Love Is Tough: The Gift That Sticks - December 21, 2025

In this sermon the pastor explores how God's love is resilient and sacrificial, showing that "love is tough" — not just feelings but a committed, risk-taking agape that became flesh in Jesus. He traces God's relational pursuit from creation through the incarnation, urging listeners to receive and share the transforming gift of Christ.

Listeners are invited to accept Jesus, live out God’s love, and find hope and restoration in the Christmas message.

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Hope of all the Earth: Love
Scripture: John 1:1-4, 14

Introduction

        Love is Tough!

Main Idea: God is love, and as His people, we are called to receive and reflect that love—living it out in relationships.

The Advent of God’s Love

1. God’s Story Reveals Love (John 1:1-4)

• From Creation to Abraham to Israel.

God’s Ultimate Act of Love (John 1:14)

• God, majestic and glorious (see Psalm 8), comes to dwell among us.
• God took on human flesh—shared our life, our suffering, our death (Philippians 2).
• God shares our deepest pain, triumphing over it through Jesus’ cross.

What It Means That God Is Love

• God’s love is relational.
• God does not abandon us.
• God’s love moves toward us.

Conclusion: Become People of Love (1 John 4:7)

• We are called to love others as God has loved us.
• “Love is not affectionate feeling but a steady wish for the loved person’s ultimate good.” – C.S. Lewis

 

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With Pastor Mike Curry.