Title: Open Your Eyes of Gratitude
Contents
Title: Open Your Eyes of Gratitude
Bible: 1 Timothy 1:12-17
2007. 11.4. day
November is the season of gratitude. When we lift our eyes and look at nature, all kinds of colorful autumn leaves are colored beautifully, five grains form golden waves in the fields, and various delicious fruits in the fields on the ridges attract us. It is a season of abundant gratitude. But even in times like these, there are so many people who don't know how to be grateful.
Hot springs and cold springs can be found side by side in some parts of Mexico. Because of this natural phenomenon, local wives bring their laundry to the river, boil the clothes in the hot springs, and then rinse them in the cold water. A tourist watching the scene closely said to his Mexican friend:
“Nature, the great mother, is very generous, providing enough water to freely use cold and hot springs.”
A Mexican friend answered.
??It's not like that. People are complaining that there is no soap.
In the world, people who have relatively many things to be grateful for complain, and people who have many things to complain about are rather grateful. Why? I think it's because I can't open my eyes of gratitude.
Dear saints, Please open your eyes of thanks.
The apostle Paul is a man full of gratitude more than anyone else. He is a person who has eyes of gratitude. But he never had much to be thankful for.
So let's see what he's grateful for.
1. I am grateful to the Lord for my present position.
“I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, that he has counted me faithful, and has entrusted me with his ministry.”
I am thankful to the Lord for the office that I am currently giving to the apostle Paul.
Dear saints, are you grateful for your present position? Let's look back on this year. Do you sincerely thank me for giving me the office of deacon this year? Do you thank Kwon for your office? Are you grateful for the position of ordained deacon? Are you grateful for the office of elder? Are you thankful for just coming to church? I hope you feel the emotion enough to shed tears and thank you. If you open your eyes of gratitude and look at the world, everyone will be grateful.
As well as. Be grateful for the reality as well. I also want to thank you for the house I currently live in. Thank you for your work. Thank you for your business as well.
I also want to thank the people I met. Thank you for my wife. Thank you for my husband. Thank you also for my children. Thank you also for the saints I met.
The Apostle Paul said in verse 14, “They abounded exceedingly with the faith and love that were in Christ Jesus.”
One day, while praying at dawn, I thanked God so much. Thank you for sending these wonderful saints to a poor person like me. When I think of each and every member of the church, there is not a single member of the church that is not valuable. So, I was very grateful for where you hid these precious saints and sent them to our church.
All sons are precious
In one of the poorest days, there were only five sons in a family. But there were no children in the elder's house. So the elder asked the deacon. If you give me one son, butler, I will raise him well and make him a great man. Then, Deacon Lee said he would do it, and when he came home, he saw the five of them sleeping side by side, and he chose a son to adopt for the elder's house. The eldest son is not because he is the eldest, the second son is not because he is tall, the third son is not because he has good hair, the fourth is not because he has a good heart, and the youngest is not because he is ugly. So in the end, I apologize to the elder the next day. There are no children to give. I said.
I also think of our saints. This saint is so good and precious, and that saint is so good and precious and so. Once again, thank you very much.
2. Thinking about the past, I gave thanks.
When the apostle Paul opened his eyes of thanks and thought about the past, he became grateful for the great grace.
Verse 13 “I used to be a slanderer, a persecutor, and an assaulter…” Verse 15 “I am chief among sinners.”
Look at the confession of the apostle Paul. He not only confesses to Jesus as a slanderer, persecutor, and assaulter in the past. I confess that I am the greatest among sinners and give thanks for today. Of course, he volunteered to receive the commander in order to arrest people who believed in Jesus and hand them over to the royal family, and while going up the mountain to Damascus, he met Jesus and was changed. I am so thankful for being compassionate and pity for such a wretched self, and for giving me the office of an apostle and evangelist as I am now, as a child of God.
How are we? Is there anything better than the apostle Paul? no. Before, we were people who did not believe in Jesus. As well as. Rather, he was a person who cursed those who believed in Jesus.
There was a man named John Newton (1725-1807). He was born in London, England, the son of a captain. When he was 7 years old, his devout mother died. His father remarried and he went to his grandmother's house to study. However, he dropped out of school when he was 11 and followed his father, a captain, to become a sailor. He had a very rebellious and prodigal youth. Eventually, he became the captain of a slave trader that caught and sold black slaves in West Africa. They captured slaves and sold them to the West Indies and America. And he brutally killed the slaves and savagely threw them into the sea. Then, on March 10, 1748, a storm hit the sea and the ship was on the verge of shipwreck, even life threatening. Then he repented and prayed. And imitating the Christ of Christ, I read the book and was deeply impressed. Eventually he becomes an Anglican priest. And the hymn he wrote in gratitude for God's grace while repenting of the past is the amazing grace that saved a sinner like me.
Chapter 305 “The grace of the Lord who saved a sinner like me is amazing”
The grace that saved a sinner like me is amazing, I found a lost life and gained light
Thank you for the grace of the Lord who rescued me from the great sin. That time of my first faith is precious and precious.
It is the grace of the Lord that I have lived so far, and you will lead me to my hometown in the future.
There we will live forever by the grace of the Lord as bright as the sun, and praise the Lord.
Dear saints, As you reflect on the past, thank God. When I think of the past, I feel ashamed and very distressed. Why should I just be patient then? Why didn't I realize then? How grateful is it that God saved a sinner like me who died a thousand times and had nothing to say, even if he had nothing to say, that he believed in Jesus and made him a child of God in this way, and that he even gave him the precious kingdom of heaven as a gift? Thank you.
3. We promise to live by the example of all saints and give thanks
Verse 16, “But I have found mercy, so that Jesus Christ first showed me all patience, so that later he might become an example to those who believe in him and have eternal life.”
The apostle Paul thinks. Why did God choose Himself, the chief sinner, among slanderers, persecutors, murderers, and sinners? The apostle Paul considered the reason. I am grateful to know that it is intended to be an example to all those who, through the apostle Paul himself, believe in the Lord and gain eternal life. When you open your eyes of thanks, you will realize God's will and give thanks.
What is the pattern? In the old days, when there were many rubber shoes factories in Busan, if you make one seventeen patterns of rubber shoes and pour rubber on them, you will surely get seventeen patterns. Dozens or thousands of curls will come out. This is the view.
Even now, there are many people who slander Jesus in the world, and there are hindrances and blasphemers. There are many sinners who live as chief criminals. However, the will of our Lord is that if you do not give the punishment of sin to such a person first, but wait patiently and wait for him to save him, he will make him a faithful worker and official like Paul. Even if such a person believes in Jesus, he does not passively believe in Jesus, but believes positively and becomes a great vessel to evangelize many people. The point is that someone just like Paul will come out.
Pastor Billy Graham also led a formal life of faith when he was young. I even went crazy. Then, in his mid-20s, he met Jesus and realized his mission to preach the gospel of Jesus of life to everyone in the world, and became a world-class revival instructor.
He is being used as a family of evangelists who have been faithful for generations while giving thanks to God for the rest of his life.
Dear saints,
What kind of person does God want me to be now? What example should I be?
The apostle Paul became an example of faith and evangelism. Please listen to his decision.
“I do not regard my life as precious in any way, in order to preach the way I must run and the mission I received from the Lord Jesus, the gospel of God’s grace.”
All those who are grateful for God's grace will see themselves clearly dedicating themselves to God.
conclusion
Please open your eyes of gratitude in the season of gratitude.
Thank you for the blessings God has given me in my present life.
Please be grateful for the grace you have given me in spite of my wrong life in the past.
Believe that you will set another example through me and give it to God. And I bless you to glorify God for that thanks.