John Gunter: It is a little awkward this morning because the sermon is over Leviticus. It is not. I had to I had to correct myself because as Heath laid that out and he went to read a bible verse, I thought, boy, it'd be funny if he read from Leviticus right there. This is the the last in our in our series on kind of the Christmas season as we approach Christmas this week, and Tyler kicked us off with hope and we've talked about peace and joy, and today we talk about love. And hopefully, that's what you feel.
Carlos kind of alluded to it. With the holidays comes not always smooth things. Right? There are there are parts of the holidays that can be difficult, whether you're dealing with difficult people or you're dealing with difficult memories of of people that that we don't have anymore. And so as we talk about love, love just like these other things we've mentioned, should not be something that we just experience kind of like an emotion that is here for a moment and fleeting away, because when we talk about the love of God, that is consistent.
Now, there is a different view of love that we often see within our world, within Hollywood especially. I guess I better get out my notes. But one of the things that I kind of find funny are Hallmark movies. Anybody Hallmark movie fan this time of year? Yeah.
I'm gonna ruin that for you today. Because the Hallmark version of love there there's a cookbook recipe for how Hallmark movies are made, and you're shaking your head so you already know this, I ruined Hallmark movies for my mother a few years ago. And she said, now I watch them, and I'm thinking about what you said, and I know exactly how it's gonna go. I said, yes, I understand. So we're gonna talk about that, you know, because Hollywood will tell us, you know, with a Hallmark movie, you've got the setup, you've got a driven, big city woman who is successful, emotionally guarded, and mildly allergic to Christmas.
Tracking so far? Then you have the forced return. A holiday crisis drags her back to a quaint hometown she thought she had outgrown. And then, all of a sudden, she runs into a wholesome man from her past or a charming local who loves Christmas unironically. Her efficiency and skepticism clash with his values of tradition, people, and community.
Then, after that, as this is going on, you have a montage, shared Christmas activities slowly thaw her heart through nostalgia and forced proximity. All of a sudden, the turning point comes where a quiet conversation or moment of loss reveals what she has been missing. Then a misunderstanding of the job offer or overheard conversation convinces him she is leaving for good. In the realization, she recognizes that success without love or belonging is empty. In the reunion, she chooses him and the town, sealing it with a snowy Christmas kiss.
All you need, folks, is a title and you have the next Hallmark movie. And so often, we we desire, and many of us even enjoy this this kind of love, this kind of predictable love. Hollywood has kind of conditioned us that love happens in a a very certain way, and if those conditions are not met, something must be wrong. Why am I not having the same kind of love that I experience on screen? And so, we know, especially if you've been married for a while, that real love looks much differently than what Hollywood produces.
Yes. Different feelings kind of come up as your relationship matures. You remember as a relationship begins, you want nothing more than to be close to your boyfriend, girlfriend, whoever, and hold their hand, be close to them, hear their words, until one day down the road that you're saying, quit touching me, or why are you breathing so loudly? Yes. Now, you still love that person, but it looks a little different.
Nowhere in those Hallmark movies do you get that. Right? You have the stereotypical snowy Christmas kiss when love out in the real world really looks much differently. The Christmas story reminds us that God loves us. He does not love us from afar, he does not love us from a distance, he continually, within scripture, moves toward us.
That is his desire from the the beginning, right, the garden to now, that he wants to be close to us in our world, experiencing our weakness, our need, and this Christmas story is not a story that is abstract love, it is a story of God drawing near. Now, like real life, the story of God's love is maybe different than what you would expect. Maybe you would desire it one way and God gives it another. Would you ever think what God needs to do is provide his son to die in showing his love? Because that's what God does in a way that maybe challenges what we would think or expect or even want.
And so, as we think about this love, love drew near, that God is not far. We begin with one of the most famous verses in scripture. In John three sixteen, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. First John says it this way, a little kind of expansion. In this, the love of God was made manifest among us that God sent his only son into the world so that we might live through him.
In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. And so John reminds us here that this whole story doesn't begin with our love going to God, that we have to prove something to him to be able to obtain this love, but the story begins with God loving us so much that he did something for us, so grand that we are still two thousand years after he sent his son meeting together, talking about Christmas, and talking about the birth of Jesus. In Romans five eight, but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. I I need you to say that out loud today, but God showed his love for us in that what church? While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Have you obtained perfection at this point in your life other than Ryan? Anybody else? That that is something that that we kind of hold on to. God could He couldn't love me because I just hadn't got I keep failing at that thing, I keep struggling with that, and so I have this this sense of guilt that God could not forgive me, he could not love me, and Paul is telling you, John just told you, he loved you so much, he did this for you. Paul is gonna tell you that while you were still a sinner, Christ died for you.
