God in Search of Man

In one paragraph

Brian opened a Valentine's Day weekend conversation with the Tribe fam around a single question from Genesis 3: when God asks Adam "where are you?", what does that tell us about the nature of God? The message traced the difference between religion, which is man striving toward God, and relationship, which is God coming in search of man. It was a dialogue-style service at the TMC with the...

Read together

1. Genesis 3:6-9 read aloud by a congregation member as the opening text for the sermon
2. James 2:10 cited to show that breaking one point of the law makes a person guilty of breaking all of it
3. Romans 7:24 Paul's cry 'oh wretched man that I am, who will rescue me' used to illustrate the feeling of moral failure and self-loathing
4. Romans 6:23 quoted as 'the wages of sin is death' to explain why death had no rightful claim on Jesus

Talk about it

1. When you read God asking Adam 'Where are you?' in Genesis 3, what tone of voice do you hear in your head, and what does that tell you about how you picture God?
2. Brian described religion as what happens when a person tries to hold on to rebellion while still satisfying a deep longing for connection with God. Does that definition match what you have seen in your own life or in people around you?
3. Brian said that when we break our own moral standard, we tend to measure ourselves against someone who did worse rather than face what we did honestly. Have you noticed that pattern in yourself, and what does it actually accomplish?
4. Brian drew a contrast between every religion being about man searching for God and the claim that only the God of the Bible is the one who came searching for man. What difference, if any, does it make to you personally which direction that search runs?
5. Brian closed with four steps: repent, ask Jesus to forgive you, invite him into your heart, and make him the leader of your life. Which of those four feels most straightforward to you, and which feels hardest, and why?