We are now entering my absolute favorite time of the year - the Christmas Season. If you think about it, there are three things that are absolutely essential to celebrating Christmas, at least here, in America. First of all, you have to have a Christmas list. You've got to make a list of the people that you want to buy gifts for. Incidentally, since many of you ask me every year, I wear an extra-large in shirts, a 36/32 in pants and a size 10 shoe.

The second thing you have to have obviously is a tree. The number one symbol of Christmas around the world is a Christmas tree. Then finally, you have to have gifts.

Believe it or not, all three of these Christmas ideas came directly from God. God made up the first Christmas list, gave us the first Christmas tree and God not only gave the first, He gave the greatest Christmas gift. Over the next three weeks, we are going to be talking about those very things.

The reason that we have Christmas and the reason there is a Christmas is because God had a Christmas list before the world began. God had a Christmas tree in mind, before you and I were born and God gave a Christmas gift before anyone ever knew what Christmas was. Every Christmas is built around those three things.

One of the things that change as you get older is your Christmas List. When I was a kid, my Christmas list was very short. There was only one name on it - mine! I was the only name on my list, because the one person I wanted to make sure not to be let out of Christmas was me.

Then, my list began to change. One of the first things that changed was that my name came completely off the list. The next thing that changed was my list began to grow. Now the first thing I do to get ready for Christmas is I make out my list. I put down all the people that I want to buy things for.

There is a verse in the Bible that tells us about God's Christmas List and who is on it. In fact, it is without a doubt the most famous verse in the Bible. If you are only going to memorize one verse in the Bible, this would be the verse that I would recommend - it is John 3:16, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish." (John 3:16, NASB)

There are twenty-five words in this verse. The middle word, the thirteenth word is the word "Son" which refers to Jesus Christ. The first half of the verse is all about God. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten." (John 3:16a, NASB)

The last twelve words are all about us, "That whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life." (John 3:16b, NASB)

What I just gave you in a nutshell is the message of Christmas. Both this Christmas verse and the Christmas Season reminds us of three things we should never, ever, forget.

I. God Has Me On His Personal List

I know you are probably dying to know whether or not you are on God's Christmas List, so let's just see who made it. "For God so loved the world" - Now if you are in the world, you made the list, because God's list includes everybody. Let me tell you what that means. It means that God loves me and God loves you, but it also means that God loves those that we may find hard to love. There is nobody in this world that God does not love. God loves every one of us unconditionally. God never made a person that He didn't love.

If Christmas tells you anything, it ought to tell you this: I matter to God. God loves the world. The only thing that has to be true of you, for God to love you is just to be in this world. It doesn't matter who you are or what you have done. It doesn't matter how many times you have turned your back on God, walked away from God, disobeyed God, denied God or forsaken God. God loves you.

In fact, God can't help Himself. The Bible says in I John 4:16, "God is love." (I John 4:16, NASB)

Look at that carefully. It doesn't say that God loves. It says He is love. The reason you are alive, the reason your heart is beating, the reason your lungs are breathing right now is because God loves you and God made you to in order to love you. God has proven that He loves you. I John 4: 9-10 says, "God showed how much he loved us by sending his only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love. It is not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins." (I John 4:9-10, NLT)

God doesn't just say He loves you. He has shown He loves you by sending His Son.

I heard about a guy who was always telling his girlfriend, "Baby, I'd die for you!" She finally said one time, "You are always saying it, but you never do it." God didn't just say that He loves you. He has shown that He loves you.

God loves you just because He is love. God loves you just because you are in the world. There is no other because to God love. He doesn't love you because you are good. He doesn't love you because you deserve it. He doesn't love you because you love Him back. As we have already seen, He doesn't love you because He sent Jesus Christ to die for you; He sent Jesus Christ to die for you because He loves you.

God loves the world and that means it is not just a national love. He loves the Gentile just as much as He loves the Jew. It is not just a political love. He loves the Democrat just as much as He loves the Republican. It is not a racial love. He loves the black just as He loves the white. It is not a financial love. He loves the poor just as He loves the rich. It is not a physical love. He loves the deformed just as He loves the beautiful. It is not an intellectual love. He loves the ignorant just as He loves the educated. It is a total love. He loves the world and because you are in the world, you are on God's personal Christmas list.

A mother of seven was asked how she divided her love among so many children. The mother replied, "You don't divide. You multiply." That is exactly what God has done. He has multiplied His love to every person on this planet. Every Christmas you should be reminded that you are on God's personal list and Christmas ought to remind us of something else...

II. God Keeps Me In His Continual Love

Look at these two words, "For God so loved the world." There is a big difference between the love that God has for us and the love that we have for God or even the love we have for one another. Over and over we are commanded in the Bible to love. We are commanded to love our neighbor. We are commanded to love our spouses. We are commanded to love each other. We are commanded to love God. For the human being, love is an act of the will.

