Sermon Notes, August 21, 2016 A.M.
Your Story - God’s Story
Steve W. Reeves
INTRODUCTION
A.
What is your favorite story?
1. Each summer our children at West Side participate
in a reading program. It has
been fascinating to hear them tell about
the stories they have read.
2. Maybe you remember the stories you were
told in your childhood. “Goldilocks and
the Three Bears,” “Cinderella,”
“Sleeping Beauty.” My children enjoyed a book by
Judith Viorst, Alexander and The
Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.
2. Perhaps you enjoy reading novels by John
Grisham, Mary Higgins Clark , Nicholas
Sparks or another popular author. I have
a friend in Mississippi who has recently
written a novel entitled, The Epitaph
of Jonas Barloff.
B. There
are two stories I want to investigate today.
1. The first is a story with which you are
intimately familiar. It’s the story of your life.
Each day you turn to a blank page and
write upon it. As the weeks, months and
years march by you move from chapter to
chapter. There are the days of childhood,
grade school, junior high, high school, college,
young adulthood, career, family and
retirement.
a. Some of you are beginning a new
chapter in your lives this weekend as you
begin your college years. It’s a
time of excitement coupled with nervousness. On
my first Sunday as a freshman at Harding. I
attended the College church where
Jim Woodruff said, “You are like a
coconut being dropped from the tree.”
b. For some parents this is a new chapter
as your child begins college. There are
going to be some tears today. There may
also be some, “high-fives!”
2. The other story I want to talk about is
God’s story. The Bible is God’s story.
a. 40% of the Old Testament is written
in story or narrative form (Abraham and his
descendants).
b. The New Testament begins with the
story of Jesus in the Gospels and continues
with the story of the early church
in Acts.
C. At West Side both of these stories are
important to us.
I. YOUR STORY
A.
Your story began before you were born. The preface was written by your parents
and their parents before them. They gave
you a name and set you on a course.
1. Some people are born into good
circumstances.
2. Others are born into a life of
challenge.
3. Each of us has been influenced the
tender, formative years of life.
B. With increasing speed the chapters of
your story are being written.
1. Some chapters are filled with
pleasant memories of good times, laughter,
happiness. When we reflect on these
chapters we smile.
2. Some chapters are funny. We look back
on things we did and laugh. I fully
intend to write a book about funny
things I’ve experienced in ministry through the
years – like the time a squirrel ran
out on the ledge of the baptistry while I was
preaching or the time a little girl
was singing, “Hallelujah, hide the jewelry.” The
Bible says, “A cheerful heart is
good medicine” (Prov. 17:22).
3. There are chapters in life that are
filled with suspense and intrigue. As we write
them we are not certain of the
outcome.
4. There are chapters of great joy and
chapters of pain. Some chapters are filled
with success while others reflect
bitterness and defeat.
6. There are chapters in life where
faith seems strong and God seems so real.
There are other chapters that
contain doubts and where you wonder where God
is because He seems so far away.
C. What is your story?
II. GOD’S STORY
A. There is another story that is
indispensable. It’s a story written by one who is “able
to do
immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine (Eph. 3:20). It’s God’s
story.
B. What is God’s story?
1. A story of love.
a. It was out of love that God
created us. Beginning with Adam all the way
through the youngest baby here
every person born has been the object of
God’s love.
b. God is love (1 Jn. 4:7-8). Love
must be shared or else it is not love. We have
been created as recipients of
God’s love. Our lives are never complete until
we open our hearts and allow His
love to flow through us.
c. Before sin entered the world
God’s love was shared without any impediment.
Man’s needs were completely met.
God provided nourishment, purpose and
companionship.
d. Satan tried to undermine God’s
love. He drove a wedge between God and
people called sin. It is a
terrible thing because of what it does.
1.) It separates man from God –
Isaiah 59:1-2.
2.) It destroys people’s lives
and families.
3.) It results in spiritual
death – Romans 6:23.
e. Satan underestimated the enormity
of God’s love and the extent to which God
would go to reclaim us.
2.
God’s story is a story of redemption.
a. It’s the story of a God who is so
passionate about us He refuses to give up on
us.
1.) In Genesis 6 humanity’s sin
was so great that God was grieved that He had
ever created man. He
refused to give up. He saved mankind through Noah
and his family.
2.) He told a man named Abram
that he would become the father of a great
nation and that through his
descendants all nations of the world would be
blessed. The Old Testament
is the story of Abraham’s descendants who
were the heirs of God’s
promise.
