-Christmas beef: why are ornaments so flimsy? They know kids are going to be grabbing them, throwing them around, why do they use the most fragile pieces? We’ve already had some ornaments break because we have 2 2-year-olds who think the tree is their new toy! Our other kids are already starting to realize that these ornaments tell a story. My grandma got all her grandkids a new ornament every year, so all my ornaments have a history to them. My parents have started doing the same thing with my kids, each ornament they pull out their reminded of an event that happened that year. 

-All of us have a history, memories that can be triggered by different things, right? The one that always gets me is the corner of MOA that has Cinnabon. I loved MOA when I was in HS (much less fondness as an adult), but that corner that smells like cinnamon gets me every time I walk by! 

-God created us as storied creatures. We use stories to make sense of the world, and to make sense of our lives. We define ourselves by the stories we tell. And God is the same way.

-A few years ago, I came across a minimalist drawing of the various relationships we’ll have over our lives. I’m not saying they’re all the most appropriate (I think this was published in the New York Times), but it’s an interesting way to think about our various relationships throughout our lives, isn’t it? And each one of these tells a story. We’re going to read Isaiah 9 again, and this week we’re focusing on the second name: Mighty God. But as I read it, I want you to think about the story it’s telling.

READ/PRAY (pg. 607)

1. What is Your Story?

-We tend to focus on ourselves and our own lives and either neglect or ignore the lives that come before us. We do this as a country, and as individuals. There’s a tension here, because historically people were only connected to their family which means the individual was lost in the communal. But our culture has swung to the complete opposite of that, to the point that we have no room for anything communal! No one will commit to anything, no one will look out for anyone else, and no one else can tell anyone else what to do. The fact that we have something called FOMO should tell us everything we need to know about our culture! 

-But the reality is we’re all products of our culture and our upbringing. We all came from somewhere (and someone) which affects all of us. And part of the problem with our world today is that people don’t take the time to know themselves, which means they also can’t truly get to know anyone else because they haven’t taken the time to know how God created them. AND if we don’t know the way God created us, we’re always going to be scared that someone will expose us as a fraud. It’s no wonder people church hop, and job hop, and house hop, it means no one can ever truly get to know the real you.

-But friends, the only way to find healing, the only way to have hope in the world, the only way to be truly loved is by opening yourself up to others. To know your story and be willing to share it with others so they can care for you. And what’s scary about digging into yourself is you’re messed up and broken. All of us have temptations and impulses that we wish weren’t a part of our lives! One of the best examples of someone who tried digging into his life is in a guy named Augustine, who lived in the 4^th century. Augustine may be the most influential theologian to live after the Apostle Paul. Augustine was an African who lived a life seeking nothing but pleasure until God saved Him, and one of his seminal works is titled “Confessions” which is Augustine processing his life and God’s work in His life. It’s an interesting look at the intersection of theology and testimony.

-Read a 13-point summary of the book this week that was really helpful, and it just reminded me that people who weren’t distracted by technology had time to think and process the things of the Lord in ways that we never will! You can find a LINK to the summary in my sermon manuscript online. Listen to how Augustine describes his life story.

-The staff here read a book over the past year that talked about how we can think and process our stories, how we can look at our family of origin and see some of the ways that continues shaping us today. The author has this fun line that has stuck with me: Jesus may be in your heart, but grandpa’s still in your bones! We can’t escape our histories, what we can do is bring it to the feet of Jesus and ask Him to help us process our history in healthy ways! More to come on this in the future!

• What is God’s Story?

-It begins with knowing God’s story! There is a surprising amount of ignorance around the Bible today! Most people don’t even know the basic storyline, what it focuses on, the way it talks about history. Could you? I love the way Stephen, the first martyr in the church, is able to walk through the whole OT and talk about how it points to Jesus. He starts with Abraham, goes to Joseph and the patriarchs, then to Moses leading Israel into the promised land, then to the tabernacle and temple and ends with a focus on Jesus, the Righteous One, which leads to his death.

-If we look at Isaiah 9, we see a story! Referring to the past, that this day will be different. Looking to the future where a light will come. The promise of a coming kingdom where justice and righteousness will rule.  

