Title: If You Love Me
Contents
Sunday Sermon_090712
Title: If You Love Me
Text: John 14:15-21 (New Testament p. 172)
If anyone wants to watch a movie that makes you cry on a day in the summer, I recommend a Korean movie. "A Story Sadder Than Sadness", starring Sang-woo Kwon, Bo-young Lee, and Beom-su Lee, is a beautiful portrayal of sad love. There is a twist, so it will be a movie that will make the viewer cry at least once. Here is a brief introduction to the story of this film.
It is a movie depicting a passionate love for each other between a radio PD Kei who was abandoned by her parents and who is infinitely kind but has less than 200 days to live, and a young woman who is always cheerful but lost her parents and younger brother in one day in a car accident. However, the characteristic of their love is, in one word, ‘selfless’.
It's a sad movie because it's so altruistic and there's so little time to be together. It's a love that tries to keep each other's words as they are. It is a love that sacrifices itself to respect each other's opinions. If you are over 15 years old, please see it at least once.
What kind of life changes will happen when a person begins to love? Its first characteristic is that attention is focused on him. My eyes, ears, and heart are all taken away. The words of a loved one do not flow. Not one of his glances, gait, and outfit are overlooked.
I want to know about his past and how he lives now. And he tries to improve the way he lives and the environment in which he lives. And I wonder what his future hopes and dreams are. And we want to help you achieve that vision for the future. This is characteristic of a person who begins to love.
The second characteristic that appears when you start to love is that you try to change yourself. In order to become that person's joy, you begin to change yourself. Change your speech, take care of your facial expressions, and dress up so that you don't ignore the person's taste
They also begin to obey the words of their loved ones. Respect and practice the wishes of loved ones. No matter what kind of sacrifice you have to make, you will try to fulfill the person's will. I gradually disappear and silently pursue the task of leaving only the existence of that person in my life. This is characteristic of a person who begins to love.
Jesus also spoke of one characteristic of a person who began to love. Hearing and keeping the commandments of Jesus. These are the words that those who love Jesus must face without exception. Because if you do not keep the Word, you cannot say that you are a person who loves God.
Through today's Word, I pray in the name of the Lord that the life of loving God truly begins among all of us. Amen.
Some people say that dilated pupils, stuttering, blushing, trembling hands, and being so numb to speak are characteristic of loved ones. But Jesus said that the only characteristic of loving Jesus is keeping His commandments.
This characteristic does not change. He is saying that God the Father loves those who love the Son. And he is saying that if such a person asks anything in Jesus name, he will hear it. This is because such a person does not seek basically selfishly.
If you look at the Word, there are people who do not receive answers even if they ask. One of the cases in which they do not receive these answers is because they sought after their own desires. It is said that it is because they seek selfishly by breaking away from the characteristics of altruistic love.
(James 4:3)
“You ask, and you do not receive, because you ask wrongly to spend it on your lusts.”
The apostle James introduces another reason why prayers are not answered.
(James 4:2)
“You lust and have not, and you murder; you quarrel and fight, because you envy and cannot have, and you do not have, because you do not ask.”
To summarize this statement: The two main reasons people don't get what they want is that they don't ask first, and secondly that they ask for it wrongly in order to spend it on lust. But today's text says that whatever we ask of those who love God, that is, those who believe in Him, He will hear.
(John 14:12)
“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do, and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.”
The Bible says that the key to this miraculous life is to love God. The answer is love. Most of the problems in my life are also due to this direction and attitude towards love. On the other hand, many opportunities and graces that have come in my life are also things that started because of this love.
The house I live in now is also being supplied by the person I love. What I eat and wear now is also being supplied by the person I love. The space and time that the person who loves me has created for most of the journey of my life is truly incredible.
Without the person who loves me, my life is indescribable. On the other hand, it is clear that most of the problems that have arisen in my life are caused by the objects or people I have started to love. The problems that have arisen in this way can be solved when you start to straighten out the direction of love.
