Title: Love is Giving
Contents
“Oh, by the grace of God”
Goethe said, “To live is to love.” (To live in to love). That's right. The value and meaning of life lies in love. that God is love (1 John 4:8)
Because we are made in the image of God.
Luke 6:38, today's sermon. Among the many teachings of Jesus, this is the most important message about love. Jesus included even the enemy as the object of love (Luke 6:27), and in telling us to love our enemies, Jesus emphasized the word 'You are Lord'. Here I got the title of the sermon. “Love is giving.” “To love is to give.” There is no love for those who do not give. There is no God to those who do not give. For “he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him” (1 John 4:16). God, of course, wants you and I to abide in Him. We also want to become truly abode in God.
1. Love is giving. Giving is an obligation, not an option.
Love is not an abstract noun, but a verb as a concrete action according to the word ‘Give’. The word 'give' (didote) here is the present imperative second person plural of the Greek 'didomi', which means 'give' or 'offer', and 'you give', 'you give', 'you give', 'you give' ', 'you entrust'. That's right. Giving and giving are not limited to a specific person. This is a command to ‘all of us’ who listen to the word of the Lord. And that command is not the word ‘Lord later’, but the command ‘Lord now’. Therefore, obedience to the Word is not an option, but the duty of the saints to practice love.
Like a faceless angel who lives by using the verses of the Bible as a compass for life, today we too feel the plight of the people of Haiti as if it were our own work, and we will feel the pain to the point of breaking our hearts. It is faith in action, love in action, and conscience in action. Not only that, but we owe more love than anyone else. After the 6.25 fraternal war, we received 60 billion dollars in foreign aid. The ‘miracle on the Han River’, as we often call it, was never done on our own. We must remember that there was the power of foreign aid. And we must do our best to receive blessings in return for that kindness.
These are the words of Galatians 6 “2. “Bear one another’s burdens, and thus fulfill the law of Christ.” Amen! James 2:15-17 says, “If a brother or sister is naked and has no daily bread, what profit is it if any of you say to him, ‘Go in peace, keep warm, and be satisfied, and do not give him food for his body? Is it? Like this, faith without works is dead in itself.”
Dear saints, may you fulfill the law of Christ by faith with works by carrying the heavy burdens of those in need. So, I earnestly pray that you realize with your body, mind and life that giving is never an option, but an obligation.
2. Love is giving. Giving is a blessing, not a waste.
Let's look at the words of Luke 6:38 together. “Give, and it will be given to you; and it will be given to you in full, pressed down, shaking, and overflowing. By the same measure that you measure, you will also be measured again.” Amen!
Jesus said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). Here I came to think that there are two kinds of blessings. One is to receive and the other is to give. For the most part, people are sensitive to the blessings they receive. But Jesus said that the blessings we give make us happier than the blessings we receive. (There is more happiness in giving than in receiving.) Because giving is a blessing, not a waste.
This is the story of Dr. Albert A.Hyde, an American businessman. I used to run a small bookstore and went bankrupt due to the economic crisis, and I owed about $100,000. Despite his anxiety and hopelessness, he did not give up and prayed instead. After experiencing grace during prayer, above all else, he repented of his unfaithfulness toward his giving life in the past. He sold his house, cleared his debts, and started tithing again. My friends even questioned what kind of tithing is in this situation. Each time, he would reply that it was because he gave me the realization that I had to pay off my debt to God first. He prayed and researched drugs, even manufacturing and selling them. Through prayer and devotion, he was able to build a global pharmaceutical company after three or four years of recovery. That was the famous Mentholatum pharmaceutical company. He started as a tithe of his income, and began to pay tithes and three tithes and supported missionaries scattered around the world.
A bankrupt bookstore owner, he didn't blame the economic downturn for his failures. Instead, he found the cause in the unfaithfulness of his tithing life. And he devoted himself to God and was faithful to the life he gave to people. It was no accident that he became a key player in the success of a global pharmaceutical company. I believe it is a blessing that God, who makes you reap what you sow, has given you abundantly, pressing, shaking, and overflowing according to the promised word. Yes. It doesn't matter how much you earn. It depends on how much you gave and how much you shared. What you have built up for yourself is nothing more than what you have built up. It is never fixed. You never know when someone will get drunk. But what you give and give for God and your neighbor is like planting in the soil. The fruit can be 30, 60, 100, or even 1000 times.
This is Galatians 6:7-8. “Do not deceive yourself, for God is not despised, for whatever a man sows, he will also reap. Amen!
Dear saints, I earnestly pray for the Holy Spirit to take as your testimony that giving until you reap eternal life by planting for the Holy Spirit is by no means a waste but a blessing.
In Matthew 25:40, Jesus said something. “I tell you the truth, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.” Amen!
Last Friday, Elder Dongsoo Kim led the Severance Medical Relief Team to Haiti, the site of the earthquake. And on the same day, Kwon Hwa-soon Hong donated his body to Severance and left for the kingdom of God. From the appearance of the elder and the elder Kwon, I realized that love is giving.
To live like a child of God is to love and live as God who is love. And love is giving. Happiness is in love. It is also about giving blessings. Dear saints, I earnestly pray in the name of the Lord that we all abide in God by abiding in love, and that God also abide in us. Amen!
“Only for the Glory of God”