Advent 4 - How God's Love Flows

Call to Worship

"Restore us, O God; let your face shine, that we may be saved. Let your hand be on the one at your right hand, the one you made strong for yourself. Then we will never turn back from you; give us life, and we will call on your name."

Scripture Reading

- Matthew 1:18-25

Kidz Message

(Advent Candle - Love)

Reminders & Lighting

- Advent, Hope, Peace, Joy

The Love candle

As we light this candle we remember how God loved us so much that he gave us Jesus and made it possible to fully love one another.

Loving like God does.

- Look into their eyes and say “God loves you”

What do you think it means to love someone?

You know, the bible says “Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.”

So, when you love someone else, you are experiencing God, because the bible also says that “God is love”

Woah!

What does it feel like to love someone?

It feels good right?

FILL UP THE CUP Object Lesson

- You can only fill someone else’s cup when yours was filled up first

When you believe how much God loves you, you have more love for others than you could ever pour out!

Now, what is happening in 7 days?

Christmas!That’s right!

And do you know why we give presents on Christmas morning?

It’s to remember how God loved us so much that he came to us to give us the gift of his love.

Because he filled our cups first, we get to love others.

So, as you celebrate Christmas this year, remember that every gift you receive, and every gift you give is filled with the love of God.

Prayer

Let’s pray

Father God,

Thank you for the gift of your love.

Help us to see your love in every gift

And may your love flow through us and into others

as we celebrate the birth of your son Jesus

Amen

Sermon

Opener

SLIDE: Title Love

Quick recap

- Hope: Unlike a wish, hope is something you’re getting ready for, like a friend coming over.

- Peace: Peace is not the absence of conflict, but the absence of injustice

- Joy: What we experience in the presence of Hope & Peace

Example: RE:23 progress

LOVE: is what makes Hope, Peace, and Joy possible.

Its seems that everyone has their own definition of love

Feeling affection or attraction

Expressing Kindness or good-will

Helping

The scripture is actually quite clear what God’s Love is...

SCRIPTURE

1 John 3:16 “We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us—and we ought to lay down our lives for one another.”

God’s love is self-sacrificial rather than self-defensive and it multiplies instead of isolating.

This is one of those simple yet difficult concepts.

God’s love is the kind of thing that, if we truly receive it, it will inevitably flow out of us.

SLIDE - Vision

Our Vision: Transforming into a community through whom God’s love flows

We believe that God’s love is not just something we receive, but also something we share with others.

SCRIPTURE

1 John 4:7–12 (NIV)

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 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. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

God loves you this much, not because you did something right, but because he created you.

God doesn’t love you because you are good, God loves you because you are HIS!

Our capacity to love others fully is dependent on our willingness to believe that God loves us enough to die for us.

It requires us to believe the story of Christmas, that God became the most vulnerable possible human, to be killed by the most wicked expression of our humanity all in order to rescue us from the infinite cycle of brokenness.

“An at-one-ing sacrifice” is Christ giving himself so that we no longer need to be separate.

God’s Love Flowing through Joseph

Keeping all this in mind, let’s take another look at the story of Jesus’ birth from Joseph’s perspective.

- Engagement in 1st century Jewish Culture

- Invite them to step into his shoes (engaged and she’s pregnant from “the Holy Spirit”

SCRIPTURE

Matthew 1:19 “Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly.”

KEY POINT: Joseph did not believe her

He wanted to treat her with love & dignity, but he just couldn’t believe her story. What kind of pushover fool would he look like? It just wasn’t right.

Truth about Love: You can’t love someone fully if you can’t trust them, and you aren’t going to trust someone if you don’t believe them.

Example: the barrier you experience when you hear someone was talking about you behind your back. You no longer feel safe around them.

I don’t think God’s love is a command to tolerate abusive or harmful relationships

Yet, you remember that John wrote “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” 1 John 4:8

How do we deal with this gap? You can’t love if you don’t trust, yet you can’t trust if you are cared for in a loving way.

Well, to put it simply that’s why we need Jesus

The story of Christmas is the story of God himself stepping into that gap, and not just going there, but doing so as an infant, completely vulnerably.

And the first people who experienced it were Mary and Joseph. [Pause to let that sink]

Mary, the one who was not believed, and Joseph the one who felt deceived. Yet God sent an angel into that gap to say “go with him” and “believe her” because God will be with you in the gap.

And God’s presence changed everything.

Now Joseph could believe her, and because he did, he could support what God was doing through her. God’s love flowed through Joseph to Mary because Joseph believed God.

SLIDE - Big Idea

Big Idea: If God's love can't get to you then it will never flow through you.

If you want to experience love to the fullest, if you see those gaps between your desire to love and you ability to trust, then you must believe that the one who created you loves you enough to die for you.

The angel told Joseph.

SCRIPTURE

Matthew 1:20–21 (NIV)

But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

Joseph, son of David - God’s love was not just flowing to Mary, but to Israel and therefore the world. Joseph is why jesus is truly a descendant of David and fulfilment of the prophecies. The prophecy that Immanuel will come.

Do not be afraid - We can’t love fully if we are afraid of the pain we may experience if it goes sideways.

Conclusion

From this point forward Joseph was able to fully love Mary and it was because he was willing to believe God.

So how about you?

You can experience thew fullness of love, love that is no longer afraid of the brokenness of this world. Love that can see through the present hopelessness and injustices to the God whose birth we celebrate in 7 days.

That love, the love of your creator is for you, but do you believe it? or is it easier to just believe in simpler, more tangible gifts that fit under a Christmas tree, expecting the broken bodies and broken relationships to just be a forever part of this world we live in?

SLIDE - Reflection

Reflection: Where is it so hard to trust that it’s too scary to love?

What gaps have you just accepted as a part of life?

That fight with your spouse that never seems to resolve?

The war between nations that you feel helpless to stop?

The bitterness between folks in your family?

God became human and was born in a dirty feeding trough on Christmas morning to step into just that place. Why? because he loves you and he loves them and he is willing to make it right.

But, remember our big idea...

SLIDE - Big Idea

Big Idea: If God's love can't get to you then it will never flow through you.

That restoration can happen through you, but only if you believe in God’s love for you first. Only if you believe he died for you, not in spite of you.

If you’ve recognized the gap, and you believe God loves you, you no longer have anything to fear. The angels words to Joseph and to Mary are God’s words to you.

“Do not be afraid”

This Christmas, step into the gap because Jesus is with you. That’s the real reason for this season.

Amen?

SLIDE - Love

Prayer

Pray for those who are struggling to believe

Pray for our ability to see the gaps and step into them

Pray for God’s love to flow through us

Benediction

May the Love of the Father fill you

May the Love of the Spirit move you

May the Love of Immanuel, give you hope to share

Amen