This Is My Story

Illustration 1

In one of the most desolate areas of Montana, a claim was taken by a man from Iowa. The nearest neighbor, from twenty miles away, visited the homesteader's shack, and introduced himself.

"Where did you come from?" the visitor inquired presently, and when he had been told:

"I can't understand why anybody should want to get out of that civilized country to come and live in this lonesomeness."

"Fact was," the man from Iowa explained somberly, "I didn't exactly like it down there any more. You see, it was this way. They got to telling things about me. Why, they even said I was a liar and hoss thief, and no better than I ought to be. And, by Jemima, I jest pulled out and went right away from them scandalous folks."

"Well, I swan!" the visitor exclaimed indignantly. "You can bet I wouldn't leave a place for any reason like that. I'd make them prove what they said."

The homesteader sighed dismally as he answered:

"That's jest the trouble—they did prove it!"

http://www.moreillustrations.com/Illustrations/testimony.html

Illustration 2

A nurse in a Glasgow hospital is responsible for the following story of a Christian's last testimony in song.

A man came into the hospital for an operation on his tongue. In reply to his enquiries concerning the future, the surgeon told him that he would probably be able to speak with sufficient plainness to make himself understood, but he would never be able to sing again. Whereupon the sufferer said that, if that were the case, he must have one more song before his tongue was touched. In the presence of the doctors and nurses, he burst forth into song in Cowper's hymn, 'There is a fountain filled with blood', and concluded thus:

Soon in a nobler, sweeter song, I'll sing Thy power to save When this poor lisping, cancerous tongue Lies silent in the grave.

The patient never recovered from the operation.

http://www.moreillustrations.com/Illustrations/testimony.html

Everyone loves a good story. In fact, we are often obsessed with the stories we hear from others or even the stories we tell from our own experience.

We all have a story. We all have a unique story - no two of us have the exact same story. Our stories have a major part in shaping who we are, how we look at the world, and how we look at / interact with other people. Each of our stories answer several key questions:

Who am I? What does it mean to be human? What does it mean to be a person?

Where am I? What does it mean to live at this place in this time? What is this place that I find myself in? What does it mean to be a citizen of my country? What does it mean to be a twenty-first-century human? What does it mean to live in this particular world?

What’s the problem? Is there a solution, and what is it? What should we do to try to fix the problem?

What time is it? What does it mean to be part of this era? Where do we find ourselves in the midst of the story that narrates our lives?

Life stories are usually shared - we all have people who know our stories well, even those parts of our story we don’t share as broadly. In fact, communities of people tend to have very similar stories. Have you ever noticed that? People who grow up in a similar area, or under a similar influence tend to have similar stories.

Stories are important - they are how we share about ourselves with others.

Let’s take a few moments and look at some stories we see in Scripture.

Hebrews 11:1–16 NIV

1 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. 3 By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. 4 By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead. 5 By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.” For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. 6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. 7 By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith. 8 By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. 9 By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. 11 And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered him faithful who had made the promise. 12 And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore. 13 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. 14 People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. 15 If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

I want us to notice something this morning. The story of the people of God when this was recorded would have looked different that that of the Romans.The story is shaped by faith, not by the empire.

WALK THROUGH THE STORIES IN THESE VERSES

How do we think about this story in contrast to the stories that surrounded the people who told them?

Story of Babylonian creation vs. story of Hebrew creation (Gen. 1)

Tower of Babel (Gen. 11)

How do we think about our story today versus the competing narratives we see in this day? What about the competing narratives of right vs. left politics? What about all of the us vs. them narratives (and there are quite a few).

You see, the problem is when we start identifying our story with competing narratives or stories that are not the story of our life in Jesus Christ. In fact, these competing stories are most often forms of idolatry. Let’s take a look at a few from out current day:

The success story: We should accumulate as much money, status, and power as we can because this proves our worth (baals, fertility gods, “two masters”).

The sensuality story: We all have appetites for experiences and pleasures, and we can pursue them without limit or consequence (serpent in the garden of Eden).

The humanist story: We should all do our best and make progress because progress is what will move us forward (myth of the Internet).

The fragmented story: We mix a little bit of the success story, a little bit of the sensuality story, and a little bit of the God story because in our culture, there isn’t a “story” (Friedrich Nietzsche, example from life or culture [e.g., Oprah]).

The damaged story: We are erased from the story because we are worthless and meaningless and unlovable.

Can you see how these narratives can get in the way and how they start to shape our identity and story pushing out the Christ centered narrative that defines us a believers?

N. T. Wright: Imagine we discovered a lost Shakespeare play, but it had five acts and the fourth one was missing.

Act 1: Creation and fall.

Act 2: God redeems and calls the people of Israel.

Act 3: Life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, advent of the Holy Spirit.

Act 4: Immerse yourself in the story, and improvise!

Act 5: Lion and lamb, new Jerusalem.

Paraphrase of Hebrews 11:39–12:2: “But all these died, convinced that there was a story that was more true than any other story in the world. They died looking forward to act 5, but that story is not complete without us. So now, since we’re surrounded by all of these folks who live the story so well, let us get rid of all the ways those other stories shape us. Take those off, and look to Jesus, the One who’s writing this story. He’s the main character. It’s his story, the Author and Perfecter of our faith, who, for the glory of the story, took on the cross, despite its shame, and now sits at the right hand of the Father, urging us on to be faithful to the story.”

Our stories matter. The question I have for us to think about today is what narrative and who is defining our story? If we claim to be followers of Jesus is it something other than Jesus? If it is defined by Jesus, when is the last time you shared your story with someone else?

CLOSE WITH SHARING OUR STORY WITH OTHERS - SHARE HOLINESS TODAY MAY/JUNE 2021, PAGE 27

CLOSE WITH BLESSED ASSURANCE