Title Fine Grape / Isaiah 5:1-7
These days, when you see advertisements coming out through mass media, there are contents that give a calm impression. One cell phone company says, "I hope good things happen to you," and another pharmaceutical company advertises, "The best medicine among medicines is love." Hearing these advertisements makes my heart flutter.
Two men in their 40s were suffering from the same disease. They were both about to have surgery. But one of them looked relatively healthy, and the other looked very feeble. Doctors were concerned about the outcome of the debilitated patient's surgery. However, the results of the surgery were completely unexpected. The patient, who was initially expected to have good results, could not wake up from anesthesia, and the patient who was worried about it recovered quickly. The reason was simple. The recovered patient had a warm home, family, and friends to return to after surgery, but the deceased had no home to return to or a family to welcome them. The only thing waiting for him was the painful reality of living day by day.
Thus, love is the best medicine. Love is God's grace and blessing that restores us. There are two things in the world that you cannot do alone. One is marriage and the other is becoming a Christian. You can't get married alone. Being a Christian cannot be alone. We become mature Christians through the process of caring for, sharing, and serving those around us.
We are all like these sons. How many times have I left Heavenly Father and wandered in my heart? Nevertheless, God's love accepts us in any form. Accept my mistakes, accept my wrong judgment, accept my failures, and accept my shortcomings.
When Karl Barth was giving a lecture in America, a student asked a question. What is the most profound thought you have ever discovered? Barthes replied, "The Lord loved me. And I know this because the Bible says so." It was such a simple answer. The Lord loves me now, and I have come to realize this fact through the Bible. "Love me, love me, love me. It's written in the Bible."
In particular, our church is experiencing the love of God. I am truly grateful to God when I see that things before the temple are going so smoothly, and that God is blessing me beyond planning. A God who guides us in so much detail. God prepares good things in advance and waits for them. God allows us to work as much as we can because we fear we cannot handle it. Through this opportunity, I hope that we can all experience God who guides us in detail. I hope you will meet a new God who guides you in detail.
However, there is something to think deeply about. The one you love has expectations. parents love their children Unlike other children, I want my child to be something special. Once, when I told my son that my son was special, he replied, "Dad, I'm an ordinary 4th grader."
I heard a story from a school teacher. This student always gets a score of 20 or 30 on the math test. I couldn't teach it, so I told him to teach this student in another way. Then the mother said, "My son is a genius, but the current education system does not discover our son's genius." Why would you say this? Because I love my children, I have expectations that my children are special. It's what parents say when their children don't study. "My child has a really good brain, but he doesn't put in any effort, so he can't study like this," he says. Of course, this may be the case, but it is the expectation that parents have because of their love for their children.
God loves us too. This means that God has expectations for us. Look at the text of the text. "I will sing for those I love, but I will sing of the vineyards of those I love. The ones I love have vineyards on a very fertile hillside. The earth has been dug up and the stones removed and vines of the finest quality have been planted in it. They dug a winepress, hoping to produce good grapes, and they brought forth wild grapes."
He planted the finest vines in the vineyard, gave them fertilizer, and even took good care of them. Poured love into the vine. The heart of a farmer who poured out his love is the desire to produce the finest grapes. It was expected that the finest grapes would bear fruit.
God chose the people of Israel. ordained as God's people. He poured out his infinite love for the people of Israel. God's love for the people of Israel is God's expectation for the people of Israel. But the people of Israel disappointed God's expectations. They worshiped idols, said they did not know God, and betrayed the grace of God who has helped them so far. I wanted to produce the finest grapes for them, so I gave my best love to them, but in the end they produced wild grapes. ?쏯ow I will tear down its fence to be eaten; I will tear down its wall and trample it, and I will make it desolate, and it will no longer be pruned or plucked, and briers and thorns will grow, and I will command the cloud to rain upon it I will not let you down."
God loved Jonah very much. He entrusted Jonah to go to Nineveh and preach the gospel. Because God loved him, he had expectations for Jonah. But Jonah did not go to Nineveh, but boarded a boat to Tarshish. God blocked Jonah's way to Tarshish. He made them meet a storm and let them go into the belly of a big fish. Eventually, he led them to the city of Nineveh to preach the word of God. God's love had expectations for Jonah. He wanted to open the finest grapes. The person you love has expectations.
As Jesus was passing through Samaria, he met a woman at a well. The woman was a marginalized person who was ostracized by the villagers. She lived a complicated life with five husbands. Jesus preaches the gospel to the woman. He preaches the word of the water of life that never thirsts. He heals her wounds with the love of the Lord. God's love doesn't stop there. The Lord had expectations for the Samaritan woman. He was expecting to worship in spirit and in truth.
Jesus healed ten lepers. It is an expression of the Lord's love. But only one of the ten returned to the Lord to give thanks, and the remaining nine were scattered. The Lord praised the one who returned and asked where the other nine had gone. You have to realize that love makes you expect that much.
Dear saint! We must listen to the voice of God coming from the vineyard. How rich are we living God's love now? Keep in mind that there are expectations that God desires. God pours out His love for us and expects the finest grapes to bear. Should our lives bear wild grapes? Can a spiritual relationship bear wild grapes toward God? I hope to become a precious saint who produces the finest grapes.
I am convinced that God has great expectations for us when we see what is going on in our churches these days. God is pouring out His overflowing love for us. God will often experience His amazing love in our personal lives as well. Not only do we rejoice that we are loved by God, but we also need to realize that God has expectations for us. God, who planted the finest grapes, expects the finest grapes to be produced through us.
Then, what is the fruit of the finest grapes that the Lord wants? The answer is clear. That the blood of Jesus Christ will not be in vain. The blood of Jesus' cross is the power to raise the dead. The place where Jesus was crucified was Golgotha. It's called a skull. Where there were only dry bones, where there were only dead bodies, the blood of Christ dripped. From the hill of Golgotha, called the skull, the life-saving blood began to flow. The power of the precious blood to save lives overflowed and was delivered to us.
Dear saint! Through the blood of Christ, the dying people must be brought back to life. This is the fruit of the finest grapes that our church should bear. How many people in the world have lost themselves?
The entomologist Favre carefully observed the ecology of the flying insects. I discovered a very important fact, that the flying bugs flew round and round following the one that was flying in front without any purpose. It just turns around without any direction or destination. Even if you put something to eat right below it, it just keeps spinning without looking at it. It is said that the flying insects that have been circling for 7 days like this will eventually die of starvation.
How many people live like this today? How many people wander around like a flying insect without direction, without purpose, following fashion, following the wind? We need to get many to come to Christ. We must fill it with the life of Jesus by the power of the blood. You must make sure that you are a child of God. Workers must be nurtured so that the world can become a good world in the eyes of God. We must not forget that we have a responsibility to produce the finest grapes that God desires.
You are loved now. Realize that God has expectations for you.