Who Do You Say That I Am?

Passage: Genesis 1: 26-29 and John 15:4-11

Introduction:

Hello

Thank you for the invitation and Happy New Year

Self-introduction i commited my life to God watching a youtube video. But this is a retreat.

How can you not waste this retreat? It is to fulfill our design and purpose for life. Love one another, make connections, forgive one another (jesus died for sins but youre going to fight over roblox? reach out to someone you don’t know, share the love of Christ. But most importantly, worship God. One pastor defines worship as... enjoying God’s love and loving him back” - Rick Warren. One way you can do this is through hearing God’s word.

Romans 10:17 “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” (ESV)

God’s word will give you faith, faith will provide you with salvation, salvation will give you the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit will lead you to love God and love others.

Our theme is “Who do you say that I am?”

It’s a question that Jesus asks his disciples. But before Jesus asks that question. Let’s ask God this question, “God, who do you say that I am?” Who am I? Because, unless we know who we are, we can’t know what our purpose is.

So tonight, we will be asking, “God, who do you say that I am?”

and tomorrow night, Jesus will be asking us, “Who do you say that I am?”

In order to ask God what he says about who we are, we will turn to the book of Genesis, but also John...

I saw on your church’s YouTube channel that Pastor Yechan preached on John 15 last Sunday. Does anyone remember what parable it was about? Vine and the branches. Because it is still fresh on your minds, it would be a benefit to tie this into our theme because there is a lot in common between the first chapters of Genesis and John 15.

If you know the Genesis creation story, we were created to have a relationship with God. We were created in his image, to be his representatives in creation. Let’s read it for ourselves:

Genesis 1:26-29

26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, the whole earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth.”

27 So God created man in his own image; he created him in the image of God; he created them male and female.

28 God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that crawls on the earth.” 29 God also said, “Look, I have given you every seed-bearing plant on the surface of the entire earth and every tree whose fruit contains seed. This will be food for you,

God created us in his image

An image of something is not the original but a copy, a creation. But it also means that there is a connection between the source and the image. Just like there is a connection between the vine and the branches. Do you remember what happens if the branches abide in the vine? They bear much fruit. Do you remember what the first command to Adam and Eve was? It was in our passage today: Be fruitful and multiply. So we were created to be connected to our source. We are the image, and he is the original. We are the branches, and he is the vine. When we are connected, we will bear much fruit and it will multiply.

It’s foundationally a loving relationship that leads to loving relationships. When we are connected to the vine through love, we are able to bear the fruit of love.

Just like the greatest commandment is to love God and the second is to love our neighbors as ourselves. When we love God first, we bear the fruit of loving our neighbors as ourselves. This means that if we don’t love God, we cannot love our neighbors as ourselves. Because only when we know just how much we are loved by God, can we lay down our lives for one another.

Image connection

Vine and branch connection

love god love neighbor connection

Ten commandements 4/6 connection

This is what we were designed for a love relationship with God and others. Are you convinved yet? So if we are not going to love god in this retreat, we cannot hope to love another, and then we're not going to fulfill our purpose.

you may ask, what about the rest of the bible, the Old Testament and all these other laws of the bible? There are over 600 laws in the OT. What about all the sacrifices that they were supposed to do all throughout the year?

Micah 6:8 'Mankind, he has told each of you what is good and what it is the Lord requires of you: to act justly, to love faithfulness, and to walk humbly with your God. '

Hosea 6:6 “For I desire faithful love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”

[RELATIONSHIP]

When we look at the bible as a whole, we see God continuously pursuing a loving relationship with us. God desires to abide with us, which means that he wants to relate with us intimately. We need to abide in Christ, but it has been God seeking to abide with us from the beginning.

God formed Adam in his image, breathed into him the breath of life, walked with him in the garden. Spoke to him, taught him to work the garden, fulfilled his needs, gave him a beautiful garden to live in, and honor, glory, status as an image of God and a ruler over all other creation (lifted him up above all other creation), provided him with fulfilling relationships,

and even gave Adam animal skin to cover his nakedness after he had sinned. We see a very intimate God who wants to abide with his people.

