The Epic God

Introduction:

A piece of art tells much about its creator.

A paint talks about the joys and struggles of its maker: Talk about one of Van Gogh’s pieces of art,

A movie that stirs our heart is able to reach out to us because there is something about the characters that resonates in us. It was built within each one of us a burning desire to connect with a larger story than our own. There is something inside of us that becomes alive when we connect to a larger story. For some it is was when you were part of a sports team, or your wedding, the birth of a child, or an invitation to be part of a special project.

Give example of the Greatest Show Man movie.

God is the Master Artist

When you look at the world around us, there is a sense of awe and wonder that comes out of us. My wife, Jessica, and I went on our 11 anniversary to Asheville, NC. We had a great time together. I wanted to go see the Moog factory a famous synthesizer company and she wanted to go on hikes and visit some mountains and walk around trails. Being outdoors did something to me that I hadn’t experienced in a long time. It was as if I had forgotten adventures that I used to have when I was a kid in Mexico.

We went to the Dupont Trail, one of the settings for Hunger Games, The Last of the Mohicans. Being in nature

What does it feel to be loved? When was the last time you knew someone just got you for who you really are? When was that last conversation when you felt so deeply connected to someone else? Maybe it was the person across the table, maybe that person that looked at you in the eyes and told you, “It’s going to be ok. I’ve got this.” Maybe some people in this room cannot remember that last time that you felt so deeply connected to somebody else. Maybe some of you have that person already in your life. And you have fun together, at least most of the times. That’s great and we celebrate that in your life. We all want to have that person in our lives that reminds us who we really are; that person that calls us up when everyone else doubts us; that person that is not ok with us settling for less than what we are capable of becoming. If you are this kind of person, that’s great. And yet, I want to challenge you and say to you that that person that came to mind cannot begin to come close to who God is.

People are:

Flawed. God is perfect.

People will not will always be able to be there for us. God is always with us and for us ()

People will hurt us, at some point. God has a perfect heart for us.

Are you digging broken wells? Are you building your life on the rock or on the sand?

Your life will only begin to make sense when you choose the One who is with you always and forever.

You don’t need to find God. He has already found you, here!

We want to invite you to go out on an adventure with God. He is the one who makes the ordinary into extraordinary, the one who brings chaos into order, the one who turns nothingness into beauty and wonder.

Does your life feel like so small and sanitized? Then this is a great opportunity for you to know the God who calls what is not as if it was.

Faith gives you the eyes to see with the eyes of God:

He sees in you an ability to be that is not clear for you yet because he knows you better than you know yourself.

16 For this reason it is by faith, in order that it may be in accordance with grace, so that the promise will be guaranteed to all the descendants, not only to those who are of the Law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all,

17 (as it is written, “A father of many nations have I made you”) in the presence of Him whom he believed, even God, who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist.

New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995. Print.

His heart for you is good!

11 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. 2 This is what the ancients were commended for.

Q: How do I know God? By faith we get to know God:

The New International Version. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011. Print.

If we were to be honest with each other, there are people in this room that they cannot begin to see the capacity that God is giving them to love, care for others, the capacity for creativity, to overcome those fears and thoughts that come at night. But nothing is impossible with God. When most of us see a limitation, God sees the ability to overcome, when we see that we are unable to change, God says, I can make you new again. God made you to live with a great sense of purpose, intimacy and purpose. Will you invite God to write the following chapters of your life? We cannot change where we come from or what we’ve gone through. But God is able to change the fabric of our heart; to give us a new start; to give us peace and hope!

God is here tonight. Search no more. Thirst no more. Grieve no more. Tonight is the night when you can find your purpose (purpose with capital P!). Purpose is not found on what we do but on a person. Purpose is never about tasks or projects. Purpose is found through a relationship.

There was this guy who had a crazy life. By all moral standards this guy was jacked up. He went from bed to bed, from relationship to relationship. He got lost in the maze of pleasure and self medicating the ache of his heart. He was a gifted speaker. When he was very young he was regarded as one of the best at what he did. In the eyes of people, had a great future in what he was doing. But inside of him there was a sense of emptiness that he had been trying to fill out for decades. His name was Augustin of Hippo.

Saint Augustine: Confessions Chapter 1

Thou dost bestir him so that he takes delight in praising Thee: for Thou hast made us for Thee and our heart is unquiet till it finds its rest in Thee.

For years Augustin had tried to be his own god and he had found himself at a loss when he realized that the brokenness inside of him had turned love into lust. He wrote that at the age of sixteen, he saw how his life went out of control when he turned his relationships into sexual transactions. Women became into objects. His sexuality became a slavedriver and not a means to experience the joy that God had intended when he created humanity. But one day, God met him in the middle of his darkness. Augustin gave up trying to find his purpose outside of God’s will and then everything came into place. His life was changed forever when he found his greatest pleasure in the one relationship that never fails, or falls short.

After he found his reason to live in Jesus, he asked the question, who is God “Most high, most excellent, most potent, most omnipotent; most piteous and most just; most hidden and most near; most beauteous and most strong, stable, yet contained of none; unchangeable, yet changing all things; never new, never old; making all things new, yet bringing old age upon the proud and they know it not; always working, yet ever at rest; gathering, yet needing nothing; sustaining, pervading, and protecting; creating, nourishing, and developing; seeking, and yet possessing all things. Thou lovest, and burnest not; art jealous, yet free from care; repentest, and hast no sorrow; art angry, yet serene; changest Thy ways, leaving unchanged Thy plans; recoverest what Thou findest, having yet never lost; art never in want, whilst Thou rejoicest in gain; never covetous, though requiring usury.

Augustine, Saint. The Complete Works of Saint Augustine: The Confessions, On Grace and Free Will, The City of God, On Christian Doctrine, Expositions on the Book Of Psalms, ... (50 Books With Active Table of Contents) (Kindle Locations 28988-28989). . Kindle Edition. beauteous and most strong, stable, yet contained of none; unchangeable, yet changing all things; never new, never old; making all things new, yet bringing old age upon the proud and they know it not; always working, yet ever at rest; gathering, yet needing nothing; sustaining, pervading, and protecting; creating, nourishing, and developing; seeking, and yet possessing all things. Thou lovest, and burnest not; art jealous, yet free from care; repentest, and hast no sorrow; art angry, yet serene; changest Thy ways, leaving unchanged Thy plans; recoverest what Thou findest, having yet never lost; art never in want, whilst Thou rejoicest in gain; never covetous, though requiring usury.

How can I turn this into an explaination of what sin does to us?

“Behold my heart, O God, behold my heart, which Thou hadst pity upon in the bottom of the bottomless pit. Now, behold, let my heart tell Thee what it sought there, that I should be gratuitously evil, having no temptation to ill, but the ill itself. It was foul, and I loved it; I loved to perish, I loved mine own fault, not that for which I was faulty, but my fault itself. Foul soul, falling from Thy firmament to utter destruction; not seeking aught through the shame, but the shame itself!

Saint Augustine. The Confessions of St. Augustine (p. 13). . Kindle Edition. “

Augustine, Saint. The Complete Works of Saint Augustine: The Confessions, On Grace and Free Will, The City of God, On Christian Doctrine, Expositions on the Book Of Psalms, ... (50 Books With Active Table of Contents) (Kindle Locations 28989-28993). . Kindle Edition.

So here is the invitation for tonight: Would you take this message and hide it in your heart? Would you tell God: I want to know you for who you are, not for who I have made you to be? Would you show me your heart for me?

So here is the invitation for tonight: Would you take this message and hide it in your heart? Would you tell God: I want to know you for who you are, not for who I have made you to be? Would you show me your heart for me?