Today was the last service of September. The Franklin’s hosted, Simeon read the story, and Justin preached the sermon.

The Story-

Jesus is now full of the Holy Spirit and disappears into the wilderness to pray to His Father. He stays there 40 days and nights without eating and then Satan shows up. Satan tempted Jesus three different times, but He refuses every one.

The Sermon-

What does it mean that God loves us?

• Josh read Exodus 34:5-9
• April read Hosea 2
• Stephanie read Hosea 11
• Simeon read Hosea 14

Back to the original question: What does it mean that God loves us?

• He is still with us no matter what we do.
• He does good and kind things for us even if we don’t understand.
• We don’t know the right things and He needs to guide us.
• We then talked about the metaphors between Israel and God — Husband and wife, Father and child.

Josh read Hebrews 12:3-10

I think we tend to look at God’s love as stoic or merely benevolent, but it’s actually very passionate! God is continually seeking our gain, He wants us pure! God loves us all equally.

This connects with the lost sheep parable. The sheep was being fervently sought for and once it was found, they celebrated!