Bible Verse: John 15: 7-12

Bible Verse: John 15: 7-12

 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.
  8 This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
  9 "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.
  10 If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love.
  11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.
  12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.
Title: The Greatest Power in the World

Carlos Slim, the richest man of Mexico, has 76.6 trillion won. The world's second richest man is Bill Gates and the third richest man is Warren Buffett who has 43.8 billion dollars. The world's richest woman is Australia's Rinehart who has 29.1 billion dollars. In one year, her assets went up by 18.8 billion won and if calculated in seconds, it would be 600 dollars per second and every 2 minutes and 30 seconds, she would earn 5170 dollars.Korea's richest man is president of Samsung Lee Gun-Hee and combined with his wife's assets results to 20 trillion won. The second richest man is Jung Mong-gu, the president of Hyundai company with 8.66 trillion won. The third richest man is Jung Mong-jun, a politician and fourth is Lee Gun-hee's son Lee Jae-yong.

 The world's strongest man is Derek Poundstone who won many Strongman competitions and even demonstrated his strength in interviews by bending a frypan with his hands and breaking a baseball bat. There was an Amercian Military Aircraft in the process of testing his strength.  That aircraft carried around 40-50 people who would parachute down to enemy grounds in emergency situations. Derek had pulled that aircraft by himself.

 

Who took the glory of being the number one in films?  There is a film that took the best award in the Academic Awards in 2012, the Golden Glove Award in 2012 and was selected as number 1 by the Times magazine in 2011. That film is called "Artist". So what's the reason of introducing these number ones of the world? We chase after something as we live in this world. That something is wealth, strength and glory.

Anyone wants wealth, power and glory. That's why people try hard and labor. But what does the Bible say about those things? What does the Bible say about God's viewpoint on such things and God's interest? Where does God's interests lie in? It lies in loving His people. God's eyes are always on this world and on the people who believe in Him.

  We come to realize that it is important to live in Christ as we live in this world. I will emphasize that it is important to live with love which should be our greatest interest as we live. Love is something a believer must have as their greatest strength. Love is the greatest strength that a believer must pursue. May all of us be filled with this grace.

 
Verse 7 says that a person living in Christ lives a life of love.\

 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. To put it simply, living in Christ is living in love. Jesus came to earth with one clear purpose. To live a life of service. He came to serve and that's the same as worship.
 
So service is living with a worshipping heart. When we live with a worshipping heart, we can hear God's voice. He cannot be seen because he is a spiritual being. So how do we meet Him?God wants to reveal Himself to us. He has already done so through the bible. He has also done it through his creation. That is general revelation. God created humans in his image to reflect Himself. Asking God what he's trying to say through a person is a good habit.

  We can think of God's words through conversations. For example, a person may come and talk of a complaint and ask for help. In that case, we must think of God's words and apply them instead of thinking of ourselves. Thinking of Matthew 5:42 while talking with a person who has a hard time may be a good idea.
42 Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.

If someone asks for help, think of Matthew 5:42 and help them. Believers exist to be used to apply God's words. God will be glorified when God's words are accomplished through us believers. We pray that lands may be expanded. But some think of that as a person who owns a lot of land, who is rich, who is powerful. But we must think of it from a Biblical perspective.

 What does it mean to expand the land? That is the passage by which we can apply God's words in our lives without barriers. What does this mean? Matthew 5:42 came to mind while talking with a person with hardships. So that's it. God told me to give to the one who asks and not to refuse the one who wants to borrow, so I should apply that.

 
Matthew 10:8 says give freely.8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give. The Bible says to help without wanting compensation and to give without thinking of getting paid back. But why? Because we have free received. Freely you have received, freely give

Many rich people think that the money they earn is theirs.But if we think about it, the money we earn is ultimately not ours. When people are born, they come out naked. They come out with nothing. And when they die, they cannot take anything with them. If we look at Pharaohs' tombs in Egypt, they were filled with precious treasures. Why? The tombs were filled with many grave goods, gold, silver and even male and female servants. What's the reason? It's because of a hope to carry all their possessions even to the afterlife.

