Introduction

• Stories have the ability to completely capture our minds.
  • We love stories! And we always have!
    • Greek Mythology
    • Shakespeare
    • Children – bedtime stories
  • “Barbenheimer” – $2.42 billion worldwide
  • Authors
    • J.K. Rowling – Harry Potter
      • 600 million copies worldwide.
      • Best-selling book series in history
      • Translated into 85 languages
      • Net worth of $1 billion

The Power of Story

• Stories are powerful for two primary reasons.

1. We all live as part of a story.

• Every single one of us has a story we tell ourselves that governs the way we live.
  • Characters
    • Ourselves
      • What do we believe about ourselves?
      •  How do we see ourselves?
      • What do we believe we are capable of?
    • Protagonists
      • Parents
      • Friends
      • Spouse
      • Children
      • Businesses
      • Political Party/Politicians 
    • Antagonists
      •  Boss
      • People who have hurt you
      • Political Party/Politicians
  • Plot
    • Beginning – where have you come from?
    • Middle – what’s going on in your life right now?
    • End – where do you want to go?
  • The way we answer these questions determines how we live our life.
    • What we believe about ourselves determines how we live.
    • How we view other people determines how we live.
    • Where we have come from and where we desire to go determines how we live.

2. Most people desire to be a part of a different or better story.

• Most people are not content with the story they are living in.
  • Characters
    • They have a low self-image.
    • They want better parents or friends. 
    • They want to find a spouse and children.
    • They wish the antagonists in their lives would leave or change.
  • Plot
    • They have trauma from where they came from.
    • They are not content with where they currently are in their life.
    • They hope for something better but don’t believe they will be able to achieve it.
• Stories allow us to temporarily leave our story and become part of a different story.

Transition: I believe this is why God has given us his story.

God’s Story

• When you read the Bible, what you find is that it is mostly filled with stories. Sure, there are some rules, laws, and a little poetry. But for the most part, the Bible is filled with stories.
• Have you ever wondered why God decided to reveal himself through a story? Wouldn’t it have been easier for God to just list out for us what is right and wrong and tell us to do it?
• I believe there are two primary reasons God chose to reveal himself through a story.
  • First is because each of us lives as part of a story but desires to be a part of a different or better story.
    • By giving us a story, God has given us a new and better story by which we can orient our lives.
  • Second, the application of rules and laws change.
    • It might always be wrong to murder, but what do we define as murder? How might we want to change that definition as times and technology changes?
    • So, rather than giving us rules to follow, God gave us a story to live in. A story that we can become characters in. A story that provides the parameters for defining morality regardless of what time or culture we are living in.
      • Expand on the idea of parameters
        • What is acceptable in the Harry Potter universe is not in the Star Wars universe. 

Transition: However, God does not merely reveal himself through multiple stories that are scattered throughout the Bible, but the Bible is one unified story of God.

The Bible as Story

• The Bible stories are stories within a story.
• The Bible is telling one story, the story of God, but it does so by telling a bunch of smaller stories.
• The Bible is filled with small stories written by different authors with different perspectives, understandings, and contributions to the story.
  • All the authors witness to God’s story by witnessing to their experience of God’s activity with creation.
  • This is what God’s story is. It is the story of God’s interactions with and intentions for his creation.
• Acts of a Play
  • Creation and “The Fall”
  • Israel
  • Jesus
  • The Church
  • New Creation

What’s the Point?

• God has invited each of us to become active participants in his story. To make God’s story our story. 
• What we believe about God, ourselves, other people, the past, present, and future, and what is good and bad is now determined by the story of God.
• Our lives are provided meaning, our future is given hope, and other’s lives are afforded value by living as a part of God’s story.

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Additional Content

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