R1509 The Gift of Love at Christmas

God has an encouraging word for you and me today through the Bible-based preaching of Dr. Don Wilton about the gift of love at Christmas. We are so excited to study God's Word together. Today, Dr. Don will take us to 1 John chapter 4 in just a moment, but he wants me to remind you, we are connecting keyboard to keyboard right now on our website at te.online.org. You know, so many folks have asked about this remarkable tool, this book that will help us journal through the coming year in Bible study. It's available on our website at te.online.org along with a Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs CD. Discover more online at te.online.org or call us at 866-899-WORD for more details. It's also where you'll find us for prayer. That's 866-899-9673. Now, Dr. Don Wilton.

And now, Dr. Don Wilton. I'm going to ask you to open your Bibles today to 1 John chapter 4. So, we're in the, right near the end of the Bible, we're going to be in 1 John and chapter 4. And when you get down into chapter 4, we find one of the many, many passages in God's Word that presents to us one of the greatest gifts of Christmas. In fact, it's the root gift of Christmas. It's what Christmas is all about at its very heart. If someone were to come to you and to me this Christmas and say, what is Christmas all about? I think the Bible makes it very clear Christmas is about God's love, period.

One of the most indelible imprints, it's eternal. The love of God, this gift of Christmas, for God so loved the world. He loves you so much that he would send Jesus to be born in Bethlehem. And I'd like to read to you in this passage here in 1 John chapter 4 tells us about the gift of love at Christmas. Beloved, the apostle says, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are from God, for there are many false prophets that have gone out from the world. Now, I wanted to read to you that first verse because it sets the scene.

I just want you to, I want you to get a hold of something now. Jesus gathered his disciples together at a place called Caesarea Philippi and he said to them, so who do people say that I am? See, there are many false prophets in the world.

Probably that statement today is as significant as it has ever been in our world. And if you bring that question into Christmastime, what does this mean? So what is Christmas, this Jesus?

Why did this happen? Why do we celebrate the birth of our Savior? What do they say out there? We're living in a world today where most people or many people today can't even write out Christmas. Put an X there.

Take a drive down through the shopping mall. Watch how many shopping malls you'll go to and shops and places and you'll see, come on, it's Xmas. And what John is saying is I'm about to unload on you this essential gift of Christmas.

And you need to know and to be aware and cognizant. He said back in his day, but this is the Word of God concerning the X of Christmas. Don't believe every spirit.

Test the spirits to see whether they are of God or whether they come from some personal opinion or some political dispensation or some attitude. And it's easy to X out Christ when you live in a world where everybody is making it their business to X out Christ, to remove him from the ball field and to remove him from the White House and to remove him from the Capitol and remove him from the courts and remove him from our schools and remove him from anything that we hold dear. I will not X out Christmas because of the joy of Jesus Christ my Savior and my Lord and because He is the love of God. He is. All right, let's go to verse 7. Here's what John said, Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God.

Any further questions? Because God is love. In this, the love of God was made manifest among us that God sent His only Son.

He has the Christmas message into the world so that we might live through Him. In this love, not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.

No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God abides in us and His love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us because He has given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world.

Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him and He in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love of God that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him or her. By this is love perfected with us so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment because He is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, for fear has to do with punishment.

And whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because He first loved us. If anyone says, I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar. For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.

There is a commandment we have from him that whoever loves God must also love his brother. How do we ever express the deep meaning of love? You know, how do we really talk about God's love? Well, the gift of God's love at Christmas, first of all, is so wonderful to read. I will be perfectly open with you and tell you that, you know, from a young child I have many times heard about this amazing love of God in that He sent Jesus to die. I have read about it. I remember just as a young boy, it was part of the fabric of our upbringing.

It is what we did. You know, we are a people of the book. We believe the book, and the book says God loves us so much that He sent Jesus to die on the cross. It is so wonderful to read and it is so wonderful to hear, to hear. You know, I have heard people, it seems like all my life, talking about Christmas. You know, you can just sit there and you hear it. Today as we worship the Lord, as we worship Him together, you can hear the Christmas story.

