Lord of the Rings - At the Movies

At the Movies  •  Sermon  •  Submitted
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Introduction

Who doesn’t love an epic story? Everyone loves a good story…i have a great one
Lord of the Rings is one of my favorites…game, book, map in my room
But here is the problem, just because I love a good story or know how to tell an epic story, that doesn't mean that I am living an epic story
Imagine that God gave us a pen and said write your story…we would all write these incredible stories, and we would be the hero, and we would get the girl or the guy of our dreams, and we would make the winning shot, or we would be the most beautiful girl on the planet, and we would be famous, and people would love us. Why would we write a story like that? we all want to live big stories, stories that matter, stories that people will tell for years to come, we all want to live epic stories.

Living a story is unavoidable . Living an epic story that matters is intentional.

Hobbits were common, unordinary people

Frodo moved from spectator to participator

Heb 11 is full of ordinary people who became participants and lived epic stories

Frodo didn’t think he had much to offer, there was nothing exceptional about hobbits. Many of us feel the same way.
REALITY: We are all a part of God’s epic story, but few of us see our potential to play a major role and live in an epic story.

3 Parts to the best epic stories

Every epic story has a “fellowship”

Hebrews 12:1(ESV)
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses...
Jesus had his 12, Paul always had a fellowship with him

God chose the local church to be the fellowship of the king

Hebrews 11:29–30 ESV
By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned. By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days.

The local church is full of epic stories that inspire, people moving from spectator to participant...

It’s not enough to just watch online or attend in service…we need to be surrounded by a community. The fellowship wasn’t just the 9 that set out it was the elves, the dwarves, and human races that were his fellowship.
Every epic story have a “fellowship” and Every epic story has conflict
Clip #2

Every epic story has conflict

Heb 12:1-2
Hebrews 12:1–2 (ESV)
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...

Epic stories require something different

Lay aside the weight and sin that clings

Run with endurance, grit, tenacity, mettle

the word for race used here (agōna) is a word which denotes ‘conflict’.

Conflict is inevitable

3 things cause conflict
Self - sunburn syndrome
Satan - seeks to destroy you
Sin - in the world and in others
God never causes conflict, but he might allow it

God allows conflict to mold us into the person he wants us to become

James 1:2–3 ESV
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.

When we are find ourselves in conflict, we have to rely on God’s strength not our own

2 Corinthians 12:8–10 (ESV)
Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” ...For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Every epic story has a “fellowship” and conflict, but it also has an epic character

Every epic story has an epic character

Frodo wasn’t the epic character Lord of the Rings is about, he was just a part of the story
The ring wasn’t really the point…it was to be destroyed
Clip #3 - Aragon Coronation

Return of the King

The ring represented sins hold on our lives, Aragon represented the eternal kingdom when we throw off the weight of sin

We are all just a part of the bigger story…Christ is the main character

Hebrews 12:2 ESV
looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Paul - wrote half the NT, lived an epic story but was never the main character in his story

Romans 12:3–5 ESV
For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.
I want to live an epic story, I want to live a story that matters, but I have to remember
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