feast of Weeks and Thanksgiving. However, the churches in the New Testament including our church observe Christmas which celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ. Also, we observe Easter which celebrates Jesus’ resurrection after his death on the cross. Then, we observe Thanksgiving. In this perspective, I think that observing Thanksgiving has a deep meaning.  We know that Jesus came to this earth in the form of body and that He died on the crossed and resurrected after three days. However, if we’re not thankful to God, we can’t say that we have the right kind of faithfulness in our life. Of course, there are many of us who are thankful for God’s grace. Those of you who are thankful should continue to be thankful and those of you who are not should learn to be more thankful so that you receive blessings. Therefore, I would like to share a sermon titled, “A truthful thanks” and receive grace. May the Lord’s blessings fill your spirit and mind.

First of all, let’s think about what kind of person gives truthful thanks? That is, a wise person knows how to give truthful thanks. A wise person knows the origin and the beginning and the end. Therefore, they can have thankful heart. Look, a wise person who knows the parents’ sacrifice is thankful and treat them well. However, a foolish person doesn’t know the parents’ sacrifice. So, he complains to the parents and mistreats them. Likewise, a wise person who realizes and knows God’s grace can give genuine thanks. On the other hand, a person who doesn’t realize God’s amazing grace is not thankful and rather complains. Why is that? It comes from the foolishness of not realizing. For example, the Israelites were this way. God led them as pillar of cloud in the daytime and as pillar of fire in the night. He provided them with quail and manna. When they were thirsty in the wilderness, He made water gush out from a rock. Not only that, when the Pharaoh came after them with his army, the Red Sea was in front of them.  So what did he do?  The Red sea split so that the Israelites could walk on ground. God did whatever Israelites asked for. But, if you look at the bible, what did they do? They blamed God and complained to Him. Instead of thanking God, they blamed him first. Why do you think that is? That comes from foolishness of not knowing and not realizing His grace. If you look at Genesis, Sarah’s servant Hagar didn’t realize her master’s love for her. Instead of being thankful, she despised her and eventually this led her to be thrown out from Sarah’s house. Also, Adam and Eve who lived in the Eden garden by the grace of God weren’t thankful to God. They even foolishly wanted to be like God and got tricked by the devil. They too were thrown out from the garden. Then, it is necessary for us to think about how our life is. Are we not thankful because we haven’t received anything from God?  Or are we not thankful because we haven’t realized the grace that we’ve received from God? If we are blaming him, why are we doing it? When a person who should be thankful is not thankful, it is not a wise thing to do. Dear saints, I pray in the name of the Lord that we become wise and beautiful saints who are thankful to God.  Are we in hardship because of the situation we are in right now? Then, we should be thankful by thinking of the people who are less fortunate than us. In our lifetime, we have difficult times, good times and bad times. Therefore, Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 5:18, “Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Yes!! I pray in the name of the Lord that we become wise saints who give thanks in all circumstances.

Secondly, what should we be thankful for? That is we should be thankful for God’s blessings. There are two types of God’s blessings. First is general blessing. Second is special blessing. Then, what is a general blessing? That is given to everybody without discrimination. It is the gift of the nature. This blessing was given to believers of Christ and non-believers. The things such as sun, air, rain, clothes, food, stars in the sky and moon are provided for everyone. The believers don’t get more than the non-believers. For the farmers, they are given good harvest because it is part of general blessing. Second, special blessing is given only to the believers of God. The special blessing enables us to believe that God came to this earth in the form of body and he died on the cross and resurrected after three days. Some people can’t believe it but we believe in our heart that Jesus Christ is our Savior. The special blessing is that if we believe, we’ll receive eternal life. St. Paul said in Corinthians 1: 18, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” This is indeed the spiritual secret. The one who believes in the message of cross can have an effect which is to become God’s children. Also, it is to have our sins forgiven and receive the salvation. The one who can believe this is the one who received the special blessing. Then, how can we tell who receives the special blessings? That is, first, we know when someone voluntarily comes to God. John 6:44 says, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.” Also, John 6:65 says, “He went on to say, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him.” Second, we know when someone says Jesus is Lord. In 1 Corinthians 12:3 says, “And no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.” We indeed received the special blessing since we came to church and open our mouth and called Jesus our Lord and praised him. God made all this possible. We are so blessed to be part of the special blessing of salvation but those who are not are pitiful and they will perish.

Thirdly, let’s think about what we can do to give truthful thanks. First, we should think that even if we don’t have anything, we should still be joyous because of God. If you look at Habakkuk 3:17~, it’s about Habakkuk’s prayer. “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. Even if he has nothing, He is saying that he’ll be thankful because of God. I believe this is the right attitude of truthful thanks. Second, the person who is thankful has to understand the mind of the one receiving thankfulness. Look, if the children have thankful heart to their parents, they would try to do things to please them. When they are young, they just need to eat well and be healthy. When they are students, they just need to study hard. When they are grown-ups, they just need to work hard. Then the parents are content. However, if they didn’t have thankful heart, they would hang out with bad friends and not care about what the parents think. Also, if a servant has a thankful heart to the master, he would do his best to complete his job. Likewise, if we have thankful heart to Jesus, we would try our best to please Jesus. Then, what would God want us to do most? There are many but foremost, He wants us to bring the lost souls to the Lord. Why did Jesus come to this earth and be ridiculed and mistreated and died on the cross? What is the purpose for this? Therefore, even one lost sheep was valuable to him and when he found it, he rejoiced with his neighbors.

Dear saints, next week is the Thanksgiving service. Also, we’ll have Installation ceremony. If we have genuine thankful heart, we would be looking at the souls who should come to Jesus Christ. This is the time to harvest the crops in the field. At this time of harvest, if we don’t harvest, the crops will be thrown away in the cold winter. Before the dead winter comes, don’t you want to be part of harvesting the crop of life? I believe the truthful thanks to our Lord is to find lost souls and bring them to Him. On Thanksgiving, it is important to make offering and offer our service with thankful heart. However, what’s more important is to find the lost souls and bring them to the Lord. I pray God’s grace fill your spirit.

 By: Samuel Choi