Be thankful (Col 3:15-17)

 

Be thankful (Col 3:15-17)

 

 ¹⁵ And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.

¹⁶ Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

¹⁷ And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.

 

Intro)

1. Isaac Walton who lived in 17^th Century, England said “There are two places that God presence, one is Heaven and the other one is in a thankful heart.”

 

2. In King Lear by William Shakespeare, King Lear said “It is more painful to have unthankful child than get bitten by fang of snake” after his daughter betrayed him.

 

3. Yes thankful heart is the place where the God presence, and in unthankful heart can be a place of death like fang of venomous snake. So heaven and Hell is depends on your heart.

Also, thankful heart is one of the measurements of God to judge each human’s value.

So, Apostle Paul in today’s text stressed importance of thankful heart three times.  

 

 

A) Be Thankful.

 

Today’s text says “be ye thankful (verse 15) singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord (verse 16) giving thanks to God and the Father by him (verse 17).”

 

Today is thanks giving Sunday; first of all, let’s think about the origin of the thanks giving day.

 

Puritans from England came to Plymouth for freedom of religious practice. It was 1620, November 9. There was 102 people on the Mayflower, however 44 people died because of the coldness and disease.

 

In the next year, they could plant corn, barley, and wheat by help from Native Americans. That day was Last Thursday of November 1621. This was the origin of the Thanks giving.

2) Bible talks about Thanksgiving day few times.

Exodus 23:16 says “And the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of thy labours, which thou hast sown in the field: and the feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field.”

 

Exodus 34:22 says “²² And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the year's end.”

 

The meaning of these terms, the reasons of giving these terms to us is for us to offer thankfully.

God gave us the sunshine, and rain for the plants, and He always watching over us, gives us foods and wealth. So, we should thank Him.

Most of all, we should thank him for saving us from death, cleans us like snow. There is no way to pay Him back for what He has done for us.

 

Why Judas ruined his life? He was a type of person who complains a lot. He complained about the women who used whole box of precious ointment for Jesus, he said “For this ointment might have been sold for much, and given to the poor.” Then Jesus said “Why trouble ye the woman? for she hath wrought a good work upon me.” Eventually he ended up perform a suicide after he sold Jesus for 30 shekel. 

3) Fanny Crosby went blind 6 week after she born. However she overcomes her handicap and wrote over 600 hymns, Especially hymn number 384, 380, and 435 are the famous ones. She could easily spent her life with complaining but instead she praise the Lord. God also left her up. 

4)In a Jewish book there is a saying “Most wise person learn from the world, strongest person wins over himself, but the most happiest person is who are always thankful.”

 

B) Be thankful is an order.

 

1) Jesus demands us to be thankful. He tells us to have a thankful heart. How the peace of Jesus can control our heart?

1)  By thinking about the cross of the savior.

2)  By thinking about Jesus’ blood shed on the cross.

3)  By meeting Jesus while praying.

            4) While you read the Bible.

            5) When you serve Jesus. 

 

In verse 16 says “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.”

And also verse 17says “¹⁷ And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.”

2) An unnamed soldier became crippled during the American Civil War, and left this testimony:

"I asked God to make me a strong person who accomplishes many things, but instead He make me weak and gave me humbleness and the wisdom of sacrifice and obedience.

I asked God to make me a healthy person so I can do big things, but instead He made me handicapped and gave me the chance to do even bigger and greater things.

I asked God to make me rich so I could live a happy life, but instead He made poor and gave me wisdom for my life.

I asked God to give me power so I could receive praise from others, but instead God made me meek so that I would come to need Him and depend on Him.

I asked God for everything that would let me enjoy life, but instead God gave me a life that lets me enjoy anything.

Nothing I asked God for was given to me. Yet I received everything I hoped for. Despite my current state and situation, I have received so many of God’s blessings. God has blessed me more than anyone. Hallelujah!"

D) There are days when we are blessed with wonderful weather, but we let that day go by without notice.

On May 20th and 21st of 2009, rain finally fell in South Korea after a long drought. It was calculated that the net worth of this rainfall was 460million dollars. It was the first time the worth of rain was reported in Korea. Weather forecasters stated that the 37mm (1.5 inches) of rain cleared the air, creating 300million dollars. The 2,933,582 households were also able to find relief from the drought and overall 100million 6thousand dollars was saved. In addition: -dam water reserve levels went up -water levels for farms went up -forest fires were prevented alongside 10 other positive effects.

*Earlier this month on the 8th, a Typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines. According reports on the 18th, it has been counted that the death toll has passed 5000. The Philippines state that the around 3,974 people died around the islands of Leyte and Samar in central Philippines, and 1,186 are still missing. The search for dead bodies is a slow and tedious progress, with the death toll continuing to increase. 12,544 people remain injured, more than 543,000 houses are either partially or completely destroyed, and more than 4000 trucks of debris have been cleared from the city of Tacloban alone. The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council of the Philippines stated that an estimated 200million 5 thousand dollars’ worth of damages were done by the typhoon. Of course, it will cost much more to fix all these damages.

*Last week, in the state of Illinois, there were 80 tornadoes that passed within 12 hours. The citizens evacuated and took shelter ahead of time, but thousands of homes were destroyed. Eight people died and more than 200 people were injured. It is predicted to take over a year to restore the affected cities.

*Therefore, after looking at all these disasters that occurred within our own world, we must always give thanks to God for his gift of good weather.

Conclusion)

 Let us all give thanks to God. During this past year, He has given us sunlight, rain, wind, hearty grains, sweet fruit, and all other blessings! Let us always give thanks to our gracious Lord with our whole hearts, and receive even more blessings from Him. Let us use those blessings for His name and glory, constantly thanking Him. Hallelujah!