The Gifts of Christmas Advent Series

Sermon 2: The Gift of Love

What would Christmas be without the songs and carols? 

Maybe a little saner, you say? I think some of you may already have had enough of the repetitive shopping mall soundtracks.

Bear with me, then, because today we are going to play a little game. It’s called “Name That Christmas Song.” I’ll read a phrase from a well-known holiday song, and you try to think of the song title. Ready? Here we go.

• We’re snuggled up together like two birds of a feather would be. (“Sleigh Ride”)
• When we finally kiss goodnight, how I’ll hate going out in the storm. But if you really hold me tight, all the way home I’ll be warm. (“Let It Snow”)
• Decorations of red on a green Christmas tree won't be the same, dear, if you’re not here with me. (“Blue Christmas”)
• Please have snow and mistletoe and presents under the tree. (“I’ll Be Home for Christmas”)
• Mistletoe hung where you can see every couple tries to stop. (“Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”)
• In the meadow we can build a snowman and pretend that he is Parson Brown. He’ll say are you married, we’ll say no man. But you can do the job when you’re in town. (“Winter Wonderland”)

Okay, if you couldn’t get any of those, here is one for the rest of us. Hint: The song title is the same as the lyrics! 

• All I want for Christmas is you. (“All I Want for Christmas Is You”)

Do you notice a theme here? So I challenge us all not to miss the true story of love this season. This is the love story that has been written for all of us. The story of true, faithful, unending, sacrificial love. God’s love in sending Jesus is the one love that changes everything.

Love has been God’s story from the beginning. From the moment of creation, God’s love was part of the fabric of our world. God’s love was with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden both before and after sin entered the world. God showed His love by saving Noah and his family from the flood and giving them a new start. In the Old Testament God gave the commandments and law, in love, as a way for His people to atone for their sin and stay connected to Him. And His love turned the world inside out when He sent His Son to live among us—the God of the universe to be born in a stable, die on the cross, and rise again from the grave. It took love to disrupt and overturn the power of death and evil.  

This story is not about a feeling though. It’s God’s story of love in action—how the God of the universe loves you so much that He left everything in order to be with you, to sacrifice His life so that you could be with Him. 

This love is the second gift of Christmas that we’ll unwrap this Advent season.

If you were with us last week, you know that we began a journey through the season of Advent by unwrapping the gift of hope. The word Advent means “coming” or “arrival,” and this season is marked by 

expectation, waiting, anticipation, and longing. 

Advent is not just an extension of Christmas, it is a season that links the past, present, and future. Advent offers us the opportunity to share in 

the ancient longing for the coming of the Messiah, 

to celebrate His birth, and 

to be alert for His second coming. 

During Advent we light candles on a wreath, which represent aspects of Jesus’s coming to a world lost in darkness. Each flame brings us closer to the arrival of the true Light of the world, born in Bethlehem.

Last week we lit the candle of hope. We talked about hope past, hope present, and hope future. As we looked at a few prophecies about Jesus’s coming, we were challenged to place our hope in Him amid the trials of life, and we were reminded of the hope still to be fulfilled when He comes again.

Today we light the candle of love. Advent is a season for rediscovering the coming of our Savior—and for gaining even greater understanding of how wide and long and high and deep His love is for us. This is the gift we unwrap today.

Have you been with kids as they unwrap gifts on Christmas? 

The excitement of ripping off the paper is quickly replaced by the excitement of opening up the box and actually playing with whatever toy or game is inside. The worst thing in the world is a gift without batteries or a gift that requires adult setup. Kids want to unwrap and dive in. 

That’s what we are going to do today with the gift of love—dive right in. 

So what do we do with this gift of love? 

1. Accept His Love

I’m going to guess that if I just say the reference John 3:16, many of us in the room hear the familiar verse run through our heads automatically. Just in case, it goes like this: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” 

The problem is, sometimes we are so familiar with this verse that we can recite it and look right past it, but God’s love in sending Jesus is the one love that changes everything. We know the verse so well that we can overlook it if we’re not careful. 

But this was and is 

the ultimate gift and act 

of sacrificial, holy, complete, and infinite love.

The message of this verse is the core of what we believe. 

So it makes sense that as we unwrap the gift of love today, we should start here at the center: 

God loved the world. 

He gave His Son. 

