Title
What Do You See? 你看见?
Date
09/27/2026
Description
Luke 6:45 “The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.”
路加福音 6:45 “善人從他心裡所存的善就發出善來；惡人從他心裡所存的惡就發出惡來，因為心裡所充滿的，嘴裡就說出來。”
1 Corinthians 1:4 “I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus.”
哥林多前書 1:4 “我常為你們感謝我的神，因神在基督耶穌裡所賜給你們的恩典。”
Proverbs 4:23 “Guard your heart above all else, for it is the source of life.”
箴言 4:23 “你要保守你心，勝過保守一切；因為一生的果效是由心發出。”
Proverbs 15:15 “All the days of the afflicted are bad, but a cheerful heart has a continual feast.”
箴言 15:15 “困苦人的日子都是愁苦的；心中歡暢的，常享豐筵。”
1 Thessalonians 5:18 “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”
帖撒羅尼迦前書 5:18 “凡事謝恩；因為這是神在基督耶穌裡向你們所定的旨意。”
Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable—if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”
腓立比書 4:8 “弟兄姊妹們，我還有未盡的話：凡是真實的、可敬的、公義的、清潔的、可愛的、有美名的，若有任何德行，若有任何稱讚，這些事你們都要思念。”
路加福音 6:45 “善人從他心裡所存的善就發出善來；惡人從他心裡所存的惡就發出惡來，因為心裡所充滿的，嘴裡就說出來。”
1 Corinthians 1:4 “I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus.”
哥林多前書 1:4 “我常為你們感謝我的神，因神在基督耶穌裡所賜給你們的恩典。”
Proverbs 4:23 “Guard your heart above all else, for it is the source of life.”
箴言 4:23 “你要保守你心，勝過保守一切；因為一生的果效是由心發出。”
Proverbs 15:15 “All the days of the afflicted are bad, but a cheerful heart has a continual feast.”
箴言 15:15 “困苦人的日子都是愁苦的；心中歡暢的，常享豐筵。”
1 Thessalonians 5:18 “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”
帖撒羅尼迦前書 5:18 “凡事謝恩；因為這是神在基督耶穌裡向你們所定的旨意。”
Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable—if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”
腓立比書 4:8 “弟兄姊妹們，我還有未盡的話：凡是真實的、可敬的、公義的、清潔的、可愛的、有美名的，若有任何德行，若有任何稱讚，這些事你們都要思念。”
Creator
Pastor: Mike Koger
Contributor
Hillside United Methodist Church
3737 US 80
Phenix City AL 36870
United States
3737 US 80
Phenix City AL 36870
United States
Transcription
What Do You See?:
Training the Heart to See the Blessing
Luke 6:45
1 Cor 1:4: “I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus”
A life of meaning and purpose doesn’t happen by accident.
Sunday night leads to Monday morning…
“When I focus on the drudgery of my duties, I start wishing my LIFE away.”
Think back over today. (so far)
It probably hasn't been that long since you woke up.
Somewhere between getting out of bed and walking into this room, I'd wager most of us complained about something.
Maybe it was the weather. .. or the coffee being cold, or the person who cut you off two blocks from church.
It doesn't take much, does it?
Complaining is almost effortless for us. It's like our default setting.
Here's what I want you to sit with this morning:
What if that very moment you complained about was actually carrying a hidden blessing you didn't even notice? What if the slow traffic gave you three extra minutes to pray for your family? What if the cold coffee reminded you that you have coffee, in a warm house, with people who love you nearby?
Early Monday morning these words struck my soul:
“Stop looking for what is wrong in a situation, and start looking for what is Right.”
We are so quick to name what's wrong. We can be so slow to name what's right.
And I believe that's not just a personality quirk — it's a spiritual condition.
It's a matter of the heart.
So today, I want us to ask honestly: “has my heart become a factory for complaints, or a wellspring of praise?”
And more importantly — can that change?
I believe with everything in me that it can. But it won't happen by trying harder.
It happens by grace. Let's walk through this together.
Jesus said something in Luke 6:45 that cuts right to the heart of this issue — literally. He said, "The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks."
Notice what Jesus is saying. He's not primarily talking about behavior management. He's not saying, "Try to say nicer things."
He's saying that your mouth is a window into your heart. What comes out of your mouth on a regular basis — whether it's complaint or praise, grumbling or gratitude — is simply the overflow of what's already inside you.
