Loved (Sermon 12-24-21)

Speaker: Pastor John Nuxoll. Anyone who has ever walked into a Sunday school classroom or seen their favorite sports figure write John 3:16 on their sneakers has heard the idea that God loves the whole world. That includes everyone in it. But the problem with love is that it can feel conceptual and not personal, meaningful or felt. Maybe someone has told you that they loved you at one point in your life, but you weren’t really sure what that meant or whether that was really true. And when the circumstances around us seem to be completely out of control, it can be hard to feel like we are loved by the one who is supposed to be in control. So if God is love, how can we know we are loved by God even when our circumstances don’t seem to say that? A surprise encounter between Mary and Joseph and a man named Simeon at the temple in Jerusalem may hold the answer.