Prayer:
Activity: Form 4 groups. Each group should look at the tree I have brought and describe its qualities both visible and invisible. What good is this tree? What can it do? (10 mins)
-Example: Provide shade, make a fan out of the leaves, provide lumber for lodging or transportation, make pencils and paper, food for insects and animals, purifies the air by providing oxygen and removing carbon dioxide, provides lodging for animals, chlorophyll.
-Now look at this tree to discern the invisible qualities of God.
-knows what we need, provider of shelter, oxygen, food, communication.
-most answers gets to eat the snack first!
Introduction: Read Romans 1:20 “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities-his eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.”
-We get so frustrated because we feel like we haven’t seen God. We wish that he would just magically appear in front of us or audibly speak into our brains what he wants us to do. God longs to reveal himself to us, but do we really long to see him. His nature is in fact revealed in all things that are created. That means in you, in me, in that tree, and in everything.
-Quite a stir right now over the unknown in regard to our existence. So I want you to watch this video about the vastness of our universe and be thinking about all the invisible qualities of God that he reveals through the beauty of what he’s created.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zr7wNQw12l8&feature=related
Small Group #1: Break up into groups and discuss the qualities of God revealed in his creation (specifically in the video). Come back to the larger group in 10 mins to share your responses.
-What were some of the invisible qualities of God revealed in our universe? (Leaders take time to discuss each one mentioned: force them to think: This will be the majority of the 10 mins)
-What does this mean for you? How does it impact your life or the way you view God?
Back in Main Group: (Ask each group for their best answers to the questions)
-One thing that I really see throughout this video is the Vastness of God. Not only is he big himself, but everything about him is big. As we talk about the nature of God, I believe one of the keys to his nature is love.
-1 John 4:7-12: “Dear Friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: he sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live though him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for out sins. Dear Friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.”
-It makes sense that if Love is the most central characteristic to who God is, that it would be the most attacked. I think its pretty safe to say that love is one of the most misunderstood concepts in our culture. So many sources are trying to convince us of what love is. And they all seem to confuse us more and more.
-This is not a talk necessarily about love itself but rather about the vastness of God’s love. The video we watched described the universe as incomprehensibly vast. How could we ever know what the Universe looks like if it would take us 10 billion years of traveling at 186,000 miles/second just to view it.
-I’m convinced that God’s love for us is at least as vast.
Ephesians 3:16-21: “I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power though his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts though faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love may have power together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge-that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever, Amen.”
-Key phrase here is “and to know this love that surpasses knowledge”. What Paul is literally saying is that he prays that you will know this unknowable love. He seems pretty excited about a love that can’t even be known! Maybe that’s not the end of the story.
1 John 3:1-3: “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called Children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.”
-We talked for the first few weeks about the importance of receiving love. Another way of saying it could be seeing love. In this passage John says that we know we are children of God and that we are loved. But the fullness of what we will be we do not yet know. This seems to line up with what Paul was saying about knowing a love that’s unknowable. Paul prays that we will be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. And John claims that we will not know completely what we will become until we see God as he is.
-I’ve mentioned that I feel like when you come in contact with real love, you cannot help but be changed. This is what both John and Paul are talking about. The Love of God is vast and the fullness of it is unknowable. And we know that we will be completely filled on the day we see Jesus as he really is. This is when we completely see his full nature, when we can finally grasp the fullness of his love. When we grasp the fullness of his love, we become like him. We become love.
-This is another proof that we are in a process. It doesn’t matter how big your grasp of God’s love is right now. Because his love is vast enough that you can learn something new every minute of everyday as long as you live and his love will still be far greater than you’ve been able to dream up. This overwhelms me. God loves me that much!
-The video speaks of light years…this is kinda like “love years”. You can travel 186,000 miles per hour for 10 billion years and maybe then grasp the full view of the universe…maybe this is the invisible quality of God the universe conveys. You could learn of God’s love for you at this pace for 10 billion years…and still not fully comprehend. But there will be a day when you come face to face with Love…and in that moment, you’ll become love fully, because you’ll see love as He really is. How many “love years” would it take to grasp the incomprehensible vastness of God’s love?
-There are a couple truths about God’s love that I’ve learned over the years that I want to share with you. So lets break up into small groups one last time and I want you to interact with these truths. We’ll come back to the large group after to pray together and be dismissed.
Small Group #2: Explain the 5 Truths of God’s Love for us and then ask the questions.
1) How He Loves Us: I Care about you and I want what’s best for you no matter what.
- Jesus does not make us love Him; that is our choice. Not only did He die for our good, but He did so knowing that many would never turn to Him or love him back even when He gave such a precious gift. He did so knowing that even those who did turn back to him would spit in the face of his love on a regular basis by relying on themselves and choosing idols over him. If only I could grasp this love! If only I could love like that!
2) How He Loves Us: You are so precious to me and I hold you in my heart. I don’t have to matter to you for you to matter to me.
Christ’s love for us is so pure and so precious that He continues to hold us in his heart even when we run from him violently. He doesn’t have to matter to us for us to matter to Him. Some have suggested that God could not love because to love is to be vulnerable. This would mean that in order for God to love us, there would have to be a possibility for us to affect him. And we do. Not only did He endure the pain of the cross because of His love for us, but He endures the pain of our rejection. We are precious to him even when He doesn’t matter to us. If only I could grasp this love! If only I could love like that!
3) How He Loves Us: I don’t want you to avoid being honest with me. Tell me how you feel…you cannot change the way I look at you.
Relationships are most difficult when people are not communicating well; when they are not honest with each other. God knows that things aren’t always easy and that we are not always happy with Him. God loves us enough to hear our doubts. He wants us to share our hearts with Him. That means the praises and the hardships. God is big enough to bear our burdens. If we want to experience his love, we must we willing to express to him the pains of our heart. His love for us doesn’t change. We are still as precious as ever. If only I could grasp this love! If only I could love like that!
4) How He Loves Us: Why is it so hard for you to be with me? I want you to be in my presence.
When things aren’t going well or we have screwed up in some fashion we decide that we are not right to worship God. So we avoid the worship setting and we avoid prayer. We avoid God altogether. I can’t help but feel like God longs to draw us into His presence. I feel like when He looks into our eyes He’s so overjoyed to be with us that our sin is lost in his love. If only I could grasp this love! If only I could love like that!
5) How He Loves Us: I want you to know me. I want you to see my heart for you. Don’t just assume you know; search me out and I will show you just how much I love you.
We so often work on assumptions. We think that we know how God is responding in our situation but we haven’t actually sought His heart on the issue. He doesn’t want us to just claim to know Him, He wants us to search Him out just like we want to be sought out by a significant other. We don’t just assume we know our husband, wife, boyfriend, or girlfriend. We seek out their hearts and we long to know every last detail. God longs to reveal his heart for us. He will show us His love if we just search Him out. If we just desire to know Him. If we ask for a puddle, He will give us an ocean. If we ask for an inch, He will give us a mile. If only I could grasp this love! If only I could love like that!
-Which of these points have you failed to recognize in the past?
-Which of these points is most relevant to you?
-What would it mean if you could actually grasp the love God has for you?
-What would it mean if we could love like that?
Wrap Up: Re-ask the last two questions from the small group.
-This is what Paul and John are talking about. Paul wants us to grasp God’s love and John is saying we are becoming love. Imagine the impact this love can have upon God’s creation. Upon his people who long to see his face. His invisible qualities can be made known in you. This is real love. You can and will experience it if you want to see and experience it!
Prayer Time: Close in a circle prayer…each say a sentence of thanks for God’s invisible qualities and incomprehensible love.
