Expectation Gap: God’s Love
Notes
Transcript
What do I believe God wants us to know? He loves us not matter what, no matter how we feel
Why? We all desire for God to love us and accept us despite how we feel
What do I believe God wants us to know? Remember His story
Why? It will help us know and feel that we are loved
ME/WE
I love a good story…ANYBODY WITH ME?….I LOVE HOW A MOVIE WILL MOVE ME, POTENTIALLY CHANGE ME,
I LOVE A GOOD STORY LIKE LORD OF THE RINGS (good vs evil) fighting to defeat the Sauron (maybe I like it a little more because it is a story of little people Hobbits defeating evil) , Shawshank Redemption a story of hope and justice, or Toy Story a story of friendship
Anybody else love a good story?
What are some of your favorite stories?
WE ALL LOVE STORIES WHETHER THEY BE FROM MOVIE, BOOK, GOOD BOOK;BIBLE, TESTIMONIES
Testimonies ARE POWERFUL
a month ago we heard 3 testimonies of God’s faithfulness
WE SEE THIS IN the beginning of C.S. Lewis’s coming to faith story is CONNECTED TO THE POWER OF STORY
We see this with the start of C.S. Lewis conversion story
J.R.R. TOLKEIN (Lord of the Rings) shows C.S. Lewis who at the the time is an atheist (creator of Chrnoicles of Narnia and other famous Christian books) in a conversation they had on Addison’s Walk in Oxford who thought what’s the point of the fiction stories? He said, “ I love the old myths, legends, stories, but Tolkein they are lies though breathed through silver.
- THEY ARE LIES, THOUGH BREAHTED THROUGH SILVER
Tolkein said, No, these great stories though fiction have splinters of the Gospel of Jesus….the reason we love these fiction stories is because they are pointing to the GREATEST STORY OF ALL
Tolkien said, “Think about this story. A man from an obscure village, a nobody, is found to have a power that no one has ever seen before to resist evil. He’s raising children from the dead, stilling the storm, feeding the multitude, casting out demons, and loving the poor and marginalized. He’s really making a difference, and then he’s betrayed. He’s put to death, and all hope is over. But wait! He’s miraculously raised from the dead! What does that sound like Mr. Lewis?”
“That sounds like another one of those great stories that isn’t factually true, but it’s so moving and so wonderful.” BUT MR. LEWIS IT IS TRUE. JESUS IS THE ULTIMATE REALITY STORY THAT ALL OTHER STORIES POINT TO.
In some ways, he’s the handsome prince who kisses you and wakes you up from the sleeping death. He’s the love who can get you out of your self-made prisons. He’s the knight who slays the dragon. He’s the one who does all these things, but it’s not a story of fiction. This is the claim of Christianity; this is not, “Once upon a time.”
This really happened, and if it did happen … (Please listen carefully). If he really was born in a real manger and raised from the dead (not a legend, but actually raised from the dead), and you believe in him, then all the things you have read in those stories over the years that you’ve longed for come true IN JESUS
You will step outside of time and escape death. Your love relationships will go on forever. You will even communicate with non-human personal beings, and good will triumph over evil. The claim is no less than that. It’s the stuff we’ve longed for in the stories. and good news in Jesus Christ, the story is TRUE
WE ARE MOVED BY THE TESTIMONIES OF GOD’S WORK IN OTHERS
WE are moved by the TESTIMONY STORY OF GOD AT WORK IN OTHERS and US
WE ALL FOR THOSE WHO ARE A BELIEVERS HAVE A TESTIMONY of God working, TRISH, LISA
WE are moved the testimony that we are
I am divinely designed
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Deeply desired
Lavishly loved
Fully forgiven
Scared story of grace
BUT HERE IS THE THING I KNOW ABOUT YOU AND ME….WE SOMETIMES HAVE SHADOW STORIES THAT START TO PLAY LOUDER THAN THE TRUE STORIES.
