God's Surprise Gift (Advent 2024)

Sermon:                     God’s Surprise Gift                           John 3:1-16

I.  Bad News: We’re Not Good Enough & Not in Control  (1-8)

Ezekiel 36:25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

John 1:12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

II.  How Can These Things Be?  (9-15) 

John 17:5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

III.   The Greatness of God’s Love  (16)

Zephaniah 3:17  The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.