God speaks to Noah and Abraham directly and promises them blessings. He walks with Abraham, three different passages mention how God considered Abraham his friend (Isa 41, 2 Cor 20, James 2).

Even with Isaac and Jacob, God identifies himself the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

God meets with Moses and spends 40 intimate days with him on Mt. Sinai, even allowing Moses to see him partially. God also designs the tabernacle, symbolizing his presence with Israel.

After sending many Judges and Prophets to remind the Israelites to abide with him and his words,

God finally sends his son, Jesus Christ, to come in the form of a man so that, through his sacrifice, all peoples are made possible to abide with him. And for those who believe in him, the Holy Spirit abides in them.

If you have someone who loves and pursues you this much, it’s not hard to abide with them back.

So we see throughout the bible, this theme of God pursuing an intimate relationship with people. And with all this emphasis of intimacy, It is no surprise that the bible ends with the picture of a wedding between Jesus and the church. Where in heaven we will dwell with God forever.

It is this very God of abiding that commands us to abide in him. To have an intimate relationship with him. Eugene Peterson translates abiding with God as making a house with God; living with him, remaining with him.

we were designed for a love relationship

So with this in mind,

Let’s turn to John 15:4-12

John 15:4–12 (CSB)

Remain in me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me. If anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown aside like a branch and he withers. They gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit and prove to be my disciples.

“As the Father has loved me, I have also loved you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commands you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.

“I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.

“This is my command: Love one another as I have loved you.

What I want to focus on the passage today is that we should

Exegetical Main Idea: Abide in Jesus to bear fruit and glorify God

From our passage, I want to share with you four things and those are…

Overview of the message:

1. Our Design – our purpose

2. Our Problem – what are we doing wrong

3. Our Solution – to the problem

4. Application

Our Design (10minutes)

When God created the world and everything in it, he called it good. Everything was perfectly living out their design.

This applies to all creation: A proper life fulfills its purpose and design. (x2)

What is one way you can know whether something is living out its purpose and design? In other words, how do you know if something is working properly?

You know that something is working properly if a proper input leads to a proper output.

The button leads to the expected result

The bread becomes toast after it’s been in the toaster

Any computer science majors in here? You know that your coding is an input and your result: an app or a website is an output. If you put an extra space or add a period where it shouldn’t go, the proper output won’t come out.

Verse 5 says that Jesus is the vine and we are the branches and we can do nothing apart from him.

Branches need to be connected to the vine or else it will die. Life in the form of nutrients is constantly flowing from the vine. the branches can only bear fruit when they are receiving nutrients.

The word teaches us that:

our input is abiding in Jesus and his teachings

and our output is fruits

This means that for human beings, our main input is not even food but Jesus and his teachings:

Jesus models this for us when he says in…

John 4:34 “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work

Deut 8:3 Matt 4:4, “Man shall not live on bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

Last spring my church held their annual 3-day prayer and fasting retreat. It was my first time in attendance. It wasn’t easy, but it was easier than I thought. I realized how overrated eating was. Of course, if you have medical and health complications you won’t be able to fast, and I am not saying that food is not important. But for those 3 days, I did not need food at all, and I was able to do what was more needed for me than food: abiding in Jesus and his words.

Today’s passage teaches us that

· Topic sentence: A good life… a proper life… is a life that is fruitful (output) through abiding (input) in God and his words. (x2)

Whether our gpa, bank account, career, social life is good or bad does not primarily determine whether we’re living a good life.

A good, proper life is determined by our abiding in Christ and his words, not other things.

This means that a good, proper summer or winter was a break that we spent abiding in Christ and his words, not going on the best vacations.

