Title: Jesus means salvation.
On the occasion of the Blessed Christmas, I pray that God's grace and blessings will be on all of you, your family, and all of your business, who have come to worship before God.
When I was in middle and high school, there were many friends who said that if I showed God to my friends when I evangelized, they would believe. It was impossible to show a friend who did not believe in the invisible God. However, if we open our hearts a little and look at the world, we can realize that there is a God and how great He is and how much He loves us.
Anyone who is not an idiot can figure out the chief and the sculptor level by pretending to be. It is unknown who the sculpture is, but it was made by someone intentionally, and the chief was created by nature by chance. Does the world look like a chief or a piece of art to you? It doesn't have to say two. This world did not arise and evolve by chance, but is a perfect and beautiful work of God created by God.
If you look at the world, you can easily see how great the God who created this world is. Its size, delicacy and beauty are beyond our imagination. We can realize the omnipotence of our God by looking at the world God created and His creations.
When we look at the world God created, we can see how much God loves us. Because we can see that all of God's creation was centered on us and for us. God created all this world for us. In the end, God created Adam and Eve and gave them everything he had created before. God did his best to give us the cleanest, most perfect and beautiful world he loves. It was a creation that Almighty God did his best to the extent that he had to take a day off.
The gospel of the gospel is that there is a God, that God is Almighty God who created the heavens and the earth, and that Almighty God loves us. God really loves us. God's love culminates not only in creation, but also in the birth of Jesus and the cross of Jesus.
To depart from God and die in our sins, and to save us humans, God came to this earth as a human in a human body. And eventually he dies on the cross. How much did God love us human beings? How much he loved us humans that he would have even died on the cross.
God loves us. Because God loves us, He wants us to be well and blessed. But there is another important thing. Do you guys know what it is? It means that our God has the power to make us prosperous and to bless us.
The gospel is that Almighty God loves us. The Apostle Paul had such confidence in the gospel. So he confesses in Romans 8:
‘If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave me for all of us, how can he not also with him give us all things? Who can accuse God's elect? It is God who justifies; who will condemn? This is Christ Jesus, who is at the right hand of God, who intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, If for your sake we are put to death all day long, we are counted as sheep to be slaughtered. In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.' Amen (Romans 8) : 31 - 39)
When I say this, some of you may ask, 'But why is the world so difficult and difficult to live in reality?' But it is not that God is incompetent, nor that God does not love us. It is entirely because of our human sins. It is people who have made the world difficult and difficult. It is us humans who are destroying the world and driving it to death. Situations such as tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, and swords in Romans 8 are inevitable conditions and situations that appear entirely because of our human sins.
God is the one who saves us from such situations and conditions of death. God is the power of our salvation and life. God's will is salvation. Life. Happiness. Victory. God constantly restores us humans who are frustrated, failing, and dying because of our sins. God's work is the work of restoration. Humans and the world are constantly being restored. The mechanism of this world created by God is healing and restoration.
My right little finger broke while playing soccer in school. But now it sticks well, no problem. The right palm fell while skating in middle school and was torn on the blade of the skate, but it also adhered cleanly and the scar is still there, but it does not cause any inconvenience to life. There were many difficult and difficult things that made me want to die, but now that time has passed, all of them have become a thing of the past. It was all healed and restored. No matter how dark and gloomy it may seem, if you don't give up, it will eventually be solved. The world seems to be running towards death, but it is not. The world is running towards life. The ultimate goal of all the world and life is life. Healing. Recovery.
Verse 21 of today's text is very precious. “You will give birth to a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” Amen. Jesus was born on this earth today in a human body to save us from our sins. Because God took on a human body and came to this earth in a human form to forgive our sins and save us, there is nothing in the world that can separate us from that salvation. So, if you do not give up on everything in the world and life and wait for it, then everything will be restored and healed.
God's salvation is not only spiritual salvation. God's salvation is omnidirectional. God's salvation is salvation in every way. That is the will of God. It is salvation from tribulation. It is salvation from suffering. Deliverance from persecution and famine. Salvation from nakedness and danger and sword.
Some of you dear brothers and sisters who came to today's Christmas worship service must be in a difficult situation. In particular, there are probably some people who are living a life that is difficult to endure amid economic difficulties due to the global financial crisis. Beloved, no matter how great or difficult suffering is, it is nothing in the sight of Almighty God. So, in Psalm 121, the psalmist confesses:
“I lift up my eyes to the mountains, where will my help come from? My help is from the LORD, who made the heavens and the earth.” Amen.
Dear brothers and sisters, Jesus came to this earth today in a human body to save us from sin, death, and suffering. Therefore, you should not despair. You must not give up. Don't be discouraged. Jesus means salvation. Jesus means hope. Jesus stands for success and victory. Lord of faith, look to Jesus, the perfecter.
God's power and blessings through love can only be made mine through love. No matter how much God loves us, if we do not love God, His love cannot bear fruit in us through love. The power of Almighty God can only be made ours through faith in Him, and the blessing of God who loves us can only be received and enjoyed by loving Him. Even if we say that God is omnipotent, if we do not believe in Him, His greatness has nothing to do with us. It would not be possible to bear fruit with power as a blessing.
Now our lives depend on how much we believe in God. It depends on how much we love God. Our problem is us, not God. Our problem is that we believe in God but we believe in Him moderately, and we love God but we love Him in moderation.
Deuteronomy 6:4 says this. “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is the only Lord; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, and with all your strength.” These are words to read and memorize so that your ears are truly nailed to the ground. These are the words parents read to their children when their children fall asleep. Israel is truly a wonderful and mysterious country. Without a country in the world, there is no country in the world that has not been destroyed for 2,000 years and has rebuilt the country again. Not only did it barely rebuild the country, but it became the country with the most powerful influence in the world, both positive and negative.
Dear brothers and sisters, let us love God. Let's love God and live. Let's love and live only God with all our heart, all our mind, and all our soul. Just as God loves us with all of His heart, will, and devotion, let us love Him in the same way. I hope you can remember these words today. Your future life depends on you. It depends on how much you love and live God.
I bless you in the name of the Lord that you and I, who live to love God and enjoy God's blessings of salvation and victory to the fullest, can become all of us. Amen