Paul
Come Thou Font Of Every Blessing
The Father's Love
Stephen Keating
Second week of twenty dozen
Agora Jan 19
3rd Thursday
Prayer for the offering
Paul
Anthem To The King (Glory to the king)
One Thing Remains
Who You Are
Jon
Genesis 1:1-2
The spirit of God is above the waters
Water presents chaos
We see God above chaos
He begins to speak into this formless void
He begins to create order out of chaos
So again the spirit of God is bringing light out of the darkness
The author of genesis is giving us this picture of how God creates order
John 1:1-5
Darkness cannot overcome light
Jesus is there at the beginning and separates light from darkness
He brings detail and order where there is a formless void
We see God creating order from chaos
Genesis 1:9
So we have light and then we have these pictures of light, sky, earth, rock, dirt
More process going on, it’s getting more complex
Genesis 1:11
Life begins to spring forth
Detailed
God is creating things
Keeps adding detail and order to a more precise level each time
Maybe when we look at a passage like this we can ask God to bring light into the darkness of our hearts that we’re not even aware of
Genesis 1:20
Things are getting more advanced
Gets to the pinnacle of his creation
Absolute best part
Genesis 1:27
I’ve read through the various creation accounts multiple times, but each time I get to one basic truth: we matter to somebody
Never forget that we matter to God because we are made in His image
But there is a problem that occurs in the story of humanity
Something got bent in the story
Within the story we’re told that humanity makes a conscious choice to find an identity, a purpose in someone or something else
God can’t be the only true source of life
In the midst of God creating order and detail out of chaos
It means that our very identity is rooted in the image of God
When we read the creation accounts we can turn it into a debate
Was it allegory, etc
Never miss the point that we matter to God
Adam and Eve made a decision, we want to find love and acceptance somewhere else
A lot of people think, “That’s something that happened a long time ago and doesn’t apply now”
We’ve got people experiencing identity crisis’
Trying to find worth and purpose
Who wants to go back to junior high?
I went in 1982
My daughter is going now
Not a lot has changed in junior high
A lot of the same identity rooted questions are still, being asked
What are you good at? Sports? Music? Grades? Who do you hang out with?
It never changes, comes down to the one question: where do you fit
What is your tribe?
We’re teaching our kids that they have to fit somewhere
You have to fit in a pigeon hole or target group
Simply by walking away from their creator, Adam and Eve were doing the same thing
What do you do? I’m a knife thrower
Same thing, same questions in the sophisticated adult world
The human soul is bent
Major identity crisis going on because we are still searching for an identity apart from our creator
The beauty identity: if people tell me I’m pretty, everything is ok
Get older and can’t hide it
Success identity
What happens is that at a certain point there’s somebody younger/smarter/faster/quicker and you have to move on
We have all decided that I can find an identity other than God in whose image I was created
Who is the word
Who creates order out of chaos
A bent soul will very often ask the question am I thin enough?
Do women and/or men still find us attractive?
I don’t want everybody to look the same, that’s boring
It’s like tract housing
I drove right by the target house the other day and my son pointed it out
We’re not satisfied or comfortable in our own skin
Adam and Eve had a distorted view of God
We still do today
It also distorts your view of yourself
If I’m thinking I can’t find my identity somewhere else, that someone or something else can fill every need inside my heart….they can’t do it
This then extends into a distorted view of others
We end up squashing others because we can’t get what we need so we pull it out of them
I see this a lot in marriages
Some of you are missing out in really great friendships because you have a distorted view of friendships
The person to your left, right, behind and in front of you are the most important people in the room
There are friendships waiting to blossom in this room
How we look at others affects how we look at God
The question we have to ask ourselves as a Christian community is : where do we go from here? Where do we get healing?
Memorizing the word of God, his truth and power
Colossians 3
Subversive poem written to a community subverted by empire
Not that different from living and working in the shadow of Los Angeles
Who is your life?
Paul says Christ is your life
In genesis after Adams and Eve walked away, there was a trauma to their hearts
They became aware of their nakedness and knew it wasn’t good enough now
…
Adam hides himself and makes his owns covering
That story happened and guess what? It’s still happening today
…
Your life is now hidden in Jesus Christ
Interesting word hidden in light of Genesis 1
And the author of Genesis is saying we need a covering of some kind
Ad Paul carries that through to say we need to hide in the proper covering of Jesus Christ
The story continues on today
Not any covering will do
We need something to cover us from God
This raises a huge question for us tonight
What am I hiding behind??????
Some people hide behind religion
That’s just covering yourself
When I read this, I hear Paul saying “You are hiding behind the real deal.”
I’m bringing you above the chaos
When God comes looking for me, he sees Jesus and his redemptive work
My life is now completely covered
When God comes looking for me, he’ll say all I see is Jesus
Good! I don’t want you to see me! I’m a mess!
I’m a new creation in Christ
To live in that constant awareness that nothing is mine, but Jesus’
What happens when we say yes to Jesus what happens is we start to become more and more the person that God created us to be
Those actions and motives are the most beautiful to God because they flow out of Jesus
He completely loves me, mess and all
I have to constantly tell myself, if I have the approval of my father, why do I need the approval of anyone else?
The one that truly matters
“Great job” or “I love you” from a human is great, but I’d rather hear it from our father
My soul resets in that reality
Collisions 3:9
Interesting choice of words
What happens when you’re hidden in Christ is you begin to grow more and more into that person God meant you to be
It’s a lot like a return to Genesis
It’s almost like we get born again
Back to the original design
God is taking this mess of our lives and creating order and detail in it
In Genesis there is more and more detail and then he create the best part and suddenly it breaks itself
And instead of throwing up his hands and saying, “Dang it! They broke it! Now I can’t do anything to help them”
He gives us his most precious gift….his only son Jesus Christ
Don’t busy yourself, hide in Christ
…
He’s not done with us yet
By a show of hands who’s got an ugly past?
Who wants to share?
A bent soul doesn’t allow us to…
The ugly past likes to push us from behind
Guilt and disappointment that make the promise of love seem impossible
God made a promise that said I have begun a work in you and I’m going to complete it
He’s not done with you
He’s creating detail and order out of chaos
He’s able to take the mistakes we have made and work within them
I can still do great things if you’ll allow me
In Jesus Christ, there’s a real you in there
I just want you to come out
His hands aren’t tied when we screw up, he doesn’t say “Aw shoot! Now I can’t help them!”
God’s promises of the future should pull us into the future rather than letting our past propel us forward
Quit allowing it to push you around
God has committed himself to me
Spiritual growth is allowing God to pull you into the future
In Christ there’s a real me that exists
His promise is that he will complete what he has started
Yes there are things that need to be worked through
I will not allow those things to dictate who I am
Now that I’m hidden in Jesus
Paul where are you? (He’s hiding in Jesus!)