-If you were asked to summarize the entire Bible, how would you do it? There’s multiple proposals for this, and multiple ways that could describe it. One easy way is: creation, fall, redemption, transformation, and consummation. Another way I’ve seen is tracing the serpentine theme through Scripture – garden, Pharoah has a serpent on his headdress, Goliath is described like a snake with his armor, Jesus calls the Pharisees a brood of vipers, in Revelation the enemy is described as a giant snake (dragon). The one I think summarizes the storyline the best, however, is the idea of God’s kingdom. Coincidentally, the one thing that I would argue is missing from our denomination’s SOF is any reference to the kingdom. There’s reasons for it that I don’t have time to get into here, so if you’re interested in talking about that, let me know! 

-How should we define God’s kingdom? Graeme Goldsworthy Gospel and Kingdom 53-4. The place/sphere that this takes place starts globally (tasked to spread the garden out), then narrows in focus, before going all the way out again to encapsulate the entire world. But God’s plan has always been global (dare we say cosmic) in scope. And I think it’s helpful for us to remember the whole storyline of Scripture, because if we just take Jesus out of context we miss everything that He came to fulfill, which means we miss His entire mission and reason He came to earth. God’s Big Picture by Vaughn Roberts

• The Pattern of the Kingdom

-The goal of the creation is rest. If you didn’t know, the chapter and verse markers aren’t inspired and weren’t part of the original writings. The creation account actually goes into Gen. 2, after God has created everything, it says He rested. We shouldn’t think of this as God being tired and needing a nap (like us), it means He doesn’t need to do any more creating. It’s done, it’s correct, everything is ordered as it should be. This tells us that this is the picture of how God intended to interact with His creation. He would be able to meet in perfect harmony with everything He had created, no Christmas complaining ever! So we see the pattern of the kingdom is like this:

• The Perished Kingdom

-But we know that’s not the way it ends, that’s just the first 2 chapters, because Gen. 3 tells the story of what’s often referred to as the Fall. And look how it begins. Remember the way God’s rule was demonstrated in the garden? Through His Word. What does the serpent question? His Word! And look at how the relationship the people have with God is affected. Where they used to be together, knowing God and each other without any hindrance, now there’s a barrier. There’s something to hide, so God calls out asking where they are. In the perished kingdom, this is what God’s kingdom looks like:

• The Promised Kingdom

-The story continues with increasing corruption in the world resulting in a flood (intentionally worded as the opposite of creation, a de-creation of the world). Yet out of this corruption, God is still faithful, still wants a relationship with His creation, so He reaches out to Abram (later called Abraham), calls him to leave everything he knows and go to a new land where God would be with him, and he would be a blessing to the entire world. What’s amazing about this is that even though sin had led to complete corruption in the world, the world receives nothing but grace from God. Even though they had betrayed the king, God continues loving and blessing His creation. Here the Kingdom of God looks like this:

• The Partial Kingdom

-And once again, these people listen to the serpent and follow after their own ways. The rest of the first 5 books are the formation of this new nation of Abraham’s descendants. Exodus tells how God saved His people from slavery, led them into the wilderness (where he continued providing for them anytime they needed food or water), and the need to obey God’s law, which is revealed through the rest of the books! Remember Micah’s overview of Leviticus, and the distinction between clean and unclean, holy any unholy? There are specific ways that God’s people are allowed to approach Him, otherwise they’ll be killed by his perfect holiness. Here we see the partial kingdom looking like this: 

-A specific people group called out from all the nations of the world who are supposed to be an example to the world of what fidelity to the one true God looks like. But there’s still a separation because of sin, so God’s place is specifically located in the temple, and the only way to approach Him at the temple is through the elaborate sacrificial system. And notice how God’s rule is demonstrated: through the law and the king, who is supposed to serve as the example to the people of what God looks like. And the theme throughout this time period is: the nation is only as faithful as its’ king. As the king goes, so goes the nation. And they had some BAD kings leading to the land being split in 2: northern and southern kingdoms of Israel and Judah, and eventually even those 2 kingdoms no longer existed because the people were taken off into exile, which is getting somewhat into the next era of God’s kingdom in human history: 

• The Prophesied Kingdom

-God disciplines His people by sending them into exile. We often think of the prophesy coming through the prophets are future telling, but they do a whole lot more talking about events in their time where they plead with the people to repent, to trust God, and obey His plans for them. All the prophets focus on 2 themes: judgment and hope. Judgment for disobedience, and hope that God will be faithful to His promises to restore His people. The prophets also tell of a day in the future where God’s blessings will be given to all creation, where God’s original intent for perfect relationship with His creation with be realized, where everyone will desire to follow after God completely, obeying all His laws perfectly because they’ll be written on our hearts instead of stone tablets. God says my job will be redundant, I won’t need to tell you about God, because all of us will know Him perfectly! What a wonderful day that will be! Here’s what God’s kingdom looks like as a prophesied kingdom: 

