Tour 3: Redemption - The Heart of God

First Ask, "What did you see? lets list them…​"

  • This was the third epoch of God’s Meta-Narrative: Redemption

  • We looked at the crime scene in the garden of Eden where God breathed out a promise instead of wiping everything out and starting over again

  • We saw there would be a war between Satan’s seed line and the seed line of the Messiah

  • The Proto-evangel, the 1st instance of the Gospel proclaimed (Woman’s seed will crush Satan’s seed)

  • We talked about the woman’s seed

  • Satan’s seed? (John 8:44) Jesus speaking to the Jews, "You are of your father the devil…​"

  • The promise was in the seed and God nurtured that seed line until Christ came

  • We saw the crown jewel: love — John 3:16

  • The greatest send of all time

  • Why are we disappointed? Maybe the word "love" doesn’t mean anything anymore

  • We talked about that word being broken and twisted; that we use it to speak of things that enhance our own scripts

  • We talked about the importance of words and the Scripture says words are important and that we are in a battle over words today

  • God speaks words of life; Satan turns them into words of death

  • Truth and love go together, inseparable; if you try to tear them apart you lose them both

  • We talked about what it looks like when we try to have love without truth and truth without love

  • We looked at the word: agape

  • We defined true agape love as “the sacrificial zeal that seeks the true good, the shalom, of another”

  • We saw that true agape love was focused on the other and not selfish nor holds back truth

  • Love is not a handout, nor is it feigned love, like Judas

  • We looked at Da Vinci’s painting and depicting John as effeminate

  • We talked about Jesus and the disciples seated at a triclinium

  • We talked about true agape love not being for whimps; it will cost us something; Jesus being the great example

  • We talked about James and John nicknamed “Sons of Thunder” yet John wrote a lot about truth and love

  • Love is not a minor theme

  • We looked at a lot of Scriptures and its theme of truth and love

  • We looked at tough verses about not having true agape love

  • We looked at 1 Cor 13 and rang the gong

  • We talked about our three questions all answered in the crown jewel of God — John 3:16

  • We talked about grace and defined it as true agape love directed toward an enemy

  • Who has heard that anyone would seek the shalom of an enemy, yet that is what true agape love and grace is

  • We looked at the word: Chesed, the steadfast love of God

  • We defined true Chesed/agape love as “the steadfast, sacrificial zeal that seeks the true good, the shalom, of another”

  • God is steadfast toward us in his true agape love and grace; he is zealous in this

  • Even when it appears all is lost and we talked about Isaiah 6:13, “The holy seed is in the stump”

  • We talked again about us being a Remnant living in a Land of Nought, but the spirit of God dwells within us

  • We listened to the song, The Love of God

  • We ended with the reading of Romans 8:31-39

What else did you see?

Then Ask, "What struck you?"