12-18-2011 English Sermon Outline- The Second and Third Worship

This Is Love
(1John 4:7-11)

God is love. God sent His Only Son Jesus Christ to this world in order to forgive our sins. This is the incarnation as the greatest incident in the human history. We celebrate this incident and remember God's love toward the humankind in this Christmas season. Jesus came to the earth, lived like us, and revealed among us the love of God by dying on the Cross for our sins. Therefore, we should also live the life of love.

1. God who is the source of love
God is love. All human problems are solved by God's love. All problems are begun from the moment to leave the love of God. When Adam and Eve disobeyed God's command and eventually left the God, sin came into the human history. As a result, fear came into the humankind. (Ge 3:9-10) All humans were not able to be liberated from the punishment of fear. However, when the love and grace of God comes upon us, we can defeat fear and eventually win. (1Jn 4:18)

2. God's love that is revealed among us.
God clearly demonstrated God's love for us by sending God's only Son to this world in order to deliver us from our sins. We did not love God first but God first loved us who were sinners. God sent Jesus Christ as an offering of sacrifice. We have received the grace of salvation that we can never repay to God. God's unconditional love and choice lead us to be God's children. Moreover, God has given us the Holy Spirit. (1Jn 4:13) That's the reason that we have to live for the glory of God and always give thanks to God.

3. The life of practicing love
Practicing love is the important task of Christians. Since we received great love from God, we must also love one another. When we practice God's love, God dwells in us. Therefore it doesn't make sense that we love God but we don't love our brothers and sisters. We must love our brothers and sisters in love of the Lord. When we love God and keep God's commandments, we can love our neighbors as God's children. Then we overcome the world by our faith. (1Jn 5:4)
God loved us so much that God did not spare His Only Son but gave up God's only son, Jesus Christ, for us. Because we have received this great love, we must love our neighbors. Then God's love dwells in us and makes us live victorious lives as God's children.