Glorify God by Thanksgiving-1

여호와께 감사하라 그는 선하시며 그 인자하심이 영원함이로다 ² 모든 신에 뛰어나신 하나님께 감사하라 그 인자하심이 영원함이로다 ³ 모든 주에 뛰어나신 주께 감사하라 그 인자하심이 영원함이로다. Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever. ² Give thanks to the God of gods, for his steadfast love endures forever. ³ Give thanks to the Lord of lords, for his steadfast love endures forever. (Ps. 136:1-3)

전능하신 자 하나님 여호와께서 말씀하사 해 돋는 데서부터 지는 데까지 세상을 부르셨도다 ² 온전히 아름다운 시온에서 하나님이 빛을 발하셨도다 ³ 우리 하나님이 임하사 잠잠치 아니하시니 그 앞에는 불이 삼키고 그 사방에는 광풍이 불리로다 ⁴ 하나님이 그 백성을 판단하시려고 윗 하늘과 아래 땅에 반포하여 ⁵ 이르시되 나의 성도를 내 앞에 모으라 곧 제사로 나와 언약한 자니라 하시도다 ⁶ 하늘이 그 공의를 선포하리니 하나님 그는 심판장이심이로다 (셀라)  ⁷ 내 백성아 들을지어다 내가 말하리라 이스라엘아 내가 네게 증거하리라 나는 하나님 곧 네 하나님이로다 ⁸ 내가 너의 제물을 인하여는 너를 책망치 아니하리라 네 번제가 항상 내 앞에 있음이로다 ⁹ 내가 네 집에서 수소나 네 우리에서 수염소를 취치 아니하리니 ¹⁰ 이는 삼림의 짐승들과 천산의 생축이 다 내 것이며 ¹¹ 산의 새들도 나의 아는 것이며 들의 짐승도 내 것임이로다 ¹² 내가 가령 주려도 네게 이르지 않을 것은 세계와 거기 충만한 것이 내 것임이로다 ¹³ 내가 수소의 고기를 먹으며 염소의 피를 마시겠느냐 ¹⁴ 감사로 하나님께 제사를 드리며 지극히 높으신 자에게 네 서원을 갚으며 ¹⁵ 환난 날에 나를 부르라 내가 너를 건지리니 네가 나를 영화롭게 하리로다 ¹⁶ 악인에게는 하나님이 이르시되 네가 어찌 내 율례를 전하며 내 언약을 네 입에 두느냐 ¹⁷ 네가 교훈을 미워하고 내 말을 네 뒤로 던지며 ¹⁸ 도적을 본즉 연합하고 간음하는 자와 동류가 되며 ¹⁹ 네 입을 악에게 주고 네 혀로 궤사를 지으며 ²⁰ 앉아서 네 형제를 공박하며 네 어미의 아들을 비방하는도다 ²¹ 네가 이 일을 행하여도 내가 잠잠하였더니 네가 나를 너와 같은 줄로 생각하였도다 그러나 내가 너를 책망하여 네 죄를 네 목전에 차례로 베풀리라 하시는도다 ²² 하나님을 잊어버린 너희여 이제 이를 생각하라 그렇지 않으면 내가 너희를 찢으리니 건질 자 없으리라 ²³ 감사로 제사를 드리는 자가 나를 영화롭게 하나니 그 행위를 옳게 하는 자에게 내가 하나님의 구원을 보이리라. The Mighty One, God the LORD, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting. ² Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth. ³ Our God comes; he does not keep silence; before him is a devouring fire, around him a mighty tempest. ⁴ He calls to the heavens above and to the earth, that he may judge his people: ⁵ "Gather to me my faithful ones, who made a covenant with me by sacrifice!" ⁶ The heavens declare his righteousness, for God himself is judge! Selah ⁷ "Hear, O my people, and I will speak; O Israel, I will testify against you. I am God, your God. ⁸ Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you; your burnt offerings are continually before me. ⁹ I will not accept a bull from your house or goats from your folds. ¹⁰ For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. ¹¹ I know all the birds of the hills, and all that moves in the field is mine. ¹² "If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are mine. ¹³ Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats? ¹⁴ Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and perform your vows to the Most High, ¹⁵ and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me." ¹⁶ But to the wicked God says: "What right have you to recite my statutes or take my covenant on your lips? ¹⁷ For you hate discipline, and you cast my words behind you. ¹⁸ If you see a thief, you are pleased with him, and you keep company with adulterers. ¹⁹ "You give your mouth free rein for evil, and your tongue frames deceit. ²⁰ You sit and speak against your brother; you slander your own mother's son. ²¹ These things you have done, and I have been silent; you thought that I was one like yourself. But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you. ²² "Mark this, then, you who forget God, lest I tear you apart, and there be none to deliver! ²³ The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me; to one who orders his way rightly I will show the salvation of God!" (Psa 50:1-23)

