Sermon Tone Analysis

I - Choose your own Adventure

I LOVED choose your own Adventure books as a kid...

How they work...

I still have a couple… And was looking at them and they are WAY sillier than I remember...

I was looking at the endings last night and they are all over the palce

Like would you wind up making friends with the aliens from outerspace OR wind up leading them to team up with the Soviet Union.

Like i said silly

But what I loved about them was the fact that every decision you make was significant to how the story would turn out.

Everything mattered.

IF you went right one thing happened, left another.

One wrong turn and the fate of the world would hang in the balance!

But what I loved about them was the fact that every decision you make was significant to how the story would turn out.

Everything mattered.

IF you went right one thing happened, left another.

I think I loved this so much b/c for most of my life I had felt like the choices I made diddnt matter very much.

I was always waiting for my life to start.

To get older, to graduate, to start having significant choices.

W - We have to choose what story we are going to believe and live out.

We project them too.

Often we try and live more than one story at a time

Looking back I waited too long and the things that I thought would matter the most (like that new video game I wanted) turned out to be insignificant and the stuff that seemed unimportant (like the way I treated people at home or school) turned out to make all the difference.

turned out to be insignificant and the stuff that seemed unimportant

W - I think we often mix-up what decisions are the most significant of our lives.

We often get fixated on things that done amount to much....

Examples… Slides would be fun for this.

Positive Stories

“The Providing Father”

“The Sacrificing Mother”

“The Good Kid”

“The Successful Entrepeneur”

“The Perfect Life”

“The World Traveler”

‘negative’

“The Counterpuncher”

“The Best ...”

AND

These stories we tell matter more than we think.

They define our actions and make sense out of their consequences.

They are incredibly powerful in our minds and are INCREDIBLY difficult to change.

We often let slip the things that really matter.

We will ignore a lot of contrary evidence before we will do something different.

W

I think as long as we try and write our own life stories we are going to have trouble with this.

So I guess my question is, what does it look like to let God write our stories.

To choose to live according to the Story God has been telling in scripture since the beginning.

But...

“The bible invites us to lay down our stories, and let God incorporate us into his....”

“The bible invites us to lay down our stories, and let God incorporate us into his....”

TRANSITION: The bible invites us to read it, pray it, study it, and ask the Holy SPirit in helping us understand it.

And most of all to allow God to graft us into it.

To see ourselves in its characters, good and bad, and perhaps even find some insight into our own practical lives there, ways to more fully live accordin to GOd’s story as told into the bible to root ourselves in what God has done and is doing.

AND today we get a special treat.

Two of our confirmation students are going to show us what that looks like.

One way to start doing that is reading lots of scriptrue and Part of Confirmation this year as been jsut that.

Be Doers of the word

This year Bodee and MOlly have read lots of the old testament and I asked them to find just one story in God’s big story that really connected with them.

Bodee and MOlly have read lots of the old testament and I asked them to find just one story in God’s big story that really connected with them.

they have...

G- David gets pulled into the story God is telling and he gets a few chances to choose which story he wants to live out.

G

Explain what students did/are doing

Read through portions of the OT

Asking a few questions

What does this tell me about God?

What does this tell me about People?

What does this tell me about what it means to follow God?

Picked a favorite story to dig into and find themselves in.

“God teach me through your word”

The stories they are sharing today are what came out of their study and hard work.

They both independently choose stories from the book of 1 Samuel about Isreal’s second King David

The Story of David

Background

They both independently choose stories from the book of 1 Samuel about Israel's second King David.

David Defeats Goliath - Bodee 2 mins

Read 4 , , 37, 40-50

God sees the heart

God can be trusted

Even though I am small God can use me

David Spares Saul - Molly 2 mins

Y

Kyle Read

Y/W

Even David was tempted to take revenge on Saul when Saul was at his weakest

W

Y/W - We repeatedly are invited to choose which kind of story we are in.

TRANS: David was constantly forced to choose if he was going to believe God’s story, or another story, Forced to choose if he would live God’s story or another.

Both times David could have done something different.

And sometimes in his life he did..... Elaborate

THE GOSPEL CHOICE

We have the oppertunity to become a part of the same Story David was in.

The story of God restoring redeeming and ressurecting the world he made.

If we accept Jesus.

But this doesnt mean everything else is easy now, we still have to CHOOSE DAILY who we will serve.

We get to choose DAILY if we are going to tell God’s story or some other story with our lves.

If you follow Jesus, Every day we get a chance to choose, are we going to live according to God’s story, or another.

So what story are going to live your life out of, God’s or another?

When your classmate or coworker talks about you behind your back, are you going to live a revenge story or one marked by forgiveness?

When your classmate or coworker talks about you behind your back, are you going to live a revenge story or one marked by forgiveness?

When God calls you to do something hard will your story be of the time you trusted God, or the time you gave up when times got tough?

When you see someone in pain will you tell the story of the time you walked by or the time you stopped, listened and helped