Right, so let me start by saying I just spent 7 and a half hours in worship today, I preached twice, once to 1st graders and once to 2nd graders. I worked from 8am-9:30pm. I am in point of fact - tired. Now, some of you are reading this and saying, 7.5 hours of worship? Yes, music, scripture, sermon, you know the whole deal. The longest sermon ran 2.5 hours. The shortest sermons were mine at 15 minutes. So, in three days - I’ve spent more time in worship than most folk do in three weeks. Yeah…now normally I’m full of wit and where I am. Today, however I am bone tired. Anyway, the funniest parts about today…how the 2nd graders listened and the 1st graders did not.
Anyway, I’m posting my sermon - and then sleeping. I doubt I anywhere tommorrow, I will try to sleep as much as the sun allows.
John 3:16-17 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
Title: How Much Does God Love Me?
How much do you think God loves you? This much (make a sign with hands)? No? Maybe, this much (make a bigger sign with hands)? No? Maybe, this much (make a bigger sign with hands)? The truth is that God loves us more than anything; think about all the things that God has given us. Things like, the trees, birds, our family, our friends, and even delicious food to eat. God continues to give us all these wonderful things as signs that God loves us. Though, the most wonderful sign that God loves us is that God sent Jesus to be with us to tell and show us just how much God loves us. We know this because the book of John tells us so when it says, For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. This means that God loved us so much that God sent Jesus, God’s only Son, to tell us all how much that God loves us. Think about your Mom or Dad saying, Please tell the whole world that I love everyone. This is what Jesus had to do, tell the whole world that God loves us. So, Jesus came to Earth and began to do all the things we have heard about in the Bible. Jesus preformed all the miracles, like healing the sick, walking on water, calming storms. Though, Jesus also taught us that God loves us.
Jesus message was hard for some people to hear. They didn’t believe him. Imagine if someone here right now There is a big purple elephant with wings and it is carrying a bucket of ice cream outside and it wants to say hello and eat ice cream. This is what some people thought Jesus’ message was like the elephant with wings. In other words, it was something that couldn’t be true because it was too wonderful. Though the wonderful news that God loves us is true and it is through our belief in Jesus we know that God loves us and so we are given eternal life in God.
Eternal life in God means that we get to live with God and to live in the presence of God for all time is a gift better than anything we could get for our birthday or Christmas. No one is really sure what Heaven is like but we know God there and that God loves us and so it will be wonderful.
John adds to all of this saying, Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. This means that God did not send Jesus to us so that God could punish the world, but instead save it. God loves us so much that God sent Jesus to save us from sin. Remember, sin is all the bad things that we do that God doesn’t like. So God when God sent Jesus to us, God sent Jesus to save us. Think about this, have you ever been in trouble with your parents? I mean really big trouble? The kind where you break something that your parents really love or you didn’t get good grades in school. The kind of trouble that makes all your friends cringe if it is even mentioned? Now, imagine if someone you loved stepped in and said, I’ll take care of this. Go home and be good. You are no longer in trouble. This is what Jesus did for us and this is why Jesus was sent by God, not only to tell us that God loves us but also to tell us that we are not in trouble with God.
So, how much does God love you? How much do you think God loves you? This much (make a sign with hands)? No? Maybe, this much (make a bigger sign with hands)? No? Maybe, this much (make a bigger sign with hands)? No? Does God love you so much that God sent Jesus? Yes. God loves you that much. ____________________________________________________________________________________
P.S. Livejournal loves to reformat my posts so I have to re-edit everything.
P.P.S. Gotta remember to carry an umbrella, the rain here.
When I have bouts of insomnia, SleepRite works great for me. You can get 7 day free sample here.