FCF: We tend to offer a lip service of thanksgiving without real-life thanksgiving.

주제: 하나님은 재판장이시기에 우리는 진정한 감사로 하나님을 영화롭게 해야 한다.

Theme: Because God is the Judge, we must glorify God by genuine thanksgiving.

Introduction: We are in the middle of the busiest season of the year. Business owners are excited to boost up their lagging businesses, stacking up their shelves with goods. Entering the final stretch of their semester, students are also excited to take a weeklong Thanksgiving break. Mothers are busy in their minds for preparing Thanksgiving food and family reunion. Fathers are busy racing up to the end of the year. Kids’ hearts are busily hopeful of Christmas gifts. In one or another way, we all are busy within and without. We have been running up to this point of the year, expecting this year will be over soon. I feel like having a break for spiritual reflection on the year we have spent thus far. I feel God wants us to spend quality time looking back and look forward, thanking God for what God has done for us through the year. As we all know, our busy minds have no room to contemplate God’s bounties for us, filled with things of the world. So, we need a time like Thanksgiving to consciously give thanks to God as we prepare for a new year to come.

Indeed, we are celebrating our Thanksgiving Sunday today. We as a church of Christ take time to thank the Lord officially for His great deeds for us throughout the year. This is what we are doing now. It is good and beneficial to our souls, bringing our hearts closer to the heart of God. However, there is a danger of superficial lip service; on the one hand, we may say loudly, “Thank God for such and such things”; on the other hands, we don’t really feel thankful to God because of many unwanted or unresolved issues in life. We may habitually or customarily offer our thanksgiving to God, forgetting the fact God sees through our tricky and picky hearts. Generally speaking, people in the States know this coming Thursday is a Thanksgiving Day and try to remember their forefathers thanked God for having preserved them from ravaging hunger, cold weather, and enemies and having provided for them. Their first Thanksgiving was no doubt genuine, God-glorifying, and faith community-edifying.

On the contrary, today’s Thanksgiving is commercialized. It seems people anticipate not Thanksgiving Day, but the day after Thanksgiving, so-called Black Friday, because they can satisfy their hearts for electronics, appliances, or etc., with less money. In fact, big stores like Bestbuy, Amazon, Walmart, Costco, Sears, Car deals, etc., have been advertising their big sales well before Thanksgiving. These companies keep sending me their emails concerning their mass discount sale deals every day. Now, we are at the church celebrating God’s goodness and faithfulness shown to us through the year. But if we are filled with passion for things we can buy at cheaper prices, we may fall into a serious danger of commercialized and counterfeit spirituality. We must examine whether our hearts are with the Lord or with something else as we go through this Thanksgiving season. We must return to the core of our Christian spirituality, that is, a grateful, heart-felt relationship with God. To overcome our natural tendency to keep Thanksgiving without heart-felt thanks, we must glorify God by genuine thanksgiving because God is the Judge. This is what we learn from Psalm 50. Let’s see how we are to be grateful to God. First, we must glorify God….

