Title: Love God (Mark 12:28)
love God
Mark 12:28-34
There are some things we don't know about the world in which we breathe and act every day. One is the fact that it is changing day by day. Every day when you wake up, it's like meeting another world, and it's changing so rapidly. The second is undirected change. Before that, we are often helpless. And another is uncertainty about the consequences of change. Many futurists study hard and predict the future in their own way, but that doesn't happen. While the life research of a trusted scientist is destroyed due to selfish desire for honor, unexpected human events that feel an unexpected betrayal from a trusted person and have to turn around and cry, do not know in which direction they will run like a rugby ball, and how they will change. It is a picture of us living in an unknown, uncertain world.
A preventive medicine expert [Peter Hansen], Dr. For the health of modern people, throwing away harmful habits, such as healthy food, regular exercise, tobacco, alcohol, overwork, overeating, and lack of sleep, is considered as 50 points, and the remaining 50 points are called health management methods. It is said that the more you love love, the more creative power it is, the stronger the body's resistance and the natural power to fight germs is cultivated. The power of love is sometimes beyond imagination and sometimes beyond common sense.
A team of psychology professors conducted an experiment. Are you working as a missionary of love in a slum in India? Show students a documentary film of helping poor people in a hospital, examine the students, and show the same students a week later a brutal documentary film of slaughtering these Jews again. resistance was investigated. Then after watching Mother Teresa's movie, the level of resistance to fighting the cold virus was much higher. Love has strong power to create not only physical health, but also mental health and a healthy society.
But why is the world so noisy? After all, all problems in the world are problems of love. First, the problem is that there is no love. I don't even have the heart to love. Second, there is love, but it is a problem because it is sick. Another problem is lying in love. I was deceived by love. False love frustrates our hearts. Everyone shouts for love, but that's not love. This is how I sometimes deceive myself. And ignorance of love is the problem. I can't because I don't know love. Another problem is that love doesn't work. Obviously, love cannot be communicated because it is not felt even though it is being loved, and therefore cannot be given love. So love is cut off. After all, this is a matter of distrust. Obviously, he is in love and I am loved, and if I do not believe in that love, I will not know love. If I do not know love, there is no emotion, and love without emotion will only lead to despair.
It is said that there are three stages to love.
The first is. In fact, it can be said that interest is also a great love. In raising rats, rats raised by sucking only milk bottles live an average of 600 days, while those raised by pouring milk into a bowl and feeding them with human hands and stroking them with loving hands live much longer, averaging 950 days. is. Even having a free interest in the object to be loved can turn into beautiful love. And the second is. We love not only with words, but with material and time. Prepare a gift for him and set aside time for him. The last third is. It is to love with an attitude of giving even your life for the one you love. It is not an answer according to whether he loves me or not, but I become who I am only for him. When you reach this love, it becomes a love that has the power to overcome anything. It becomes a strong love that no one can break.
One day a woman who hated [Winston Churchill] so harshly said to Churchill: "Winston, if you were my husband, I would have put lye in your car." It's impressive how well Winston took over. “Madam, if you were my wife, I would have drank the lye.” It's not easy for me to love him at the expense of someone who hates me. But perfect love is the ability to have this power.
In this way, depending on the stage of love, the result will be different. Do you love God? How far is that love? Aren't you still just staying in the vague? Or, do you have a high level of love that has come so far?
God has shown us love. You confirmed your love for us by having Jesus die on the cross. We can no longer doubt God's love. Then, what kind of love should we, who have received that love, ought to give? God blesses those who love Him. Why are people not receiving blessings today? The answer is surprisingly simple. Because they don't really love God. They say they love them, but their hearts do not show love, and their actions do not show love. Do you know what the strongest form of love is in us? only self-love. But self-love does not come first. The Bible tells us to love God first.
[Albert Schweitzer] said that humans have three conditions for happiness.
First, there must be something to do for humans to be happy,
Second, there must be something to hope.
Third, it is said that a person can be happy when there is something to love. That's right. A person who has a clear love target is a happy person. They say that not being loved is a great misfortune, but a bigger misfortune than that is that I have no one to love. It makes me despair that soon there is no one to accept my love. Therefore, you should know that having something to love is a great happiness. Those who know that the first object of that love is God is the happiest among happy people.
Today's Bible verse speaks of the beginning of this love. We set the church motto for 2006, and today, on the first Sunday of the new year, we are going to start the year with the first word about the love of God. Faith begins with loving God.
[Augustin Augustinus] said that man should not be judged by what he knows, but according to what he loves. Because when you love, you follow what you love, and you give your all to what you love. So, what you love becomes an important criterion for evaluating him. Those who love themselves eventually fall into their own greed and self-greed. Those who love money will sin because of money, and those who love honor and authority will fall into lawlessness and corruption for that purpose. Then what should we love? We must remember today's Word, God's Word to love God and to love our neighbors. The first among them, to love God, should be the beginning of our faith. If you are a believer, you must have a heart to love God first. Anyone who claims to live a life of faith without loving God is a lie. If you say you go to church and do not love God, you are a false believer.
In today's text, a scribe asks a question to Jesus. In Matthew 22, where the same story is recorded, it is said that a lawyer tempted Jesus and asked him. Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest? He said, "Love God. This is the first and greatest commandment, and the second is like it." He answered, "Love your neighbor as yourself." Like these words, the commandment about love is the greatest commandment. It also clearly states that loving God comes first. If we love God, how much do you think we love him? As I start the year, I hope that I will start by confirming my love for God.
Dear saints!
The new year 2006 has dawned. How you take the first step is really important. How you start your business is important. Furthermore, where you start your faith determines whether you live a successful year or not. Please, I hope that today we start the new year with the determination of faith to love God. I hope that it will be a year of faith that knows how to serve the church and serve neighbors with the love of God.