Sermon Tone Analysis

Story:

Let’s be honest.

Christmas gifts are great!

As we prepare to celebrate on Christmas day with friends and family, there will most assuredly be a gift that you have to figure out how to respond to without hurting someone’s feelings or feeling foolish.

I want to offer you eight ways to respond to a gift that may be less than desirable.

You may want to take some notes and arm yourself with Christmas gift gratitude.

8. Well, well, well, now, there’s a gift!

7. No, really, I didn’t know that there was a Chia Pet tie! Oh, wow! It’s a clip-on too!

6.

You know, I always wanted one of these!

Jog my memory—what’s it called again?

5.

You know what?

I’m going to find a special place to put this.

4. Boy, you don’t see craftsmanship like that every day!

3.

And it’s such an interesting color too!

2.

You say that was the last one?

Am I glad that you snapped that baby up!

1.

You shouldn’t have!

No, really, I mean it.

You really shouldn’t have!

So, there you go.

I hope this prepares you for any and all scenarios.

But, today, I want to speak about a gift for which we don’t have to rehearse a response.

It is the greatest gift that has ever been given to us, and Christmas is the time in which it was presented.

When God sent His son to be born, it was an expression of His unfailing and relentless love.

Galatians 4:4–7 (LSB)

But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, 5 so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.

6 And because you are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba!

Father!” 7 Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.

As I read this verse it reminds me of John 3:16.

Let me blend them together:

Galatians 4:4–7 (LSB) & John 3:16-17 … when the fullness of the time came, because God so loved the world, He sent forth and then GAVE His only begotten Son,

This Son was born of a woman, born under the Law, 5 so that He might redeem those who were under the Law,

so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

17 “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him — that we might receive the adoption as sons.

6 And because you are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba!

Father!” 7 Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.

Can you hear the love of God?

I pray so!

You see:

The love of Jesus propelled and continues to propel Jesus into our lives at just the right time.

At just the right time, Jesus came into the world.

He came to free us from the crushing weight of the Mosaic law.

We could never be good enough to earn salvation, so Jesus lived a perfect life on our behalf.

Why?

Because of love.

God wanted us to be a part of his family.

Out of love, he adopted us through the work of Christ.

We are now the sons and daughters of God.

Jesus is our brother and we can rest in the love of the Father.

This week we continue to explore the heart of Christmas which is, of course, the birth of Jesus.

Too often, we can get lost in trees, decorations, gifts and parties and miss the central focus of the Christmas season.

Jesus was born to bring to us the gifts of joy, love and peace.

That is the REAL reason for Christmas.

Last week we learned that JOY is ours no matter the circumstances because God dwells with us.

This week of our series, we will take a look at a theme within the scriptures that truly holds the heart of Christmas together.

That is, the great love of God for each and every one of us.

Let’s always remember that God’s love is a gift that is thoughtful because it meets our greatest need—our sinful state.

It is a gift that is priceless because it could never be purchased apart from Christ’s blood.

It is a gift that is timeless because the grace of God is never ending.

God’s Gift is THOUGHTFUL

First of all, God’s gift of love is THOUGHTFUL.

Ephesians 1:3–6 (LSB) Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him in love, 5 by predestining us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He graciously bestowed on us in the Beloved.

God is omniscient and eternal.

He knew what Eve and Adam would do — that they would choose to disobey Him — even before they did it.

And so, even before He created humanity, God provided for their salvation through the Beloved.

Through Jesus.

From the moment creation was broken by sin, God began to unfurl a plan to restore and rescue all that He had made.

The Bible is an account of His divine efforts and faithfulness to reverse the effects of the Fall.

Motivated by love, God partners with those who love and trust Him to enact the greatest rescue plan in history.

Our text in Galatians 4 reminds us that when Jesus came and was born to Mary, the fullness of time had come.

It was the right moment in history to send His son to make a way for the world to be restored.

Because of love, God was not content to sit back and watch His creation suffer forever.

He went to great lengths to be with us and make us a part of His family once again.

Sending Jesus into the world by way of a manger in Bethlehem was NOT Plan B.

It was what God had planned all along to deal with our sin.

God didn’t rush some half-baked plan into motion.

His gift to humanity was first of all THOUGHTFUL.

God’s Gift is PRICELESS

And at the same time the gift God gave, of the birth of His Son at just the right time, was PRICELESS.

1 Peter 1:18–19 (LSB) knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold from your futile conduct inherited from your forefathers, 19 but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.

When we receive the gift of God’s salvation, we are receiving a gift of love that cannot be purchased with silver or gold — it is priceless.

Too many of us live our lives every day missing the fact that God loves us.

That He paid a price for our redemption — for our salvation — for our adoption into His family.

The price was the death of His Son on a Cross.

It is a priceless gift!

When we miss the fact that we have been adopted into His family, we have a hard time loving ourselves.

In turn, we have a hard time loving others who are also valued and treasured by God.

The reason this aspect of Christmas should not be missed or avoided is because it is central to us living the full lives that God wants for us.

The late pastor J.I. Packer wrote about this incredible expression of love that came to us at Christmas.

“Adoption is the highest privilege that the gospel offers: higher even than justification.

To be right with God, the Judge is a great thing, but to be loved and cared for by God, the Father is greater.”

Looking again at Ephesians 1, but reading all the way down to vs. 14, we see that …

as a part of God’s family, we are made blameless in God’s sight (vs.

4).

Our sins are washed away by his love.

God’s will and way are made known to us as a father might share with a child (vs.

9).

We are chosen to receive hope and salvation (vs.

13).

We are marked with a seal to ensure that we are filled by the Spirit of God and will inherit eternal life as one of God’s precious possessions (vs.

14).

All of this is only made possible by the arrival of Jesus at just the right time to one day sacrificially give his life on a cross to validate God’s amazing love for us.

God’s Gift is TIMELESS

Finally, God’s gift of love, His PRICELESS gift given to us THOUGHTFULLY, is a TIMELESS gift.