Part of God's Story

Intro: We are Story People

Welcome to Chi Alpha! I am excited to see all of you here. Some of you I have met before and I am glad to see you, and some of you this may be the first time you’ve ever seen me,, but I am glad to see you here. My name is Joey and my wife’s name is Hannah. We have the privilege of being directing the ministry here at Chi Alpha. We serve alongside 4 other staff members (Brittony, Spencer, DiMari, and Kevin). Chi Alpha completely changed my life, and I hope that you will choose to commit to being part of this awesome family of Christian who are trying to figure out how to follow Jesus as we live our lives at Ball State.

Tonight out we are going to be reading out of the Bible and more specifically we will be looking at the Acts 17:24-27. We won’t read it quite yet but if you’d like to get there we will read from that momentarily.

If we look at our life, we will quickly discover or realize that we are people who crave story. We are story people. Whether we are waiting for the next season of Strangers Things, or feverishly reading the Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azakaban wondering how one person can write such a genius story, or hoping that somehow someone will please save the sacred lineage of Star Wars that Disney has ran through the mud we are people that crave story.

When we get together with our friends after weeks of not seeing them, what do we do? We tell stories. When the family gathers around the dinner table, we tell stories about the adventures of the day. If we come back from an awesome vacation we want to tell all the stories about it. Even if it is the lamest vacation in the world, we STILL want to talk about it. We want to tell our stories, and we want to hear stories.

Stories make us feel like we are part of something bigger than ourselves. We love stories because we can see purpose and order and fulfillment.

One of the biggest questions that drive story is “why?”. There has to be purpose. Have you ever listened to a story with no purpose or point? It’s so frustrating! Many of us are here right now in August 2020 saying “Why am I here?”, “What is my purpose?”. Luckily, I think that the passage we will look at tonight actually gives us some insight into those questions.

This is what makes the Bible so fascinating. The Bible is not just a bunch of ancient words without meaning for today or just a list of religious rules that we need to try to keep otherwise God is going to be angry at us. The Bible is a story about how God made the world and His relationship with humanity. The very opening pages of the Bible tell us a story about how the entire world was made and God was the grand architect, and the Bible ends with how God intends to bring all things together into a grand finale. This passage in Acts gives us insight about how God set up our world, why we are here, and what we can takeaway from this truth

Text:

“Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious.23 For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.

24“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. “ - Acts 17:22-27

Backstory:

To give a little backstory here, Paul is someone who wrote most of what we know now as the New Testament, and during this particular occasion he was preaching the news about Jesus to the people of Athens.

The Athenians were very religious people. And they also were what we would say today as “woke”. One of their favorite things to do is talk about new ideas, and complex ideas that are current or cool. Picture the Athenians as your local hipster drinking Peruvian Almond and Soy Milk blended coffee at the local coffeeshop talking about about the latest conspiracy theory of why fish are going to overtake the government and set up a new world religion. Ya know, those kind of people.

They even had an altar with the inscription “to an unknown God”. So they noticed that some kind of God must be out there that they don’t know about, so we better set something up just in case we offend him.

This is where Paul actually picks up on and says:

“So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.” -Acts 17:23

That is not a slam from Paul. He is simply acknowledging that they are right, and what they don’t know is that Paul actually has the answer to their questions about this unknown God.

“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. “ - Acts 17:22-27

This passage tells us that there is a God who made everything we see. All creation is the result of His handiwork. Did you hear what Scripture says: “He marked out the appointed times in history and the boundaries of their land”. God set up this word uniquely and specifically.

God has a plan and direction that he is sending history and time, and He is determined to see that plan play out.

You were brought into this world intentionally by God. You did not bring yourself to Ball State University, God did. God has appointed the time in history of each one of us, and the boundaries of our lands. Meaning the places that we will live, God has already determined that.

Why? Why has God done all of this:

Now if you are anything like me, you may be asking “why has God done this?” Why has he went to such great lengths to determine my past, present, and future. Why is God involved with my life?

Well, Scripture tells us why: It is not because God is micromanaging our lives, or limit us, or dictate our lives with us having to meaning choice. “God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.”

This has to be one of my favorite verses in all of the Bible, and one that encourages me greatly. Take a second and let that sink in for a second.

God has orchestrated your life, where you would live, what time period you’d be alive in, the school you would go to now, and where you will go in future, He did this all so that we could reach out and find Him. God did this so that we would know Him. So that we would be with Him. Nothing in our life was just arbitrarily put there. Nothing in our life was an accident. God didn’t mess up or get something wrong. God has determined my time and my places in life so that at any moment, I can reach out and find Him.

The God of Heaven and Earth wants you to know Him personally, and He wants to know you.

So why are you here in Muncie, Indiana? At Ball State University? Because God wants you to know Him.

So What Does this Mean for All of Us:

You are here to be part of God’s story at Ball State. Here at Chi Alpha we like to say that our calling is threefold: Devotion, Family, and Mission.

You are here to know God (Devotion)

God has designed your time here at Ball State in such a way that it is perfectly suited for you to know God. “God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.” God is not far from any of us. God is not playing hide and seek. If you open up your heart and mind to want to know God and experience, you will. Because that is the way that he has set the whole creation up.

He will use your community, your classes, your surroundings so that you can come to know Him.

2. You are here to be part of a family

The Bible uses family words (like brother or sister) repeatedly in the Bible. That is not religious jargon. That is meant to tell us what our relationship with our fellows Christians should be like: it should be family.

As much as we are story people, our stories are incomplete without people in them. We are communal people. If Covid-19 and quarantine has shown us anything it is that we need people and we crave community.

I don’t believe that it is a mistake that God has caused all of us to cross paths. I believe he hope that we will become part of a family that will be there for each other, encourage one another, keep each other accountable.

3. You are here on purpose with purpose (Mission)

You are here with purpose on purpose. God brought you here to know Him, but what is interesting about the way God has chosen to work all throughout history is that He usually chooses to work through people. Although God does step in with divine acts, he often uses his people to accomplish his will.

The early church flipped the world upside down by being a people of mission. They didn’t just enjoy their community of Jesus followers and keep to themselves. They boldly and generously shared what they had with everyone around them.

God not only brought you here to know Him, but to also help others know about God as well.

I am so thankful for college students who cared enough about me to share Jesus with me, and to show me what a Christian life is truly like. My life was changed forever because of that. I believe that God has brought you here so that others will know about God too.

Conclusion:

So tonight we are going to respond to God by having a short time of prayer and then the worship team will lead us in a song to close our night. So I’ll invite the worship team to come play softly as I pray.

God has went to great lengths to be sure that we have every opportunity to know Him and to experience His love. As we pray, would you surrender your life to God? Would you submit to the plan and purposes He has for you while you are here at Ball State?

“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” – Eph. 2:10

God has good works for you during your time in Ball State, He wants to reveal Himself to you in ways that you never knew, and He wants to use you in ways you never dreamed. Let’s surrender to God as we pray.