This means that a good, proper day is not one that has no one cutting you off when you’re driving, getting to play games, everyone treating you well in school, making money, and your family enjoying a harmonious and tranquil evening,

But one that abides in Christ and his words. Then when you reflect on it now, did you have a good summer? Or a good day yesterday?

Ask yourselves, what standards do I use to determine whether a day or a season was successful or not? Was in financial, academical, emotional, or relational standards?

We have been designed first to abide with Christ and his teachings. Not to be financially, academically, emotionally, and relationally successful. Those are secondary.

So what?

So what happens when we abide in Christ and his teachings?

1. (2, 4, 5) First, We bear fruit

When we start to abide in Christ and obey him, we may bear fruits of converts (Romans 1:13 “Now I don’t want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that I often planned to come to you (but was prevented until now) in order that I might have a fruitful ministry among you, just as I have had among the rest of the Gentiles.”

fruits of the spirit: Galatians 5:22–23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The law is not against such things.”

and a life worthy of the Lord (Col 1:10)

2. (2, 8) He prunes so that we can bear more fruit, which glorifies God: we were created to glorify God and to do everything for his glory. When we bear much fruit, it glorifies God.

Isa 43:7 everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.”

1 Cor 10:31 do everything for the glory of God

3. (7) There’s a very interesting verse, verse 7 that says, “You can ask whatever we wish and it will be done for you”

a. when we abide in Christ, we grow in Christlikeness

b. Jesus teaches the Lord’s prayer; when you pray; the heart of Christ

4. (11) Our joy will be full because our wishes are met, in the ways that glorifies God and satisfies us. All other wishes that are not Christlike will never glorify God and satisfy us.

(repeat these 4)

when we abide

we bear fruit

we are pruned to bear even more and glorify God

we can ask anything we wish

our joy will be full

So, we were designed to abide in Christ and his words. So, to live a good and proper life means to live in an intimate relationship with Christ, obeying his commandments. Which bears fruits, which leads to God pruning us so that we can bear more fruit, which in turn glorifies God. And whatever we wish will be answered, which will lead to more fruit bearing because our wishes will be to bear more fruit, which will ultimately lead to our joy being full.

However we have a problem,

Our Problem (5 minutes)

Topic sentence: We live improper lives by seeking the wrong input and the wrong output

Humanity has been like a car wanting to be filled with water instead of gas.

Verse 2 Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away… [wrong output]

Verse 6 If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned [wrong input]

fake believers being removed because of their lack of fruit or because they wither by not abiding in Christ

John 10:27-28 says My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.

Obviously genuine believers will have fruits, but Jesus is referring to those who do not have nor want an intimate relationship with him. But Jesus is referring to those who appears to have believed, like Judas, but was never genuine.

1. Some people just want the wrong input

a. (we abide in other things and we refuse to abide with Jesus)

i. We want this sin or that sin

ii. We despise the word of God, not by hating it per se but by ignoring it

b. These in turn results in the wrong output

2. We want the wrong output (we don’t want to live according to our design)

a. Then we don’t seek the right input

3. We don’t know what our output is supposed to be (we don’t know our purpose and design)

a. Then we don’t know what input we need

These are definitely problems and we see that...

Adam sought both the wrong input and output by not abiding in God’s words and seeking to make himself God instead of glorifying God. The image of God sought to disconnect from his source. Has anyone else here been seeking the same output? To make your personal “image” great? Or has your life been centered around your design to make the image of God great?

Jesus, although he was God, input obedience to the point of death on the cross to produce the proper output.

Adam sought to raise himself up to the place of God.

Jesus, lowered himself down to the place of a servant.

When we don’t abide with Christ, we too raise ourselves up or another created thing to be in the place of God. I am afraid that there are some of you in this room who are living in this way. Making the same mistake as Adam or the mistake of Judas. Not desiring the output of bearing fruits of love or not desiring the input of abiding in Christ. What are you abiding in? What are you inputting on a day by day basis? You will eventually turn more and more into that.