     I.         재판장이신 하나님을 믿음으로

With faith in God the Judge (vv. 1-6)

The psalmist describes God as the Judge in vv. 1-6. Israel was God’s covenant people. The psalmist uses the three titles for God: El (Almighty God), Elohim, and Yahweh (the covenant name of God). God entered the covenant with them through blood sacrifices. Out of many peoples, God chose Israel as His covenant people. He intended to establish the Israelites as a kingdom of priests. They were to represent God by keeping His covenant words. But, they kept violating God’s covenant. Now, God called them to His courtroom and reminded them of their covenantal relationship with Him. If they obeyed God out of love for Him, they would be blessed; if they disobeyed, they would be disciplined. God in His grace called them into His courtroom, so that they would see their sins and repent of them.

The primary sin of Israel was forgetting their covenantal God. Their forgetting of Yahweh was due not to their mental loss of memory, but to their deliberate choice of abandoning God and His Word. Their deliberate forgetfulness of God led them to forget their covenantal responsibility. As a result, they wilfully committed all kinds of sin. The fact that God summoned them into His court reveals His care and love for His people. God couldn’t ignore His people and their sin. If He did, it means that He abandoned them. However, God called them to judge their sin. His judgment was not also punitive, but also disciplinary. The second characteristic of God’s judgment demonstrates God’s loyal, faithful love to Israel. According to the covenant, Israel was Yahweh’s son. Thus, when Israel went wrong, Yahweh as Father took disciplinary action. The author of Hebrews says, 주께서 그 사랑하시는 자를 징계 하시고 그의 받으시는 아들마다 채찍질 하심이니라 하였으니. “For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives" (Heb. 12:6).  

 The psalmist reminds Israel of God’s sovereignty. The phrase 해 돋는 데서부터 지는 데까지 “the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting” represents all the inhabitants of the world. God as the Judge speaks and summons all people into His court. He is the King of the whole world. All things are under His control. No one is outside His sovereign control. No one can escape God the Judge. Whether we believe in God or not, we all are under God’s sovereignty. The Judge comes out of the perfect, beautiful covenant city, Zion. This Judge is a fearful, awesome God. The psalmist depicts His courtroom as a place where a devouring fire and a mighty tempest are. These imageries invoke fear from man’s heart. God calls heaven and earth as His witnesses in the court before He begins to judge His covenant people.

The psalmist calls God’s covenant people as “faithful ones” (Heb. “Hasid”). The Hebrew word “Hasid” refers to those who are loyal and faithful to God. It is a term for God’s covenant people. Here, it doesn’t necessarily refer to their moral character, but to their covenant status. In the NT, “those justified by faith in Christ” refer to believers whose status is secured in Christ forever. “Faithful ones” and “righteous ones” in Christ are God’s chosen people in Christ. They are called to God’s court for examination. Now, the heavens as God’s witness in the court declare God’s perfect righteousness. God is the perfect, righteous Judge. God can no longer be silent before His sinful people. He is ready to call them to His justice. The psalmist ties God’s disciplinary judgment against the sins of His own people with true thanksgiving. Truly, a true heart of thanksgiving recognizes one’s sinfulness before the justice of God and God’s mercy and pardon for his or her sins. Thanksgiving is a time to recognize our sinfulness with a broken heart and God’s exceeding mercy and forgiveness with gratitude. Lamenting one’s sinfulness, a grateful heart finds solace and happiness in God’s mercy and forgiveness. Genuine repentance is God-appointed way to true thanksgiving.

