Friends, welcome back. This is the third video of the first unit, we are thinking about sexuality, and  God's story and specifically, reflecting on how God's story the big story of Scripture connects with our  own individual stories. So in this time together, we want to think a little bit about the biblical story and  what that what that is. So that we can all be on the same page, I want to just unpack how we think  about the story of Scripture. Now, part of this means we recognize that there is a story to Scripture. For  many people, they approach the Bible. Many of them well meaning but less than helpful ways. For  example, we, we can often approach the Bible as just a list of do's and don'ts, right? Here are things that you should do here things you should avoid. Others might approach the Bible as a list of God's  promises and blessings, right? They go there to really find how does God speak words of a blessing  into my life? What are the things that he promises and, and really hold on to that? Still others approach  the Bible almost as like a puzzle, that we're trying to figure everything out, we want to understand, you  know, how does divine sovereignty work with with human free will? Or how do we understand, you  know, what it means for God to be Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three persons in one essence or one  being and, and make sense of all that. But part of the approach I want to take here is to recognize that  what's going on in Scripture is fundamentally a story, that it's this narrative of God's interaction with his world of God as creator, and Redeemer and sanctifier. And to reflect on what that means, then, as we  think about the call on our particular lies today to say, how do we understand our place in this broad  story. 

So the first thing we see if we if we start in Genesis, is the God creates, and human beings rebelled.  Now, it's really important, I think, especially with the topics we're going to look at in this class, it's so  important to understand who God is as creator, that God creates us, as human beings, that includes  body and soul. It includes the physical component of who we are, it includes who we are, as sexual  beings, God creates and in the beginning, he says, it is very good. This is absolutely crucial to get it's  the foundation point that is going to set the trajectory for everything else, that God creates his world  good. And he creates us as human beings as physical beings. Good. That, you know, we talked a little  bit about these questions there. What's the problem? What's the solution? scripture is very clear that the  problem is not that we have bodies, the problem is not that we are sexual beings. There's something  else going on here. So we see in the beginning, that God creates us as human beings in harmony with  him. And in harmony with one another, God creates male and female, and there's a sense of rest and  peace in their relationship to begin with, in God creates us in harmony with the rest of creation, that  again, this this physical world is Earth is the place where God intended for human beings to live and to  dwell, to be caretakers to be to be stewards of what he made. And so in the beginning, God creates and  there is the sense of shalom or rest, or sort of write order in relating to God and relating to other human  beings and relating to all creation. So we see that in the opening chapters of Genesis, but we also see in  the beginning, that we rebel, we see that human beings, you know, we hardly get out of the gate with  this biblical story. And you see human beings rebelling against God, not content to be God's God's  image bearers. Not to be people who are God's stewards, but people who want to, in essence, be God,  we want to be the ones who have the final say about things, we want to be the ones who define reality.  And so the words of the serpent raise this question in the minds of Adam and Eve, has God really said?  Really what's going on here is a sense of, can you really trust God? Does God really have your best  interests at heart? Or is there is there something else going on here? And so God creates, we rebel. And  so from from the beginning, we see that God creates a good world, but God then works with sinful  human beings who brought this brokenness into his world. And so that's what we see in Genesis 1 - 11  in Genesis 12, we see the call of God on Abraham. And that what God is doing, if we pay attention to  Scripture is that God is forming a people. God comes to Abraham, and he says, Abraham, you'll come  out of the land that you're familiar with, to become a sojourner as a stranger to a wanderer, but I'm  going to make from you, Abraham, a great nation, I will, I will make the brainless people forth from  you, who will be a great nation who will be my people. God says, I'm going to give you land, I'm going to give you a place where you can live, as I intended, where you can actually live out my ways. In your 

work in this world that I've created. God also says, I'm going to bless you, I'm gonna bless this people  that this is part of what I'm what I'm doing is as I come to you, freely out of out of my grace, I'm going  to bless them, so that all nations will be blessed through them. And so what you see is that even as God  forms a particular people, Israel, the descendants of Abraham in the, in the Old Testament, God is  forming this particular people, he's calling them to live out his ways in the world, so that all nations or  all people will know who he is. So that even as God narrows his focus to this particular people, it's a  particular people who will be a channel to the whole world. So God still has this global intent, this this  global perspective on what he is accomplishing. 

And he, he's going to do this, he's going to make himself known to the broader world, by the life of his  people through how they worship Him, through how they they honor Him, and the Old Testament, the  sacrificial system, recognizing that they depend on him for their their survival and their strength, and  living out a way of life together that shows people God's intent for human life. So if we think back to  the beginning, where God creates us, a relationship with him with each other, and with all creation, you see in the life of God's people, that this is still God's intent, this is what he is, is doing is forming of  people who's going to do these things who have been set in this right relationship with Him, who then  live with each other in this way, and even who care for creation in a way that reflects the creator's care  and love for what he's made. And so God forms the people. To do this, this is God's response to the  problem of sin, the problem of rebellion, and evil. But if you're familiar with the Old Testament story,  what you see is that as the story tracks along, it's clear that the sin problem that we see in Adam and  Eve at the very beginning, that that sin problem also affects the people of God. And so the people of  Israel in the Old Testament, not only do they worship God, which they do, but they also then add  worship of other idols alongside worship of God, we see that not only is their idolatry but in how they  relate to other others. Oftentimes, you if you read the Old Testament prophets, you'll see that they  criticize God's people for, for being rich and hoarding wealth and being unconcerned for brothers and  sisters, who who have less, you see that the prophets care about acting justly in relationship to each  other. Why not just to treat other people well, which you should as image bearers of God, but because  when the people of Israel in their life together when they treat each other as they're supposed to, part of  what that does is it shows the character of God so that other people can see and are drawn to that. And  so, when God's people fail to do this, that means that God, the true God is not being known is that  being proclaimed is not being made manifest through the life of his people. 

