April 8th, 2012 Easter

This Easter we start by asking the question “How does God feel about you?” We then unpack the vast, lavishing love that he pours over us through Christ on the cross. He is risen and He sings a song over each one of us.

If you want a study tool to go along with the podcast, see Lift Notes here:

Easter 2012: How does God feel about YOU?

April 8^st , 2012  by Kasey Crawford

Today’s Passage: Zephaniah 3:17 and Luke 15:1-24

Does God sing? _______    About what?   __________

The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will take great delight in you; he will quiet you by his love; he will rejoice over you with loud singing.  Zephaniah 3:17 (combo of ESV and NIV)

How does God feel about you?

God is so full of ____________ in you that it causes him to burst into song, _____________ over you.

People have a hard time with this lavish love. For example,

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. ² And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” Luke 15:1-2

So the religious leaders of the day get all flustered by Jesus, “how can this guy welcome such unworthy people?”  Translation: “They don’t ___________ to be loved, we do.” 

So Jesus tells a few short stories to show the heart of God towards those who ________ deserve it at all and those who are working hard trying to __________ it.

Luke 15:3-6- God as the Shepherd

-God will ____ __________ the one that is lost, including you!

-The thought of you makes God ___________, so much that when he get’s home with you, God feels like throwing a party.

Luke 15: 8-10-God as the woman who lost her coin

-God doesn’t give some half-hearted attempt for you, he is __________ you _____________.

Luke  15:11-24-God as the Father

²⁰But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him…²²The father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. ²³ And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate.

–This story shows the ______________, ___________ goodness that God feels towards you.  -God wants to __________ you with his love.

One very crucial aspect about the lavish love that God pursues you with is that it’s __________ ____________ day.

Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life…                                                                                               Psalm 23:6

God wants this to be the _________________ of every day of our life, not just what brings us to God in the first place.

For many, after we come to God because of his radical love we then try to work for it after that which becomes a vicious cycle of _________ and ________ and never doing enough for God or being good enough.

But as Zephaniah revealed… he will quiet you by his love. (3:17)

To quiet you its not saying he wants to shut you up, it is talking about the wrestles, anxious, screaming on the inside that he wants to _______ and quiet with his love.

I believe God wants to say to Elevation that the first thing I want you to do every day as the foundational posture of your life, is not ask what you can do for me today but to ________ in my arms, _________ in my heart for you, _________ in the love that pursues you, rest in my joy over you, rest in the song that I sing over you, rest in my delight over you. And as you see this smile of heaven toward your soul, the anxious, performance-based restlessness is quieted by his love. And as we rest in that love we are filled up to be the person and do the things he calls us to.

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