The following sermon was delivered in Truro Episcopal Church in Fairfax, Virginia on Sunday, February 19, 1978. The preacher is the Reverend John W. Howe, and the sermon is entitled, God So Loved. 

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be always acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, our strength and our Redeemer. Amen. One of the things that I've been wrestling with again the last couple of months is the need that I have to be spending time with my family, with my wife, and in particular with my children.

When I first was interviewing here at Truro about the possibility of becoming rector, I articulated some priorities which raised some very serious questions in people's minds that hadn't heard it put quite the way I did before. But I said that I believed it was my priority, number one, above all else, my personal relationship with Christ. Secondly, my relationship with my family.

And only thirdly, the ministry and its demands. You see, if I'm not in right relationship with Christ, I have virtually nothing to give to anybody else. but the truth of the matter is that if I'm not in right relationship with my family I also have very little to give to anybody else I might go on for a little while but the whole ministry is compromised the problem is that most clergymen it seems to me get those priorities exactly backwards and we get absolutely eaten alive with the demands of the ministry and then our families get the ragtag tail end and there's virtually no time to spend one-on-one with Jesus Christ in His Word, in prayer, simply enjoying Him.

Of course, everybody else has the exact same problem. We get eaten up by our jobs, our families get what's left over, and Jesus gets virtually nothing. So I said, these are my priorities.

It's one thing to say it. it's another thing to work it out and I've been realizing again the last couple of months the Lord is really reminding me that those are the priorities and that's what I'm to live by and somehow I've got to work into my schedule and into my life some quality time for my family in particular for my little ones who are beginning to wonder whether they still have a daddy I would beg your prayers in this regard and I know Joe and Rod feel the same pressures in their lives. Remember not too long ago, Kathy was a bit younger.

She said, Daddy, please read me a story. I was on my way out to yet another meeting. I said, okay, I can take five minutes.

And I found the book and started reading the story. And about halfway through it, the page was ripped right out of the book. The text was gone.

You know what she did? She quoted it from memory. Suddenly the light came on.

I realized she didn't need me to read that story for information's sake. She needed me to read that story simply to spend time with her, to affirm her, to share myself with her. I'm reading a very exciting new book by a child psychologist, which is underscoring this basic reality.

And he says that all of their lives, from infancy on through adolescence into early adulthood, our children are asking us one question over and over and over. In a dozen different ways, they're asking us, do you really love me? Do you really love me?

And we will be successes or failures as parents according to how well we answer that question. That somehow in the midst of all of our failures and all of our mistakes and all of the incredible demands on our lives, out of that strange, marvelous mixture of idealism and pragmatism and a little bit of Sesame Street and some Dr. Spock thrown in, somehow the message has to get across, yes, I really love you. I don't always like all the things you do.

And sometimes I don't express that love very well, And sometimes we're going to quarrel, maybe violently. Going to disagree sharply. And sometimes I'm going to discipline you.

And as a matter of fact, if I didn't discipline you, I wouldn't love you. But yes, I love you. I really love you.

I look back on my own childhood. I look back on my father's relationship to me. and you know somehow I'm able to see all of his mistakes and all of his shortcomings much more clearly than I can see my own just yet.

He made a lot of mistakes. I disagreed with him violently. But somehow, some marvelous way, he was able to get that message across to me.

yes, I do really love you. There was never a shadow of doubt about that. And I was richly blessed because of it.

To love somebody is to make a present of yourself and give it to that person, be it your children, your wife, whoever it might be. It's to give yourself to that person without qualification. It's not I love you when you do this, that, and the other thing to satisfy my performance expectation.

I love you. I don't always like everything you're up to, but I love you. To love is to give yourself.

And our scripture this morning underscores that in a slightly different dimension. John chapter 3 verse 16 is the most famous verse in the whole Bible. And it says, God so loved that he gave himself in the person of his son.

He made a present of himself. And he gave himself. to the world.

I suspect that we've heard that verse so many times that it just may have lost some of its freshness for us. And I'd like to challenge you, perhaps you've never done this before, to put your own name in the place of the world. Dolly, God so loved you that he gave himself to you.

As a matter of fact, if there were not another person on the whole face of the earth, he so loved Dolly that he gave himself to Dolly. Janie, God loves you. Lois, Art, God so loves you that he made a present of himself for you.

Jerry, Doug, Eileen, God loves you. Gordon, Bert. It goes on to say that whosoever believes in him, That's a very big word, whosoever.

That if you, Gordon, believe in Him, you have eternal life. You know, a survey was taken of Episcopalians, and it turned out that 85% of them, when asked, do you know that you have eternal life? Do you know that you're going to heaven?

85% of them said no. Because they thought that was a presumption to say, who am I to say I'm going to heaven? But the scripture says if you believe in Him, you have eternal life. And John goes on when he writes his first letter to say, these things are written that you might know that you have eternal life.

It's not a presumption at all. Because you haven't done anything to earn it. God gave a gift. He gave Himself.

Whosoever believes in Him, whosoever receives that gift, has eternal life. And He doesn't want us to be in doubt about that. That's the whole point.

This marvelous figure of Nicodemus comes to Jesus. He's a Pharisee, and it also says he's a ruler of Israel. In other words, he's a leader both politically and religiously.

He's a man of some substance. And he comes to Jesus with words of great acclamation and flattery. We notice that he comes in the dead of night.

He's not quite willing to be seen in the broad light of day. But he comes and he says, Jesus, we know that you're sent from God. Nobody can do the things that you do unless God is with him.

Jesus doesn't receive that flattery he says Nicodemus I tell you that unless you're born again you can't even see the kingdom of heaven let alone understand it make a pronouncement like that Nicodemus says what does that mean? I've got to become a fetus again? I've got to be born of my mother all over again?

and Jesus says no I'm not talking physically You were born once physically, and you received human nature from your parents. But I'm talking spiritually. You've got to be born all over again and receive God's nature.

Nicodemus says, what in the world does that mean? And Jesus says, is it possible that you're a teacher of Israel and you don't understand the most basic thing of all? I just wonder if he might say to some of us is it possible that you've been raised in the church you're an Episcopalian you've been baptized confirmed you sit on the vestry you serve on this, that and the other committee you teach church school you're a loyal member of the congregation and you've missed the point every single time you've ever come to communion you've heard this verse God so loved the world that he gave that whoever believes in him might have eternal life ever since at least since Jimmy Carter began his run for the presidency we've been hearing a great deal in the media about born-again Christians.

If you don't get anything else out of this sermon, please get this. That is an absolute redundancy. Born-again Christian.

There is no way to be a Christian except by being born again. Jesus says, except you be born again, you won't even see the kingdom of God. It's the most basic thing at all.

Now, we're not talking about everybody having the same kind of a conversion experience. It doesn't mean everybody's got to come down the aisle at a Billy Graham crusade. But it is saying that everybody's to have a genuine experience of knowing Christ personally and receiving His new life by the Holy Spirit.

And He doesn't want us to be content with a kind of, I hope so, maybe I'm working on it, if I'm lucky I might make it, kind of faith. That you might know that you have life eternal. Barry, God so loved you that he gave himself to you.

He said, receive me and know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you have eternal life. Marilyn, the gift is for you. Kitty, Bill, let us pray.

if you've never done it before or if there's any doubt in your mind about it, I invite you right now to put your name in the middle of that verse. God so loved John Howe that He gave Himself as a present in the person of Jesus Christ to die on a cross for John Howe. that if he would but believe and receive him, he might have eternal life.

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