Session 1
Pursued By the Creator
Genesis 3:8-2: From the very beginning, God pursued us! Even in the story of Adam and Eve sinning, God still went after them.
Session 2
Created for Pursuit
Matthew 6:25-34: God tells us not to worry about practical things, and ultimately to stop pursuing temporary things because he has so much better things for us.
Session 3:
Desperate Pursuit
John 11:1-44: In the midst of Mary and Martha’s pain, God responded to them by pursuing each of them in exactly the way they needed to be pursued.
If we stop PURSUING forward motion, and stop PURSUING Jesus we’ll get caught up in the motion of the world and it will fling us in directly the opposite direction of God!
Many of us this weekend had God speak something, or give us fresh vision in something, or direct change in our lives. But now, we’re faced with a hard choice: Do I keep running and enact real change, or do I let this weekend fade away?
Solomon
The beginning of Solomon’s story is an incredible one of going after God and being blessed by him:
1 Kings 1:30
I will surely carry out this very day what I swore to you by the Lord, the God of Israel: Solomon your son shall be king after me, and he will sit on my throne in my place.
1 Kings 3:9-14
9 So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?
10 The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this. 11 So God said to him, “Since you have asked for this and not for long life or wealth for yourself, nor have asked for the death of your enemies but for discernment in administering justice, 12 I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be. 13 Moreover, I will give you what you have not asked for—both wealth and honor—so that in your lifetime you will have no equal among kings. 14 And if you walk in obedience to me and keep my decrees and commands as David your father did, I will give you a long life.”
But then, his life takes a turn away from God, and he gets consumed with the world.
1 Kings 10:6-8
6 She said to the king, “The report I heard in my own country about your achievements and your wisdom is true. 7 But I did not believe these things until I came and saw with my own eyes. Indeed, not even half was told me; in wisdom and wealth you have far exceeded the report I heard. 8 How happy your people must be! How happy your officials, who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom!
1 Kings 10:10
10 And she gave the king 120 talents of gold, large quantities of spices, and precious stones. Never again were so many spices brought in as those the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.
1 Kings 10:14
14 The weight of the gold that Solomon received yearly was 666 talents 15 not including the revenues from merchants and traders and from all the Arabian kings and the governors of the territories.
1 Kings 11:1-3
1 King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh’s daughter—Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites. 2 They were from nations about which the Lord had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.” Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love.
1 Kings 11:3-8
3 He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray. 4 As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been.
5 He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molek the detestable god of the Ammonites. 6 So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord; he did not follow the Lord completely, as David his father had done.
7 On a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable god of Moab, and for Molek the detestable god of the Ammonites. 8 He did the same for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and offered sacrifices to their gods.
2 Timothy 4:7
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
