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Vance Pitman
The Gift (Christmas 2021)
Hope This Christmas 2021
Dec 24, 2021John 3:!6
In this Christmas message, Pastor Vance teaches from the Gospel of John all about the true Gift of Christmas! What is the gift and how do we receive it? That’s what we explore in this Christmas message.
Sermon Notes
The Gift
Hope This Christmas 2021
According to the National Retail Federation, the holiday season spending of 2021 (Nov and Dec) will hit an all-time high of between $834 billion and $859 billion
Americans spend more than $2.6 billion annually on gift wrap
While the United States celebrates the holidays, Americans produce an additional 5 million tons of waste (4 million of the 5 million tons consisting of wrapping paper and shopping bags)
51% of Christmas shoppers buy gifts for themselves, too
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” – John 3:16
I. WHY DID GOD GIVE THE GIFT?
“For God so loved the world that He gave…”
1) God made us to love us and to live our lives in fellowship with Him
“Long before he laid down earth’s foundations, he had us in his mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love.”—Ephesians 1:4 (The Message)
“then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.”—Genesis 2:7
Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
2) Sin robs us of the ability to live life in fellowship with a loving God
“but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.”—Isaiah 59:2
“For the wages of sin is death…”—Romans 6:23a
II. WHAT IS THE GIFT?
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only son…”
…an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for he will save His people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).—Matthew 1:20-23
“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”—Romans 6:23
III. HOW DO I RECEIVE THE GIFT?
“…that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”
“For almost two thousand years people have been adding to the gospel, but the truth still rings clear today—whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”—Kenneth O. Gangel (Holman NT Commentary, Logos)
“Belief, of course, means far more than mere intellectual assent. Rather, it means placing one’s life and trust in complete surrender to the one in whom you believe.”—David Dockery (Holman Concise Bible Commentary, Logos)
Have you ever received The Gift?
Sermon Notes
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