Love on Display at Christmas/ 12.25.22

 Love on Display at Christmas
1 John 4:9-10 December 25, 2022   

Introduction:

1. This Christmas we have done a series we have called the rest of the story as we have looked at other reasons Jesus was born other than the one that is most often referred to and that is “Jesus was born to die!”  
   1. But the statement “Jesus was born to die!” is a very true statement 
   2. “Jesus was born to die!” in order to forgive our sins, bring us into a relationship with God, and to give us a new and eternal life.
2. The rest of the story behind that is that God not only loves us but he sooooo loved us!   
   1. That means God loves you so so much to an extremely high degree!

• Turn to 1 John 4:9

1.  God put his love on display 
   1. As I read this verse, we are going to see that God put his love on display for all of us to see.   
      1. We are told over and over again in the Bible that God loves us but he also made it his business to not only tell us he loves us but to show us as well
   2.  Read v9 
      1. God displayed his love by sending Jesus into this world.  That is referring to his birth.

• Love is one of those vague words that we know it when we see and experience it but it is hard to simply define but in v10 we see 

1.   The ingredients of love
   1. Just like when we read the ingredients on the side of a food package so we know everything that food is composed of so in v10 we learn what ingredients that make up God’s love.  Read
   2. The first ingredient is this: God takes the initiative to love us first and does not wait for us to love him before he loves us!
      1. We often call this unconditional love – where God places no conditions on his love.  His love is not a response to something we do, but his nature is to love us first.
      2. As 1 John 4:19 says we love, because he first loved us.
   3. The second ingredient is this: God sent his Son.  – we just saw in v9 that God put his love on display when he sent Jesus to be born into this world
   4. The third ingredient is this: read 10c   
      1. Simply Jesus was sent into this world to die to satisfy what God required of us because of our sins.
      2. As we saw in v9, this has resulted in life for us!  His death was for our benefit!
   5. So the three key ingredients of love are:
      1. Taking the initiative, making the first move to love someone else
      2. It cost something – love requires some kind of sacrifice just as it cost God to sacrifice his son.
      3. The third ingredient of love – it benefits someone else.
      4. Repeat those three benefits:   initiative, cost, benefit
      5. So my simple definition of love: love takes the initiative, at your own expense to bless someone else!  
   6. Now listen to what he says:   read v11a
      
      
      
      1. God sooooooo loved us. – here we see that God’s love was a love – to a great degree, he loves us sooooo so much because he took the initiative at the great great cost of giving his Son to die for us so that we can be blessed with life
2.  Two applications come out of this
   1. First, v11 is using God’s love as an example of how we are to love others!
      1. Read v11b
      2. Will you, this Christmas day or this next week take the initiative, the first step at a personal cost to yourself to bless someone else!  
   2. Second  – read John 3:16 
      1. God sooooo loved us in sending his Son and he sooooo loved us in sacrificing his Son for us so that we can live.
      2. This is all he asks of us – to believe, rely, trust, and lean on what Jesus did for you on the cross to give you eternal life.
      3. It is not what we do first but rather he took the initiative at the cost of his own Son to give us the gift of an abundant life now and an eternal life that goes throughout eternity!
      4. If you want to begin the journey of loving God, then begin by responding to his love gift this morning by trusting in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sin and for a brand new and eternal life!