-And then we turn the page into the NT, which covers 400 silent years, years that included the beginning of one of the most impactful civilizations in human history: the Roman empire. And a census during the Roman empire is what led to the Christ-child being born in Bethlehem, the land of His father David. But think of His arrival:

• The Present Kingdom

-Jesus preaches that the kingdom is here! It has arrived IN HIM! All the promises of the past are answered and fulfilled in Him. All the previous things God used were pictures that pointed us to the fulfillment of them in Jesus. Therefore, the present kingdom looks like this: 

-Do you see how Jesus fulfills every single one of God’s promises? He completely changes everything! Jesus is the true and better Adam, He’s the true a better Israel, He’s the true and better tabernacle, He’s the true and better temple, He brings in the true and better covenant, and He alone offers us the rest we so desperately need. Where the world continually tells us we need to prove ourselves, Jesus tells us to find our rest IN HIM! Friends, this is the reality of the Christmas story, this is the reality of the gospel message, that because God became a man, we have hope to draw near to God once again. We can have a lasting relationship WITH HIM! This Kingdom has already begun, Jesus is already on His throne, the question is do you realize and recognize that?

• The Proclaimed Kingdom

-After Jesus rises from the dead, a new era of human history began, what the NT calls “the last days.” The purpose of these last days is to share the reality of this kingdom with others. The Spirit is poured out on the disciples of Jesus, who immediately began sharing the story of what Jesus has accomplished with the nations who were in Jerusalem. Look at the way the disciples were thinking about this, though. They were still too narrow in their focus, only worried about themselves. And look what Jesus calls them: witnesses. They’re supposed to bear witness to this new kingdom, to proclaim it to others, and it’s supposed to take place across the world. This part of the kingdom looks like this: 

-Notice that the current kingdom is in the church, which is comprised of individuals who make up a body! God now dwells with us once again, and it’s all centered and focused on Jesus. But even this isn’t the final stage of God’s kingdom:

• The Perfected Kingdom

-God is in the process of making everything new, of redeeming it to Himself, and it comes through the proclamation of His people, from every tribe and tongue and nation. There’s a day coming when sin won’t have any more power, where everything sad will come untrue, where God will completely heal everything. The idea of shalom, lasting eternal peace is what God calls it, where everything is properly ordered, in its’ rightful place. A day where we don’t need preaching anymore, because we’ll all know exactly what God wants from us, and where our work will no longer be thorns and thistles. This final part of the kingdom looks like this: 

-And if you want a picture of the whole storyline of Scripture, it looks like this: You can see it’s not a straight line! 

-But that’s not where we should end this story, because this leads to another question:

• What Happens When Your Story Meets God’s Story?

-I think we often view Christianity as a self-actualization project instead of complete self-transformation. I love the way Bonhoeffer says it: when Christ calls someone, he calls them to die. The moment we’re saved we’re brought into union with Jesus Christ. Paul says it this way in Col. 3. If we think back to those relationship lines I shared at the beginning of the sermon, our lives would like this:

-We’re operating by ourselves, until we come to the reality that we’re a sinner in need of grace. Then God brings us into His story, and our lives become hidden in Christ. That doesn’t mean it’s all easy, and you can see there’s times where the lines aren’t as close as they could or should be, but our lives are meant to be completely changed. Our story, which used to be completely dependent on us to figure out, has a new purpose and direction to it because Jesus is now supposed to be the driving force behind everything we do. I think there’s a great picture of this in John 9. A man born blind is healed by Jesus, then interrogated by Pharisees, and he answers, “Whether or not he’s a sinner, I don’t know. One thing I do know: I was blind, and now I can see!” Friends, Jesus wants to take all the burdens and concerns of your story and bring healing to them. This is God’s plan for humanity – to know and follow Him serving under His rule and reign wherever we go. What’s crazy (to me) is the Mighty God’s plan now relies on broken people like you and me to be His witnesses, to share the story of what God has done in history and in our story with others. To tell them about the kingdom of God that will last forever, and to invite them to participate in God’s plan, which takes place here every week.

-It’s not super flashy, it’s not super impressive, Jesus describes it like a little yeast in a bread dough. Just a little bit is enough to make the whole thing rise, and just a few Christians meeting together is enough to accomplish His plans for us!