God is Love! Advent Week 4

Advent celebrates the arrival of Jesus into the world and all that brings us!

"All you need is love."
SO many songs have been written about love that it is impossible to count them all.
And that is really nice and good but how long does it last?
When the bills hit and the bank account is down to nothing and your spouse is sick and dying, then what? How do we love in those moments where life is hard? We all want those fiery moments of passion, yet, after that moment what is left?
We all have this deep desire for something more. We know that we are made for something deeper and stronger that lasts the test of time and doesn't fail.
This is God's love for you. You may try and fill the hole inside with all kinds of relationships and adventures, and stuff, but you know that it will not fully satisfy.

This Christmas season, instead of trying to find fulfillment in other broken people or stuff, or anything else, take a moment and see how God has shown his love to you.

In the hymn, "O Holy Night," the writer reminds us of God's love and what it brings.
Truly He taught us to love one another; His law is love and His gospel is peace.

If you want to know how to love one another, look at the love that sent Jesus to earth to live a life of love and pay the price for all of our sins. It's all about love. This isn't a love of fancy words and impossible tasks. This is a love that says, "I am willing to love you no matter what."

We can love because He first loved us. 1 John 4:7-8

Christmas is all about God and God's love shown to the world through his son, Jesus.
Some of us have trouble understanding the concept of God.
Some people think he is a great big Santa Clause who will give you whatever you want as long as you do all the right things. On the other hand, some believe God is an absent dictator who set the world in motion, but doesn't really like what happened so he left us to our own devices and by the way, we are not doing a good job.

That is the beauty of Christmas!
God showed himself to us in a way we could understand.
He sent his son, Jesus in human form, so we could see how God would act on this earth.
We don't have to guess at what God is like.
We don't have to wonder "what would Jesus do." We can actually know, because God actually did.
We can read all about the life of Jesus and then the letters from those that actually knew and lived and walked with Jesus. All recorded in the New Testatment.

The greatest gift ever given at Christmas was the gift of God’s own Son. God gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in him would not perish but have eternal life. Jesus did not merely come into the world. He was sent into the world. God the Father sent his Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. John 3:16-17

If you ever doubt that God loves you, just look at his Son, Jesus. Look at Jesus the child born into the world as a baby at Christmas.
Look at Jesus the man, teaching the people, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing disease and sickness among the people.
Look at Jesus the Savior, suffering and dying on the cross for your sins to bring you to God.
Look at Jesus the King, risen from the dead, ascended to heaven, making a way right now for you to be part of his family as adopted sons and daughters. Then one day, by grace through faith, you can be with him forever.

Nothing can separate you from God’s love for you in Christ. As Paul writes in Romans 8: “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.” (Romans 8:38-39)

The Christmas story is all about love. God so loved the world, he gave us his Son so that we would not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

But that is not where the story ends.
Jesus is not physically here now, though he will come back one day.
I have definitely talked with people who think that their job is just to wait.
And not do anything.
Well, that's not God's plan.
You see, as we look at Love this Christmas it all starts with God, but it doesn't end there.
We are to love as God loved us.
Our job right now, as followers of Jesus, is to love one another BECAUSE of God's love for us.

1 John 4:10
10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

Notice God’s love is first. God’s love in creating the world; God’s love in promising a Savior; God’s love in sending his Son into the world; God’s love in Jesus dying on the cross for your sins.

God’s love always is first. and then our love follows. We can try and try to love on our own, but eventually we will run out. Have you ever felt that. So tired and weary you think you can't go on. That's because you are trying to love under your own power, and let's be honest. You don't have that much power.

Our love for others comes as a natural response of God’s love for us. If God loved you so much that he sent his Son Jesus to die for you, how can you not love others in return? And if God loved others so much that he sent his Son Jesus to die for them, how can you not love them as well? This is such a great season to practice this kind of love.

Christmas is not only a reminder of how much God loves you, but also how much you should love other people. Is there someone you need to help this Christmas? Is there someone you need to reach out to this Christmas? Is there someone you need to forgive this Christmas?

God showed his love for us at Christmas by sending his Son into the world as a sacrifice for our sins. How will you show your love to others this Christmas?

This is Advent. Emmanuel. God with us.

And the great news of the Gospel is that not only do we celebrate the Advent of Jesus into the world 2000 years ago, we hopefully look forward to the next Advent of our Savior when he comes to make every knee bow and tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

For Church Public, I'm Matt Odegaard.
Merry Christmas!