John 3:16

Introduction:

Finished Shopping? What kind of gifts are you looking for? We look for gifts for Christmas that show our love for others.

Joke; one man asked another, “what are you getting your wife?” “I’ll wrap myself.” “I’m not getting my wife much either.”

ILL Little Sammy Williams moved into a new neighborhood in the beginning of December because his dad had been transferred. He was slower than others, they didn’t like him. Day after day mom watched him walk home alone. As party was coming he made gifts, mom made cookies. He probably wouldn’t get a gift. We came running home, “Mommy, I didn’t forget a single one, now they all know that I love them.”

Transition: Read 1 Cor 13:1-3,13. Expound a bit on this verse: This Christmas let’s let everyone know we love them. Let love be your greatest aim.

The sign of a genuine Christian is LOVE!

John 13:35 “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." (NIV)

Look back over 200 years of American history. Do we love each other?

The “Status of Global Mission, 2008” done my Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary this year placed the number of Christian Denominations at 39,000

(http://www.gordonconwell.edu/ockenga/globalchristianity/resources.php)

We know by reading the Gospels that Jesus heals at least three blind men differently. In one case, he touches the blind man and he is healed. In a second, he spits on the ground, and makes mud and puts the mud on the blind man’s eyes and he is healed. In this case from Mark, he spits directly into the blind man’s eyes and he is healed. Now let’s suppose these three blind men (who now see) meet one day and begin comparing notes. If they are like some Jesus-followers today, their sharing will degenerate into an argument over the proper method of being healed from blindness. And because each has experienced a different method, they will probably be polarized into three distinct sects.

Out of that meeting will emerge the "touchites," the "mudites," and the "spitites." And three new movements will be born. But they really miss the point. Sometimes we miss the point on equally trivial grounds. The point is that we receive what God is trying to do in our lives.