Today I would like to share the grace of God under the title, “The Power of Love.” The supreme being of love is God. God gives us the greatest love and when we respond with our best efforts to please Him, His mighty grace and joy will be given to us. When we understand His love and accept it deep into our hearts and rely on His bosom and love Him, there will be no empty space in our hearts and we will be satisfied, fully. A truly satisfied life can be found nowhere except in our meeting God and accepting His love and giving Him our love in gratitude. Those who leave God have to have an empty space in their hearts. Even if they try everything to fill it, nothing in the world can fill it. Only when we are loved by God and live a life that loves Him, the empty space in our hearts can be filled to the full. We Christians may live a life of faith earnestly, but if we still have the problem of no love, we can’t reach the highest peak of faith. God so loved the world! So what is significant about this? Love is giving. Who can prove one’s love with an empty hand? It is a lie that one loves with an empty hand. John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Where is the proof of God’s love toward the world? It is proved by His giving His one and only Son. Love without giving is not a proved love. Mark 10:45 says, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." Jesus says that He loves us and His love can be proved by His death on the cross. He sacrificed His life to deliver you and me from death. How great the proof of His love toward us is! God once wanted Abraham to lay down his life to love Him. Abraham had his son at the age of 100 and later the son became about thirteen or fourteen. This cherished son and his old father always worked together and this son became more precious day after day. Then God the Father once called Abraham, “Abraham, take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains. Bind him and cut his throat and also cut off his hands and legs and burn all of them to offer to God." How terrifying! If Abraham had an ordinary faith, he would have fallen apart. However, Abraham told his son, “God wants you and me to go to the region of Moriah to offer a burnt offering on one of the mountains.” So then they started for the place. He spent one day with his dear son, walked the second day, that night they slept and the third day he continued his tiresome journey with his son again. His pain might have been beyond his patience. Finally he climbed the mountain of Moriah with his son, who asked him, "Father? The fire and wood are here, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?" Abraham answered, "God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." And the two of them went on together and prepared an altar for the burnt offering. Then Abraham’s face changed and he took his son and said, “Give me your hands and feet.” “What’s wrong with you, father?” “God told me to offer you as a burnt offering.” “Oh, my, you are insane. How can you offer me as a burnt offering?” Isaac could have said something like this, but he obeyed his father without further resistance, saying, “If God wants me as a burnt offering, you should obey Him.” He gave his hands and feet to his father. He was more than an ordinary son. Then Abraham bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven. Once He told Abraham, “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about."(Genesis 22:2) But here in Genesis 22:11-12 it says, “But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, ‘Abraham! Abraham!’ ‘Here I am,’ he replied. ‘Do not lay a hand on the boy,’ he said. ‘Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.’” Abraham proved his respect and love toward God through nearly killing his son. Love should be proved. We must offer something to prove our love. Then God blessed Abraham more than abundantly. We can’t prove our love empty-handed. We should prove our genuine love by giving whatever to our loved ones. Look through God’s perspective. God proved His earnest love toward us by giving up His Son Jesus Christ. 1 John 4:9-10 says, “This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” If God had just said, “I love you,” and done nothing at all, salvation could not have been given to us. However, He sent His one and only Son Jesus to the earth as a sure proof of His love and let Him be relentlessly killed for us in the world. God gives us His forgiveness, righteousness, and salvation through His love. It is His love that proves His own forgiveness, righteousness, and salvation toward us. Romans 5:8 says, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” God demonstrates His own love. There is no doubt about it. Furthermore, God heals us through His love and by healing He proves that He cares for our physical life here in the world. Psalm 103:3-5 says, “who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.” God wants us to prosper in all things and to please Him in our lives. Luke 11:13 says, “If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!" God the Father wants us to prosper in all circumstances to give much love and relief efforts in the name of God. Through material blessing God also proves His own love toward us. 3 John 1:2 says, “Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well.” God’s greatest concern for us is our prosperity. God never desires each of you to be on the decline. 