It is just lovely to go to grand places with decorations and all the lights and the streets and the shops that are decorated out and just amble down, down the streets and you can hear it. It is also so wonderful to see this gift of God's love at Christmas. You see the gift of God's love. You see it in action. We see it.

I see it. A couple of weeks ago we joined together with people all around the country and our boys and girls came down ours with their Christmas shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child for Samaritan's Purse. Well, on Thursday Karen and I went to Charlotte on Thursday morning to one of the big centers there. There were thousands of volunteers. I was there.

I took so many pictures. And Operation Christmas Child, over 11 million boxes have been gathered to send each one to one child. Do you know Franklin Graham told a story that happened, this is the 25th year of Operation Christmas Child, 25 years. He told the story of being in Bosnia during the war in Bosnia. He showed pictures of it.

This is some 23 years ago when it was still in its infancy. And they showed a picture of Franklin and a few of the small team that they had going into this bombed out school room and they were little boys and girls and it was literally freezing. Freezing.

It was freezing. And the camera just happened to capture a little boy in Bosnia sitting there literally shaking like this. His lips were blue. He was about five, six, seven years old. And they handed out a little box from some child, some person in America took the trouble to pack this box. And that little boy opened up the box, looked at it and he closed it again.

And Franklin Graham, who leads this ministry, told everybody in Charlotte. He said, I saw him do that and I thought, oh no, this little boy doesn't like, he's afraid, he couldn't speak English and he was so cold he couldn't think. And so he went and helped him take the lid off the box again and then he understood why he closed it because on top of the box, covering the box was like a little croture, like a little blanket type of thing that a girl would love to have.

It was more of like a girl's type of thing. And so Franklin immediately thought to himself, you know what? I'm going to do the unthinkable. I'm going to take his box and I'm behind my back and I'm going to go and trade so he can get something that's more appropriate for a little boy. But before he could do that, the little boy leaned over and moved the little blanket thing aside. Do you know what was under that blanket?

A child's bomber jacket with a fur coat, like you get in the Air Force, a bomber jacket, a leather bomber jacket. And the camera, I'm going to get this, I've got to show this to you. We've got it on video. And this little boy looks at it, doesn't know what to do. He's got hardly, he's freezing and he opens it up and he pulls out a bomber jacket and he puts on this leather coat with a furry white neck on it. And it fit him absolutely 100 percent perfect.

Now, how do you think that happened? You think the love of God is not real? It's so wonderful to see, so wonderful to understand. It is wonderful. And here at the Christmas season, wonder is an important part of our lives, is it not? Please forgive the interruption, but Dr. Don wants me to let you know we are here for you.

Sometimes Christmas is the most highest of highs and the lowest of lows. Wherever you are, we are here with you 24 hours a day when you call 866-899-9673. That's 866-899 word or my voice for just a moment as we connect you to one of us any time, day or night to pray with you and for you. 866-899-9673 or if you'd like to connect keyboard to keyboard, we're online as well at www.tewonline.org. So much buzz about this book to launch the year in devotionals, wonderful leather bound book.

The details are on our website right there at www.tewonline.org. Now let's dive back into today's message, the gift of love at Christmas with Dr. Don Wilton. You know, I don't have time today, but it's just so wonderful to understand. Let me tell you how you understand it. You understand it because God's gift of love is so wonderful to receive. It's so wonderful to receive. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him will not die. Do you want me to just tell you very quickly how to receive God's gift of love?

Can I do that? I'd like to share with you how you can receive God's gift of love because He loves you so much. This is what you have to do. Number one, you have to acknowledge your sin. What does it mean to acknowledge your sin? It means before God, you've got to be willing to say, Lord God, I know that I'm a sinner.

I know. I acknowledge me. I acknowledge my sin. See, the Bible says all of us have sinned, all of us.