You you couldn't have been perfect in the first place, and God knows that. And he sent his son to die for you, not not while you were perfect, but while you were still in sin. In Ephesians, Paul says this, but God being rich in mercy because of the great love which he loved us even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Amen.
By grace, you have been saved. Often, will define grace as unmerited favor. You don't owe me. I didn't do anything for it, but you gave it. That is what God has done for all of us.
There there there's not this this situation where I have to produce in a way that then God will love me. God loves you, and Christmas starts with God's love and what he has done for each and every one of us, not what we do. In in John one fourteen, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only son from the father, full of grace and truth. And Luke starts the the birth narrative this way, and she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger because there was no place for them in the inn. Now, if this was a Hollywood story, I don't think you would have the the main character of such great importance being of such a lowly birth, being placed in a play in a in a in an area that you would see as less than, especially in our time today, wouldn't you?
We think of, alright, everything's got to be perfect for that birth, everything's going be lined out, we're going to have the plan, we're going to get this done. God loves us in a way that says even around all of those expectations, we can work. There is no place in the end, and so Jesus was born here. In Hebrews four, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. We may need to highlight this first.
And as you walk around thinking, I I've done this too much, I keep failing at this, Hebrews says, we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses. God is not surprised that John messed up again. Right? He's not surprised that John has temptation because the whole point of God showing his love in this way was Jesus coming to Earth to experience everything that we experience. Now, I wish I understood the whole yet without sin part because I haven't done that.
But what that sin has taught me is that I need a savior who has walked the same walk I have. He's been able to do this depending on God, relying on the holy spirit to draw close to God in everything that he does, so that now I can follow him in a way that leads me closer to him. In second Corinthians eight nine, for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you, by his poverty, might become rich. You think much about what Jesus did for you. That Jesus would lay aside you know, we talk about loving our neighbor as ourself.
What does that look like to you? How about this? Yet, he though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor so that you by his poverty might become rich. When's the last time you had the thought, you know what I'm gonna do? It's become poor so that they can become rich.
You have that kind of heart? If you did that this morning, how much resentment would you have for that person you just made rich? Right? But that's God's love. I I will lower myself, and it talks about all through scripture, the way up is down.
Right? Lower yourself. Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord, and he will lift you up. Right? And that is what that is what he showed you.
By by his poverty, by his lowering of self, we became rich. Now, I I grew up churches of Christ, very similar to this, were not very expressive. Actually, the the most fun I ever had preaching in a congregation was preaching at a county correctional facility because they acted happy to be there. By the way, okay, they spoke back, they talked, they said amen. They were happy to be there.
I think we ought to be happy to be here because God has made us rich with his sacrifice. You get to sit here, we ought to be just excited every time that we are able to come together, and I'm not talking about worship is only this hour, don't don't get me wrong, but when we come together, you can draw encouragement from one another and experience the richness that God has provided you. Oh my goodness. I had a buddy that as I was raised in that church, he was raised in kind of a Pentecostal type of church, very expressive, and he asked me, said, You mean to tell me y'all just sit there and listen? I said, Yeah.
What else is there to do? Right? But as I've grown to experience different things, like, wait, why are we sitting here? Why are we not more excited? Because scripture over and over just tries to tell us how much God has given us, that Jesus would lower himself to this point just for us.
And so, in Jesus, God's love did not stay far away, it came near. And that's what we experience. Back to Luke, starting in verse eight. And in the same region, there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear.
The angel said to them, fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a savior who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you. You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger. Notice that even the people to whom God announces this birth are not the the kings and the queens and the scholars, and even the priests, right, but to the shepherds out working in the field.
God does not work in the ways that we might expect or even desire him to work. God works in a way that he wants to work, and he wants to show his love, and that begins with all of us. You and me, we're not one more special than the other, but God is going to show his love in in this way. In Psalm thirty four eighteen, the Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. You know, when Christianity began, it was known as a religion of the poor because it was the poor who accepted and listened, because the poor had nothing.
We couldn't rely on our money and our bank accounts and our insurance and all of those things. Right? But the poor had, okay, there is something better there. I'm not depending on me. And so, the Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.
