12-18-2011 English Sermon Outline-The Fourth Worship

The absolute and the relative
(Luke 10:27)


When we live in this world, there is something necessary. For example, we cannot live without air. We cannot survive even during a day by being naked in the cold winter season. However, we can live without rice when we have other alternative foods such as corns or potatoes. Yes, it is good to have rice but we can still live without it. Just like this, there are absolute things that we have to keep, but there are relative things that we are not necessarily required to keep.


1. The fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil and the fruit of the tree of life
1) The absolute command from God ? You must not eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. When you eat of it, you shall surely die.
2) The relative temptation from the Devil ? You may live even though you eat the fruit. Rather, you might become like God.
3) The purpose of God’s test
① Do we love God absolutely?
② Do we make compromises and love God relatively?
4) When humans ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil
① God felt humiliated
- It was the proof that God was not the absolute being for Adam. Adam’s love was not absolute but conditional.
② It hurts God’s pride that God was not the absolute object of love, but the relative object of love.
③ It made God angry to proclaim that they could live without God.

2. People whom God loves
1) Abraham
① Absolute obedience and faith ? He left his hometown at the age of 75 and started his journey without knowing where he was going.
② Absolute faith, love, and obedience ? Giving his son who was a teenager as a sacrifice to God
2) The King, David ? David received compliment from God because God was pleased with him.
① Absolute faith ? Courageous declaration of faith before Goliath
② Absolute respect ? David didn’t kill his enemy, the king Saul, because he was anointed by God.
③ Absolute Love ? Though David had individual flaws, he loved God absolutely.

3. God’s request for us
1) God hates us when we regard faith, obedience, and love toward God as the relative choice.
2) God’s commandments
① You shall have no other gods before me. - Absolute respect
② You shall not bow down to idols ? Do not serve God and other idols at the same time.
③ You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain? The request for absolute love
④ Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy ? The expression that we respect and love God

4. The thing that we should do very carefully
1) Do not love anything except for God ? God is very jealousy
2) God claims the absolute ownership of us
- God feels humiliated when we do not live God-centered life.
3) We must choose God no matter what happens ? Do not hurt God’s pride
4) Take joy in God


Though God is our father, we can say that God is like our spouse. The more a husband loves his wife, the more he becomes jealous, claiming for absolute ownership and exercising more and more dictatorship. Therefore, we must love God with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our mind.