Theme : TO THE FULLEST

Theme Verse : JOHN  10:10

John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life,
and have it to the full.”(NIV)

1. First, living this life to the fullest is God’s will and Christ’s command.
Christ came to give us this life. God has given this love because of His love for us. To give us this life,
He suYered, died, rose again, and ascended to sit at the right hand of God.
Jesus wants us to live this life abundantly because there is an amazing plan for us in this life. God
gave us life to live it abundantly, not to waste it. When we live God’s life abundantly, we can
experience the amazing plan God has for us in this life.
Amazing things happen when we live the life to the full. Restoration happens within this life. The
Apostle Paul introduces those who groan for our restoration. First, creation groans for our
restoration. All of creation is broken and damaged by our sins. Thus, all creation groans for the
restoration of humanity. Second, our souls groan for our restoration. The state of being separated
from God by sin is eternal despair, darkness, and death. All humanity has groaned. The blood of
Abel, killed by Cain, cried out from the ground. From the land of murder, deceit, greed, and sin,
Abel’s blood groaned for life. We hear this cry from the depths of our souls. We hear it all around
us—from our disciples, broken homes, abandoned souls, marginalized people, wounded
individuals, students in deep darkness, and those suYering daily from depression and anxiety. We
hear these deep groans every day.

Lastly our God groans too. God has been groaning since the moment we fell. “Adam, Adam, where
are you?” is the deep groan of a parent who has lost a child. God’s groaning is a groan of love that no
one can understand or imitate. Even now, the Holy Spirit groans for us and our restoration.
Restoration is having life, and living that life to the full. We must live God’s life to the fullest because
God’s love for us is to the fullest. Perfect love demands perfect obedience. Obedience is the perfect
response to the perfect love.
In this life, there is the joy of restoration. Restoration to the promised land that God has prepared, to
a new life we have never experienced. As it says in Jeremiah 33:10-11, “There will again be heard the
sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of bride and bridegroom, and the voices of those who bring
thank oYerings to the house of the Lord, saying, ‘Give thanks to the Lord Almighty, for the Lord is
good; his love endures forever.'” In this life, there are sounds of joy, sounds of restoration.
When we live the life to the fullest, the living water will gush out from within us (John 7). Just as
rivers flowed in all directions from the Garden of Eden, the life of Christ will flow into those who are
lost, broken, and eternally damaged when we live that life. Living that life is not only about us, it is
about those who need Christ.

2. Secondly, we must live life to the fullest because of God’s calling for us.
God has called us to reach out this generation.
CBN News reported that 1,700 U.S. campuses with no organized ministry or Gospel presence. It is
almost 40% of all colleges in America. However, there is a spiritual hunger in this generation. But
they have no clue what their hunger is about, why they are thirsty. This hunger and thirst is
undirected. Cru US director Mark Gauthier said that we see this spiritual hunger even in high
school. Traditionally one out of 12 students used to respond to the gospel presentation. Last year
one out of 6 students responded to the gospel presentation. We have experienced a similar
response at Youth Higher Calling Conference. Last year, 30% of the students who attended
responded that they were receiving Jesus for the first time in their lives, and 37% of the students
responded that they would become full-time ministers if God called them. We have seen this
phenomenon over the past few years. This generation is hungry for something they don’t know what
and they are open to anything. Most of them are spiritually open, actually, they are open to
anything. If it is not the gospel presented to them, they will accept whatever comes to them
spiritually. It could be a cult, a wrong ideology, or whatever.
Over the past few years, we have gone through amazing phenomena. We have seen students
coming to Christ enthusiastically. The number of freshmen to receive BDT has grown drastically.
Every year more students sign up to go to summer missions. We sent about 80 (including staY) two
years ago, 150 last year, and 220 this year. We have sent STINTers (international interns) last year,
and this year 10. Who knows how many next year? More than anything, it was a pure joy to see
students from no church background coming to know Christ and becoming SJs. It was even

