The Greatest of These is Love - December 22nd, 2013 Sermon

By Pastor Greg

Sermon begins with a short clip from How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

All the Grinch did was hate. He grumbled and sneered. And especially at Christmas his hate seemed so weird. Anyway, as I was watching this Christmas special not too long ago, I got to thinking that Dr. Seuss sure seemed to know what a hateful person is like. Maybe Dr. Seuss knew someone like the Grinch. Maybe it was his next door neighbor. Maybe his neighbor fussed about all the Christmas decorations. Maybe his neighbor said “happy holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas.” I don’t know. But one thing I do know is that there sure seems to be a lot of “Grinchy” people in this world today.

It seems like every day we hear stories about anger, hate, vengeance, revenge, and indifference. People are killing people. People are stealing and lying and wounding one another. And many in our society have complete disregard for the life of another person. We are plagued by selfishness, greed, and cynicism. This, it seems, is who we are as a people, as a society; as a nation. At least this is what we are led to believe. And yet if one looks closely they will find a tiny ray of light piercing the darkness of this land. They will find that there is love. And it has not been overcome by the darkness of hate.

When I was in broadcasting, I grew weary of all the negativity in the news. It used to drive me crazy! Death, doom, and gloom was all I ever heard. And that was 25 years ago! The siren song of gloom has grown even stronger and louder today. Yet today, I know better. Today, with eyes fixed on God, I am able to see the love that indifference has tried to smother. With eyes fixed on Jesus, love is indeed easy to be seen; especially the love of God. There is love in this world. We just need to take our eyes off the darkness for a while and start focusing on the love. And I believe that the greatest example of love can be seen during the Christmas season.

I want you to think about the most famous verse of the Bible. Think about what Jesus says in John 3:16. "For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life". Do you hear what the Savior has said about love? Jesus informs us that God sent His Son to die so that those who believe might have eternal life. God loved us, all of us, so much that He sent His Son to be a sacrifice so that we might have an eternal relationship with Him. God is not against us. God does not hate us. God loves us. He desired that we might be with Him in Heaven forever! And so He takes matters into His own hands and sends His Son to earth (whose birth we celebrate this season), even though this earth is plagued by hate, selfishness, murder, lying, cheating, revenge, greed, and indifference. In spite of this, "God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners" (Romans 5:8); while we didn't know love or even how to love, God sent His love in the form of a tiny babe lying in a manger in Bethlehem.

My friend, I pray that this Christmas season you realize that God does not hate you. He is not looking for ways to destroy you. He's not hoping you mess up just so He can send you to hell. He is not out to get you. He's not waiting to smite you. He is loving you. He is watching and waiting for you to come home. He longs for you. His love for you is so strong that He gave up His Son just so you might find His love, and experience His love for yourself. "This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins" (1 John 4:10).