God's Story: Which God?

In the last post I mentioned how I am preaching through The Story where I serve. I plan to have a series of posts dealing with an issue or two in each chapter of The Story as I progress through it. But first a few disclaimers: 1) there will likely (hopefully) be other posts intermingled with this “God’s Story” series, and 2) hopefully this will not die in the realm of good writing intentions (I have had more than a few of those).

With that said, chapter one in The Story covers material found in Genesis 1-4 and Genesis 6-9. Granted, not every verse is included as the editors selected what they thought were the more important passages in order to accomplish their purpose.

A major issue I focused on in this sermon (from 9/8/13) was the importance of knowing who God is based on what the Bible says about Him. While this may sound a bit simplistic, it is foundational for learning more about God.  

Let’s be honest, everyone has a concept of God. Even if one’s concept of God is that He does not exist, this is still a concept of Him. This concept is certainly not accurate based on the Bible…but people who believe God does not exist do not believe the Bible is truthful – which is a much different topic than I am addressing here.

What I am addressing here is that if we are going to open ourselves up to the transformative power of God’s Story, then we need to have an accurate view of God. We cannot base our view of God on our experiences or what we have been told. This does not mean everything you have been told about God is untrue, or that your experiences are not valid. Yet it does mean people can, and do, misrepresent God (not always willfully, though sadly this is sometimes the case), and God is bigger than our experiences (however joyful or painful they may be).   

I certainly do not have God all figured out and will not claim to as I write. Yet it is sad to hear of perceptions of God, even some shared by Christians, which are simply not true. This is why looking at the Bible is foundational to knowing God. Actually, it is vital. The Bible must trump our experience and what we think we know.

With that said, next time we will look at parts of Genesis 1-3. If you read it, I want to encourage you to treat Genesis 1:1-2:3 as “act one” and Genesis 2:4-3:24 as “act two.” Trust me; it really is OK to ignore chapter and verse divisions in the Bible. While they are helpful, they can also be a hindrance. Oh yeah, a reason to read Genesis 1:1-2:3 as a unit is because Genesis 2:4 starts with “These are the generations…,” which is a phrase found numerous times in Genesis – all of which start a new section (e.g., Gen5:1; 6:9; 11:10; et al.).

Until next time, may the Spirit of God open our eyes to the truth of Who God is and what He desires. 

God's Story

I remember years ago – more than a few, but not too many…I am not that old you know – when I just graduated from Bible College I had a thought. The thought occurred to me while reading through the Bible; it would be cool to preach through the entire Bible – like do a sermon per Bible book.

At the time I was not employed full time by any congregation. In fact, I was volunteering quite a bit of time at a church while working various other jobs and getting ready to start seminary. Yet the thought stayed with me – a sermon per Bible book.

I remember talking to an older, more mature, and wiser friend in the ministry about the idea. He had the same idea when he was younger and started to preach through the entire Bible, but did not finish for a variety of reasons. Yet the thought stayed with me – a sermon per Bible book. 

The thought of preaching through the entire Bible, a sermon per book, is still with me. I suppose it would be the “mother” of all sermon series. I mean a 66 week series. Who does such a thing? This is more than a year! Yet more than this…it is not having a Sunday off for over a year! While it is exciting, at times, to think about a sermon per Bible book, couched in terms of no Sundays off for over a year…it is not exactly a healthy thing.

While the thought of preaching a sermon per Bible book has not totally died within me…a more compelling thought – birthed by the initial thought – has grown stronger. The thought is the compelling power of God’s Story.

While I did not know it at the time, what was driving me toward thoughts of preaching through each Bible book in a series was a desire for people to know God’s Story. God’s Story is the most powerful and compelling Story ever told. And by Story I do not mean fiction. I mean Story in the sense of explanation of reality – and where reality is moving.

While I am not preaching through each book of the Bible, I am preaching through God’s Story right now. Since September I have been preaching through The Story as the people of New Life Christian Church read along in it. If you are not familiar with it, The Story is a book of carefully selected verses chronologically arranged from Genesis to Revelation. It is intended to help God’s people understand God’s story as a seamless narrative of God and His pursuit of relationship with mankind (I think that is one of Zondervan’s descriptions of the book).

I will admit, when an elder approached me and the other elders about going through The Story I was a bit hesitant. However, after prayer, our discussing it, and realizing I like to talk about God’s Story and have been for quite some time, we agreed to proceed with it.

Granted, I will not be preaching from every Biblical book (The Story is divided into 31 chapters), but I will be exposing others – and myself – to the broad sweep of God’s Story. And this is a good thing. So far we have done a 5-week mini series titled “Creation to Creation” in which we looked at things from the creation in Genesis to the creation of a people with the giving of the covenant at Mt. Sinai in Exodus 19.

Just this past Sunday we finished another 5-week mini series titled “Rebellion to Rebellion” in which we looked at the start of the wandering in the wilderness in Numbers (due to their rebellion against God), and ended with Israel’s rebellion by rejecting God as their King because they desired an earthly king in the book of 1 Samuel.

When Advent starts (December 1^st) we will resume looking at The Story as we talk about “Longing for The King.” We will look at some of the monarchy in Israel (e.g., David and Solomon) in contrast to Jesus as King.

God’s Story is amazing. I am enjoying both reading in The Story as well as preaching from the Bible. However, there is at least one unfortunate thing in going through it. I am having so many thoughts of what to say and continue to study, that they are having to be left “left on the shelf” for now. Oh well…there is never an end to the study and application of God’s Story. It is The Story by which we are to view all of life.

I will wrap this post up with what we have on some banners around our church building:

The greatest Story ever told has the power to radically reshape your individual story. Allow your story to get caught up and remade in God’s Story.

We want every person to find Hope, Healing, and Purpose in their individual story as they daily engage God’s Story.

God’s Story starts in a Garden (Gen2:15) and ends in a Garden (Rev2:7) thanks to Jesus’ obedience in another Garden (Mk14:36). Your story’s purpose is found in this Story.

Oh God, grant us to see Your Story more clearly and live out It’s implications in our lives – for Your glory. Amen.