Our Solution (5 minutes)

I said that…

Topic sentence: We live improper lives by seeking the wrong input and the wrong output

However, our solution is not to seek first the proper input and output

It’s not to first abide in Christ and his words and thus glorify God.

You might be asking, what do you mean? Isn’t that what you’ve been arguing for this whole time?

Yes our problem is improperly living our lives, but this has caused a greater problem:

Let me give you an example:

When you put water in the car instead of gas, you can’t just start putting in gas again and expect everything to run well.

We’ve been trying to run our engine on water for so long that our engines are completely blown. Even if we put in gas and all the right oils, all of us are totaled cars. The only place we belong is the junkyard. We are totaled human beings.

We can’t seek first to abide in Christ and his words because we will fail.

Then what is the solution?

We need a new engine altogether.

The good news is that Jesus has made the new engine for us already.

Jesus was the greater Adam, perfectly abiding with God and his words all his life. Jesus lived a sinless life.

Gospel: Through Adam’s sin, the world became broken and separated with God. Since then God has been pursuing us and was making a way for the abiding relationship to be fixed again. Through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, bearing all the punishment for our sins, his sinless life was made available to us through faith, so that everyone who trusts that Jesus paid for their sins on the cross, rose again from the dead, and is now the King over their lives, they can be clean!

we can have all our filth and shame and junk washed away by the blood of Jesus. This is the new engine, a new heart that is able to abide in Christ.

This is what is meant in Ezekiel 36:26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

So what is our solution?

Topic sentence: Trusting in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection gives us reconciliation with God so that we can bear fruit

Topic sentence: Trusting in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection gives us the new heart that can abide in him.

Conclusion (5minutes)

Let me sum up today’s message

God desires to abide with us

But we rejected him

By trusting in the work of Jesus, we can mend our relationship with God

Who does he say that I am? You are my branches. You are my image. Abide in me.

Application (5 minutes)

Topic sentence: Resolve to love God and bear fruit of love

Have you all made your new year’s resolutions? I am sure some of you have done it, maybe you were forced to do it.

1 Timothy 4:8 “For the training of the body has limited benefit, but godliness is beneficial in every way, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.”  

Philippians 4:13 I am able to do all things through him who strengthens me.

John 15:5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me.”

When I studied this passage before, I thought abiding in Christ was more like a smartphone being charged up regularly in order to function (or car getting gas even though I used that example). But it’s more accurate to think of abiding as a desktop computer or a TV. They are not charged; they need to be constantly connected to the power source.

If we are branches, we need to abide with the true vine

If we are desktop computers, we need to abide with the true power cord

If we are human beings, we need to abide with the true words of Christ

For those who might be confused,

The way we abide with Christ is by abiding in his words, his teachings.

We need to intimately be interacting with the bible. Soaking and marinading our minds with it.

We need to be the blessed man in Psalm 1, where

“his delight is in the law of the Lord,

and on his law he meditates day and night.

3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season,

I tried to practice this in the Spring by memorizing and meditating on a verse in the morning and the evening. But the hardest part is continuously meditating on the words throughout the day. But we should all be working towards it.

I challenge you to do this at least once before you graduate, study the word of God like you would study for the finals. Just once. Grab a cup of coffee or a can of monster, whatever you like and stay up all night if that’s what you do for your finals. If you’re more organized and study weeks in advance, do that with the bible. What some of us did when I used to be in ACF was memorize the first five chapters of the book of Psalms.

There’s no way around it. No quick fix. No short cut in abiding with Christ. We need to have higher standards for ourselves when it comes to being in the word of God.

One easy step that I encourage everyone to do today is to start a bible reading plan in the bible app if you haven’t already.

Conclusion: Once our relationship with God has been restored, we can ask whatever we wish, and it will be done for us so that we can bear much fruit and have joy to the full.