If the well is bitter, bitter water comes up. If the well is sweet, sweet water comes up.
“For the overflow (the abundance) of what has been stored in your heart will be seen by your fruit and will be heard in your words."
It's worth pausing on that word "abundance," because the original Greek is even more specific than our English translation lets on. The word is “perisseuma,” and it means surplus or overflow — not just "a lot of something," but the excess that spills out when a container is already full.” It comes from the word perisseuo, which means "to exceed a fixed number or measure."
Interestingly, that's the same word family Matthew uses to describe the leftover fragments gathered after Jesus fed the five thousand — the abundance that remained once everyone had eaten their fill.
Applying that image here: your heart is like a container.
Whatever fills it past capacity is what spills over the rim as speech.
That's why "watch your words" is the wrong starting point.
Speech isn't manufactured on demand; it's overflow.
You can't dam up bitter overflow by trying harder at the rim — you have to change what's filling the container in the first place. (what’s in your well?)
Prov 4:23: “Guard your heart above all else, for it is the source of life.”
So when we catch ourselves complaining constantly — about our jobs, our health, our spouse, our church, our government, our weather — that's not just a bad habit we need to break. It's a diagnostic.
It tells us something about the condition of our hearts.
Complaint isn't really the root problem; it's a symptom of a heart that has stopped looking for blessing and started expecting entitlement.
But here's the good news tucked right alongside that warning. Proverbs 15:15 says, "All the days of the afflicted are bad, but a cheerful heart has a continual feast."
Did you catch that contrast?
The same set of circumstances — even affliction, even hardship — can be experienced two totally different ways depending on the condition of the heart.
“Stop looking for what is wrong in a situation, and start looking for what is Right.”
One person, heart fixed on what's wrong, experiences every day as bad.
Another person, heart cultivated toward gratitude and cheerfulness, (perspective) experiences a continual feast — even walking through the same valley.
This isn't about denying reality or pretending hard things aren't hard.
It's about recognizing that the heart's posture shapes our entire experience of life.
A grateful heart doesn't ignore pain; it simply refuses to let pain have the final word.
Matt 13:12: Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance.
What are we noticing in the moment?
That's the power of choosing gratitude in the moment.
This is exactly what Paul is calling us to in 1 Thessalonians 5:18:
"Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."
Notice, he doesn't say give thanks for all circumstances
He says give thanks in all circumstances.
In the middle of the traffic, in the middle of the daily stresses, in the middle of the hard conversation, there is always something to thank God for, because His presence and His goodness don't leave the room just because our circumstances got difficult.
Paul gives us a practical strategy for this in Philippians 4:8: "Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things." (Good Things)
If we miss out by neglecting to notice the Good Things, we miss life.
(my notecard* and my wristband*)
*see – I’m not telling you to do something I am not already doing
In other words — go looking for it.
“If you want to look for obstacles, what’s wrong is always available. But so is what’s right!”
In common words - “Stop looking for what is wrong in a situation, and start looking for what is Right.” (“Seek and ye shall find”)
Don't wait for the blessing to knock you over the head.
Actively search for what is good, right, lovely, and praiseworthy in your day.
It's there. It's almost always there.
But we have to be the kind of people who are looking for it.
Now, here's where I need to be honest with you, and I need you to hear this clearly: none of us can simply decide, through sheer willpower, to stop complaining and start praising. If it were that easy, we would have done it years ago.
We've all tried the New Year's resolution version of gratitude — "This year, I'm going to be more positive" — and by February we're right back to our old patterns.
That's because this isn't ultimately a discipline problem. It's a heart problem.
And heart problems require more than effort. They require grace.
Here's the beauty of the gospel: God doesn't just command us to have grateful hearts and then leave us to white-knuckle our way there. He sends His Spirit to actually change the well itself.
Remember Luke 6:45 — it's about the treasure of the heart.
“A good person produces good out of the good stored up in his heart.”
Grace is what replaces the bitter treasure with sweet treasure.
Grace is what takes a heart that has been trained by years of entitlement and complaint, and slowly, patiently, re-forms it into a heart that overflows with thanksgiving.
This is not something we manufacture. It's something we receive.
1 Cor 4:7: And what do you have that grace has not given you?
Every time you find yourself softening toward gratitude instead of hardening into complaint, that is grace at work in you. Every time you catch a complaint halfway out of your mouth and turn it into a prayer of thanks instead, that's not you being a stronger Christian by sheer effort — that's the Spirit of God doing surgery on your heart in real time.
