Black Friday is now over and the race to buy Christmas gifts has started in earnest, but that makes us question why Christmas is so important (and why giving gifts is so associated with that celebration.) Dave spoke tonight on John 3:16, one of the most famous verses in the whole Bible. Salespeople use superlatives and hyperbole all the time to sell their products, but it is no exaggeration to say that God’s gift of Jesus is the greatest possible gift.

1. The Greatest Possible Love – God’s love is divine love, not fallible like human love, but perfect, pure and holy. His love is all-encompassing, reaching everyone. He hates sin, but loves the sinner and loves everyone in the world.
2. The Greatest Possible Gift – in giving His one and only Son, God gave the greatest possible gift (Gal 4:4, 2 Cor 9:15). Jesus is the exact representation of God’s being (Heb 1:3) and the very best that God could give. Matt 21:33-46 reflects the heartache it cost God to have His Son killed by those He came to save, but God’s love for the world meant this was a willing sacrifice.
3. The Greatest Possible Plan – we are saved by believing in God’s Son, and this is encouraging since we all know how to believe and trust to some extent, and therefore the means of salvation is available to all people. We do not need to pay for salvation or earn it through good works; instead by believing we cross from death to life. (Jn 5:24)
4. The Greatest Possible Deliverance – God’s gift is so that we do not perish, a word that is used in Matt 5:29 to describe an eye plucked out or in Matt 7:25 to describe drowning or in Matt 9:57 to describe wineskins bursting or Matt 2:13 to describe murder. Perishing in the natural sense of the word is not pleasant, but in the spiritual realm, it describes separation from God and an eternity in hell. 2 Pet 3:9 reminds us that God does not want anyone to perish, but all to come to repentance. God’s deliverance promises us both immediate and eternal safety.
5. The Greatest Possible Possession – we are not only promised protection from perishing, but can receive God’s gift of everlasting life. This life is remarkable in quantity (it is unending!) but also in quality, for we have access to the life of God (1 Jn 5:12).

Stephen spoke this morning from Phil 1:3-11, reflecting on mistakes he had made during the week which turned out to be sermon illustrations today! New light bulbs fitted in his lounge were ‘daylight’ mode and turned out to be extremely bright – indicative, perhaps, of how we are called to shine brightly for God, reflecting His light to others. Paul’s prayer for the Philippians highlights two key factors needed if we are to continue growing and progressing in our Christian journey instead of stagnating and remaining static. We need both passion and infection!

We are called to be passionate people, passionate for God’s honour and glory and passionate in our prayers for other Christians. We are also called to be infectious people, spreading God’s love wherever we go. Far from being seen negatively, God wants His love to so infect us that we cannot keep it to ourselves. Paul prays for the Philippians’ knowledge of God’s love to ‘abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight‘. All knowledge, insight, strength, growth and fruitfulness ultimately come from the extent to which we receive and nurture God’s love within us. The power of love is indeed a force from above, but it is a force that needs to burn within us so that we can make forward progress, moving forwards within God’s love, and spreading the word of this love to the whole world.

As the photos show, it was a busy time inside GPCC yesterday! We are grateful for all the volunteers from different churches who gave so freely of their time and money to put on such a great variety of stalls and activities and for all their support of the event. You’re brill!

Congratulations to Abbie, who won the food hamper. She was the closest to guessing its value (£62.99).

More photos from yesterday’s Christmas Market event. We were pleased to be able to raise £735.87 for the Salvation Army Christmas Appeal, which will go towards helping needy families in our area.

Yesterday was officially ‘Black Friday’, the Friday in the United States after Thanksgiving when shops reduce prices in the pre-Christmas rush to buy. It was also the date chosen by the Goldthorpe Development Group for this year’s Goldthorpe Christmas Market, and so we were pleased to be able to take part in this as ‘Churches Together’ worked at GPCC to serve refreshments, offer home baking, run craft stalls, a tombola stall, and give people opportunity to take part in activities and raise money for the Salvation Army Christmas Appeal at the same time as reaching out to our community with goody bags and lots of love!

Here are some photos from the event. The first batch is of setting up…

The world has a saying, ‘United we stand, divided we fall’, and this is so very true. Part of our struggle towards unity is learning to love and accept others as they are (Rom 15:7) and not being afraid of our differences. We have to learn to value each individual for who they are, not looking down on others or feeling impatient and frustrated by differences. Casting Crowns’ song ‘City On The Hill’ is a timely warning as to what happens when we are scornful of these differences:

‘You see the poets thought the dancers were shallow
And the soldiers thought the poets were weak
And the elders saw the young ones as foolish
And the rich man never heard the poor man speak

But one by one, they ran away
With their made up minds to leave it all behind
And the light began to fade
In the City on the Hill, the City on the Hill

Each one thought that they knew better
But they were different by design
Instead of standing strong together
They let their differences divide.’ (‘City On The Hill’, Casting Crowns)

It’s always sad when Christians let their differences divide instead of letting them inspire and unite. We need diversity. We need the differences God has put in our church. We need each other. We don’t get to pick and choose who is in the church; that is God’s job, and He has placed each one of us where He wants us to be. Iron sharpens iron, Proverbs 27:17 tells us, and as we learn to work together, despite all our differences, we find we are indeed living stones who are being fitted together by God. (1 Pet 2:5)