Untitled Sermon (4)

I - My bad Money Management.

Intro: I can still remember being 17 years old, standing at the ATM in the Chapel Hills Mall in my hometown reading the words. “Insufficient Funds” after trying to withdraw $20 in cash...STORY - The greatest resturant on earthI had spent ALL of the money that was supposed to cover my Clothes, Gas, school lunches, and anything else I needed for the entire year. What was I going to do?

Y - We are so captured by the immediate, we trade more for less every time.

Transition: Hopefully none of you have ever done anything so ridiculous. But I’ll bet something similar has happened.

G

The story of the bible is teh story of people settling for less, when they are made for MORE. Just like we do.

Today I want to give you a way to look at the whole story of the bible and understand it’s parts in a new way.

The bible is saying 2 things

God wants to give his people everything. He wants to partner.

Humans cant seem to be able to accept it. They keep trading that offer in for less.

Adam and Eve

God creates a beautiful world and puts humans in charge of working alongside him and on his behalf in it.

Humans refuse the offer: take from the tree of Good and Evil. They take from God the autority to define what good and evil is. Destruction ensues

Cain and Able

God tells Cain that sin (evil) is crouching at his door but he must rule over it. He gives him a chance to not kill his brother.

Cain refuses the offer: it shatters his family, his life, and begets more and more violence in the world

Abraham and Sarai

God promises them a family that will save the world.

They refuse the offer: and try and use sahai’s slave to make one instead

Jacob and Esau

MOses and GOd

Hebrews and God

Isreal and GOd

Saul and God

David and God

SOlomon and God

Kings and God

FAILURE

FAILURE

FAILURE

For some reason God keeps running the same play OVER AND OVER AGAIN. And we keep falling short, we keep screwing up, we keep failing.

The question becomes: Are we trapped in a repeating, self defeating cycle forever? Will humans ever amount to more? WIll God’s promise to Abraham to save the world EVER come about?

you leave the Old Testament with that question. Will this cycle ever be broken.

There are whispers in the OT saying that one day it will, but little else.

Jesus tells the story of the Prodigal.

The Story of Jesus and God

Jesus comes along in the NT. He is both HUMAN and GOD. In one person we find both sides of the deal.

God’s promise to save the world through Abraham’s Family. Jesus comes from Abraham’s family.

Jesus’ life is marked by temptation to do his own thing. BUT he lives up to our end of the deal AND he takes on his body the consequences for humanities failure then and forever. AND he gives us his spirit making it POSSIBLE for us to finally Choose More.

In that moment the cycle is broken. That failure, that sin that has held people captive since the beginning is taken care of. Defeated, eliminated. This is the story of the GOSPEL.

We can finally have the MORE that we are Made for. We can come back to him and be transformed.

Y

Accept the gospelOpen yourself up to the possiblity that there is moreWONDERWhat god can do with this yearin your familyin your workplacein your faithin this churchOver the next three weeks we are going to see how God wants so much MORE FOR US when it comes to our lives and faith. Join us and open yourself up to what he might have to say to you.

W - A We/I Story of what is possible.