You don't have to command God to love anybody. As a matter of fact, you couldn't command God to love even if you wanted to, but you don't have to, because as we have already seen, "God is love." (I John 4:16, NASB)

The most talked about characteristic of God is His love, but it is also one of the most misunderstood. This verse says, "God is love." It doesn't say, "Love is God." There is a big difference. It would be the same difference as saying, "My dog is a girl" or saying, "My girl is a dog."

If God is love, let me tell you what that means. It means that God's love has nothing to do with you. Other people may love you because of what you do for them or how you look to them or how you appeal to them or how you influence them, but God doesn't love you because of you; God loves you because of Him. He loves you because He is love.

You can't influence God's love. You can't do something so good that it will make God love you more than He loves you right now and you can't do something so bad that it will make God love you less than He loves you right now. God said in Jeremiah 31:3, "I have loved you...with an everlasting love." (Jeremiah 31:3, NLT) Psalm 89:2 says, "[God's] unfailing love will last forever." (Psalm 89:2, NLT)

The love that a lot of people have wears out. Love in a marriage sometimes dries up (supposedly) and how many times does a spouse walk in and tell another spouse, "I don't love you anymore." That is why if you don't have God's love in your marriage it will wear out.

God's love never wears out. God's love never ends and God's love never fails. God loves you on your good days and God loves you on your bad days. God doesn't love you more today than He did yesterday and He doesn't love you any less today than He will tomorrow.

Most every child knows about Buzz Lightyear, one of the heroes, in the Toy Story movies. He had a trademark phrase, if you remember in the movie, that was used in a preschool Sunday School class, when a teacher was teaching some four year olds about God's love. She asked the children, "How much does God love us?" A little four year old boy shouted out, "To infinity and beyond!" That really is good theology. Did you know that even people who are in hell today, because they rejected the love of God are still loved by God? That is because God's love is based on His character and God is love. Human love may have its limits, but God will never stop loving you.

Every Christmas that rolls around, I want to remind you that you are in God's continual love. You cannot go where God does not love you. You cannot act in such a way that God will quit loving you. You cannot reach the limit of His love, because His love is absolutely unlimited. You can never stop His love, because His love is unconditional which is exactly what Christmas tells us every year. Christmas also reminds us of one other truth...

III. God Wants To Give Me His Eternal Life

You are on God's Christmas List if you are in this world, because God loves the world. You are on that list because of His love. Because He loved you enough to put you on His list, He wants to give you His eternal life. Just as we read in the rest of the verse, "That whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life." (John 3:16b, NASB)

Think about that - the moment you come to that little baby that was laid in that manger two thousand years ago and believe in your heart He was the Son of God, God incarnate, who came that you might have His life when you take Him into your heart, at that moment, you have eternal life.

Think about this - tomorrow morning we will awaken in our different homes with our families and we will exchange gifts. We will not wake up in the morning, go to the living room, sit down, look at each other and say, "Your gift will be here ten years from now or twenty years from now. No, you get the gift on Christmas day, because that is what Christmas is all about. Christmas reminds us that we can have God in our life - now - immediately.

There are some people who think that you have to wait until you die to know whether or not you are going to heaven. You have to wait until you die to find out whether you "get" eternal life. I John 5:13 says, "These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life." (I John 5:13, NASB)

Do you know what being on God's Christmas List means? It means that whenever you are willing, you can immediately receive God's eternal life.

Listen to these two statements back to back. In John 5:24, Jesus said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life." (John 5:24, NASB)

"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life." (John 6:47, NASB)

Hopefully, you know that eternal life means life that is eternal; it is life that is endless. Eternal life does not begin for you when you die; it begins for you when you believe. When you give your heart to Jesus Christ, you get to open His gift of eternal life, right there and right then and that is the beauty of being on God's Christmas List.

When you are on God's Christmas List, in reality, you get to enjoy Christmas every day. I told you, not long ago, that because Jesus Christ is alive, every Sunday is Easter Sunday. Because we are on God's Christmas List, every day is Christmas Day, because Jesus Christ is the gift that keeps on giving.

Many of us remember the comedian, Jack Benny when he met his future wife, Mary, the first time, he was so shy and so intimidated that he couldn't even ask her out. Instead, he starting have one rose sent to her every day with a little card on it that simply said, "From, Jack." She finally walked up to him after about a week or so and said, "Why do you keep sending me roses?" Without even looking her in the eye, he said, "Would you go out with me?" She quickly said, "Yes."

It wasn't long after that they were married. For every day they were married, Jack Benny had a rose delivered to his wife, but then Jack Benny died. The day after his funeral, the doorbell rang and it was the delivery man from the florist shop standing there with a rose. Mrs. Benny said, "Oh, that won't be necessary any more. You see, Jack died." The florist responded, "I guess you didn't know this Mrs. Benny, but Mr. Benny made arrangements for you to receive the rose every day for the rest of your life."

Every day because you are on God's personal Christmas list, there is a rose of love waiting for you - His name is Jesus Christ. Any time you are willing and ready, you can receive Him into your life and not just be on God's Christmas List, but be in God's forever family.