It has been said that life is a little bit like buttoning up a coat. It is hard to come out right if you start wrong.  The buttonhole principle can be applied to our religion too. The first basic buttonhole principle of Christian faith is this:

God so loved the world that he gave his only Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but should have everlasting life.

Martin Luther said John 3:16 is the gospel in miniature. Evangelical fans at professional football games put it on banners for all the world to see. Many of us in this place learned it from our mother's knees.  In times like these, which try our souls, we will be wise to return to the first-button basics of our faith.

The sermon is really contained in four words this morning.  The four words are these: God Loves! Will …