The God Who Searches
Notes
Transcript
Your are Loved!
Your are Loved!
1 See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Do You Understand How Much You are Loved?
Do You Understand How Much You are Loved?
You are loved so much that God would seek you out, even though you are a sinner, and invite you to be found, forgiven, and transformed by His love!
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ ”
4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
11 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
12 The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
14 So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this,
“Cursed are you above all livestock
and all wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly
and you will eat dust
all the days of your life.
15 And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head,
and you will strike his heel.”
16 To the woman he said,
“I will make your pains in childbearing very severe;
with painful labor you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you.”
17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’
“Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat food from it
all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return.”
20 Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.
21 The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. 22 And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” 23 So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.
Where sin increased grace increased all the more
15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”
20 The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more,
In the midst of sinfulness, God came SEARCHING for the Lost
8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
“Where are YOU?” God asks… Searching to find those who have hidden because of their sin and their shame...
This is GOD'S Mission
God came searching and offered the sacrifice to cover the nakedness of those who are lost!
After consequences were distributed, God supplied skins of animals to cover the sinfulness of humanity - God was the 1st priest to offer a sacrifice to cover sin. God was the one who provided the animal and the one who offered the sacrifice.
God does for us what we cannot, should not, and would not do for ourselves!
Jesus, as God in the flesh, comes to fulfill and continue this mission...
Jesus, as God in the flesh, comes to fulfill and continue this mission...
10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
Luke at Luke 15 and the parables of the lost coin, the lost sheep and the 2 lost sons that ALL get found...
We are benefactors of this mission...
We are benefactors of this mission...
Praise God that although we were lost we are now found by the grace that came through Jesus Christ!!
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
This is ALL because God was in Christ, showing His Love by searching for the lost...
This is ALL because God comes to us and does for us what we CANNOT, SHOULD NOT, and WOULD NOT do for ourselves!!
19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
YOU ARE LOVED!!!
1 See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
But, this is and always will be God’s Mission - to seek those who are lost and invite them to be found. He has provided Jesus Christ as the WAY to be found.
Yet once we are found, we are invited to greater participation in God’s mission of seeking that which is lost!
Yet once we are found, we are invited to greater participation in God’s mission of seeking that which is lost!
God’s Mission gives us OUR PURPOSE
21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”
18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
15 He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. 16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.
45 Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. 46 He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things.
8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
So, GOD'S question to Adam and Eve is God's question to us
So, GOD'S question to Adam and Eve is God's question to us
Where are you?
Are you lost, hiding from God because of your sin and your shame? God invites YOU to receive his love that has been searching for you! God invites YOU to accept His invitation to be found!
Those who are lost are invited to be found
But, Those who are found are invited to participate in God's Mission. There is the question of where are you in accepting God’s mission to be YOUR mission and YOUR purpose.
If you HAVE been found, where are YOU going as you fulfill YOUR role in God’s mission?!
14 How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15 And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”
Where are you?
If you are lost, you CAN be found!
If you are found, YOU have a purpose to be God’s tool to declare that the lost can be found!