The Greatest Love (1 of 4)
Series: 3:16 and Jesus
Jeff Strite
John 3:16
OPEN: I once read the story of a man had been driving on an out-of-the-way 2 lane highway running thru the rural countryside. He noticed an old tumbledown shack standing in the middle of an open field. He had to smile to himself as he read the crudely printed message on one whole side of the shack. Apparently, some young man had scrawled in large letters with a piece of chalk: ''I love you - Kathy.''
A few weeks later, as he drove down that same road, he looked in anticipation for that same romantic message. His disappointment was as great as his surprise.
Not only was the message gone, so was the barn. But his smile returned. Beside that field, on the back of a large road sign, scrawled in large white letters were the words: ''I still love you - Kathy.''
APPLY: John 3:16 is like that message. It is the message from God that He loves us - and that message seems to show up literally everywhere.
You'll see it at football games, basketball games, on billboards along the road, on bumper stickers of cars, on paintings and statues.
ILLUS: I've even read about an eye doctor who has an eye chart in his office that - instead of traditional chart with the E at the top - has John 3:16 in letters with descending size. ''Can you see this?'' he will ask. While his patients smile, he sometimes has the opportunity to talk to them about the Lord.
Christians are totally in love with this verse because it seems to sum up so much of what the Bible teaches about salvation. It's so popular that - when I visited sermoncentral.com - I found that there had been over 400 sermons dedicated to this text alone.
I'd even read once of a preacher who believed that he could preach every Sunday for the rest of his ministry simply on this text. I'm not sure I'm anywhere near that inventive. In fact, as I prepared for this Sunday's message I found it difficult to think of anything to say that seemed to do jus ...
Series: 3:16 and Jesus
Jeff Strite
John 3:16
OPEN: I once read the story of a man had been driving on an out-of-the-way 2 lane highway running thru the rural countryside. He noticed an old tumbledown shack standing in the middle of an open field. He had to smile to himself as he read the crudely printed message on one whole side of the shack. Apparently, some young man had scrawled in large letters with a piece of chalk: ''I love you - Kathy.''
A few weeks later, as he drove down that same road, he looked in anticipation for that same romantic message. His disappointment was as great as his surprise.
Not only was the message gone, so was the barn. But his smile returned. Beside that field, on the back of a large road sign, scrawled in large white letters were the words: ''I still love you - Kathy.''
APPLY: John 3:16 is like that message. It is the message from God that He loves us - and that message seems to show up literally everywhere.
You'll see it at football games, basketball games, on billboards along the road, on bumper stickers of cars, on paintings and statues.
ILLUS: I've even read about an eye doctor who has an eye chart in his office that - instead of traditional chart with the E at the top - has John 3:16 in letters with descending size. ''Can you see this?'' he will ask. While his patients smile, he sometimes has the opportunity to talk to them about the Lord.
Christians are totally in love with this verse because it seems to sum up so much of what the Bible teaches about salvation. It's so popular that - when I visited sermoncentral.com - I found that there had been over 400 sermons dedicated to this text alone.
I'd even read once of a preacher who believed that he could preach every Sunday for the rest of his ministry simply on this text. I'm not sure I'm anywhere near that inventive. In fact, as I prepared for this Sunday's message I found it difficult to think of anything to say that seemed to do jus ...
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