Well, even though God's people fail, what you see is that God saves that God sends His Son Jesus, fully divine, fully human, Jesus, the Messiah. Messiah just means Anointed One, and to be anointed in  Scripture is to have a purpose is to have a mission. And the mission of Jesus is to take care of human  sin and rebellion, once and for all that what he does in his life, is he shows us how God intended human life to be. But in his death, he bears on himself the penalty for our sin. Romans 623 says the wages of  sin is death. In other words, when we cut ourselves off from the creator of God, we have cut off  ultimately, our source of life. We can't exist independently of him. And so in his death, he bears that full penalty for our sin and in his resurrection and ascension, what you see is that Jesus not only takes away the penalty of sin, but he also overcomes the power of sin and death, that those things don't hold him  any longer. And so because of that, the Ascended Jesus pours out His Spirit. And so what you see, as  the New Testament unfolds, is that God's intention, God's God's plan a way back here, to create a  people to have a people who will live out his ways in the world, we see that God follows through on  that plan and intention, that at the day of Pentecost, in Acts two, Jesus pours out His Holy Spirit on the  church, so that they now are enabled, they are now empowered to be God's people to function as they  should. Now that doesn't mean of course, that the church is perfect. If you've ever been part of any  church, anywhere, you realize that the church is filled with people who are redeemed sinners. And so I  want to be really clear here, I'm not saying that God's people, I'm not saying that the church is perfect.  But what you see if you pay attention to Biblical narrative is that God pours out on us, his spirit. And if  we listen to his spirit, if we're humble if we are repentant, God is leading us further in the

 direction he has for us. So that we can be in this right relationship with Him, we can be in right  relationship with each other, and even be in right relationship with and care for the creation that he's  made. And so our calling as Christians today, our calling as people who serve and follow Jesus, is to be  people who put the character of God on display, who help people understand the Amazing love and  faithfulness of this god of Scripture, so that they can actually see that. Now we do this. And in the  present time, we realize that God is at work that through Jesus, the kingdom has been established, the  kingdom has begun and his spirit continues to work. But we also recognize that we still look ahead to  this time when Jesus returns. As Revelation talks about the consummation of all things. The final  judgment when Jesus comes back to render justice, and what you see here is it that means for us in the  present time, it is a time of patient waiting. It isn't. It is a time even a patient suffering, as the book of  Revelation talks about expects that the church, the church, between the time of Jesus first coming in  second coming, will undergo suffering. And so this means that even while we live by the power of the  Spirit is we embody this in our day to day life, it means that the going is often difficult, that all things  are not yet made, right? All things are not yet as they will be. All things are not yet made new. And so  the present time this, this means that we are called to a life of victory, but we're also called to a life of  patience. So oftentimes a life of patient suffering. So as we think about these, this overarching narrative of Scripture, then the question is, how do singleness? How do how does marriage? How does family  How does sexuality map onto the story? And what I want to unpack as we go through this course  together, to keep coming back to this question of saying, when we think about these topics, it's not just a matter of coming up with a list of rules and saying, here's what here's what God wants,  wants us to do. Or here's a God says not to do, we have to understand the why we have to understand,  when God calls us to something in our singleness, when God calls us to something in our sexuality, I  want to make sure we can connect that to the big story of Scripture and saying, look, in these different  areas of our lives, part of what we're actually trying to do is to put on display the Gospel story of Jesus,  the story of God's love the story of God's faithfulness, the story of God's patient suffering, the story of  God's work in us. And to me, that is, it's far more enriching than just coming up with a list of rules. And maybe that's just me, they maybe you love a list of rules. Just give me the rules. Don't tell me why I  just, I just want to follow me. So congratulations, you're a lot of different especially than my young  children who are always asking me why. But I have that same question. Why do we do this? And as we  I think that as we explore these things together, we're gonna keep coming back to say, how does my  story fit into this overarching story of Scripture. And so hopefully in this time together, we've been able to think a little bit about worldview, we've able to think about story and how that connects with and  intersects with our daily life. In the next unit, we are going to think more about some of the stories that  are out there in our broader culture. Because when we are called as God's people to embody this story,  when we're called to embody this way of life, we don't do that in a vacuum. We don't do that in an  arena where there are no other stories. And so it's important to realize some of the different stories that  are out there that are actually competing with the biblical story, so that we can be on our guard so that  we can be reflective about what it really means to embody God's story, what it means to embody the  Gospel story, rather than the broader stories that are out there in our culture. So I look forward to  digging into that with you together shortly. Blessings



Modifié le: vendredi 22 octobre 2021, 13:08