2 Corinthians 8:9 says, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.” There is no doubt here. Our God is a good God. Through His own love, He wants above all that we may enjoy good health and that all may go well with us, even as our soul is getting along well. As God loves us, Jesus was resurrected after three days and ascended to heaven. His resurrection shows the sure proof that He won over death and hell. Jesus’ resurrection happened in our place. Jesus’ resurrection is our resurrection and Jesus’ ascension is our ascension. Now through the resurrection of Christ we won’t fall down to death and the grave, but instead enter heaven to prepare for His Second Coming. John 5:24 says, "I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.” As sure proof of this we must receive His own love and the fullness of the Holy Spirit. John 14:16-17 says, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever--the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.” As Jesus went up to heaven, He said to His disciples, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor. I am the first Counselor and the Holy Spirit is another Counselor. I will send you another Counselor, who has the same character as Me and will work the same things as Me. Therefore, the coming of another Counselor is the same as My coming.” The Holy Spirit is with you like the wind and lives in you as His own temple. This Holy Spirit is with you so He helps you a lot spiritually and physically. You are not lonely people. God is with you all the time. Even the impossible can be possible as long as God is with you. Jesus once fed more than five thousand people through His one word. The Holy Spirit is the same God as Jesus is. When the Holy Spirit is with you, you can do the same miraculous things. It was not done out of a joke, but in the desperate situation like that incident, if you have to feed a big crowd, as the Holy Spirit is with you, you can bless in the name of Jesus and perform that miracle, too. You should not separate yourself from God. As the Holy Spirit is with you, you are God’s people. As a man or woman of God, if God is with each of you, there is no discrimination against you. When He is with you, after you pray with faith, God will accomplish wonderful things through you. Isn’t this more than exciting? It is unbelievably wonderful whenever we think that our spiritual inner being which resembles God is reborn through regeneration by believing in Jesus. It is because we are no more ordinary people, but men and women of God. Love changes those who are being loved. Since we are loved, our old self can’t remain the same. When we receive love, the love makes the recipient changed. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” When we accept Jesus Christ as a gift through God’s love, you are wholly changed. “The old has gone, the new has come!” When we become God’s children by believing in Jesus, your spoken words, heart, mind, and deeds resemble God’s and you become a changed person. 1 Corinthians 1:30-31 says, “It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God--that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.” It is because of God that we live in Christ Jesus. Jesus has become for us wisdom from God--that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. We have become a man of wisdom, righteousness, holiness and redemption. It is not done by our own strength but when Jesus Christ becomes one with us, we become like Him. Christian faith does not come from change by our own efforts or strength. It occurs when the power of God enters to change us wholly. It is so incredible. Christian faith means that God holds our hands to breathe His breath into us to change us. 1 Corinthians 2:9-10 says, “However, as it is written: ‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him’-- but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.” God has prepared all things we need in advance. Everything we need is already prepared within us by Jesus. Whenever we pray to the Lord, He will answer us by giving us all we need. No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him. He gives us this mighty power. You know, we have this treasure in jars of clay. It is not because we are something. Rather it is because of Jesus and the Holy Spirit who are within us. 2 Corinthians 4:7-12 says, “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.” Romans 8:38-39 says, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” God holds you and me so tightly by His amazing love. Jesus is God’s only Son, isn’t He? God sent His one and only Son to this world to suffer extreme pain and bought us by His crucifixion. There is no power to sever us from God. Since God binds us through the rope of love of Christ’ resurrection, who can destroy us? “Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” We have been bound to God through Jesus. As we believe in Jesus Christ, we are able to enter heaven by the help of the Holy Spirit. God’s love cannot be compared to anything. God loves you and if you love God and give thanks to Him, there will be no empty space in you. Even if you are depressed, empty-hearted, suffer from endless sorrow, as long as you pray and give praise to God the Father and the Holy Spirit our Counselor Who comes to your hearts with Jesus Christ, your hearts will begin burning and indescribable satisfaction will come to you. When you pray in the name of Jesus, Christ will work as the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. As a result, we will have a wonderful world far beyond human imagination. It is because God so loved the world; His love has accomplished this great beauty in the world. You are being loved now. You have to love Him! As you are being loved by God and you love Him, genuine satisfaction will come to your heart and mind.