Experience Belonging_The Love of God
Passage: Romans 12:1-2
Sections, Scripture References, Quotes:
Experience Belonging – Following the Call to One Another
The challenge faced by the church in the West is not the rise of unbelief, but rather the rise of a belief that is detached from an idea of belonging. – Mark Sayers, Disappearing Church
‘I am singled out and separated, as it were, from all the world, to be miserable. I am divided from mankind – a solitaire; one banished from human society…I have no soul to speak to or relieve me.” – Robinson Crusoe
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another” – John 13:34
12:1- 2 The Love of God – Foundation of the Church
“we find here a succinct description of the essence of the believer’s response to God’s grace in the gospel of Jesus Christ
Vs 1: Compelled by the love of God
Romans 1:7 – “to the saints who are loved by God and called to be saints”
Rom. 5:8 – “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Rom. 8:37; 39 – in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
“Worship is obedient action motivated by the beauty of who God is” -Tim Keller
12:2 – Transformed by the love of God
And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. – 2 Corinthians 3:18
“God has wired into a creature looking nothing like a butterfly a perfectly complete butterfly identity. And because the caterpillar is a butterfly in essence, it will one day display the behavior and attributes of a butterfly. The caterpillar matures into what is already true about it. In the meantime, berating a caterpillar for not being more like a butterfly is not only futile, it will probably hurt its tiny ears!” – The Cure