Prayer time

Prayer of adoration, worship, praise, glorifying him, loving God

Prayer of confession of our sins for the ways that we have lived, the sins, lack of care for God and his words, not living according to the design of God, but living according to our designs, or our parents’ designs, or the world’s designs.

Prayer of thanksgiving for the way he has redeemed us from our sins. For the way he makes reconciliation possible with him.

to rule and be male and female. One of the qualities of being made in the image of God is to rule and another is the fact that we were made male and female.

One is our relationship with the world, as God’s images, we are rulers of the earth. As if we are his ambassadors to creation. We rule as his representatives by taking care of the world.

Another is our relationship with one another as male and female. As God’s images we are to love one another We are both humans but different in that we are two genders. Genesis 2:24 “This is why a man leaves his father and mother and bonds with his wife, and they become one flesh.”

husband and wife become one flesh. They are two people but become one in marriage. This points to the Trinity. Where there are three persons (Father, Son, Spirit) in one essence/being God.

God is love. The Triune God is relational and perfectly loving within himself. Our God is not like the gods of other religions that love. But our God is love.

If I was to summarize one aspect that I want you all to remember, it is that as God’s images, we are his representatives of love. To love him and to love one another.

So, Who does God say that I am? We are his representatives of love.

In order to properly represent God, I need to love God. Because if I don’t love him, I won’t care about his reputation or his glory.

Sometimes if we see Asians doing something wrong in the news, we think man, he’s making all of us Asians look bad, even though he’s not even closely related to you, he seems to be representing Asians in some way. but what if he was a Korean living in Dallas and he did something horrendous? You would feel it more than if a Japanese person from Brazil did something. But what if he was your dad who did something horrendous and was put on the news? Then it would affect you even more!

We represent God in this way. We are created in his image. No other creation can say that. However, if we act without love for God and love for others, we make God look bad. And this is what we’re all guilty of. The sin of not loving God first and loving our neighbors as ourselves. And the sin of loving ourselves or something else more than God.

So although we were created to be representatives of God, through sin we became enemies of God.

So now that we know, who God says that we are.

“But he created us and called us to make him look like what he really is. This is what it means to be created in the image of God. We are meant to image forth in the world what he is really like.”

“God created us for this: to live our lives in a way that makes him look more like the greatness and the beauty and the infinite worth that he really is.” - John Piper

Then what did he do? He blessed them and gave them a command. To be fruitful and multiple and fill and rule the earth. A commandment of God is not a difficult task that is suppose to cause us to tire. But Genesis shows that a commandment from God is for our good! It is a blessing from him.

John 15:1-11

Vine and branches - (remain) abide in me and I in you

and you will bear much fruit

You can do nothing without me

the branches who do not abide in my will be cut off and thrown into the fire

if you abide, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you

My father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit and prove to be my disciples

Keep my commandments, your joy will be full

John 15:9-17

we are loved by Jesus

keep his commands and remain in his love

love one another

Genesis

In the garden, abiding in God

created in his image

commandment a blessing

be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth

cut off from the garden

Answer: You were designed for a purpose: You were designed to love me and to love one another.

Question for a prize: This is one thing I want you to remember about who you are. As God’s images, we are his representatives.

Main Idea: We are created in the image of God

Illustration: Imagine someone made an AI avatar of you, and made it say all kinds of evil things about your friends and family.

You might think that the Story of the Bible is confusing and there’s a lot of little stories here and there and many parts that you don’t even understand, and you might be wondering if the Old Testament even is that important these days, and whether there's a theme or a main point.

Listen carefully, all 66 books of the Bible is one story of God loving us. That’s crazy. Like the song reckless love, the Bible is a story of God running to us to embrace us, when we are just like the prodigal son who has only returned to find food and work.

Everyone, hopefully, knows about the story in Genesis 1-3,

Who do you have that will tell you the truth? That you are headed down a path of pain and hopelessness? That if you don’t pursue God as your number one priority, you are actually failing in life? My spiritual blindness was shaken off me by force by the words, I don’t know why you’re clapping, I’m talking about you.

