Love Stories

Sermon to Market Street Residences an ALF in Tarpon Springs, Fl (Keep in mind as you read this sermon it is for those who have dementia or other memory disorders)November 3 2019

A sermon on love

Prayer

Welcome to worship at market Street where we are the church. Why do I say we are the church? Because those of us who believe that Jesus is the Christ the son of the living God have God’s Holy Spirit living in us and that means we are the center of worship or better yet we are the worship center. Our bodies are the temple of the living God. The worship center is not the church building next door to us it is us.

So because we have this gift from God that is God’s Holy Spirit living in us we are comforted and consoled when we need comfort and convicted when we do something outside of God’s will.

There are many benefits of having God’s Spirit living in us, because not only are we the church (the temple of God), Not only does He comfort us, console us, pray for us and convict us, He testifies to our spirit that we are God’s child. We are privileged because we are called the children of God.

When we believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God and we have God’s Spirit living in us guess what Happens?

We begin to bear fruit because the fruits of the Spirit who lives in us are: Love, Joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self control.

Today I want to talk about the first fruit we gain through the Holy Spirit. The fruit of LOVE and share with you some love stories

Do you like love stories?

You see a real love story is about sacrifice, it is about caring and of course it is about serving.

The first love story I want to share comes from a short story by O. Henry written in 1905. It is a story about Jim and Della Dillingham. They were very poor; Jim made $20 per week and at end the end of every week there was more bills to be paid then money to pay them.

Read this part of “The gift of the Magi by O. Henry

Della Jim’s wife knows Christmas is coming and she tries to save every penny she can to by her beloved Jim a special Christmas gift. Jim and Della each owned something they treasured for Jim it was a gold pocket watch owned by his grandfather and his father. He so would love a silver or gold chain as a watch fob to hold his watch, but that was a luxury Jim never dreamed he would have. They had to meet the basic needs of living as poor people. Della’s treasure was her long beautiful hair. The only shopping Della could do other than for food was “window shopping” and one of the stores had beautiful hair combs on display. She knew it would never be more than a dream

Christmas Eve arrives and Della is in the kitchen counting the pennies she had saved for months all total it was $1.50. She goes shopping and soon realizes a $1.50 is not going to buy a very special gift. But sure enough as she window shops she sees a silver chain of silver rings a perfect fob for Jim’s treasured pocket watch. Problem is she is $20 short of cash. As she walked along she spotted Madam Sofronies the sign read” meeting all of you hair needs”. She ran up the steps and asked “do you buy hair?” “We do”, Madam Sofronie said, let me take a look at it. She bought Della’s hair to make a wig for $20. Della ran back to the jeweler and bought the silver chain watch fob and turned over $21.50.

She races home anxiously for Jim to come through the door, she does what she can to fix her hair but no matter how hard she tries- she looks like a school boy. Jim is running a little late because he also wanted to get Della a special Christmas gift-that is how much they loved each other.

The door opened and Jim stepped in. He looked thin and very serious. Poor man, he was only twenty-two and he had to care for a wife. He needed a new coat and gloves to keep his hands warm.

Jim stopped inside the door, as immovable as a dog smelling a bird. His eyes were fixed upon Della. There was an expression in them that she could not read, and it frightened her. It was not anger, nor surprise, nor fear, nor any of the feelings that she had been prepared for. He simply looked at her with a strange expression on his face. Della went to him.