God’s Design and Image
Part 31: Invited into God’s Plan

Scripture: Genesis 24:1-67.
Deuteronomy 7:1a, 2b-4 (ESV)
1a “When the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you… 2b You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them. 3 You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, 4 for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly.
Deuteronomy 7:6 (ESV)
6 “For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.”
1 Peter 2:9-10 (ESV)
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
1 Peter 2:11-12 (ESV)
11 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. 12 Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.
1. Following God Requires that We Not Follow the World
2. God Keeps His Promises and is Faithful to His People
Psalm 36:5 (ESV) (David)
5 Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds.
3. God Uses the Prayers of His People to Bring About His Plan
2 Chronicles 7:14 (ESV)
14 …if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
James 5:16b-18 (ESV)
16b The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. 17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. 18 Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.
4. God Invites Us into His Plan of Salvation
Galatians 3:7 (ESV)
7 Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.