In 1863 when Abraham proclaimed the final Thursday of November as a national Thanksgiving Day, he declared the fact all are subject to God’s judgment according to His divine law. In other words, he reminded American citizens of God’s disciplinary punishment for their sins. He addressed the necessity of repentance. Here is what he said: 우리 개인들 뿐만 아니라 모든 나라가 하나님의 주권적인 능력을 의지하고 낮은 마음과 슬픔으로 죄와 허물을 자복하며 참된 회개로 하나님의 자비와  용서를 경험할 것을 확신하며 소망하는 것은 마땅히 해야 할 일입니다. 성경과 역사를 통하여 선포된 귀한 진리, 곧 이렇게 하는 나라와 개인은 주님 되신 하나님의 복을 받는 다는 것을 인정해야 합니다. 우리는 각 개인 같이 국가도 하나님의 법에 의해 이 세상에서 심판과 징계를 받을 수 있음을 알고 있습니다. 이 땅을 황폐케 한 내전의 끔찍한 재앙은 우리의 교만 죄악들을 심판하시는 것이며 온 나라 국민들에게 필요한 변화를 이루기 위함 임을 온당히 두려워해야 하지 않을까요? It is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God; to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord. We know that by His divine law, nations, like individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world. May we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land may be a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people? Abraham recognized their sinfulness and God’s due judgment on America through the ravaging effects of the Civil War. As the psalmist reminds us of God’s judgment, Abraham turned the attention of Americans to God’s judgment during the Thanksgiving Holiday, calling on them to true repentance and restoration.  

What does this have to do with our thanksgiving? First, we must believe God not only as our loving Father, but also our covenantal Judge. We have no problem believing God as our loving Father. But, we feel hard believing and accepting the doctrine of God’s judgment. In a way, it is natural that we all want God’s blessings, not God’s discipline. However, we need God’s disciplinary actions against our sins because God’s discipline is a sign of God’s fatherly love and care. Without it, we may be spiritual bastards. Without considering this fact, we may choose whatever we want to believe about God. No matter what we believe about God, however, the Bible teaches the justice and judgment of God against sin. We must remember God the Judge will not let us get away with our sins. We have to examine our entire paths this year in light of God’s righteous standards. The reason we examine our hearts and lives is to see whether we have provoked our Father who gave His only Son for the remission of our sin. As I said above, we may not like the idea of God’s judgeship. It may be because we don’t want to be accountable to anyone above us. We don’t want others to know about our mistakes, wrongdoings, or iniquities. We simply want to look innocent, good, righteous, and grateful before others

Like it or not, however, we know we are not perfect, full of sinful dispositions, tendencies, thoughts, words, and deeds. If we are honest enough and look at ourselves in light of God’s perfect standard, we soon realize we fall short of the glory of God. Even if we are saved by grace through faith in Christ, we fall into sin every day. Thus, we must repent of our sinful hearts, thoughts, words, or actions and bring them to the fount of Christ’s precious blood by faith. We anticipate God’s pardon and restoration by grace in Christ. Christ is our Redeemer who died on the cross, paid the full price of our sin-debts, and set us free from the bondage of sin. The more we think of this essential truth, the more we are thankful to God. The more we think of our sinfulness, the more we feel a need of our Redeemer Jesus Christ. The apostle John says, 나의 자녀들아 내가 이것을 너희에게 씀은 너희로 죄를 범치 않게 하려 함이라 만일 누가 죄를 범하면 아버지 앞에서 우리에게 대언자가 있으니 곧 의로우신 예수 그리스도시라. 저는 우리 죄를 위한 화목 제물이니 우리만 위할 뿐 아니요 온 세상의 죄를 위하심이라. “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.” Thus, we must let our sinfulness be a backdrop that we realize the amazingness of Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection. We must not sink into a pit of vicious despair when we really face the ugly face of our sinfulness because Christ is there for us to forgive and restore us into His favor. According to the Lord Jesus, those who are mourning their sinfulness shall be comforted.  