And because it's grace, it's not a one-time fix — it's an ongoing, daily work.
Closing Prayer
Father, we come to You aware that our hearts often run toward complaint before they run toward praise. We confess that we've grumbled about things that, in Your kindness, were actually gifts.
Forgive us for missing so many blessings hidden in ordinary moments.
Lord, we ask for Your grace this week — not our willpower, but Your grace — to soften our hearts.
Open our eyes to notice the blessings we would normally overlook: the small mercies, the unearned kindnesses, the quiet gifts scattered through our ordinary days. When frustration rises up in us — in traffic, in waiting, in disappointment — give us the grace to respond with praise instead of complaint.
And Lord, let this gratitude not stay locked up inside us. Help us to speak it out loud to the people around us this week — to thank our spouses, our children, our coworkers, our friends.
Let the overflow of our hearts bless the people You've placed in our lives. Where we've taken people for granted, restore in us eyes to see them as gifts. Thank You, Father, that this transformation isn't up to us alone. Thank You that Your Spirit is doing the deep work in us, turning bitter wells into sweet ones, turning complaint into praise, turning ordinary days into a continual feast. Have Your way in us this week, we pray. In Jesus' name, Amen.
Training the Heart to See the Blessing
Luke 6:45
1 Cor 1:4: “I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus”
A life of meaning and purpose doesn’t happen by accident.
Sunday night leads to Monday morning…
“When I focus on the drudgery of my duties, I start wishing my LIFE away.”
Think back over today. (so far)
It probably hasn't been that long since you woke up.
Somewhere between getting out of bed and walking into this room, I'd wager most of us complained about something.
Maybe it was the weather. .. or the coffee being cold, or the person who cut you off two blocks from church.
It doesn't take much, does it?
Complaining is almost effortless for us. It's like our default setting.
Here's what I want you to sit with this morning:
What if that very moment you complained about was actually carrying a hidden blessing you didn't even notice? What if the slow traffic gave you three extra minutes to pray for your family? What if the cold coffee reminded you that you have coffee, in a warm house, with people who love you nearby?
Early Monday morning these words struck my soul:
“Stop looking for what is wrong in a situation, and start looking for what is Right.”
We are so quick to name what's wrong. We can be so slow to name what's right.
And I believe that's not just a personality quirk — it's a spiritual condition.
It's a matter of the heart.
So today, I want us to ask honestly: “has my heart become a factory for complaints, or a wellspring of praise?”
And more importantly — can that change?
I believe with everything in me that it can. But it won't happen by trying harder.
It happens by grace. Let's walk through this together.
Jesus said something in Luke 6:45 that cuts right to the heart of this issue — literally. He said, "The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks."
Notice what Jesus is saying. He's not primarily talking about behavior management. He's not saying, "Try to say nicer things."
He's saying that your mouth is a window into your heart. What comes out of your mouth on a regular basis — whether it's complaint or praise, grumbling or gratitude — is simply the overflow of what's already inside you.
If the well is bitter, bitter water comes up. If the well is sweet, sweet water comes up.
“For the overflow (the abundance) of what has been stored in your heart will be seen by your fruit and will be heard in your words."
It's worth pausing on that word "abundance," because the original Greek is even more specific than our English translation lets on. The word is “perisseuma,” and it means surplus or overflow — not just "a lot of something," but the excess that spills out when a container is already full.” It comes from the word perisseuo, which means "to exceed a fixed number or measure."
Interestingly, that's the same word family Matthew uses to describe the leftover fragments gathered after Jesus fed the five thousand — the abundance that remained once everyone had eaten their fill.
Applying that image here: your heart is like a container.
Whatever fills it past capacity is what spills over the rim as speech.
That's why "watch your words" is the wrong starting point.
Speech isn't manufactured on demand; it's overflow.
You can't dam up bitter overflow by trying harder at the rim — you have to change what's filling the container in the first place. (what’s in your well?)
Prov 4:23: “Guard your heart above all else, for it is the source of life.”
So when we catch ourselves complaining constantly — about our jobs, our health, our spouse, our church, our government, our weather — that's not just a bad habit we need to break. It's a diagnostic.
It tells us something about the condition of our hearts.
Complaint isn't really the root problem; it's a symptom of a heart that has stopped looking for blessing and started expecting entitlement.
