God's Pursuit Of Man

·    
Gen 1 :1-3    God created heaven and earth – note The Spirit brooded over the waters – caring / salvation.  God is good…..all the time…..that’s the way God is - the model for all parents dealing with their children.

·        even before man’s existence God cared for and planned to take care of mankind to begin pursuit

·        Dictionary.com’s definition of “pursuit”

                              1. The act or an instance of chasing or pursuing.

2.  The act of striving: the pursuit of higher education.

3.  An activity, such as a vocation or hobby, engaged in regularly.

•      out of desire for fellowship and deep caring - established first a place for man and gave him everything he needed – you only pursue what you care about.

examples -

Adam / Eve – Disobedience in Garden

·        Gen 3:9  “where are you?” – among God’s first dealing’s/man – He had relationship (Gen 3:21) – walked in cool of day

• ·        When Adam disobeyed, God started relentless pursuit of mankind

                 

Dictionary.com

re·lent·less–adjective   - that does not relent; unyielding severe, strict, or harsh; unrelenting:   —Synonyms
rigid, unbending, obdurate, adamant, unyielding.

• God, without giving up – relentless – unyielding – never stops

•   Adam said “we are hiding because we are naked” – at that point (they didn’t realize it) they were spiritually as well as physically naked – without God – vulnerable.

•   Gen. 3:21 - God took care of them – made clothes for them from animal skins – already taking care of them. Begins pursuit – even though fallen state.

•   Gen. 22:7-8  Abraham knew God would provide either through his son or His Son – Abraham did not know specifically about Jesus, but knew God would reward obedience and provide one way or other.

•  Gen. 22:10-13 – Abraham / Isaac – God provided sacrifice (His compassion – He found one man faithful) – Was God bound to sac. Jesus since Abe willing to sac. Isaac? (would God be outdone – “no man is greater than his master”)

•   Took care of Noah (preserve Noah and family – as well as pursuing and preserving mankind) 

•    God takes care of man, throughout  history, in ALL dealings with mankind regardless of degree of  Love. God is Love – 1 John 4:8 – everything He does - whether it seems like it or not, is done out of love. – IT HIS NATURE!

•  rescued nation from Egypt

•  provided means for escape – Pharaoh – Red Sea

•   gave them manna, quail, water

•  Duet 30:19 told them what was good for them and then told them what to choose/do

             (life-death - choose life)….not  only physical but spiritua

• even though trip took longer than it should have God took care of them and got them there

•  Through tough love – a cycle of God punishing and man coming back and the falling away again - etc. etc. He (God) pursued (pursues) man relentlessly because of unquenchable desire to have relationship with him.

•    God made final sacrifice for us – taking care of and providing sacrifice in His Son (Him) for us – we can not be good enough or take care of ourselves.

•  How to accept His help – Rom 10:9…Eph 2:-9

• His pursuit so relentless He made it about Him rescuing us – not us rescuing us, then up to us to make final decision whether we want to be rescued or not.

• He knew and we proved time and time again He would have to do redemptive work for us.

• One final plea for us – Rev 3:20 (door of heart and knock) (pursue/knock example)

• Rev 22:13 – Alpha & Omega – 1^st and last to say about our lives –

•  Eph 1:4 foundations of earth 1^st thing to say -

•    John 3:17-18 – last thing to say JUDGED ALREADY in the sense that His decision, should we not accept Christ has already bean made.

• God does not know time – past, present and future are all the same (my opinion). So “where are you?” has same relevance today to us as it did to Adam

• He always pursues us – it’s His Nature / up to us to answer call (at the door of our hearts) –

•  Heb 11:6-7 - When we respond the circle of pursuit beginsHe rewards us with his presence

throughout the Bible God seems less interested in proving existence but more interested in showing what He is like.