Even when He disciplines us for our sins, we must be thankful to God. His judgment here is designed to correct, purify, train, and make us mature. Throughout the year, we have gone through ups and downs in life. We have undergone things desirable and things undesirable. Thus far, we have suffered hardships, spiritual, physical, or relational. We know some of them may be related to our sinful choices. However, we are still standing in Christ, worshiping God with gratitude. God’s forgiveness has always been there for us in Christ. We have repented of our sins. God in His mercy has forgiven us through His Son Jesus Christ. The fact we celebrate this Thanksgiving Lord’s Day reveals how marvelous and matchless grace of God has been overflowing toward us through Christ. Let me quote the first verse of “Marvelous Grace Greater than our Sin”: 사랑하시는 주님의 놀라운 은혜, 우리의 죄와 그 책임 보다 크신 은혜, 어린양 보혈을 흘리신 갈보리 산에서 넘치게 부어 주어 주셨네. 은혜로다, 은혜로다, 하나님 은혜로다. 우리를 용서하고 마음을 씻어 주실 은혜로다. 은혜로다, 은혜로다, 하나님 은혜로다. 우리의 모든 죄보다 크신 은혜로다. Marvelous grace of our loving Lord, Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt! Yonder on Calvary's mount out-poured–There where the blood of the Lamb was spilt. Grace, grace, God's grace, Grace that will pardon and cleanse within; Grace, grace, God's grace, Grace that is greater than all our sin!

God surely both punishes and disciplines us for our sin. But this fact shouldn’t discourage us. Rather, we should be encouraged because God doesn’t want us to carry the heavy loads of our sin-burdens for ourselves. God calls us into His gracious court to correct, rectify, and restore us from our sin, and move on into righteousness with confidence in Christ. Thanksgiving is a time of self-reflection. Some of you are travelling. Some of you are trying to catch up with our school assignments. Some of you will be busy preparing for Thanksgiving food and family reunion. Instead of taking a private time to think and thank, you may be driving yourself to be joyful and thankful in the midst of mental or physical busyness. Well, it is time to examine our hearts, bring our sins to Christ for forgiveness, and restart with new hope in Christ. Even though we are under God’s discipline, we can find hope in God because God is our everlasting Father in Christ.

Charles Spurgeon aptly said, “When God chastises his children, he does not punish as a judge does; but he chastens as a father.” A Christian lady suffered cancer of the larynx and divorce. She was very devoted to Christ. When she was in her twenties, she met with her husband at Bible college. She knew he was not a believer even though he was studying for a fulltime Christian ministry. Everyone was opposed to her decision to marry him. But she believed she could change him into a firm believer through marriage. In marriage, they got a son. When their son was about two, she was diagnosed with the final stage cancer. Since she didn’t want to lose her voice, she decided to take Chemo and radiation treatments. She was so weak that she couldn’t take care of her son, home chores. During this time, her husband, a Christian minister, began to have an affair with one of the church members. When she was at the bottom of her struggle against the cancer, her husband asked her to divorce him. Later, she found out everything about his affair. She was so sorrowful and weak. She was overwhelmed with pain within and without. One night, she began to pray. God poured out the spirit of repentance upon her. She began to see her spiritual pride and arrogance. She confessed she failed to trust God. She confessed her sins before God. God rejuvenated her and restored her into His favor. She was filled with heavenly joy, able to forgive her husband. She was filled with gratitude for all things under such a harsh circumstance. She said it was all by God’s amazing grace.

Our conviction in God’s loving discipline must discourage us from sinning. Sin discourages us from offering genuine thanks to God. We must thank God with reverential awe before His divine presence. Yes, we must think of all things God has done for us, being thankful for them during this Thanksgiving. But, we must confront our failures, mistakes, or transgressions. We must think how God’s marvelous grace has guided, provided, and protected us. Despite our sinfulness, God has been gracious and forgiving us. We must stand and get laid bare before the courtroom of God. Unless we have our Savior and Advocate Jesus Christ in the courtroom, we have no way to expect God’s forgiveness and restoration. For the last eleven months, how have we practiced our faith in God? We have failed in many ways. The only way that we can stand before God’s presence is we take refuge in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are to be thankful to God for His Son Jesus Christ who died for our sins and took our penalty upon Himself.

