You are I ARE in this Story, but it’s NOT OUR STORY
This story is GOD’s Story
And if you really want to understand…
- Yourself
- Your life
- Your Struggles
- Your future
- Our culture
- The world around you
Then you need to UNDERSTAND HOW YOU FIT INTO God’s story
What we talk about today can CHANGE YOUR LIFE
- The way you think
- The way you make decisions
- The way you see yourself and others
>>The story of God that most of us grew up with sounds like this… (If you grew up in church)
- God Made Humans
- Humans do bad
- This makes God angry
- Angry God punishes humans by kicking them out of their home
- Angry God makes bad humans kill many innocent animals to pay for sin
- Angry God eventually sends His good son
- Bad humans kill the good son
- Now God is not so angry, but still a little angry
- Now, bad people can be “okay” people, but who still do bad things
- God is sometimes still angry
- One day, angry God comes back and punishes bad people with fire
- God make a new world with good people
Now, this is true…. SORTA
This isn’t really the story THE BIBLE IS TELLING
Before we go over a BETTER VERSION of the story, we need to understand some themes
The best stories always have THEMES
Our theme is:
From Chaos to The Good Life
What do I mean by Chaos?
- Storms
- Evil
- Death
It’s the chaos of life that keeps us up at night
It’s the unknown that…
- Gives you anxiety
- Causes you to fear
- Makes you angry
The Story the Bible is telling:
Sin = Chaos
Chaos = Death
Genesis 3
1 Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say…
The Bible teaches in the very beginning that the TRUTH you listen to MATTERS
- God has HIS TRUTH
- Enemy “Truth” is anything other than God’s Truth
The very beginning of the Bible introduces the “ADVERSARY/SATAN as the AGENT OF CHOAS in God’s design and order
…He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’?”
Eve Responds…
4 “No! You will certainly not die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Modern-day Translation…
- “There won’t be any real consequences…“
- “Live the life you want to live…“
- “If you want something, you need to reach out and Take it…“
But you and I know this story…
- Adam and Eve DID take the fruit
- And it DID have significant consequences
This moment introduced CHAOS (Death) in 3 specific ways…
1: Relational Chaos/Death
Genesis 3:6-7
6 So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
Because of their rebellion against God’s design, chaos/sin came into the world
>>The first thing lost is relational TRUST and Intimacy
Not a sexual thing
They now understood: SHAME
Our current culture is obsessed with this idea
“YOU CAN’T JUDGE/SHAME; IT’S JUST WHO I AM!”
- Shame is a consequence of sin — Can’t get around it
That is NOT the answer to this problem
The answer is BEING KNOWN by the one who created you
Let’s push this further…
The FOUNDATION of a relationship is…
TRUST
How devastating is it when someone lies TO YOU or ABOUT YOU?
- It’s absolute CHAOS… It’s the Death of that relationship
Remember:
Sin = Chaos — Chaos = Death
2: Spiritual Chaos/Death
Genesis 3:9-10
9 So the Lord God called out to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 And he said, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.”
This decision not only broke intimacy with us and others, but also MANKIND and GOD
- There is CHASM between God and Man
Why?
Because God is HOLY
- The INTENSITY of God’s HOLY PRESENCE would CONSUME US
- This is the CORE PROBLEM in the world — We are cut off from LIFE
- We are now in chaos… Not the good life
Isaiah 59:2
But your iniquities are separating you from your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not listen.
3: Physical Chaos/Death
Genesis 3:22-23
22 The Lord God said, “Since the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil, he must not reach out, take from the tree of life, eat, and live forever.” 23 So the Lord God sent him away from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken.
The worst thing for us would be to have physical immortality while living APART from God
- It was God’s mercy that drove them OUT instead of WIPING THEM OUT
Death is the CONSEQUENCE of Chaos/Sin and its impacts on God’s good world
But there is GREAT HOPE because…
- The GOOD LIFE is in GOD’S GOODNESS
What does this have to do with EASTER SUNDAY?
- You cannot understand Jesus’ Resurrection outside of the LARGER STORY
Genesis 3 is a part of the Easter Story
- Because it set up the reason for it
Jesus in the desert
Matthew 4
1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 After he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.
3 Then the tempter approached him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”
- Satan’s strategy is a little different here…
- Didn’t say, “Did God really say..”
- Tried to prey on Jesus’ weakness of hunger
If he can’t convince you with a lie, he will try to leverage your weaknesses
4 He answered, “It is written: Man must not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
- Answers with scripture
5 Then the devil took him to the holy city, had him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, 6 and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written:
He will give his angels orders concerning you, and they will support you with their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.”
7 Jesus told him, “It is also written: Do not test the Lord your God.”
8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9 And he said to him, “I will give you all these things if you will fall down and worship me.”
This is at the heart of his deception — WORSHIP
- He has always desired What God has
- He will try to get you to worship yourself
Jesus Rebukes him a final time, and Satan leaves
Mankind’s failure happened in the Garden
- God sent us away from him into the wilderness (where death and chaos reign)
Jesus was sent to the wildness and withstood temptation
- overcoming chaos and death, thus giving HIM rulership that was originally ours
Why has Jesus not wiped away the chaos and death in the world if He Rules it?
- Because it would wipe us away with it!
We’re the chaos agents
- We listen to the lies of the enemy
- We think we know Good from Evil
The cross = is the ultimate sign of chaos, and man’s greatest attempt at horrid death is THE SYMBOL of life for untold people and generations
Do you want ACCESS TO GOD’S GOOD LIFE?
- Do you want to live in RESURRECTION POWER?
- Do you want to see the Holy Spirit’s ACTIVITY in your life?
Then, Choose the way that leads to LIFE, not CHAOS
- Sin is not just “DOINGS SOMETHING BAD”
Sin produces chaos… Sin produces death
James 1:14-15
But each person is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own evil desire. Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is fully grown, it gives birth to death.
This is the Story the Bible is telling…
A Loving Creator, doing whatever it takes to make a way for His fallen, broken, image-bearing creation (Humanity) to come close to Him again.
Whatever it takes meant
- Becoming sin
- Being Subjected to the chaos it brings
- And defeating death
The Story the Bible is telling is that…
- Chaos Doesn’t Have the FINAL WORD
- Death doesn’t have the FINAL SAY
- That we haven’t gone too far
- That we aren’t “Too broken”
Hebrews 12
1 Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every hindrance and the sin that so easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, 2 keeping our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
This is what RESURRECTION LIFE looks like