God Pursues a Love Relationship

Romans 10:21 All day long I have held out my hand to a stubborn and obstinate people.

Reality #1: God is always at work around you.

Reality #2: God pursues a continuing love relationship with you that is real and personal.

God is ____ .love

1 John 4:8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.

10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

1 John 4:19 We love because he first loved us.

No __________ .competitors

Deuteronomy 6:10 When the LORD your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you--a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build,

11 houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant--then when you eat and are satisfied,

12 be careful that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

13 Fear the LORD your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name.

14 Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you;

15 for the LORD your God, who is among you, is a jealous God and his anger will burn against you, and he will destroy you from the face of the land.

His love is ________ and real.personal

Adam and Eve – Gen 3:20.

Solomon – 1 Kings 3:5-13.

The disciples – Mark 6:7-13.

Peter in Prison – Acts 12:1-17

Hagar’s Story

WHY IS IT SO HARD TO BELIEVE GOD LOVES US?

Genesis 16:4 Abram slept with Hagar, and she conceived. When Sarai knew Hagar was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress.

5 Then Sarai said to Abram, "You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my servant in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the LORD judge between you and me."

6 "Your servant is in your hands," Abram said. "Do with her whatever you think best."

Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her.

When life tanks we tend toward two "drivers:"

•DEMANDING

•DESPAIRING

7 The angel of the LORD found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur.

8And he said, "Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?"

"I'm running away from my mistress Sarai," she answered.

9 Then the angel of the LORD told her, "Go back to your mistress and submit to her.“

10 The angel added, "I will so increase your descendants that they will be too numerous to count."

11 The angel of the LORD also said to her: "You are now with child and you will have a son. You shall name him Ishmael, for the LORD has heard of your misery.

12 He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone's hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers."

13 She gave this name to the LORD who spoke to her: "You are the God who sees me," for she said, "I have now seen the One who sees me."

14 That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi; it is still there, between Kadesh and Bered.

MY NEXT STEPS:

• I’m asking God to show me where He is at work.

• I’m going to do the daily devotions from the workbook.

• I’m still attending an Experiencing God Life Group.

• Sign me up for Discovering Pacific.

• I would to know more about being baptized.