Second, faith in God is prerequisite for offering genuine thanks to God. Simply, unbelievers cannot and do not thank God because they do not know Him. How can they offer thanks to the One whom they do not know? For good things they enjoy, they may feel thankful to someone who they think is a supernatural being. They may call him a god or God. But, unless they know God and His Son Jesus Christ, they can’t offer genuine thanks to God. So, to be thankful to God, we must be believers of Christ. Paul says of Christ as our gratitude. Listen what he says in Col. 5:15-17: ¹⁵ 그리스도의 평강이 너희 마음을 주장하게 하라 평강을 위하여 너희가 한 몸으로 부르심을 받았나니 또한 너희는 감사하는 자가 되라 ¹⁶ 그리스도의 말씀이 너희 속에 풍성히 거하여 모든 지혜로 피차 가르치며 권면하고 시와 찬미와 신령한 노래를 부르며 마음에 감사함으로 하나님을 찬양하고 ¹⁷ 또 무엇을 하든지 말에나 일에나 다 주 예수의 이름으로 하고 그를 힘입어 하나님 아버지께 감사하라. ¹⁵ And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. ¹⁶ Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. ¹⁷ And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” The peace of Christ, the word of Christ, and the name of Christ, are given those to those who believe Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. Unwavering faith in Christ is necessary to live a life of gratitude under all circumstances.

Thanksgiving invites unbelievers to the saving grace and love of Jesus Christ and invites believers to God’s goodness and faithfulness in Christ. As the psalmist says, we are God’s faithful ones. Those who believe in God are called God’s faithful ones. This is not only our title, but also our character. Faith in God is to mean our faithfulness to God. Faithfulness to God is an attitude of God’s people, necessary to offer heartfelt thanks to God. Believers alone can offer genuine thanks to God. Without believing and knowing God, we can’t offer thanks to God. We believe God as our Judge and Father. The ultimate object of our thanks is God. So, if we don’t believe God, our thanksgiving doesn’t make sense. God is the One to whom we give glory and thanks. God is the Subject of Thanksgiving. We shouldn’t be concerned for our electronic toys, or discounted goods. Family reunion is not the purpose of Thanksgiving. Families gather together to celebrate how good, gracious, and faithful God has been to us through the year. Family reunion will be meaningful and memorable when God occupies the center of Thanksgiving.

Indeed, Thanksgiving is a day consecrated to the glory of God, not our glory or fellowship. God and His character must be the primary topics of our Thanksgiving. We have to focus on what He is and what He has done for us in Christ, not on things of the world we can buy. Sure, we must trust God to celebrate Thanksgiving in a Christian sense. The first Thanksgiving was kept by the pilgrims who survived danger of the nature and threat of the Indians. Thanksgiving is a Christian holiday, not a secular holiday. So, we must keep it as God’s faithful people. When we truly thank God for all His doings, when we thank God for what He is, we can be thankful to our families, friends, and neighbors. Thankfulness to God necessarily leads to thankfulness to others. Thankful attitude toward God comes first and begets the same attitude toward our neighbors.