People cried hosanna but rejected him,

People called Jesus lord but changed

The fruit shows

Satan is the father of lies, but we’re deceiving ourselves while shouting amen.

Worshiping is centering your life on God.

You don’t have a choice, you will always center your life on something

Remember, we are designed for a purpose.

We were designed to be worshippers.

Therefore, if we don’t worship God, we will worship something else.

Nothing else is strong enough to hold you together in the center of your life.

My middle school had a crazy hair day, and a girl put a pencil in the middle of her hair. It didn’t hold it together.

God created us and loved us. God wants a relationship with us.

Genesis 1-3

Did God create creation in the five days for us? Primarily for his glory. They all point to him. The light. The provision. The vastness and beauty. The order and design.

26 “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, the whole earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth.”

27 So God created man in his own image; he created him in the image of God; he created them male and female.

Ontology:

He created us in his image

His creation is good

Teleology

(28) He created us to be the rulers of the creation (stewards)

(28) He created us to be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it, rule every creature

(29) He gave us every plant

28 God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that crawls on the earth.” 29 God also said, “Look, I have given you every seed-bearing plant on the surface of the entire earth and every tree whose fruit contains seed. This will be food for you, 30 for all the wildlife of the earth, for every bird of the sky, and for every creature that crawls on the earth—everything having the breath of life in it—I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good indeed. Evening came and then morning: the sixth day.

2:1 So the heavens and the earth and everything in them were completed.

There was nothing lacking

2:7 Then the Lord God formed the man out of the dust from the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.

We are physical and spiritual

8 The Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he placed the man he had formed. 9 The Lord God caused to grow out of the ground every tree pleasing in appearance and good for food, including the tree of life in the middle of the garden, as well as the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Placed in a garden that God himself planted with nothing to lack.

We have the power of free will

21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to come over the man, and he slept. God took one of his ribs and closed the flesh at that place. 22 Then the Lord God made the rib he had taken from the man into a woman and brought her to the man. 23 And the man said:

This one, at last, is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh; this one will be called “woman,” for she was taken from man.

24 This is why a man leaves his father and mother and bonds with his wife, and they become one flesh. 25 Both the man and his wife were naked, yet felt no shame.

“One flesh”

There was a logical answer to the serpent’s temptation

Why would God create the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? God didn’t have to. God could have cut it down.

The tree is a creation, God is the creator

There was no hunger, no suffering, no poverty, no disease, no killing, no war, no depression,

There was a relationship with God, a creator, and a provider; why do you need to add something to the mix and nothing’s broken?

ungratefulness

Summary:

When we were designed, we were good and complete.

We are created in his image.

We were created man and woman

(Gen 1:28) He created us to be the rulers of the creation (stewards)

(Gen 1:28) He created us to be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it, rule every creature

(Gen 1:29) He gave us every plant; the garden of Eden, there was nothing lacking

We are both physical and spiritual beings (Gen 2:7) God’s power sustains us

We have the power of free will (Gen 2:15-17; 3:6-7)

We become “One Flesh” in marriage (Gen 2:21-24)

There was a relationship between humanity and God (Gen 3:8-13)

We were cursed (Gen 3:14-19)

There was a promise of a savior (Gen 3:15)

Manuscript:

We were created in the image of God to have a relationship with God, with others, and with the world.

What does it mean to be created in his image?

God is love (1 John 4:8) not just a loving God; God is three persons in one being. He is by nature a loving and relational existence.

We are created to love (relationship)

Jesus prays that his disciples will be one just as he and the father are one.

Jesus says the greatest commandment is to love God and the second is to love one’s neighbors as oneself.

What does it look like? Have you wondered what it would look like if someone obeyed these two commandments perfectly?

