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3. Walking with God means we have Fellowship with Him.

Ephesians 5:22-32 (ESV)Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. “Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.

4. God Initiates and Pursues a Relationship With Us.

Romans 5:1-11 (ESV)Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

5. God’s Relationship with us is Real, Practical, and Personal.

Luke 10:1-9 (ESV)After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go. And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go your way; behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. Carry no moneybag, no knapsack, no sandals, and greet no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace be to this house!’ And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him. But if not, it will return to you. And remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide, for the laborer deserves his wages. Do not go from house to house. Whenever you enter a town and they receive you, eat what is set before you. Heal the sick in it and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’

Philippians 4:5 (NIV)Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.

Ephesians 2:13 (ESV)But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

Implications:1. God created us to have a certain kind of relationship with Him.2. The greatest accomplishment of our lives is to live in the truth of that relationship with God.3. God has already initiated that relationship with us, we only need to respond.4. Our relationship with God is real, practical, and personal.

N O T E S : E X P E R I E N C I N G G O D - W E E K 3

Southeast provides relational environments where you can find Jesus, community, and purpose.

W E L C O M E T O S O U T H E A S T

God created us for community. If you are interested in serving, participating in a small group, or would like more information about an upcoming event, stop by the Connections Studio located just inside the main entrance. You may also visit southeastcc.org/connect or send an email to connect@southeastcc.org.

N E E D P R AY E R ?

Between services, prayer partners are available to pray with you in the prayer room located near the main restrooms in the lobby. You may also submit a prayer request at southeastcc.org/prayer.

G E T C O N N E C T E D

@SOUTHEASTCCSOUTHEASTCCSOUTHEASTCC.ORG

Matthew 22:35-38 (ESV)And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.

1. You are Created for a Love Relationship with God.

John 3:16 (ESV)“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

1 John 3:16 (ESV)By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

1 John 4:9-19 (ESV)In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us.

2. A Love Relationship with God is the Highest Position in Life.

“Our greatest fear should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don’t really matter.”– Francis Chan, Crazy Love: Overwhelmed By A Relentless God

Philippians 3:4-14 (ESV)though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.