Becoming Whole Sermon Week 2

Intro/Welcome

God did not gift me with the ability to run

But what if I told you I was about to run a race and you saw put his thing on (Pea Coat)

You would think I was nuts.

This is not going to Help me win, it’s going to Hinder me

This coat is heavy, it clings close to me, it’s hot

This would be ridiculous…YET

This is how many live our lives, carrying around weights

If someone tries to tell us that we are wearing a pea coat,

we become defensive and angry

we tell them they don’t know what they are talking about.

Yet, we wonder why everything seems so difficult in life.

We are weighed down by anxiety and depression

We are distracted and disconnected

We have lost touch with others and ourselves.

We started a new series last week about “Becoming Whole” and are looking at what it means to have a Transformed Life

Last Week: God’s goal for us is our complete transformation.

Today we look at how do we get started?

The first thing we have to do is identify the weights and sins that we carry

This comes as we look at our Stories.

Then we’ll be able to lay aside these weights and sins that we carry becuase we’ll see our story is actually part of God’s Story.

and as we surrender our story to our savior we will experience transformation.

But it’s not just for us

we will then be more equipped to live the life that Jesus has called us to.

It will free us to be the kind of people that God designed us to be and to do the ministry that God has called us to.

It will also allow us to lead others through the process of transformation.

because you can’t lead anyone where you have gone yourself.

To be transformed you have to surrender your story to your savior.

We are going to be in Hebrews 12:1-2 and Psalm 139 today.

Go there — in Bibles.

My Name is Pastor Justin

So glad you are joining us today, wherever we find you this morning.

Let me pray for out time.

Pray

Help us to see.

Shaped by Our Story

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Hebrews 12:1–2 ESV Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder (author) and perfecter of our faith.

The process of transformation here is given in the image here is of running a race

‘every weight’ - literally like wearing a weighed down vest.

This is like the things that weigh us down, worries, anxieties, past wounds, unfinished business

‘every sin’ - sins we are committed, sins we have committed.

sins have consequences.

[VID of man running]

The image here is of a runner running a race dragging these things behind him.

Unless we take the time to stop and look at what we are dragging around with us,

how will we ever learn to be free of them?

how will we run this race with freedom?

These weights and sins that we are dragging around with us come from our past and have built up over our entire lives.

Do you know what you are dragging around with you?

What is it that is weighing you down?

Do you really thing it’s just present circumstances?

Who you are today has been shaped by your story.

Your Story

Your Story is made up of:

Your Personality

Your Personal Experiences

And your perceptions of yourself and the world.

It actually your personality traits and your personal experiences that shape your perceptions.

So to look at your story is to ask these questions:

How has God wired me — personality

What shaping influences have shaped by my life.

Personality:

APA - Personality refers to individual differences in characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving.

Do you know your enneagram number?

Your Meyers briggs? your top five strengths?

There are a plethora of personality tests out there today

Test like these are trying to tell you something about how you are wired.

Are you extroverted or introverted?

Are you a perfectionist?

Do you rely on thinking or feeling more?

What needs tend to determine your choices.

I think they are helpful to a degree, but at best each test can only tell you a slice of who you are.

I think there is a tendency to put too much weight on some of these tests.

No single pers. test can tell you who you are — Only God can do that.

These tests are after transformation, so they can tell you how to change but

transformation comes as we look to Jesus (behold) and by the Spirit of God

But knowing your personality traits can be helpful in understanding why you react the way you to do life’s circumstances and why you make some of the decisions you make.

This is kind of the structure for your growth.

What about personal experiences?

Personal Experiences

We are all shaped by the experiences we have had.

Science (epigenetics) teaches us that in our developmental years our brain structures can literally be shaped by experiences we have both negative and positive.

The most harmful experiences have are ones of trauma and can have significant impact on our lives

But there are also joyful and helpful experiences that shape our lives as well.

Can you identify some of the shaping influences in your life?

Stories that brought you life?

Stories that brought you harm?

Are you able to connect some of these stories to your present?

Positive Example: guy that loves to work on trucks.

Negative examples: many stories of sexual abuse that drastically affect how a person views themselves.

Perception

Personality & Pers. Experience together shape our perception of our self and the world.

Are I good? Are I lovable?

Are I desired?

Is there hope?

Is the world a safe place?

Can I trust people?

We all have perceptions about ourselves and the world,

looking at our stories help us become aware of what they are and what has shaped them.

Resist our Stories

Many of us our reticent to revisit our stories.

We think we can just keep plugging along not dealing with these things.

But the effects of these experiences do not just go away, they linger, they continue to affect.

It can be hard to admit that

I know it was for me

If we are talking a trip from Cali to N.Y. but make a turn towards FL, there’s no use continuing on toward FL.

We need to back to the event went wrong to get on the right path.

We think that by connecting our past to our present that we are somehow weak, or lack faith.

