Stories have a way of capturing our imaginations. As a kid I read as many books as possible. During grade school I think I read every Hardy Boy book at least twice. I would go to the library and take out stacks and stacks of history or fiction- it didn’t matter as long as it was a good story. And when i ran out of good dude books I may or may not have peeked at a few of my sisters Nancy Drew books. That’s not the point though….
Last night we had a great discussion starting off our Christmas series this year. We decided we didn’t want to do another “be like joseph” or “be like mary” series (because honestly we want to be like Jesus…). So this Christmas we are taking some broad strokes and painting an outline, or framework for the story of God as recorded in the Bible.
It started in what some considered an odd place: pre-time, with the ever existing, all powerful, God. but also because we long to see the story of God as a whole. We didn’t preach a 40 minute (or hour and a half) sermon, as we have been known to do, but rather took ten minutes to tell the story of the beginning of this world and the first humans and then spent the next fifty minutes discussing the implications of that for us as we aim to be people who live life according to His story.
I just wanted to let you know how encouraged / stoked I was coming off last night for two reasons:
1. I learned from ya’ll as I sat up front and listened to the truths that were being brought to light as you approached the story to find out who God was, who humanity is, and what this world is.
2. Today when Chris and I were talking through last night, we both thought of the key things that we would have wanted everyone to walk away with if we had preached a monologue, and realized they were all brought up last night and talked about in dialogue. Everyone who participated showed how they are a part of TCC to learn, to be equipped, and then be sent out- not just showing up to watch a show.
As we go into the following weeks we are going to be telling stories through the rebellion of this perfect Kingdom (Gen 3), the covenant of the God of mission with a people on mission (Gen. 12.), Jesus the King is born (Luke 2), and the King comes back to fully restore His reign on earth (Rev. 19-22.)
As we study this story of God, be praying that God would teach you how to live out the truths of this story every day as we live lives oriented around this God who is definitely on a mission to restore and redeem His creation throughout history. It’s in that story we will truly find the significance of Christmas.
