God's Pursuit Of Man

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• ·   Gen :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.

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

•  Dictionary.com 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; unyieldingly severe, strict, or harsh; unrelenting:   —Synonyms 

 rigid, unbending, obdurate, adamant, unyielding.

unrelenting, unyielding pursuit 

•  God without giving up – does not care about emotion – unyielding – does not give up

·         Adam said “we are hiding because we are naked” – at that point (they didn’t realize it) they were spiritually 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 spiritual

·         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 – not us

·         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 (JUDGED ALREADY)

·         God does not know time – past, present and future are all the same. 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 begins

He rewards us with his presence

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

Abide In Christ

This is a short Bible study from 2008. It was presented to a group of men, many being uncertain of their immediate future, but Jesus, showing the disciples, us (them) the Kingdom, insures eternal life for those who will accept it.
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       Pray

Jesus’ instructions to the disciples – “upper room discourse” also en route to garden and arrest

John 15 (Amplified Bible)

 1 I AM the True Vine, and My Father is the Vinedresser.

• “True Vine” – calls Himself True Vine, OT referred to Israel several times as “Vine” but it didn’t bear fruit over and over.
• Vinedresser as any farmer must be competent

    2 Any branch in Me that does not bear fruit [that stops bearing] He cuts away (trims off, takes away); and He cleanses and repeatedly prunes every branch that continues to bear fruit, to make it bear more and richer and more excellent fruit.

·         “In Me” = abide – have a relationship / depend on Me

·         some branches don’t bear fruit

·         fruit is outer evidence that people can benefit from. Evidence of inner change.

·         Special attention from Vinedresser

3      You are cleansed and pruned already, because of the word which I have given you [the teachings I have discussed with you].

·         Grow and nourished = fed by Word

·         The nature of God to feed children – take care of needs – manna

·         Jesus assures the disciples, they are clean already, Jesus did not want the Eleven to conclude, as many people do, that the absence of fruit or the presence of difficulties indicates the absence of salvation.

4        Dwell in Me, and I will dwell in you. [Live in Me, and I will live in you.] Just as no branch can bear fruit of itself without abiding in (being vitally united to) the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you abide in Me.

·         “Draw near to Me and I will draw near to you”

·         Jesus indicates He will take care of His “clean (saved) disciples

·         Abide in as opposed to flee from

5      I am the Vine; you are the branches. Whoever lives in Me and I in him bears much (abundant) fruit. However, apart from Me [cut off from vital union with Me] you can do nothing.

·         Jesus spoke of some fruit and more fruit (v2) but now speaks of “much” fruit.

·         Must stay connected – (how ?)

·         Much fruit = unhindered fellowship with Him

·         Whoever = any potential believer (John 3:16)

6      If a person does not dwell in Me, he is thrown out like a [broken-off] branch, and withers; such branches are gathered up and thrown into the fire, and they are burned.

·         Literal

·         Non abiding = non believers (broken off branch)

7      If you live in Me [abide vitally united to Me] and My words remain in you and continue to live in your hearts, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you.

·         Must have fellowship and be connected

A Humble And Contrite Attitude

NLT)

15 The high and lofty one who lives in eternity,
      the Holy One, says this:
   “I live in the high and holy place
      with those whose spirits are contrite and humble.
   I restore the crushed spirit of the humble
      and revive the courage of those with repentant hearts.

 This was one of the verses in my meditation of The Word this week, (Rom 12:2

 [ NLT] Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.) God reveals to us – line upon line precept upon precept His plans for us when we meditate on His Word.

Of interest words humble and contrite – in light of Fruit of Spirit in our study last week -  Gal 5:22  Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control.

PRAY

Humble

1.	not proud or arrogant; modest: to be humble although successful.

2.	having a feeling of insignificance, inferiority, subservience, etc.: In the presence of so many world-famous writers I felt very humble.

3.	low in rank, importance, status, quality, etc.; lowly: of humble origin; a humble home.

4.	courteously respectful: In my humble opinion you are wrong.

5.	low in height, level, etc.; small in size: a humble member of the galaxy.

–verb (used with object)

6.	to lower in condition, importance, or dignity; abase.

7.	to destroy the independence, power, or will of.

8.	to make meek: to humble one's heart.

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[Origin: 1200–50; ME (h)umble < OF < L humilis lowly, insignificant, on the ground. See humus, -ile]

Humus

the dark organic material in soils, produced by the decomposition of vegetable or animal matter and essential to the fertility of the earth.

Note: Essential for growth

I would submit that every fruit of the spirit mentioned in Gal 5, parallels

Humble and contriteness (deeply sorry or repentant)

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Lets look at Isa. 57:15 – 15 The high and lofty one who lives in eternity,
    (God always has been, always will be – My habitation, no time needed, where I live)         

 the Holy One, says this:
   (The Great I Am – not was…not a has been, or will be – Jesus tells us Love God with all your heart and have faith that He will provide what we need, then He says -  “sufficient for this day are this days troubles” – In other words don’t worry, The Great I Am, who takes care of you in the present.

A. how many examples  of Jesus saying I Am can you think of :

1. Way, Truth and Life – Vine and you are branches…. – (class)

“I live in the high and holy place
   (My domain – where I live)  

He says to us:

those whose spirits are contrite and humble.
  (truly sorry and are righteous through My Only Begotten, and who are or have an attitude or mentality or lifestyle of meekness or teachable ness preferring others over themselves)

 I restore the crushed spirit of the humble
     (Take care of the ones who have a lifestyle of putting other first)

 and revive the courage of those with repentant hearts.

(Bring back to life the boldness of those who truly have an attitude of repentance)

·        The idea is that if we have an attitude, or make a lifestyle of showing the fruit of the spirit.  We will live with Him and He will do all of these things for us.

He will prefer us – put us first – humble Himself to us!

(all about you to him, to you, etc.…. all about us to GOD! )

·        We have been equipped by the Power of God (His Word of Power, not by the power of His Word – {explain diff}), (many versions say “powerful word”. Correct translation is “Word of Power” – gives idea of infinite power) and it is essential if Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior to put others first. God through Paul & Timothy tells us to put each other first

(read) Rom 12:10 & 1 Tim 5:21

·        We must choose to be humble / if we have a free will to worship God and to be saved, we have to choose to show the attributes of Him

2 Cor. 5:7 -  We live by faith, not by sight. – We do the right thing (have a humble attitude show the fruit of the Spirit) because we have faith that it is the right thing to do not because or when we feel like it.

There will always be times when we don’t feel like being nice or being humble, (examples) but when we do it because it is the right thing to do that is when GOD rejoices.

·        When we put other first, we will never be offended, we will arrest the offense by saying to ourselves (why should he … examples)