God At The Movies Part 1: The Glorious Party Series

God At The Movies: Part 1

The Glorious Party

Good morning! We are so glad you’re here with us today.

Today I want to get started in a new sermon series. This one is going to be a little bit different than some of the others that I’ve preached. I know for a fact that there has never been an Easter Sunday that I’ve begun a new sermons series on that day. In fact, as I’ve been going through college to get my Pastoral Degree everything that I was reading and everything that college professors were teaching said that you never begin or end a sermon series on Easter Sunday. That’s because Easter is supposed to be the one day that we have to tell everyone that isn’t a Christian all that we can about the love of God. So it’s not a day to be doing what I’m doing.

I can see their point in come ways. Some people that are here today won’t be here next week for whatever reasons. Maybe you’re here to please Grandma, who guilted you into being here. In fact, there are some people here still trying to figure out why you haven’t burst into flames or turned into a pillar of salt yet. There are few others here that have this belief that being here today and Christmas Eve is good enough to get you into heaven. But regardless of your reasons for being here, let me tell you I am personally glad you’re here this morning and you’re going to have a great time.

Just as importantly I’m looking forward to next week and hoping that most of you will join us then as well. In fact, just as a kind of commercial, we’ll be continuing the series that gets started today. And we’ll be talking about the movie “The Dark Knight.” I’m not going to tell you much more than that because if you want to know more you have to tune back into this same church, at this same time, next week.

But since this is Easter Sunday, I think it’d be a little bit more appropriate to start with a very different movie. One that doesn’t involve that much violence. Today we’re going to talk a little bit about the movie “Slumdog Millionaire.”

Now I’ve got to admit something here to you. I have never seen this movie as a whole. I’ve seen a few bits and pieces. Most of what I know about the movie comes from people that I’ve talked to and from clips I’ve seen on the internet.

Here’s the gist of the movie. It begins by looking at the main character, Jamal. Now Jamal has grown up in the slums in India, the country that he’s from. His family is dirt poor and has nothing to really live off of. But as we first see Jamal he faces the last question in India’s version of the television show “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?” The truth of the matter is that for Jamal it really isn’t about the money. He could care less whether or not he was rich. Instead the main focus of his life is the constant pursuit of the love of his life, Latika. Everything that he does, including going on this game show, is about gaining the attention of this woman and sharing the rest of his life with her.

You want to know what? That is exactly the image of God. God in real life is just like Jamal.

Did you catch that?

God is just like the character Jamal. Or maybe more appropriately the character is exactly like God. God is all about pursuing the love of His life. You and me. He has done and continues to do everything that He can to get our attention. He continually reaches out for us.

In fact, since today is Easter and this may be the only chance that I ever get to see some of you, I’ve got to tell you something important. There is this verse in the Bible that explains just how far God is willing to go to pursue you. It’s probably the most famous verse in all the Bible. Even if you’re not a Christian and have never been to church in your entire life, you’ve probably at least heard of this verse and you may even know it. That verse is John 3:16.

Now before we get to that verse I know that there are people here that are really confused about the Bible. So I’m going to break it down for you really quickly. The Bible is one volume. It contains both the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament is everything that happens before the birth of Jesus. The New Testament is everything that happens after the birth of Jesus.