The Heart Of The Story

The Heart Of The Story

The Story – week one

Video: The Bible

(sermon spice)

“The rain and snow come down from the heavens and stay on the ground to water the earth. They cause the grain to grow, producing seed for the farmer and bread for the hungry. 11 It is the same with my word. I send it out, and it always produces fruit. It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it. It is the same with my word. I send it out, and it always produces fruit. It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it.

AND MG – check out what happens when God’s Word prospers, when it bears fruit, accomplishes what GOD wants it to accomplish!

12 You will live in joy and peace. The mountains and hills will burst into song, and the trees of the field will clap their hands! 13 Where once there were thorns, cypress trees will grow. Where nettles grew, myrtles will sprout up. These events will bring great honor to the LORD’s name; they will be an everlasting sign of his power and love.” – Is 55:10-12

Prayer

MGCC – welcome to The Story!

WOW! I am so pumped up, I am so stoked, I am so jazzed, I am so jacked up that I can hardly stand it. Seriously. For real.

I MEAN – this Friday morning as I begin the process of putting into my laptop all the thoughts that have been running through my head, and that I had scribbled down on my ‘vanilla folder…’

I ACTUALLY – stood up in my room and jumped up and down.

YEAH – for weeks, months… we’ve been talking about The Story…

AND TODAY – January 13th (the 2nd Sunday of 2013) it is here!

YES - the journey has begun!

A JOURNEY – that I am 100% confident will change God’s church at Maple Grove forever!!!

HEY – please stand up and look around this room, look at the people who are in here… MG – I am confident, I am convinced that it will not, that we will not - look the same on the second Sunday of 2014!

AGAIN – I have been pumping and promoting The Story for weeks…

TELLING ANYONE WHO WOULD LISTEN – in no uncertain terms, that God is going to use THE STORY to take us to places that we cannot even begin to imagine, BOTH - individually and as a church!

AND – perhaps you may thinking…

Okay Steve I hear you. I hear your hype, I hear your cheerleading…

BUT HOW – can you be so sure that 2013 and The Story is not going to be a bust and turn out to be just another year of the ‘some ole, some ole…?

HOW can you be so certain that the hype will match reality?

AND LISTEN – I understand that kind of thinking…

BECAUSE – in life a lot of times things we get all fired and pumped up about… fall short, don’t deliver. YEAH - the big band becomes a soft thud!

THIS - is going to be the BEST…party, Christmas, New Years, family vacation, day, job, relationship, the best … (and you fill in the blank)…

BUT – when all was said and done the hype does not come anywhere close to meeting reality…

BUT LISTEN – let me tell you why I stand before you today (1/13/13)

100% confident that The Story will deliver much more than any of my hype or pumpification (yeah, I made that word up, I do that a lot…)

‘pumpification’ – the act of becoming so stoked, so fired up and excited that you want to jump up and shout as if you have won the lottery or the Super Bowl. (Go Patriots!)

OKAY…

WHY - am I 100% confident that The Story will deliver much more than any of my hype or pumpification?

BECAUSE - we can never over-hype the Word of God… Never!

Let me say that again… we can never over-hype the Word of God!

UNDERSTAND – God’s WORD will always prosper, it will never come back empty, it will always accomplish the purpose for which HE sent it! Always.

I MEAN – think about it…

HOW - could we ever over-hype God’s WORD when, with just HIS WORDS God created EVERYTHING!

CHECK OUT – these passages of Scripture…

For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

– Hebrews 4:12

All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. 17 God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.