Title: Gratitude is the seed of blessing
Contents
Text: Psalm 100:1-5
Today's sermon title, “Gratitude is the seed of blessing,” is to say that there is blessing in devotion.
The Apostle Paul said, “Give thanks in everything” (1 Thessalonians 5:18), and in the prison epistle to the Philippians, “Rejoice, I say again, rejoice” (Philippians 4:4). If you give thanks, you will not pass the test and you will not be resentful. As a result, faith grows and life prospers. Therefore, thanksgiving is a basic element in the Christian life.
As the saying goes, “It depends on your decision.” If you look at the world with a resentful and complaining heart, you will see only the elements of resentment and complaining. Conversely, if you look at the world with a grateful heart, you will see even the heavens and the earth with gratitude. This is because God created it and gave it to us.
In particular, November 19 is Thanksgiving Day. Thank you for the grace of salvation on Thanksgiving, which is given only once a year, and thank the Lord for giving us our daily bread to live for a year.
The nation of Israel, chosen as God's people, thanked God for His grace and kept the great Thanksgiving feast three times a year.
1. Passover (Feast of Unleavened Bread) - A feast to commemorate the Exodus and give thanks
2. Harvest Festival (Feast of Weeks, Pentecost) - The feast of thanksgiving offered during the harvest of barley and wheat
3. Feast of Ingathering (Feast of Tabernacles, Feast of Tabernacles) - The Feast of Thanksgiving, the origin of today's Thanksgiving
This is entirely by God's grace. What he has lived, what he has harvested, everything is the grace of God. This is the faith of God first, supremeism, priority, and absolutism.
Thanksgiving was historically established by American Christians in today's Korean Christianity as well. One sect, the Puritans (Purians), suffered terribly. Meanwhile, on September 2, 1620, some of the Puritans migrated to the Americas in a ship called the ‘Mayflower’ to enjoy religious freedom. After two months of painstaking and difficult voyage, we arrived in Primus, USA on November 9th. Tired of sailing, many people lost to Indian raids and diseases, but in the meantime, they cleared the land and planted crops to reap the harvest. I was so thankful that I prepared a variety of food and enjoyed the Thanksgiving service for a week.
The Thanksgiving worship service that started in this way became established in Korea's Christianity by the missionaries (Appenzeller - Methodist, Underwood - Presbyterian) who brought the gospel to Korea as Christianity entered Korea. After that, the Korean church also holds a Thanksgiving service in one week of November at each church.
Psalm 100:1-5 is a poem of thanksgiving that concisely and concisely expresses the joy of serving God. To be honest, when a person, a creature of God, lives in this world, there are more resentments and complaints than gratitude. However, you should know that gratitude breeds gratitude and resentment breeds resentment. Just as beans are planted and beans are planted and beans are planted, beans are not the only seeds (seeds).
So is life. If you sow thanksgiving, the seeds of thanksgiving will sprout, grow, bloom, bear fruit, and you will receive the fruit of thanksgiving. However, if you sow resentment, complaint, dissatisfaction, discouragement, and frustration, you will never reap anything other than that. When we give thanks to God, we sow gratitude and receive the promise of blessing to reap the fruits of thanksgiving. When we give thanks to God for material things, we plant seeds that will bear fruit 30 times, 60 times, 100 times, and 100 times to be blessed.
Giving our faith and devotion to God and giving thanks is in the promise of God's care. How great is this blessing?
I hope that this year's Thanksgiving will be an opportunity for you to gather your heart, will, and sincerity to give thanks. Hallelujah!