But here's the good news tucked right alongside that warning. Proverbs 15:15 says, "All the days of the afflicted are bad, but a cheerful heart has a continual feast."
Did you catch that contrast?
The same set of circumstances — even affliction, even hardship — can be experienced two totally different ways depending on the condition of the heart.
“Stop looking for what is wrong in a situation, and start looking for what is Right.”
One person, heart fixed on what's wrong, experiences every day as bad.
Another person, heart cultivated toward gratitude and cheerfulness, (perspective) experiences a continual feast — even walking through the same valley.
This isn't about denying reality or pretending hard things aren't hard.
It's about recognizing that the heart's posture shapes our entire experience of life.
A grateful heart doesn't ignore pain; it simply refuses to let pain have the final word.
Matt 13:12: Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance.
What are we noticing in the moment?
That's the power of choosing gratitude in the moment.
This is exactly what Paul is calling us to in 1 Thessalonians 5:18:
"Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."
Notice, he doesn't say give thanks for all circumstances
He says give thanks in all circumstances.
In the middle of the traffic, in the middle of the daily stresses, in the middle of the hard conversation, there is always something to thank God for, because His presence and His goodness don't leave the room just because our circumstances got difficult.
Paul gives us a practical strategy for this in Philippians 4:8: "Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things." (Good Things)
If we miss out by neglecting to notice the Good Things, we miss life.
(my notecard* and my wristband*)
*see – I’m not telling you to do something I am not already doing
In other words — go looking for it.
“If you want to look for obstacles, what’s wrong is always available. But so is what’s right!”
In common words - “Stop looking for what is wrong in a situation, and start looking for what is Right.” (“Seek and ye shall find”)
Don't wait for the blessing to knock you over the head.
Actively search for what is good, right, lovely, and praiseworthy in your day.
It's there. It's almost always there.
But we have to be the kind of people who are looking for it.
Now, here's where I need to be honest with you, and I need you to hear this clearly: none of us can simply decide, through sheer willpower, to stop complaining and start praising. If it were that easy, we would have done it years ago.
We've all tried the New Year's resolution version of gratitude — "This year, I'm going to be more positive" — and by February we're right back to our old patterns.
That's because this isn't ultimately a discipline problem. It's a heart problem.
And heart problems require more than effort. They require grace.
Here's the beauty of the gospel: God doesn't just command us to have grateful hearts and then leave us to white-knuckle our way there. He sends His Spirit to actually change the well itself.
Remember Luke 6:45 — it's about the treasure of the heart.
“A good person produces good out of the good stored up in his heart.”
Grace is what replaces the bitter treasure with sweet treasure.
Grace is what takes a heart that has been trained by years of entitlement and complaint, and slowly, patiently, re-forms it into a heart that overflows with thanksgiving.
This is not something we manufacture. It's something we receive.
1 Cor 4:7: And what do you have that grace has not given you?
Every time you find yourself softening toward gratitude instead of hardening into complaint, that is grace at work in you. Every time you catch a complaint halfway out of your mouth and turn it into a prayer of thanks instead, that's not you being a stronger Christian by sheer effort — that's the Spirit of God doing surgery on your heart in real time.
And because it's grace, it's not a one-time fix — it's an ongoing, daily work.
Closing Prayer
Father, we come to You aware that our hearts often run toward complaint before they run toward praise. We confess that we've grumbled about things that, in Your kindness, were actually gifts.
Forgive us for missing so many blessings hidden in ordinary moments.
Lord, we ask for Your grace this week — not our willpower, but Your grace — to soften our hearts.
Open our eyes to notice the blessings we would normally overlook: the small mercies, the unearned kindnesses, the quiet gifts scattered through our ordinary days. When frustration rises up in us — in traffic, in waiting, in disappointment — give us the grace to respond with praise instead of complaint.
And Lord, let this gratitude not stay locked up inside us. Help us to speak it out loud to the people around us this week — to thank our spouses, our children, our coworkers, our friends.
Let the overflow of our hearts bless the people You've placed in our lives. Where we've taken people for granted, restore in us eyes to see them as gifts. Thank You, Father, that this transformation isn't up to us alone. Thank You that Your Spirit is doing the deep work in us, turning bitter wells into sweet ones, turning complaint into praise, turning ordinary days into a continual feast. Have Your way in us this week, we pray. In Jesus' name, Amen.