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1 John 4:9 – 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.

Do any of you ever watch hallmark Christmas movies? It’s ok. I won’t judge. I watched one last night with Lynn. It was called A Christmas Love Story. I would say spoiler alert, but that would mean the movie has a surprising plot twist. 

The movie revolves around a New York City children’s Christmas choir director and a surprise last-minute addition to the choir in the form of a talented young man from Connecticut who shows up to do volunteer work in the building.

This young man’s mother passed away a few years ago, and his father has not been open to a new relationship. By the end of the movie, wouldn’t you know it, the father and the choir director fall in love.

Oh, an in a surprise twist, the young man ends up being the choir director’s child which she gave up for adoption many years ago. The Christmas Love Story is not only newfound love between a man and a woman, but between a mother and her child.

There’s something about hallmark Christmas movies that is satisfying. Perhaps it’s the predictability. The warmth and charm and abundance of Christmas everything. No matter how unlikely it seems that the big city career woman and the small town struggling business owner will fall in love, we know that they will in the end. 

This morning I want to tell you about a different Christmas Love Story. 

This story is between you and God. You may not be aware that you are a part of this love story. 

You see, the reason we celebrate Christmas is because of God’s love. The Bible says that God showed his love for you by sending Jesus into the world. 

I want to share with you three things about this Christmas love story:

1. How does this show God’s love for you? 

2. What is the right response to God’s love?

3. How will you be changed by God’s love?

How God sending Jesus into the world shows that he loves you.

This point is dependant on something really important. You need to be open to the possibility that there is a Creator who not only made the whole universe, but who made you and knows you personally.

The Bible says in the book of Psalms, chapter 139, that God created each one of us, that we are made with purpose and intention by a wise God. 

If this isn’t true, then the rest of what I’m about to share will not make sense. God is a relational God who created each one of us to be connected to him as our primary source of joy and satisfaction.

So, you need to know that God knows you and loves you just as you are. He made you to be in relationship with him.

The question we need to be reminded ofis, why did Jesus need to come? If God made us and already loves us as we are, what does Jesus add to this reality?

Relationship with God and with others are meant to bring fulness to our lives, to give us joy and peace. That is by design. We cannot experience a full life on our own.

And while God loves us perfectly, we cannot love him perfectly. We make choices to love other things more than God. 

We struggle to truly know God and be close to him because we trust ourselves more than we trust God. 

This makes it impossible to be loved fully by God and to love him back. The love story is headed toward a sad ending. God wants to be with us, but we don’t even really know how that is a good thing. 

The problem has a lot to do with the idea that God isn’t actually interested in us enjoying life. This is a lie that humans have been believing since the very  beginning.

In Genesis, which is the very first book of the Bible, we read about how Adam and Eve were created by God and were perfect. They enjoyed the love of God the way God intended.

But, they came to doubt that God was really interested in giving them everything he had to offer, that he was holding back. This is a struggle we all have. 

We are suspicious about a God who could love us unconditionally and completely. When we act on this lack of trust, which we all do, it is called sin. 

So, we are left in this place of disconnection from the only one who can truly love us for who we are, who can give us everything we could ever imagine.

Our hearts are cold toward his love. We have a hard time even knowing how to be loved so perfectly.

Because of our sin, our lack of trust in God, we are headed down a path of forever being without him. We need a new start, to be remade the way we were meant to be. This is the only way we will be able to enjoy the love of God.

This is why God needed to send Jesus into the world. Jesus, the Bible says, is God himself in the flesh. In the first chapter of the book of John, we read that God became human and made himself at home with us. 

God was able to live the life that he intended for all humans to live, in complete and perfect relationship with God. 

How is this a demonstration of God’s love? Remember, the only way we can experience God’s love fully is to be made new. This is what God offers to us through Jesus.

Jesus lived a life of love the way we were intended to live and then he offered his life to God as a sacrifice.

This is really strange because sacrifices are so foreign to us. Why was this necessary?

There is no metaphor that speaks perfectly about the sacrifice of Jesus, but one that may help is this.

Let’s say you get into trouble with the law and are facing severe consequences, and a friend of yours says to the judge, whatever sentence you hand out to this person, I’ll take it. I’ll pay the price for their mistake.

When Jesus died, that’s what he did. But he did more than that. He didn’t stay dead.

You see, while it’s all good to have the payment made for our wrongdoing, we still have this issue of disconnection because chances are, we will mess up again. 

That’s why Jesus couldn’t stay dead. When he came back to life, he gave humanity a second chance. His new life is our new life, just like his death is payment for our sin.

This is what it means in the Bible when it says that God showed his love to us by sending Jesus into the world.

So, how do we respond to God’s love?

The right response to God’s love

Our response is to believe that this is true and receive God’s love. 

1 John 4:15-16 says, “If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.”

That’s it. You don’t have to give anything to God in exchange. The transformation of your life, which I will get to in a minute, will begin to happen because God is doing the work.

But, what does this look like? How do you actually believe and receive this? Aren’t there rules to follow? Don’t Christians have to life a certain way?

Here’s a story to help. I’m not sure if it’s a true story. I heard it once before but cannot remember where or when.

It’s a story from the early 1900s about a wealthy elderly woman who lived all on her own and decided to get this new thing called electricity added to her home. The electricity company finished the work, installed an electricity meter to record the usage, added some electric lights and showed her how to use them. 

After a few months, there was a knock at the woman’s door. A representative from the electricity company was there to see if there was anything wrong. The woman happily said, no, everything was working fine. The man said, “Well, do you need me to show you how it all works.” 

The woman said, “I know how it works.” The man replied, “If everything is working and you know how to use it, then why aren’t you using it? The meter shows almost no usage.” 

She said, “Every night, as the sun goes down, I turn on the lights while I go around and light the candles and then turn the lights off.”

This is what it looks like when you receive God’s love but you don’t do anything with it. 

The lady liked the convenience of having electric lights, but she didn’t really use them to their full extent. She had the power, but preferred the old ways.

If you receive God’s love, but it does not bring transformation in the form of sharing that love with others and enjoying the renewed relationship with God, you are connected to power but are not using it.

So, what does this transformation look like?

How you will be changed by God’s love

Looking back at 1 John 4, it says, let us love one another… everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.

Being renewed, receiving love from God, will give you the ability to love others and love and know God. This is what we are made for.

But, we cannot muster it up. We cannot create it. We must be renewed and connected to God.

God’s presence and his love within us is possible because of Jesus. This gives us the ability to love and live a full life. 

What sort of things will change?

Let’s look at another part of the Bible to find out. This is from a letter called Galatians that was written by an early Christian leader named Paul. 

He wrote in this letter that those who have been renewed by God will live with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. 

This is not a list of disciplines you have to try and accomplish. 

They will begin to show up in your life as you continue learning about Jesus, as you trust him in prayer, as you read about God in the story about him and his people which is found in the Bible, and as you spend time with others who are doing the same thing.

You will be changed into the sort of person who has the lights turned on, which is a demonstration that you are connected to the power source, that you have been made new.

When you receive God’s offer of love, which is the sacrifice and new life in Jesus Christ, you will begin to see what it means to be fully human, the way God intended you to be.

Conclusion

So, this is the Christmas Love Story. It is not a Hallmark movie, but a true story about how God made his home among us, showed us who he is, how he loves us, made a way for us to be loved by him and love him back, and to live forever as his people. 

It is a love story we have repeated for the last two thousand years. It is a love story worth repeating, for it is the only one that will bring true gladness, joy, and peace that lasts well beyond the Christmas season.