But can we take gold, silver and precious stones with us? We can't. We cannot take any thing, not even a penny with us. If that's the case, what does money mean to us? In today's verse, we have to share without expecting anything in return. We do not give thinking we will be paid back. We just give freely. Why? As we live on earth, the money, power, glory that we have been entrusted with is not ours. We cannot even say our own life is ours. Our life is governed by God. He created our lives, sent us on earth and will one day take us back to heaven.

  We can understand the Bible to say our life on earth is an opportunity. We will one day leave this place and enter God's kingdom. But before that, we have been given the chance to prepare for that kingdom.
We were born without anything, but do we own many things now? Those possessions help us to prepare to enter God's kingdom.  Many people think the money they earn is theirs. But we must remember that nothing is ours. We were born naked, penniless, empty handed.

 

And that is how we will leave earth. Thus, we must believe that the materials, strength, authority we have are to be used to get ready to enter heaven. Verse 8 reveals a surprising fact.8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give. The surprising fact is that we have freely received, so we must apply that in our lives with love. Having received freely means the master of my life is not me. My life is governed by God. He is the owner of my life. He is the master of my life. We are His servants.


We cannot talk to God about how to govern our lives. Only He decides. It is by God's grace that we exist on earth. It is a God given chance that we live. When we realize that our life on earth is a chance, our values and life goals change. The Bible has a different viewpoint on life compared to our perspective. This situation is called a paradox. That is, the Bible is telling us how we have lived our lives ignoring and disobeying God's word rather than applying them.

  The world wants more of everything. But the Bible says people who give are more blessed than people who receive. The world asserts that receiving with high interest is profitable. Economics, politics, culture, society and other subjects taught at colleges are based on this assertion. But the Bible says, give freely, invite the lame, sick and blind to your feast and you will be blessed. Do good without reward.

  A life accustomed to receiving is an unhappy, pitiful life. Just thinking that from now one, I should live a life of sharing and giving is the start of a blessed life.The world is full of paradoxes. The problem is, believers are not different from the world. Why? They don't have a proper Biblical understanding. Now, we must change our attitude and values about the world. The values that the world sees cannot compare to the values the Bible defines. 
 
Giving freely because we have freely received is related to salvation. We are born, live and enter eternal rest. But we cannot attain the requirements for entering God's kingdom as we live on earth. We lack too much, we have bad ethics and a serious problem with sin.  Despite that, Jesus has accepted us. Jesus has taken care of our bad ethics, our sin and our faults and has paid the price for our sins in order to give us the grace to enter heaven.This condition does not require of us some sort of payment. Nothing in the world could fulfill the condition. And there is no such condition to substitute whatever we must to fulfill the condition.

  We lack the skill to make up for our sins. Only Jesus can do that. Jesus bore the cross unconditionally and died in our place.We have received salvation for free. Jesus has given us the amazing grace of salvation. He did it without expecting anything in return. How thankful that is!  If there is a reason to apply a life of love, that is Jesus has given life for free. Before we were born, God had planned for our lives, He created us and He gave us the chance to live and to enter God's kingdom.

Our reason for giving thanks to God and praising Him lies here. Our reason for raising up his cross lies here. Recently, there are many banners on the streets congratulating an elementary something competition win, or a taekwondo competition win or college entry. The important thing God makes our lives go well. The more important thing is that we mustn't lose the chance that God has given us. We mustn't hesitate when we are sure that God has given us the chance to do good while we live on earth. Verse 12 concludes the message for today. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. The reason Jesus came to serve with a worshipping heart is to make us love each other.

Love helps us understand that our existence is due to God's purpose. Knowing God's love means knowing our life's existence. It will be proof that we will not forget our purpose on earth as we live knowing God's love. Who keeps God's commandments? John 15:21 says those who obey God's commands love Him. Those who love Him obey Him. Love Him and experience His love. Experience His love and you will experience His peace.