Title: Faith and Gratitude/Colossians 3:16-17
Content Not long ago, the field was a golden field. The fields are growing well, and the orchards are full of beautiful fruits. This is the gratitude and blessing we feel during the harvest season.
The tragedy of city life is that we cannot live without stepping on the ground, live without fresh and clean air, and live without enjoying the joy of the harvest. Every day when I wake up, I walk on cement floors, suffer from fumes, and drink polluted water. This is a life in which we have lost the good nature that God has given us.
Comparing the poor days of the past with today, we are living in a better world now. Above all, we should thank God. Thanks to agricultural science, yields are incomparably higher than before. The fruit grew bigger, the taste improved, and the atmosphere of the countryside developed a lot. The old days were really difficult times to the point that I don't even want to remember them. Indeed, our nation is a nation that knows well what hunger is.
So, if you are watching TV from 30 years ago, it is truly incomprehensible. Even if you change, you will realize that a lot has changed. I can't forget the time when I had to wake up late and go to bed early in order to save a meal for why my stomach was so hungry. So, how much should we give thanks to God today?
There is nothing in human history as terrifying as hunger. Bread problem, this is a serious problem. This is a more terrifying problem than war. Everyone, go to the labor market. You don't know how intense the issue of human existence is. Fashion and fashion, travel and enjoyment are all you need after eating. Fine clothes or diamonds, these are valuable only to those who are full. For hungry people, fullness comes first.
So this problem of hunger is a global problem. Even now, it is said that ten thousand people a day die from hunger. And it is said that more than 100,000 people die every day due to hunger. How scary is that?
Today is Thanksgiving Day. We should know this meaning and be thankful for it. Truly, God's blessing is something to be thankful for. Now, the problem of eating for our people has been solved. Thank you so much. As we celebrate Thanksgiving Day today, we have a few things to remember.
1. To live with a grateful heart.
The text says, “(Colossians 3:15) Be thankful”. We must live with this grateful heart in our hearts. A human life consists in living a life filled with gratitude in the heart. When we live, eat, and live with that heart, we speak of happiness, we speak of grace, and we live with gratitude.
The earth does not lie. The land pays for sweat exactly as much as people put in the effort. No more, no less, only what you sow. The land is not subject to corruption, bribes, or tricks. Honest. Efforts are rewarded precisely for anyone. Farmers know that. So, farmers do their best to farm. Because the instructions don't work. So, farmers respect the sky and live in gratitude for the sky.
Today people say it's farming science, it's all-weather farming, but farmers don't overconfident in it. They are not frivolous because they realize how insignificant human-made agricultural facilities are, and how great the power of the heavens appearing during floods is when they are farming. That is why we should always give thanks to heaven and never forget the grace of God.
A man named Gam-sam, my villager, said that if God curses humans, he does not curse them with disease, failure, or death, and with a heart that does not believe even if they read the Bible, with a heart that does not believe that God is alive, with a heart that does not express gratitude. You said you would curse me. It is true that this is clearly a curse.
So there are some people who live in a very good environment, but without the slightest gratitude. That is the curse. And there are people who eat abundantly every day, and live without feeling grateful or grateful. How cursed is your heart? So, a life of gratitude is not something everyone does. It is a heart of blessing that only people with an open heart can do.
Look. We planted a very small seed. However, a very large pumpkin that is several thousand times larger than the seed that has been sown opens. How can you not be grateful for this? This is simply something that cannot be taken for granted. And obviously, one seed has been sown, and it bears hundreds of fruits. Corn sowed a single seed and produced hundreds of fruits. A fruit tree, once planted long ago, produces delicious fruit each year. If you say you do not have a grateful heart even after seeing this, it is a cursed heart as my village gamsam said. Beast.
So, depending on where you put your heart and live, your deeds and misfortunes are determined. And satisfaction and dissatisfaction are determined. Again, gratitude and complaints arise. If a person lives by focusing only on many things, that person will not be given a life of gratitude or a life of joy. Today, we must once again strive to live with a grateful heart. That heart is a heart given by God.
2. It is to give a heartfelt thanks.
The text says, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly” (Colossians 3:16). Just because a person has a lot to eat is not enough. Just because people eat, wear, and live comfortably doesn't mean it's the best. The next life should be a life of gratitude. Give thanks, but the gratitude must be centered. For example, we should give thanks because the Word is the center of our hearts. Without this, that gratitude will not last long, and when a person becomes full, he or she will stop making mistakes.
Jesus fasted and prayed for 40 days. Then Jesus was first tempted by Satan. The test is to make bread out of stones and eat it. What is the greatest need of a person who has fasted for 40 days and is now hungry? Guys, try fasting for just one week. All kinds of thoughts come to mind. Humans are very obsessive about eating.
But as soon as Jesus finished fasting for 40 days, Satan came to him. And what he said was to make bread out of stones and eat it. At that time, the Lord flatly refused in one word. (Matthew 4:4) “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” This verse means that even for those who have fasted for 40 days, the more precious thing than the problem of eating is the Word of God.
That's a really cool word. Only those who live with the Word as the center can give such an answer. Such people do not make mistakes when they are hungry, and they do not make mistakes when they are hungry. That is why a life of centered gratitude is important.
In that sense, in Christianity, the word comes first, not the bread. Just because you're hungry doesn't mean you can't do what Satan tells you to do. It is far less likely that you can eat anything without discernment just for the reality in front of you. Therefore, Christians must live with discernment in this matter alone.
What is the cause of the failure? It's because the way has changed. The bread does not come first, the Word comes first. You should have given that person the word first, not the bread first. It is that people do not live by bread alone. "People are starving, so let's feed them." This seems to be extremely reasonable, but that is the humanitarian idea, and in the faith it is not the right principle. So, there has never been an example of the church creating a human being by giving alms.
Here we need to listen to the word of the Lord. Even after fasting for 40 days, Jesus confidently said, "It is not the bread that comes first, but the word of God."
A missionary went to a rural church and preached. Sit down the village elders and ask, "Can a man live on bread alone?" Man cannot live on bread alone. It is said that Then an old woman nodded her head and said, "Then people can't live on bread, people have to eat." This must be such a difficult story. This is what people are interested in. So this is a difficult problem.
Guys, think about the things that are important in this world. Everything that matters in this world is consistently abstract. Everything that is important in the world is invisible to the eye. For example, salvation, eternal life, faith, holiness, grace, hope, love, etc. are all abstract things. But these are equally precious and important things. Indeed, without these, people cannot live a day. Still, people ignore this and give priority to things that can be seen and touched.
Look when people get married. When young people get married, most of them yearn for glamorous things. That's why we value education, money, people, health, and appearance. All things are visible. So people are deceived. And there are many people who live their lives with regrets for the rest of their lives.
After surveying the questionnaire, I asked housewives who had been married for 10 years, what they thought was the most important thing in their husbands after living together. Then, most people said, "It's about being human," he said. And I asked the housewives who had lived there for 20 years. As a result of living together for 20 years, when asked what the problem was, most of them said, "It was a problem with character." The things you see are important, but as we live together, they are the next. First of all, it means that we must have the right meaning to live.
After people have matured, they come to think of it, and what they see is nothing. The first is that the human heart, mind, and attitude are the problem. Do people live by class? And is it possible for a person to live with only a head? So, the first condition for marriage is not possessions, but the mind. The question is whether there are words in it. Even if a person loses his mind, the Word must remain in order to avoid confusion. That way, even if a person becomes rich, he does not fall, and even if he becomes poor, he can live a life of gratitude.