You then, my son... be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.(2 Timothy 2:1)

What is a chance? What is an opportunity? When you have a chance or an opportunity you can do what you want easily. For example in playing baseball game... if your team is with the bases loaded, in other words a full base and there are still other batsmen in your team... then it will be very strange for your team not to get points. For another example... in playing football game if your team has penalty kick chance, then your team will get almost 1 point. This is a chance. This is an opportunity. To do what you want very easily... is the chance. Do you understand what do I mean?

At this point I will tell you some Bible stories about this. You will know Joseph who became the prime minister of the empire of Egypt. Joseph made his suffering times a chance for himself. He was almost killed through several kinds of accidents. But Joseph kept his trust on God. He might pray to God constantly and God lifted him on high to the Prime minister of Egypt.

How about King David? King David is famous for the man of prayer. What did make King David as the person of prayer? Hard times!! Hard times made him the person of prayer. And at last He became the second Israel King and there is no other good king as David in the history of Israel.

When King Hezekiah was governing Israel the Assyria empire invaded Israel. One day after surrounding castle of Jerusalem with his hundreds of thousand solders King Sennacherib sent a letter to the king Hezekiah to force him to surrender. And how did King Hezekiah after reading his letter? He ran into the house of God and kneed down on the ground facing to the wall of the house and prayed to God. He did his crying and shouting prayer for a long time. At that night God killed almost 2 hundreds of thousand Assyrian solders and saved Israel from Assyria empire.

What I am saying is like this. Don't get upset with God or give up when hard times come to you. Of course a hard time is the time of difficulties. Everything will be difficult for you. But... when you have hard times there are also things for you to do easily. Praying to God is easy. Obeying to God is also easy. The other way... if you have hard times or suffering times... then it will be difficult for you not to pray. If you have a fatal disease to dead... and you are still Christian... then it is difficult for you not to pray. So hard times, suffering times are a chance to you. So make your hard times a chance for you.

There is no the worst time in our Christian life. Because we can be recovered from all hard times by praying to God. God will give us power and ability to overcome our hard times if we ask to God.

If we want to destruct ourselves completely we must have two things together. What are those? One is extreme suffering... and the other is never praying in such a difficult situation and this will be no easy to do so. From your mouth praying is about to come out... and you need to hold a hand over your mouth to prevent from your praying. And this is not so easy. So people pray to God when they meet hard times in their lives and they again arise from their difficulties. So it is very difficult for Christians to be destructed completely.

If there is no any difficulty in your life you can easily obey to God. You have enough money. You have enough time. And you absolutely have no any problem in your body physically. Also your spouse, your children, your parents are all well. There is no other difficulties in your life.... then it is very easy for you to obey to God. So it is the chance to dedicate yourself to God. Go out to spread gospel. Go to the mission field. Go to the church to serve God. You need to do easy things.

But when hard times come to you... then it is easy to pray to God. Do shouting prayer. Do crying prayer. In crying and shouting prayer there is no decoration and only the truth is there. The truth can not be copied and only the truth can stimulate God's mercy and God will give you strength and wisdom. And your life will become more beautiful than before. Beautiful cloths, beautiful car, beautiful house can not give you worth. But good prayer will give you worth.

So unhappiness, and misery that are happening in your life are not only themselves outwardly. They can be grace. They can be a chance and good opportunity to make you better. When you walk through the valley of the shadow of death... make your prayer as your rod and your staff. That will make you strong.

What is being strong? As today's Bible scripture says the grace of our Lord is strong. It makes us strong. You then, my son... be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.(2 Timothy 2:1)
 
If the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ comes to us we are very motivated. There is nothing impossible. We can do everything through him who gives us strength... and the strength is the grace I am saying. Be very much attached to the grace of our Lord. And make your children also long for the grace of our Lord. That will be the most strong and abundant and valuable gift to your children. This time I bless all of you to be like this. A-men. Let's us pray together.

[Prayer]

Heavenly Father, We thank you for this wonderful day. And we thank you for being with us to receive our worship. Many people are coming and going to their hometown to enjoy this holiday, but we are here in your presence to worship you. This time you bless each one of us so our spiritual life may be abundant through this week. As we spend this holiday many people may commit sin. So protect your son and daughters from Satan who are tempting us to commit sin. I pray in Jesus' name. A-men.