God designed humanity for His Family and that is OUR Purpose …AND His Approach to us.
Sermon Notes
INTRO: In the beginning God made living things “after their kind” (Gen 1.21; 25; 6.20; 7.14); AND made man “in His Image” (Gen 1.26,27) – OR, in context, after “The God Kind”.
BENEFIT STATEMENT: We do not yet see this concept FULLY finished, yet. The being created in God’s Image process happens, or doesn’t happen for each person during physical life – as God Calls each one, SO, we must come to understand HOW we are to DEVELOP “God Kind” in us personally.
SPS: Our life is designed by God to work with God’s Design in us and develop our personal “God’s Desire for Humanity” in each one of us.
BODY: Life Eternal is NOT given just for the person it is given to.
We are to learn to practice the Life of Eternal God.
God IS Love – We are to literally learn to BE that …
1 John 4:8; 1 John 3:2-3
What does God want from me? How do we know if we are pleasing Him?
Matthew 23:23 (NKJV) Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.
(Micah 6:8) He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God? )
We are to become as God IS. To do That, we must Live and Think as HE does.
We can’t earn our salvation but we want to please Him in this Family Plan for all eternity.
We see degrees of judgment by God’s Mind Set in APPLICATION of His Law.
Matthew 22:34-39 (NKJV) degrees of judgment and therefore sin.
God designed humanity for His Family and that is our purpose …AND His thinking …
Jeremiah 29:11 (NKJV) 11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Ecclesiastes 3:11 (NKJV) 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.
Acts 17:28 (NKJV) 28 for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, 'For we are also His offspring.'
Luke 2:13-15 (NKJV) 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: 14 "Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!" 15 So it was, when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds said to one another, "Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us."
Isaiah 9:7 (NKJV) 7 Of the increase of His government and peace There will be no end, Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, To order it and establish it with judgment and justice From that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.
Future is created as is the present …IN mankind as revealed by God through Christ …which is Peace among those in whom he is well pleased.
STILL the Future desire for His Family is Given BY God because Man does not have such IN them on their own.
WE MUST have the same priorities toward mankind God has …
Faith: (To walk humbly before God) We are to not be proud in our own ideas and ways.
Faith is THE cornerstone of a personal relationship with God.
Hebrews 11:6 (NKJV) But without faith it is impossible to please Him, (Hebrews 11:1); Romans 10:17)
There is a time (with wisdom) to show Mercy while Trusting God to guide.
It’s God’s Judgment Mercy and Faith that can inspire us to have that as well.
These all connect to judgment and one follows the other.
A More Excellent Way – Desire the BEST (Takes us BEYOND Justice, Mercy and Faith - becoming as God)
WITHOUT God’s direction away from OUR direction, we CAN go directly into sinning. Hope drives us forward …
1 Corinthians 12:31 (NKJV) But earnestly desire the best gifts. And yet I show you a more excellent way. ; 1 Corinthians 13:12-13
God strengthens and encourages those who have hope in Him. (Psalm 31:24)
In a world without hope, we can have ultimate hope in the resurrection.(1 Thessalonians 4:13-14)
God will prove to the world that we are strong enough to overcome this world. We have to believe it though if we are going to make it. Galatians 6:9
Love OF God – 1 Jn 2.5; 3:10; 4.7, 10, 16, 20; 5.3 – This comes from God AS we recognize and practice HIS Justice, Mercy, Faith, and Hope
CLOSE:You are to be presented to THE Ruler, Sustainer, Creator, Savior of ALL things, while being in HIS Image!
This WILL happen as we will have allowed God and Christ to make it happen in this physical life. We WILL come to see LIFE as God sees it as we Live to trust His Way.
Colossians 1:19-23 (NKJV) 19 For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, 20 and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. 21 And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled 22 in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight-- 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven,
This FULL realization of the God’s Desire for Humanity.