But this is furthest from the truth.

What we need is the care and compassion of people to help identify and remove some of these hindrances

I believe the Church is that place to do that.

in-fact it is only the Church that can truly do that.

Secular Psychology can not give what only comes from God.

But seeing that we have been shaped by our story is not enough,

We need to see surrender our story to our savior.

Surrendering your story

How do we surrender our story to Jesus?

The first step is to see that your story is actually embedded in a larger, grander story — The Story of God as revealed in the Bible.

Creation, Fall, Redemption and Restoration.

Let’s look at Psalm 139 and how David speaks about his story within God’s.

Psalm 139:1–6 CSB Lord, you have searched me and known me. 2 You know when I sit down and when I stand up; you understand my thoughts from far away. 3 You observe my travels and my rest; you are aware of all my ways. 4 Before a word is on my tongue, you know all about it, Lord. 5 You have encircled me; you have placed your hand on me. 6 This wondrous knowledge is beyond me. It is lofty; I am unable to reach it.

God knows his story

(about 30 sec between these)

Psalm 139:13–17 CSB For it was you who created my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I will praise you because I have been remarkably and wondrously made. Your works are wondrous, and I know this very well. 15 My bones were not hidden from you when I was made in secret, when I was formed in the depths of the earth. 16 Your eyes saw me when I was formless; all my days were written in your book and planned before a single one of them began. 17 God, how precious your thoughts are to me; how vast their sum is!

Do you know that you were created by a good God?

Do you know that God fully knows your story, more than you do?

Do you know that God is writing your story?

He knows everyone of your days, past, present and future.

And it God’s story death is never the end.

Evil never ultimately prevails.

God has created you to bear his image

mind, body and spirit

He designed your personality

He made you who you are.

He ‘knit you together’

He has called you to a purpose.

He has a plan for your life.

We have to believe these things to surrender our stories to him.

But the problem is sin.

This world is broken

Satan is evil personified.

and his whole goal is to veil our view of God as we saw last week.

So then...

We are not sure we can trust God

We are not sure that He is good after all.

We’ve believed the lie that he is holding out on us

Look at the way David talks about sin.

He doesn’t give into that lie.

Psalm 139:19–22 CSB God, if only you would kill the wicked— you bloodthirsty men, stay away from me— 20 who invoke you deceitfully. Your enemies swear by you falsely. 21 Lord, don’t I hate those who hate you, and detest those who rebel against you? 22 I hate them with extreme hatred; I consider them my enemies.

David, a man after God’s own heart, see’s sin as God does

He hates it.

Our culture has tried to write the concept of SIN our of our experiences

This is not only UNBIBLICAL it doesn’t WORK

Do you know what nobody in the secular media is talking about?

Human SIN and the fact that it is true of all of us.

You and I and the REST of our Nation need a SAVIOR first and foremost

David Hates sin, becuase God hates sin

Sin is the reason for so much pain and suffering in the world.

Sin is the problem

If God didn’t hate sin, he would’t be God.

Jesus transforms our story

But God is so Good and Loving that he doesn’t just ‘kill his enemies’ as David requests, rather he sends His SON to BE KILLED in their place.

Jesus has the power to transform your story.

He died for sin, so that we would live for Him and by his power.

Surrendering your story to Jesus means giving your life to Him and accepting HIS life for YOURS.

as we said last week this is the beginning of transformation, our salvation.

Jesus not only dies for the sins of the world, but he sets in motion its transformation.

He is the the process of restoring and redeeming all things.

And one day he will make all things new.

ONLY Jesus has the ability and desire to redeem your story

so that no suffering is without meaning but rather can result in ministry

Only God can turn what was intended for evil into good and the saving of many lives

This is what transformation looks like.

STORY: move in 7th grade, made fun of, bullied

hard, drastically affected my self perception

carried this for years

many years God saved me and re-wrote my story.

All that pain was transformed into purpose and compassion towards others.

I found a strength that was outside of myself.

This same strength drives me forward today.

This is the power of transformation

Jesus has the power to redeem and transform your story

And he has the desire to!

Why would you not want to surrender your story to Jesus?

There is no better possible ending to your story.

It begins when we literally give our lives to him.

And then it is a process of daily surrender to the King.

Jesus will complete your story.

Hebrews 12:2 NASB95 fixing our eyes onJesus, the author and perfecter of faith.

What does that look like?

Daily Surrender

It looks like Psalm 139:23-24

Psalm 139:23–24 CSB 23 Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my concerns. 24 See if there is any offensive way in me; lead me in the everlasting way.

It is praying as David prayed

A daily relationships with the Living God.

Will you pray this prayer today? Tmrw and the next day?

We will be applying this verse for the rest of our series.

commit it to memory.

Jesus wants to transform your life

Will you surrender your story to your savior?

Pray