When we accept that gift and believe in Him, we are given His life—salvation and eternal life. 

So the first thing we do with the gift of God’s love is so basic it’s easy to overlook. 

We must accept the gift. 

Notice I said “basic” not “easy.” For some the step of accepting the gift of God’s love and believing in Jesus may be very difficult. It may be something people struggle with for a long time or it may be a brand-new idea. It may be a gift one neglects for a while, because you feel unlovable. There are those who have been burned by human love too many times to trust that there’s something greater. Or maybe they think, You don’t know what I’ve done. You don’t know the dark secrets and doubts and fears and pain inside. 

Maybe we don’t, but God does—and the love He offers sees and knows and understands. 

The love that God offers is Jesus Christ.

No matter what challenges or hurts are part of someone’s life, God’s love can handle them and heal them. Wherever we are on our journey is okay. God knows. 

He understands. 

And His response is His open arms of perfect love. 

Wherever we are, I encourage us to accept the gift of God’s love. Let this season of Advent be one of accepting the love and salvation God offers in His Son.

2. Experience His Love

During this season of Advent, may we all also experience the love of God deeply. It’s easy to be distracted by all the things that need to get done in the next few weeks. It’s easy to read the headlines and wonder if love really can overcome the darkness and hatred in our world. 

It’s easy to allow worry over tomorrow—or next week or next year—to overwhelm us and keep us from feeling loved. 

All those things matter—God does not ask you to ignore those things in order to experience His love. 

You don’t have to purge or rid yourself of hurry or worry. 

He invites you to bring them to Him, to surrender the deepest hurts and concerns of your life to Him and allow Him to fill you and renew you with His love. And the good news is that the love He gives through His Son Jesus Christ is enough. The apostle Paul described that love we can experience, “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).

This is a powerful love—the most powerful love. It is love that can’t be contained or constrained by any power in the universe, not evil, not death, no person or power. 

But it’s love to be experienced. If we want to go back to our example of a kid on Christmas day, this is not a gift to accept and unwrap and then put on a shelf. It’s more like a new favorite stuffed animal to embrace and carry and hold and love till its ears wear off—or a complete set of clothes to put on and live in. And, no, these examples don’t begin to do God’s love justice, but I hope you get the idea. God’s love is our lifeblood and the oxygen coursing through us to continually fill us with life. 

Let this season be one of embracing God’s love fully and experiencing His love in new and deep ways as we continually open our hearts and hands and minds and lives to Him.

 

3. Share His Love

Have you ever been in love? 

If so, there’s a good chance you’ve done something loud or crazy to proclaim your love to the world. Right? Maybe you literally shouted it out loud in public. Certainly nowadays you proclaim it on Facebook or your social media platform of choice. Some women have been proposed to on a Jumbotron screen. It’s what we humans do. It’s why we have centuries’ worth of poetry and novels and plays and love songs about love. When we are in love, it shows. We can’t help it. Love overflows. 

The gift of God’s love is the same way—it’s for sharing. And, in fact, sharing this gift doesn’t leave us with less; it leaves us with more. Once we accept and experience the love of God, the next natural step is to share it, to let it overflow out and around us. 

John addressed this process in 1 John 4:9–11: 

 

“This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”

God’s love comes to us and flows through us. The more we embrace and experience it, the more we share it with others. 

What does that look like for you this season? 

It could mean spending quality time with family. It could mean reconnecting with a friend who has drifted away. It might mean serving neighbors or strangers or seeking out someone you suspect is lonely or hurting. It might mean forgiving someone who has hurt you or apologizing to someone you have hurt. 

There are endless ways to allow God’s love to flow through you as you love others as He has loved you. Think of one way right now that you can share God’s love this week. Then keep your heart and eyes open to the world around you as Christmas approaches. 

Let’s keep our focus on making this a season of love that reaches far deeper than the sappy carols. Let’s revel in God’s love and be known to others by His love flowing out of us. May this be a season of accepting, experiencing, and sharing God’s gift of love in a new or deeper way.

Prayer: 

God, thank You that in this season of Advent we can unwrap the gift of Your love. Help us to accept, experience, and share Your love with others this season. Please continue to fill us with expectation as we live in Your love and wait for the complete fulfillment of that love when Christ comes again. 

 

Benediction: 

“And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:17–19)