Be grateful title. (Thanksgiving Day)
thank you
Deuteronomy 16:9-12, Col 3:15-17
12. 7. 1 (Thanksgiving Day)
"Thank You" written by Ichi Tsuyoshi Itsuka, a famous Japanese engineering doctor. Thank you.” There is a very thin book. This book has sold 1 million copies in Japan and around the world without any publicity. There is a story of his mysterious experience as a student. (Refer to the bulletin, Yehwabang)
"thank you. Thank you.” is effective and powerful for anyone. Today, as we spend half of the year, we keep it as Macchu Thanksgiving Day. Focusing on these two texts, we would like to share grace together with the title of “Give thanks.”
1. The Harvest Festival is one of the celebration seasons.
1) In the Old Testament, the Festival of Harvest was one of the three great festivals. On the day of the feast that God commanded, all the Israelites gathered in the temple in Jerusalem and kept it as a festival. Among them, the Festival of Harvest is a festival of thanksgiving for the harvest of grain after the harvest of wheat in June. It is called the Feast of First Fruits because it means to offer the first sheaf of the harvested grain to God the day after the first Sabbath after the Passover.
2) God required the first fruits. While the Israelites were living in the wilderness from the time of their exodus to Canaan, God provided manna every day, so they did not have to labor in agriculture.
However, after they settled in the land of Canaan, they sowed their own seeds and made a living on the grain. At that time, God told us to offer the first fruits of the first sheaf after the harvest.
It also means that we must first love God, who loved us and gave us redemptive love through Jesus, who is the firstfruits of the resurrection, in order to set us free from the slavery of sin and Satan.
3) When you give a gift of thanks to God, you are told to give it according to your own strength. All sacrifices to God must be the same, but the first harvest of the Harvest Festival is to be given as much as you are strong, giving thanks for the grace God has given you, with a joyful heart and with all your heart.
Also, in verse 10 of the Old Testament text, it is said to offer a “voluntary gift”, which means that you are a cheerful giver, and it refers to the crying of your heart with all your heart, mind, and devotion.
Jesus praised the two lepton offerings that the poor widow voluntarily gave because he did not look at the amount of money, but on her best and earnest spirit.
Therefore, when a believer gives a gift, it is not a gift that God accepts, but when it is offered voluntarily, with a grateful heart, with a joyful and joyful heart, with all the will and devotion, not without sincerity, stinginess, or compulsion. Verse 17 of the New Testament says, “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”
2. Gratitude is like good medicine.
1) Gratitude is a gift from God. Of all the creatures God created, he gave thanks only to humans. There is no gratitude in the world of plants, animals, or insects. They instinctively wag their tails when they feel good, but they don't live with gratitude for their owners.
But people have a heart of gratitude. If you have received grace from someone, you will always remember it and live with a grateful heart. Therefore, gratitude is one of the greatest virtues a person has. If a person lives without gratitude, such a person is said to be inferior to the beast. No matter how rich you are, no matter how knowledgeable you are, if you do not know how to be grateful, you cannot live like a human being. On the other hand, if you are a person who lives with a grateful heart, even if you do not have great success, even if you do not have anything like others, you are a blessed person.
2) Gratitude removes resentment, complaints, and diseases from our hearts.