Jesus would have to battle some of the people that he came up against and say, well, it's not the healthy that need a physician. Right? It is those who are sick, who are in need of me, and that's who he comes to, the brokenhearted, the ones who are crushed in spirit. In first Corinthians one twenty seven, but God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.
There are people that exist that think they are better than this story. Their pride is in the way, and they are not going to hear about the blessings of Christ. But God works in this way, to shame those who are wanting to act that way. He chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, those who think they are smarter than. First John four eleven, beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
You saw we sing about that recently? If God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. And so we're when we talk about God's love, we shouldn't just come here and get the the warm and fuzzies because God loves us. I hope you feel that. But you should also be challenged to go, okay, what does that mean for me?
That God so loved me that he humbled himself into a servant to to be this on earth. Okay. What does that mean for me? What that means is you take that love and you give it away to other people. God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
And you've heard me say before, I think the church should be the example for the rest of the world in all things. We ought to start with this, that we can love one another only if we agree on everything. Right? Is that ever gonna happen? No.
So get used to it, and love one another because God loved you. You know, he he walked on earth. Right? You think everybody agreed with him? Everybody just agreed with Jesus.
Keep preaching, preacher. I love what you're saying. And what Jesus did was came and preached and even said things like, you heard it said, well, I say, and he's like, oh, that sounds good. Let's kill you. Okay.
No. You have to learn to live within this, that we need to learn to love one another because he loved us. John 13 says it this way, a new commandment I give to you that you love one another just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this, all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. Now, I think what we have done, and and I can only experience my tradition as I experienced it, but I think all traditions do this, traditions in Christianity.
But I think in verse 35, we fill that in with other things. By this, all people will know that you are my disciples, if church of Christ, Baptist teaching, Pentecostal teaching, are are unique things. Right? You will know as long as we don't have instruments on Sunday. I'm picking on us because I can do that.
Right? But we filled that in. But what does it say? By this, all people will know that you are my disciples if what is it church? You have love for one another.
And I know what that sounds like sometimes is, well, you just don't wanna stand up for doctrine. That is not what that means. Or what it says, you need to love one another first. Do you understand? Why?
What is God's example? While you were yet sinners, this is what happened. Right? While we were in the wrong, well, I would love you, I would fellowship with you if you fix this. But God says, even in your sin, I'm gonna do this for you.
What's our example versus how we treat other people? In first John three eighteen, little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and truth. Don't come on Sunday morning and talk about it and think, man, that's a great idea. You have no desire to live it out. Let us not love in word or talk, talk, words are cheap, but in deed and in truth.
We want to live it out, we want to make our lives this way, and so we need to have that love, not only we need to receive that love, but it also needs to flow through us to other people. And so, what I wanna point out is these sermons that we've been talking about, hope, peace, and joy, they all find their source. They all find their beginning in the love that we experience from God. Do you understand that? Because unlike the Hollywood movies, love is not fleeting, it doesn't have to go in a certain way, God's love is constant and he is with us.
Christmas reminds us that God did not remain distant from a broken world. He didn't say, I can't have anything to do with that. What God chose to do was draw near. And what we ought to be doing is drawing close to God and again, letting that impact the rest of the world. I think we read this last week, but I wanna read it one more time from Romans eight thirty eight and thirty nine.
For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen. Y'all kinda half believe that. Say amen. Amen.
That is the love of God. That is not you, that is the love of God poured out for you. Paul says, I can't think of anything that can come between that, that can cut that off. God loves you. So the question is, what are you gonna do with it?
Are you going to choose to receive that love and give it? Are you gonna choose to say, well, that sounds like a great idea in theory, but I'm gonna go about my way? Are you gonna choose to, well, I'll love them but not him because of what he said or did? In that, we end up acting like the good Samaritan story, remember? Who is my neighbor?
Let me pin down exactly who I have to love instead of becoming the person that just loves. So church, I wanna encourage you. God has poured out his love for you. Are you ready to receive it? If haven't begun that walk with him, we'd love to see you put on Christ in baptism.
If you need encouragement from this church, we'd love to wrap our arms around you and pray with you this morning, give you strength, share our own story. You can find encouragement of where some of us are or where we have been and why we're here now. But let me tell you this, in all things, good thing good times and bad, God is faithful and he loves each and every one of us. Could you come as we stand and