God's Gift To The World ! Series

INTRODUCTION

1. Please open your bible to John 3:16.

2. This verse is very appropriate for today, Valentine’s Day. Most everyone is making an effort to give different ones something special today.

(1) Valentine Cards with comments of love and appreciation are exchanged today!

(2) Flowers are given! Some gifts and a lot of high calorie candies are exchanged!

(3) Many will be taken out to restaurants or will be provided special meals today!

3. Let’s read John 3:16 and read the Valentine message that God sends to the world.

(1) This message tells us that God gives the greatest gift of all to the whole world!

(2) John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

4. Even though a great majority of people all over the United States are giving Valentine cards and candies and gifts and special meals, I don’t think we could find one person anywhere that would be willing to give up one of their children.

5. Question #1: Why would God show so much love for boys and girls and men and women?

6. Question #2: What are some of the details recorded in the bible that explain God actually accomplishing the giving the marvelous gift that He gave?

DISCUSSION

I. FIRST, GOD, HIMSELF IS LOVE! This answers the question of why God would show so much love for boy and girls and men and women!

1. Turn to 1 John 4:7-10. This is one, among many other passages that teach us that God’s very nature, his make-up, his personality, his character is the essence that the bible calls love.

2. Let’s read 1 John 4:7-10, “7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God [In other words God is the source and origin of biblical love];

(1) “and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.” [Not just Valentine, mushy love will qualify one to be “born of God”. No, it is the John 14:15 love, where Jesus says, “If you love Me, keep My commandments”.”

(2) Verse 8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love [God is the very essence and make up of what love is all about].

(3) Verse 9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.[This verse tells us that the gift of God’s Son (Jesus) to us is the supreme example of what it means to really begin to understand what love is all about. We read of the sacrifice of God!]

(4) Verse 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” [This verse teaches that there is no way that we could have ever taught God what love is. This verse teaches that God teaches us the true meaning of love as we pay attention to God giving us His Son (Jesus).]

3. The word “love” that is used in John 3:16 and in 1 John chapter four is not the word that a lot of people are using today in connection with Valentine messages and wishes.

(1) Most of the time people use the English word love and are actually only referring to having a strong affection or having a friendship love or caring for or liking another person.

(2) They may even say they love to watch the Super Bowl. They love to eat blue bell ice cream. They love chips and dip.

(3) Those kinds of uses of the word “love” are using it in ways that could be replaced with the word “like”. Such as, instead of saying “I love to watch the Super Bowl” or “I love blue bell ice cream” they just as strongly say, “I like to watch the Super Bowl” or “I like blue bell ice cream”.

4. John 3:16 and 1 John 4:7-10 teach us that God did and does a lot more than just “like” the world and His strong “liking the world” is what motivated God to give us His son.

(1) No, the Greek word for “love” means a whole lot more than “like”.

(2) The Greek word for “love” means to seek the highest good and blessings for another whether one is deserving to receive the good or not.

5. Turn to Rom. 5:8. This passage teaches that man, as a sinner and in rebellion to God, is definitely not deserving of God’s love and yet God loved and gave His Son so that we might have an opportunity to receive forgiveness. Let’s read Rom. 5:8, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”