Love as an Invitation If you’re new to Lifpoint | Worthington, take 30 seconds to fill out our Welcome Card! Have a question about today's message? Ask it here. Find out more about joining a Lifeteam Click here for the Lifeteam interest form. This doesn't sign you up for a team, but we'll follow-up with you this week to talk more about what serving looks like in our church! Song of Solomon 2:3–9 (ESV) 3 As an apple tree among the trees of the forest, so is my beloved among the young men. With great delight I sat in his shadow, and his fruit was sweet to my taste. 4 He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love. 5 Sustain me with raisins; refresh me with apples, for I am sick with love. 6 His left hand is under my head, and his right hand embraces me!… 8 The voice of my beloved! Behold, he comes, leaping over the mountains, bounding over the hills. 9 My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Behold, there he stands behind our wall, gazing through the windows, looking through the lattice. The Architect's Model The book of Song of Songs is ancient poetry, taking concrete concepts to reveal abstract realities. It is an unapologetic celebration of physical romance between a husband and wife. The intimacy of earthly marriage serves as a scale model pointing to God's passionate love for His people. Love as a Pursuit Passivity is a massive relationship killer for many couples today. Modern Christian culture often answers this passivity with a single word: pursuit. While pursuit communicates intentionality, there is a razor-thin line between intentionality and aggression. If romance is viewed as a hunt, the person being pursued stops feeling like an equal partner and becomes a prize to be won. A pursuit mindset can breed entitlement, leading us to believe that if we do the work, intimacy is owed to us. Have a question or pushback on this? Ask it here. Love as an Invitation The biblical posture of love is not a pursuit, but a mutual invitation. True invitations require immense hospitality and preparation before they are even extended. A genuine invitation says, “I have made room in my life for you to step into.” True invitations require vulnerability because they hand over the power of choice and leave room for rejection. Pursuit operates out of a deficit, while an invitation operates out of an overflow. The Gospel Reality The Gospel of Jesus Christ kills the hunter inside of us and heals our fear of rejection. On the cross, Jesus absorbed our ultimate rejection so we could be permanently accepted. Supernatural security in Christ frees us to drop the weapons of pursuit and truly love. Have a question or pushback on this? Ask it here. Setting Your Table Ask yourself: What kind of god is my relationship modeling? When you initiate connection, are you setting a table of hospitality or setting a trap with a hidden agenda? Your ability to handle a “no” reveals whether you are inviting as a host or pursuing as a hunter. Stop asking your spouse to fix your deficit; your spouse makes a terrible savior. As always, if you'd like to talk more with me about anything we discussed, you can sign up for meeting time. If you have any questions from the message today, send them here and I'll follow up!