Our flesh
The world
The enemy starts to tell us different
here is the crazy thing the stories do not need to be TRUE TO BE REAL TO US
Not deeply desired
Not lavishly loved (you know what you did yesterday, how you went off on your friend, lied to you sister)…you NEED TO EARN YOU LOVE
Not divinely designed
How many of us bought a NOT TRUE STORY about you? Mom or dad, friends, flesh, enemy
- dumb
- ugly
- unwanted
- not needed
- bad mom or dad
- nobody cares about
- unlovable
- unaccepted
- secondary
We live in a culture of rejection
- GOD LOVES YOU WHEN UOU OBEY BUT WHEN YOU DON’T well he really doesn’t love or like
WRITE ON A CARD SOME OF YOU HAVE BOUGHT INTO….than during communion you are going to rip up the cards
WHAT’S AT STAKE WITH THE SHADOW STORIES
WHAT STEVE CUSS SAYS ONE OF THE REASONS WE SOMETIMES CANNOT FEEL GOD’S LOVE IS BECAUSE WE ARE BELIEVE LIE, A NOT TRUE STORY
This has affected and still does at time my relationship with God.
TRUE STORY
I am divinely designed
Deeply desired
Lavishly loved
Fully forgiven
Scared story of grace
TABERNACLE PRAYER
ONE OF THE TWO THINGS THAT WILL BREAK THE SHADOW IS BY GOING TO TO THE LIGHT….going to Jesus and to the church
Live into community with
Anybody ever have a bad day or season where you think you are dumb and then you start to share it with someone from church and they say hold up! wait a minute! What you are saying is not true! you are not junk, you are not dumb, yes you made a mistake but mistakes don’t define you.
Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.
We are also changed by coming to the light of Jesus….THE BEAUTIFUL THING ABOUT JESUS IS WHEN WE MEET THE LIGHT OF JESUS WE ARE FOREVER CHANGED
LET’S DIVE INTO A STORY AN AMAZING STORY OF GRACE to a women by human standards we might say doesn’t deserve it.
Jesus says she is divinely designed, deeply desired, lavishly love, fully forgiven (when she gives her life to Jesus, scared story of grace.
What the religious leaders of the day would say is NO SHE IS NOT
I WANT TO SHARE A STORY OF WOMAN WHO HEARD MANY SHADOW STORIES OF WHAT GOD THOUGHT OF HER
UNWATED
TO BIG OF A SINNER
A TESTIMONY
Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them.
The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst
they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery.
Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?”
This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground.
IRONIC
How many people does it take to commit the act the woman commited? One?
Where’s the man
Also, to make this type of charge you would need TWO people to witness this happen
then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones, the young woman because she did not cry for help though she was in the city, and the man because he violated his neighbor’s wife. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.
WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME THE FINGER OF GOD WROTE SOMETHING?
10 Commanmendts
And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.”
THE STORY WAS THOSE WITH “BAD” SINS CANNOT BE ACCEPTED BUT THOSE WITH “MINOR” SINS CAN BE
And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground.
But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him.
OLDER ONES KNEW THEIR SIN
Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”
NEW STORY….NEITHER DOES GOD CONDEM HER
JESUS IS SAYS
SHE IS DIVINELY DESIGNED
DEEPLY DESIRED
FULLY FORGIVEN
LAVISHLY LOVED
SCARED STORY OF GRACE
SOME OF YOU TODAY CAN RELATE ON SOME LEVEL WITH THE WOMAN…YOU HAVE A STORY
AND IT IS COMMUNICATING A MESSAGE
YOU ARE NOT GOOD
UNLOVABLE
JESUS SAYS
I am divinely designed
Deeply desired
Lavishly loved
Fully forgiven
Scared story of grace
Feelings need to be transformed too
ONE OF THE WAYS WE TRANSFORM OUR FEELINGS IS BY GETTING OUR STORIES CORRECT
How do we correct those stories?
Worship, witness, word, Holy Spirit