Only difference between the best of us in here and the worst of them out there is the grace of God. All of us, every one of us has sinned. You've got to acknowledge. If you acknowledge your sin, it means that you need to, number two, confess your sin to Jesus. Now, that little word confess means that you are repenting of that sin. To repent of that sin means you're not just saying sorry. You're acknowledging that your sin separates you from God, severed your relationship with God. And your repentance is you saying with all of my heart, I want you, God, because of Jesus, through Jesus to know that I'm willing with your help to turn away from my sin and walk in the opposite direction. I confess, I repent my sin.

Now, I want you to watch this. Who is Christmas about? The gift of God's love is the gift of Jesus. You can only do that with and through Jesus.

People, watch. You cannot do that with the Pope. You cannot do that with your priest. You cannot do that with your pastor like me. You cannot do it through Billy Graham.

You cannot do it through your church. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man can come to the Father but by me. Isn't that wonderful?

That's what, this is the ultimate gift of Christmas. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him will not die but will have eternal life. So here are two things that the Bible says you and I have to do. Number one, you've got to acknowledge your sin. You've got to be willing to admit that you're a sinner.

Not going to happen until you do that. Number two, you've got to be willing to confess your sin to Jesus. Only to Jesus. If you're sitting there saying, well, you know, I belong to the church, doesn't matter. It matters because the church is a very special place. I'm so grateful we can belong to beautiful Bible-believing churches, but it's not the church that gives to us our salvation.

It's the gift of God's love in Jesus. And then the third thing, I love this part, trust in Jesus. Trust.

That word trust there is that word faith. You know, we've talked about little children so much, haven't we? Even today, and we will, right through Christmas.

Can't help myself. We love watching the little one. Don't you love the way little children just trust? That trust goes even to a far greater depth of meaning.

It far supersedes even the trust of a little child. It's just simply accepting God, taking God at God's word. God so loved the world. He loved us. God loves us. God loves me that he gave Jesus for me. Jesus went to a cross and died taking my sin upon himself and your sin. And on the third day, by the power of God, he was raised from the dead. He conquered sin and death and the grave. And because of his death upon a cross, because of the love of God, I now can acknowledge my sin, confess my sin to Jesus and trust him.

Take him at his word. And I can receive God's love. I can be forgiven. I can have my name written in God's book. Would you bow your heads with me for just a minute? I want to pray this prayer with you today. I want to pray that God, the Lord Jesus, would come into your heart. That he would be your Savior.

And today is the day. Whatever station, wherever you are, whatever you're doing today, would you pray this prayer today? Would you make this prayer your prayer? You see, I cannot save you. The Pope cannot save you. Your church cannot save you.

But Jesus can. This is Christmas because God so loved us. This is the gift of Christmas. Would you give your heart to him today? Pray this prayer with me right now. Dear God, I know that you love me. And I believe that Jesus died on a cross for me today. I acknowledge my sin. I know I'm a sinner.

I'm separated from you. I confess my sin to you, Lord Jesus. Because you are the one who was born. Because of the love of God. It was you who died on the cross. It was you who was raised and is alive today.

I confess my sin to you. You are the way, the truth, and the life. And I put my trust in you.

I'm going to trust you. I believe. I believe everything you've said.

I believe everything you are. Today, I've given my heart to Jesus. With every head bowed, I'd love to pray for you for just a moment. If you've prayed that prayer today, you've trusted Jesus.

Would you lift up a hand or a finger? Just put it up quickly so I can see it. Let me God bless you, my friend, anyone else today. God bless you. God bless you, buddy. God bless you today. Anyone else here today, just put your hand up, up in the balcony on the sides.

Doesn't matter where you are. Just say, I've given my heart to Jesus today. This is Christmas because it's about Christ. It's the gift of God's love. Jesus, thank you for people today who have given their hearts to Jesus. Surely, that is the most wonderful gift ever, the gift of salvation. And I thank you today for every person in Jesus' name. Would you look at me for a moment?

Just think about this. Jesus left his throne and his kingly crown, and he came down to earth just for me. A powerful message from our pastor, and moments ago, as he was praying and leading in that prayer of salvation, maybe you gave your life to Christ or rededicated your life and are coming home.

Either way, Dr. Don has specific resources he wants you to have. You need to call and ask for them. If you gave your life to Christ, call 866-899-WORD.

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