3.) He chose Abraham’s grandson
Jacob and changed his name to Israel.
Israel’s descendants became
a great nation – a nation through whom God
wanted to demonstrate love and
loyalty. A nation that was the object of
God’s steadfast love that
never ceases and mercies that never come to an
end.
4.) As the chapters of Israel’s
story were written we read about their
enslavement and God’s
deliverance. We read about the conquest of the
land God promised to them. You
would think they would be eternally
grateful to God for everything
He had done but they weren’t. They often
rejected Him and yet God
never gave up on his people.
b. The story seemed to reach a dead
end as God’s people were slaughtered
and enslaved by foreign nations.
God, however, used the prophet Jeremiah to
say, “I know the plans I have
for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you
and not to harm you, plans to
give you hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11).
c. With each chapter of God’s
unfolding story the anticipation increased as God
pointed to the one who would
fulfill the promises He had made.
C. And then it happened –
“And there were in the same country shepherds
abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And,
lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round
about them: and they were sore afraid. 10 And the angel said
unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which
shall be to all people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the
city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. 12 And this
shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes,
lying in a manger. 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a
multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,14 Glory
to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men” (Luke 2:8-14
KJV).
1. God’s story finds its fulfillment in
Jesus. “The Word became flesh and made his
dwelling among us. We have seen his
glory, the glory of the one and only Son,
who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (Jn. 1:14).
2. The key to understanding God’s story
is to see Jesus.
a. See Jesus reaching out to those
who were sick and cut off from society.
b. See Jesus extending friendship to
sinners and showing love to those who
were despised by others. Those
who had been forgotten and downtrodden.
c. See Jesus teaching, loving,
serving and caring.
3. And then, He was crucified. Rejected
by the ones He came to save. Subjected to
the cruelest behavior imaginable.
Beaten, whipped, humiliated and nailed to a
cross. It seemed as if the story had
come to a tragic end and a cataclysmic
failure.
4. But God wasn’t finished. On the third
day Jesus was raised, Paul says, “He
appeared to Cephas, and then to the
Twelve. 6 After that, he appeared to more
than five hundred of the brothers
and sisters at the same time.
5. God’s story was not finished. It had
just begun. The church Jesus promised to
build was established. It is the body of
Christ and He is its head. From its
beginning in the first century until
today the church is the
ongoing story of God.
III. THE GOSPEL – THE INTEGRATION OF
GOD’S STORY AND YOUR STORY.
A.
Here is the good news. God wants His story to become your story. It is through
our
relationship with Christ that God’s
story intersects with our story.
1. When this happens there is a
tremendous power that comes into your life. This is
why Paul wrote in Romans 1:16 that
the Gospel is God’s power unto salvation.
2. He’s describing what happens with the
integration of God’s story and your story.
B. Following the death of Robin Williams in
August of 2014 there was a great deal
written about the tragic circumstances
Williams faced. Theologian Fred Buechner
wrote, "It is absolutely crucial,
therefore, to keep in constant touch with what is
going on in your own life's story and to
pay close attention to what is going on in
the stories of others' lives. If God is
present anywhere, it is in those stories that
God is present. If God is not present in
those stories, then they are scarcely worth
telling."
CONCLUSION:
A.
Where do you want your story to go? If someone were to read your story 100
years
from now what would they read? The answer
is being determined by the chapters
you are writing today.
B. A
young man in High School was visiting his grandfather who asked him what his
plans for life were. The young man thought
for a moment and answered, “I’m going to
graduate from high school and go to college
to get a business degree.” The
grandfather replied, “wonderful, what
then?” The young man said, “I may go on and
get a Master’s degree and then get a job
with a good salary.” “Splendid,” said the
grandfather, “what then?” I’d like to find
a nice girl to marry, settle down and have a
family.” Grandfather said, “that’s great,
what then?” This was becoming more
difficult for the young boy. “I guess we’ll
have children and raise them and I’ll continue
to work to support them.” “That’s right,”
grandfather said, “what then?” “Well, I guess
I’ll work, raise my kids and then retire
like you.” “Yes,” the old man said, “what then?”
The boy hesitated and said, “I guess I’ll
die.” “That’s right, grandfather said, “what
then?”
C. God’s
greatest desire is for His story to become your story.
D.
We’d love to help you as you write the story of your life today. If you are
ready to
confess faith in Christ, turn away from sin
and be baptized into Christ we will gladly
assist you. If you need to rededicate your
life to Him we will pray with you. Come as
we stand and sing.