Aren't these people who were born after loving all of our enemies and then failing? At least the Bible says that our enemies are in our houses.
(Micah 7:6)
“A son despises his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a man’s enemies are those of his own household.”
It is a great task to live by keeping the word of God throughout our lives. However, Jesus is saying that the answer to the problem of obedience to the Word that this life is at stake lies in love. He is saying that the important point of answering prayers is to love God and to walk humbly with God.
He who loves me keeps my commandments. Jesus' solution. Truth. Studying is also good for people who like teachers. It is no different from my own experience and from listening to other people's stories. If you love your teacher, you will study well. If you love Jesus, you will keep the commandments.
The other way is powerless. My efforts are not very reliable either. Loving is the most powerful. There is nothing in the world like love yet to make people's passions different at their peak. Love is the truth. Love is the core and key to all blessings and grace. You just start to love.
So, how should we love? The most important thing in love is direction. The direction of love is important. Who you love is very important. In the Bible, the 10 commandments tell us not to love someone else's wife. Because that direction is the wrong direction, the direction of death and death.
There are countless families and lives that have collapsed as a result of falling in love in this wrong direction. Samson is a prime example of this in the Bible. Samson fell in love with a Philistine woman named “Delilah,” whom he should not love, and he destroyed himself and brought the entire nation of Israel into serious danger.
Reckless love is always the seed of tears. The object of love must always be discerned. To enter into a dangerous relationship with someone who is good to you or something that pleases you is like going into a fire with straw. The hardship you are going to suffer right now is clearly visible.
The Bible also warns against the love of money. Money is something to be handled wisely, not something to be loved. The Bible warns of suffering that the love of money is the root of all evil, and that as soon as you love and covet money, you will depart from the faith and pierce yourself with many sorrows.
(1 Timothy 6:10)
“The love of money is the root of all evil, and those who coveted it have been deceived and have erred from the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.”
And the second thing to watch out for in love is selfish love. Once you know exactly what you want to love, the next step is to plunge into unselfish love. Just as it is normal for a person to go crazy when he finally meets an object he should be crazy about, it is normal to go all-in on himself when he meets an object to love properly.
God is telling us to first set the object right when we love, and to pour out ourselves without hesitation or hesitation once the object we need to love is set right. He says that when you love, you have to give yourself more than your heart.
He says that the price paid for love is the greatest thing in the world. Selfishness and loving are the most incompatible attitudes. When people begin to love, God says that this is what God requires of them.
(Luke 10:27)
“He answered and said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.”
A poet named Yumi Kim defined love as follows in his poem Love. “To love is to lose your freedom little by little. To love is to surrender in front of the only person in this world.” That's right. You start to love and you lose the freedom to do what you want. At the same time, we are supposed to surrender in all things with joy in front of our loved ones.
To what extent is love normal? Poet Lee Eun-sang sings that it is normal until he burns out. It is said that if you start to love, it is normal to burn all the ashes left after burning. Let me read a poem of his titled “Love”.
Love / Eunsang Lee
Ride everything on your ride, please don't ride it
Ride and ride again and get back into ash
There is no place to use the Donggang River left over from the ride.
Don't ride it at all if it's going to burn out
I'd rather not live as a tree
Exhausted, even that, Tom is right.
Dear saints, Now we are going to draw the conclusion of the sermon. Love must go until it burns out. So love has no expiration date. Love is forever. Because it is God's promise. Because God is love. And when you start to love, you begin to see things you couldn't see before.
Because light enters the heart. The kingdom and will of God begin to appear, and my neighbors who need my love begin to come into view. This is where love begins. Then it will be now. This is the beginning of becoming a person who keeps the word. You just have to love it.
The power to keep the Word comes from love. Obedience does not come from oppression, but from being loved and served. It is now time to pour out the love that has become the reason we have been living up until now to God and to the neighbor next to us. I pray in the name of Jesus, who loved us so much that he decided to become our bridegroom forever, pouring out this love for the rest of our lives and giving us the blessing of living as God's joy. Amen.