ENGULFING: (Surrounding, Covering): “I’ve Got You Covered: The End To Privatized Faith.”
➢Madison Magazine Cover Photo
- Life Groups*
- Fellowship/shared life
- Prayer and study
- Fun & Fellowship
- Family Fun Night*
- Annual Picnic/Affinity Groups
- Sunday Mobile Cafés
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➢Godly service requires such a vivid understanding of Who God is and what God wants
➢True godly love------sees God and others
➢This true love rises above the distraction of feelings/emotions & is a constant
Engulfing: synonyms: inundate, flood, deluge, immerse, swamp, swallow up, submerge. Surrounding
Relevant
Touch (Mark 1 The Leper vs. The Man With Leprosy)
(of a natural force) sweep over (something) so as to surround or cover it completely.
"the cafe was engulfed in flames"
1 Peter 4:8-10 Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.
- Love is the hallmark of the church
- God is love
- 1 John 4:8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
- 1 John 4:9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.
- 1 John 4:10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
- 1 John 4:12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
- 1 John 4:16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.
- 1 John 4:20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.
- 1 John 5:2 This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands.
- 1 John 5:3 In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome,
➢Love is the blood that makes us all kin!
➢If you can love, we can create family!
➢Love is the bedrock for the community we’re building
➢Love is to the kingdom what reproductivity is to society!!
Widows/orphans/poor/outsiders
Church History
At no other time in the history of Christianity did love so characterize the entire church as it did in the first three centuries. And Roman society took note. Tertullian reported that the Romans would exclaim, “See how they love one another!”
Justin Martyr sketched Christian love this way: “...We used to hate and destroy one another and refused to associate with people of another race or country. Now, because of Christ, we live together with such people and pray for our enemies.”
When a devastating plague swept across the ancient world in the third century, Christians were the only ones who cared for the sick, which they did at the risk of contracting the plague themselves. Meanwhile, pagans were throwing infected members of their own families into the streets even before they died, in order to protect themselves from the disease.
➢Korean Immigrant families would attend church to meet other Koreans.
➢Other groups (Dearborn, MI) attend churches to learn English
➢History of Sunday School was to reach poor children to read
The love of the early Christians wasn't limited simply to their fellow believers. Christians also lovingly helped non-believers: the poor, the orphans, the elderly, the sick, the shipwrecked—even their persecutors.
The Scriptures teach that a Christian shouldn't take his brother to court. Rather, he should suffer fraud at the hands of his brother, if need be. (1 Cor. 6:7) It's no wonder that Christianity spread rapidly throughout the ancient world, even though there were few organized missionary or evangelism programs. The love they practiced drew the attention of the world, just as Jesus said it would.
Questions/New Steps
➢What keeps you from engulfing others?
➢How has God resourced you for engulfing?
➢Pray that you’d be able to demonstrate your love God by engulfing others
➢This is the only true measurement of our love for God
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