Conclusion: If we set our focus on the negative realities of life, we are likely to outpour our complaints, cusses, or curses. If we believe we will be happy when our hard circumstances change, we may never be happy. If we base our happiness on our ever-changing circumstances, we will never attain happiness. We must see our circumstances, both within and without, from the perspective of God. We can get divine perspective from the word of God. If we focus on who God is and what He does for us in Christ, we can be thankful to God under all circumstances. Let me introduce the following excerpt written by the Rev. Sung-Wook Cho in his book 시편 산책 “Take a Walk Through the Psalms”: 누구에게나 인생의 굴곡이 있겠지만, 내가 살아온 인생도 결코 쉽지 않았다. 어릴 때 소아마비에 걸린 것을 시작으로 대학 진학에도 실패했고, 가정 경제가 무너지고 동생을 일찍 하늘나라로 떠나 보내야 했다. 이러한 고난이 해석되지 않고 고독함에 몸부림칠 때 시편 말씀을 읽었다. 시편을 읽고 기도하는 동안 모든 어려움은 어느새 아려한 기억처럼 멀어지고, 내 시선은 하나님 영광이 태양처럼 다시 떠오르는 곳을 향했다. 큰 어려움을 이겨 냈던 때를 돌이켜 보면, 내 상황에 대해 불평하지 않게 된 것이 주효했다. 시편을 읽으면서 하나님만을 신뢰하지 못했던 것을 회개하고, 하나님이 여전히 함께 하심에 감사했다. 그러면 하나님 사랑이 너무 크게 느껴져서, 내가 이런 큰 은혜와 복을 받아도 괜찮을까 싶은 마음이 들었다. “I know everyone has meandering twists of life to undergo. I have had a tough life, too. During my childhood, I was infected with polio. I failed to enter college. I suffered a financial collapse in my family. I had one of my young siblings gone to be with the Lord in heaven. Unable to understand these sufferings, I was wriggling in painful loneliness. Then, I began to read the book of Psalms. While reading the psalms and praying over them, I felt as if all of my hardships had slipped into the reservoir of distant memory. Then, I set my eyes on where the glory of God would rise again like the sun. Looking back on those moments when I had overcome great challenges in life, I have realized that my refusal to complain about my circumstances worked well. While reading the psalms and repenting of my unfaithfulness, that is, my failure to trust God alone, I gave thanks to God for the fact that God was still with me. Then, I felt as if God’s love was too great and then I thought I deserved no such great divine grace and blessing.”

Due to high inflation, financial woes, academic challenges, health issues, or relational problems, we may feel like we have every reason to complain. However, if we turn our eyes from such negative circumstances to God, we can recover a blessing of gratitude. Gratitude transforms our negative hearts into positive hearts. The more we complain about our negative circumstances, the more miserable we will be. However, if we begin to give thanks to God according to the word of God, we will see the power of gratitude working in our souls and begin to see the glory of God rising again like the sun in our lives. In the midst of a dark shade of hardships in life, we will see God our Father who disciplines us for our wrongdoings, forgive, cleanse, and make us more like His Son Christ. Because of Christ’s redemptive work on the cross, we haven’t gotten what we deserve, that is, eternal condemnation. We have received redemption of sin through Christ, which we don’t deserve. Someone said, 여러분이 원하는 것을 얻지 못했다고 불평하지 마세요. 여러분이 응당히 받아 마땅한 것을 받지 않은 것에 대하여 감사하세요. “Don’t grumble because you don’t get what you want; be grateful that you don’t get what you deserve.” According to the perfect, penal justice of God, we deserve nothing but divine punishment. But according to God’s unfailing love, we are forgiven, redeemed, justified, and sanctified in Christ. Thus, we have every reason to give thanks to God our Judge and Father. During this Thanksgiving week, let us give thanks to God for His marvelous grace that is greater than all our sin. The author of Hebrews says, 이러므로 우리가 예수로 말미암아 항상 찬미의 제사를 하나님께 드리자 이는 그 이름을 증거하는 입술의 열매니라. Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name (Heb. 13:15). ‌Let me challenge you with the following Scripture: 항상 기뻐하라. 쉬지 말고 기도하라. 범사에 감사하라 이는 그리스도 예수 안에서 너희를 향하신 하나님의 뜻이니라. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you (1 Thess. 5:16-18). The reason a grateful heart is happy is that it obeys the will of God. Let’s be grateful to God for all things and enjoy happiness in Christ for God’s glory.

Benediction: ²⁴ 능히 너희를 보호하사 거침이 없게 하시고 너희로 그 영광 앞에 흠이 없이 즐거움으로 서게 하실자 ²⁵ 곧 우리 구주 홀로 하나이신 하나님께 우리 주 예수 그리스도로 말미암아 영광과 위엄과 권력과 권세가 만고 전부터 이제와 세세에 있을지어다 아멘. ²⁴ Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, ²⁵ to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen. (Jud 1:24-25)

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