Finding The Our Story In God’s Story

Finding the Our Story in God’s Story

Online Sermon: https://www.mckeesfamily.com/sermons/

Who doesn’t like a really good story? If done well they masterfully invite us to “live” the life of others and often provoke a rainbow of intense feelings such as happiness, joy, exhilaration, sorrow, pain, anger, frustration, and empathy! And while we are fully aware most are merely personifications of the creative genius of the authors, actors and movie writers do we not find ourselves so immersed in the story that we see ourselves as one of the characters so much so that either in our minds or out loud we often yell at the television, “stay away from dark places” or “run before the villain gets you?” Whether we realize it or not stories have the power to not only captivate and hold our attention but also to shape, strengthen or challenge our most treasured opinions and values! And yet despite us knowing this to be true we allow “worldly” entertainment to flow freely in our minds like waves of a sea never giving it a second thought as to how crushing their blows are on our overriding goal to “be holy as God is holy (1 Peter 1:16)!” Living in this ever changing, fast -paced society where people only want to set up “self” as their god, have a belief system that constantly changes as their circumstances change, and show off their “happiness” of their sinful indulgences it is hard to know and to be true to one’s identity as a God-fearing, joyfully obedient, eternal masterpieces of His grace! The following sermon is going to refer to many biblical stories to help both myself and you locate our identity in the Biblical narrative of God’s word so that we might draw nearer, become more like, and yearn to personify Christ’s holiness to a world that desperately needs to know and believe in the way, truth, and life (John 14:6).

Biblical Narrative Defined

Our God-given mission can only be successful when its identity and purpose are based on the stories given in the bible. Too often we read God’s beautiful love letter to us with the intent of amassing information instead of living, being nourished and quickened by every word that has preceded from His mouth! In the book, Bible and Mission: Christian witness in a Postmodern World, Richard Bauckham defines a metanarrative as being “an attempt to tell a single story about the whole of human history in order to attribute a single and integrated meaning to the whole.” The bible is the only story that qualifies as a metanarrative because only God, the creator and sustainer of the universe, can explain the purpose of humanity’s existence. It is each person’s responsibility to examine his or her life in the context of God’s revelation. “Not only is self tied to knowledge of God, but we know ourselves truthfully only when we know ourselves in relation to God. We know who we are when we can place ourselves – locate our stories – within God’s story.” The rest of the rest of this sermon is going to demonstrate how easy it truly is to find one’s identity in the Biblical narrative with the intent of personal transformation and becoming a powerful, witness to the lost of this world in both word and deed.

In the Beginning

In the very first book of the Bible, we learn that with freedom of choice comes great responsibility. Even though being created in the image of God (1:27) meant Adam was given free will God limited his choices by stating his mission was to take care of the garden of Eden and to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (2:15-17). The moment Adam and Eve challenged God’s authority to rule over their lives the peace and closeness they felt in God’s presence was forever changed for sin had driven a wedge between them and a holy God the consequences of which were devastating: pain in childbirth, a curse on the ground, and physical death (2:14-19)! In the Garden of Eden humanity’s eyes were opened but not to become like but opposed to a holy God for now in our sinful nature we tend to love evil more than good (3:4-5)! Given the curse placed on Adam and Eve the words of Apostle Paul, that “we have the right to do anything, but not all things are beneficial” (1 Corinthians 6:12) becomes a profound warning when it comes to making the right choices in life! Every day we are bombarded by the fiery darts of “the spiritual forces of evil” (Ephesians 6:12) and must choose to either accept or reject their broad path that leads to destruction (Matthew 7:13). When we cry out that we feel powerless to stop sinning (Romans 7) praise be that Christ, the lamb slain before Creation (Revelation 13:8), has freed us from the entanglement of sin that so easily binds us to the ways of this world which oppose and greatly displeases our Lord (Hebrews 12:1-2).