hilarious to see a Filipino brother who accepted Christ through our staY trainee last year apply to
join the staY team this year. It is a sign. God has shown many signs of how God has prepared this
generation. They are ready to hear. It’s a calling.
To respond to that calling, we need to live fully, we have to do it to the fullest.
This generation is prepared for the nations.
Especially, the diaspora is the people God has prepared in this era for His gospel.”
Visiting several mission fields this time, I realized anew that the students we are serving are people
prepared by God’s special plan and great work.
Especially, the sharing of a missionary who has been ministering in Nepal for over 20 years deeply
moved me. Nepal is a country that is receiving our team for the first time. The missionary shared
that he has been in Nepal for about 23 years and has received many short-term teams, but he has
never seen a team like ours. He was amazed at how naturally our students approached and built
relationships with Nepali students. He was even more surprised when he saw our students lead
into deep conversations and bring out their pain while building those relationships. He said he had
never seen students minister like this before. Well, this quality doesn’t mean that they are more
spiritual than others. This quality came from their unique upbringing and the ability to
communicate the pain is because they do have their own pains. When they simply obey God and
live out His life, then the Holy Spirit works through those qualities.
No wonder that so many nations are asking for us. Vietnam requests us to send many STINTers..
The director from Ethiopia approached me on the last day of the retreat and expressed a desire to
cooperate with SMG. He asked us to come and help. The director from Busan in Korea also visited
and requested us to send STINTers. Bangladesh, Laos, and even the African continental
representative expressed a desire to cooperate with us. When I visited Astana, Kazakhstan, the
local leaders there shared how they had prayed for a short-term mission team to come to their city
for six years and were amazed at how God had sent SOON from the other side of the world. I can
still see their joyful faces.
From the warm welcomes and earnest requests, I see one clear fact: God is trying to connect us
with the nations. God wants Diasporas in this land to be connected with all nations.
God has already prepared the people we need to meet and the nations that need us. Only when we
live this life to the fullest, our connections with the nations will bring life to them.
There is another aspect to consider regarding God’s calling.
In 2010, the Third Lausanne Congress was held in Cape Town. This conference, attended by 4,200
Christian leaders from 198 countries, was the most representative and extensive meeting in
Christian history. Although there were various agendas and diYerent perspectives, everyone agreed
on one phenomenon and came together on it: the era of missions through the diaspora had begun.
Everyone confirmed that global missions through the diaspora were emerging as a key trend and

would become a core mission in the future. They organized the CDN (Global Diaspora Network) and
are accelerating the networking and awakening of diaspora missions.
Currently, 1 in every 7 people worldwide is a diaspora. In human history, never before have so many
people moved from one nation to the other on such a large scale. These individuals are emerging as
key resources in modern missions, with their multicultural and multilingual capabilities. Our story
is no longer just about us, but for the global diaspora. When they hear our story, they will open their
eyes to their stories.
When we evangelize and disciple the diaspora in this land, they will extend to the nations, not only
spreading the gospel and mobilizing mission resources but also awakening the scattered diaspora
worldwide. Whether we like it or not, the diaspora in this land is a role model and aspiration for all
the diaspora around the world. This is the stage that God has set for us here.
Let’s remember that we have stories. We can find our stories in the bible and that is why our story is
a powerful tool to awaken all nations. It is the story of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph who all
lived the lives of sojourners in foreign lands. Our story is the story of Moses who was born in a
foreign land, raised in foreign hands, and led to another foreign land until he encountered God and
got called to lead God’s people out. We have a story of David who had to flee when he was only 16
and lived in the land of strangers until he finally became a king. We have stories of Ezra, Haggai, and
Nehemiah who were Diasporas to lead their people back to Jerusalem. We have a story of Jesus
who was taken to Egypt right after his birth and raised there until he was taken to Lazarus, the
peripheral village of the nation. We have stories of Paul, Barnabas, Stephen, Philip, Mark, Luke,
Timothy, Apollo, Priscilla & Aquilla, and many others who were diaspora Jews that God used to bring
the gospel to all nations in the early church.
For this work, we must live out the life of Christ. Ultimately, the life of a disciple that we must share
and the model we must show is the life of Christ. When they see us living this life, we can become
the model that the nations need.

3. The third reason is that we have a path to follow.
Life is a direction. It is the direction from the position of darkness to the position of light, from a life
of sin to a life of holiness, from the sorrow of today to the joy of tomorrow, from dark prison bars of
desperation to bright liberation of hope, from a life of sinful desire to a life of holiness. In a nutshell,
the life is the direction to Christ. Living that life is moving in that direction.
In life, we move toward Christ. We see Christ standing in the middle of a stormy sea. We take our
feet out of the boat and put them on the water because that’s what it means to live life. Living the
life fully is to walk on that stormy water because the life takes us to Christ no matter where He is.
Although the raging sea looks like a death trying to swallow us, we shouldn’t forget that the life we
live already swallowed death. Therefore, in Christ, there is no death. In life, our fundamental

question is, “Is Christ there?”. That makes us to be adventurous because when we live life to the
fullest, we go where Christ is although it might be where no one had ever walked before.
We do what we do today because we see where Christ is tomorrow. In life, we dream, and as we live
it fully, we live our vision today. We envision our disciples becoming spiritual giants in this land,
ruling churches, society, politics, culture, and the economy by the law of Christ. As this life
becomes more abundant, our dreams will also become abundant, and the future we see will
become clearer.
That’s what Isaiah saw. When He saw Christ, God showed him tomorrow. As it says in Isaiah 43:18 –
20, “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs
up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland”
As we live life to the fullest, we see tomorrow and live today according to what we see. We see new
things God is doing. We see a way built in the wilderness of this generation, we see streams of living
water flowing in the wasteland of depression and desperation, we see that water flowing to all
nations.
Let’s hear what God says and what He wants. Let’s obey what our Lord Jesus Christ asks and
commands us. Let’s live the life He has already given to us. Let’s live it to the fullest!

DAVID Y OH