Think about this description: He was born as a refugee, so he was poor. He grew up in a single-mother household and when he grew up he was homeless for three years, the authorities did not like him at all, because he kept breaking the laws of the authorities, his friend eventually snitched on him and turned him in to the authorities, and they had him executed. What a sad life! Most would say, but do you know that he is the most successful human being in all of human history? Are we modeling our lives after his successful man or are we modeling our lives after another kind of person?

If we were to compare, one to one, our lives with other’s lives, who would we most be similar to? Would we be more similar to Jesus or more similar to Jesus or Trump? Jesus or Elon Musk? Jesus or Luka Doncic? Jesus or…?

Let me describe the life of a person who modeled this perfectly:

What does it mean to be created to have a relationship?

To have a relationship with God by trusting him and obeying him

To have a relationship with one another through marriage, through raising a family, through helping and teaching one another to have a relationship with God

To have a relationship with the world by ruling over it and taking care of it

What did we do with the relationship?

We were given free will to choose to trust God or distrust God. Either to worship God or worship our desires. Either to have a relationship with God or to break that relationship so that we can choose to live however we want.

We broke our relationship with God, which broke our relationship with one another (Eve’s striving, Cain and Abel), and our relationship with the world (toiling, death, disease, killing).

How do we get out of this brokenness?

We can’t, only God can. God promises that an offspring of the woman will crush the head of the serpent.

For his glory (Isaiah 43:6-7, 1 Corinthians 10:31)

We waste our lives if it isn’t lived for his glory.

Does Being Loved Mean Being Made Much Of?

For many people, this is not obviously an act of love. They do not feel loved when they are told that God created them for his glory. They feel used. This is understandable given the way love has been almost completely distorted in our world. For most people, to be loved is to be made much of. Almost everything in our Western culture serves this distortion of love. We are taught in a thousand ways that love means increasing someone’s self-esteem. Love is helping someone feel good about themselves. Love is giving someone a mirror and helping him like what he sees.

This is not what the Bible means by the love of God. Love is doing what is best for someone. But making self the object of our highest affections is not best for us. It is, in fact, a lethal distraction. We were made to see and savor God—and savoring him, to be supremely satisfied, and thus spread in all the world the worth of his presence. Not to show people the all-satisfying God is not to love them. To make them feel good about themselves when they were made to feel good about seeing God is like taking someone to the Alps and locking him in a room full of mirrors.

John Piper

“See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God. Beloved, we are God's children now.” 1 John 3:1a, 2a

1 Peter 2:9, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” (NIV)

Luke 15:8-10, “Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Won’t she light a lamp and sweep the entire house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she will call in her friends and neighbors and say, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost coin.’ In the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels when even one sinner repents.” (NLT)

Ephesians 1:5, “God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.” (NLT)

What God Says about Us (Got Questions)

created in his image Gen 1:27

sinner Rom 3:23, 5:12, 6:23

loved by God: Rom 5:8.

God demonstrates his love: John 3:16–18; Colossians 2:14; 2 Corinthians 5:21

Designed to fulfill a purpose (Psalm 139:13-16)

One of two: Children of God or children of the devil (John 1:12, Romans 10:9-13; Colossians 3:1-17, 1 John 3:7-10)

What God says about us depends upon my standing with Christ:

Those who reject him: Repent and turn to me (Acts 3:19)

Those who accept him:

Friend, your sins are forgiven (Luke 5:20)

Be holy as I am holy (1 Peter 1:15-16) (Romans 8:29)

As a child of God:

I have a new identity (John 3:3)

No longer a child of wrath (Ephesians 2:3), destined for an eternity without God (Matthew 25:41)

In Christ (Philippians 1:1)

I am no longer under condemnation (Romans 8:1)

He sees the righteousness of his son instead (Ephesians 2:13, Hebrews 8:12)

More than a conquerer (Romans 8:37)

I may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires (2 Peter 1:4)

Judgment Day; what he says about me will make a difference for all eternity

I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers! (Matthew 7:23)

Well done, good and faithful servant!…Come and share your master’s happiness! (Matthew 25:23)