The Cross Orlando Values: story

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0:00 It's always, can be an adventure getting out of the house on Sunday morning and ready to see other people into the neighborhood, find your place here. But I'm glad that you did it. We were remembering a couple weeks ago from one of the Psalms of Ascent that God has promised that part of the heartbeat of the God of creation and life is that he would have people

0:34 to call his own and that those people would be found together on a regular basis. That's so much part of his heartbeat that throughout the story of Scripture, that God, the God of creation and life promises to be where his people gather together. So I know it can be a challenge to get up on Sunday morning and be able to see people and not do something else and come here. But I want to encourage you that throughout time God has met with his people when we gather

1:05 together and so you can expect that you would encounter God this morning. We're starting something new, not like new, but like we're starting a new season here for us and we're going to look out for the next eight weeks, these core values of the cross Orlando, story, peace, lineage and life. This month is our anniversary month. We started meeting on Sunday mornings as a congregation in 2010, in September of 2010,

1:41 for you math heads that makes us nine years old. It's easy to add on a ten year. I think we did that on purpose. It's nine years old and so it's a good time for us to think again about who we are together. And these four core values we did not start with in 2010. We didn't say these are going to be the four core values of our congregation of believers.

2:12 We met for a while and then started asking people what are key words that you associate with the gathering of the cross Orlando. And these were the four that emerged, story, peace, lineage and life. So we've had them for a number of years. I want to spend the next several weeks looking at how those values emerge in the scriptures and then have emerged in who we are together. And so today I want to look at how story is a part of the scriptures.

2:42 The first thing to know is that the scriptures are a story. Right? Most organized religions have a sacred text and the origin of those sacred texts and the application of those sacred texts are different. And sometimes we can feel like because each religion has a sacred text there's a similar vein but the scriptures of the faith of the people of Jesus Christ are unique in several

3:17 different ways. But the core one for me is that this is a story of the interaction of God with people throughout time. And there's a lot that we could say about how the scriptures were assembled or have been assembled. There's a lot that we could say about how they have been protected and preserved, how they have been applied. But the biggest thing for this room for today that I want you to start to think about is

3:50 that the scriptures are not a compendium of doctrines. This is not an encyclopedia. It is not a dictionary. It's not even really a guidebook for your life. This is first and primarily a story about what the God of creation and life, who's come to be known as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who is the God of Christ and the

4:23 church. It's the story of that God and his dealings with his people on earth. And I really love allowing myself. I grew up in the church. I was in a meeting this week. My dad is starting to look at maybe, he's starting to eye out retirement on the horizon. And so I grew up, my dad is like a fourth generation pastor in the same denomination

4:58 that we've been in. I grew up very steeped in the church. Yesterday, I was playing little hymns on the piano because I actually like hymns because I grew up hearing them every week over and over again. They're part of me. I grew up very deeply in the church. And my dad, yesterday, earlier this week I was at a meeting where dad was kind of, my dad was thinking about his position in our congregations.

5:29 And he was talking about how he'd been at the work in these congregations for 36 years. And when he said it out loud, I know there are people that are in his congregation that were there when he started. And I thought he has been pastor for some people for 36 years. That's a long time. I grew up very steeped in the church. But there's something that happened to me in seminary when I began to shift my practical

6:05 or pragmatic understanding of the church from a set of doctrines that explain things to a story that I could be a part of. And when that started to happen, when that shift started to happen, my retisence in committing my life to the way of Christ fell away. And I thought this is something I could give my life to. When I started to see the way of Christ as this unbroken story of people from the first ones all the way through to today who have been keeping alive this notion of who God

6:41 is and finding ways to interact with him in every government structure across every country line throughout every era of history the people of God have endured. And when I began to approach being a person of faith as taking my place in the long line of this story is started to animate and give purpose and direction, excitement and adventure to my life I thought this is a story I could commit myself to.

7:13 And I want to try and give us a glimpse of that story this morning. And the first place to start is at the first page of Matthew's account of the gospel. If you want to look there with me that would be great. There are some paper copies of the scriptures around on the tables there if you want or you can look it up on your phone. Matthew is the first book in what we call the New Testament so it's like it's this far through my paper copy Jordan in case you're trying to measure out where it's at. Mark Luke John.

7:48 And of course there's a lot of different tellings. There's four tellings of the life of Jesus plus Paul can get narrative in some places. But what I want to look at here is I don't want to read it all but right at the beginning of Matthew he's setting out again for they think that Matthew that we're pretty sure Matthew was one of the twelve who followed Jesus who was one of his closest friends who called his disciples and that he's writing the life of Jesus tends to be for people who

8:22 were already considering themselves Israelite. And what I want to do for us here is to see how Matthew orients the story for the people of God. He could start out by saying some core doctrines that Jesus espoused that would line him up with the core doctrines of Israel. He could start out by saying there was some significant practices that Jesus adheres to

8:55 that aligns him with the people of Israel. But when he's wanting Israelites to read the story of Jesus and he's trying to orient Jesus in the line of Israel he doesn't do it with doctrine or practice he does it with the story. He does it with the lineage. Look at it he says the book of the genealogy of Jesus where Jesus Christ the Christ came from the son of David the son of Abraham and then he goes on to list actual names of people.

9:31 Abraham was the father of Isaac and Isaac the father of Jacob and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers and Judah the son of Perez and Zara by Taymar crazy story there and Perez the father of Hezeron and Hezeron the father of Ram and the father of Minnadab and a minnadab the father of nation and nation the father of Solomon and Solomon the father of Boaz by Rahab another crazy story and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth crazy story and Obed the father of Jesse Jesse the father of David the king Jesse is the brand like he's

10:03 doing this because the people who are part of the line who have inculcated the stories since they were little know the names of these people there are famous family stories that go along with these names so that as they're reading these names together all the stories about Rahab and Taymar and Jesse and Judah are popping off in their head and they're realizing that Jesus is one of them that Jesus is one of them he belongs in the line that to be

10:39 part of Jesus is to be part of this line of people that exists unbroken to Abraham he goes on through the names but the what I want you to see first of all is that the story of scripture is a story of people interacting with God the next thing I want us to see comes in Romans if you'll turn there with me Romans is like you know super dense so God bless us as we try and move through chapter

11:13 four of Romans it goes to the right so Matthew Mark Luke John acts Romans 1st and 2nd Corinthians Romans chapter four we're looking for Romans was written to the people in Rome by Paul that first missionary of the church who codified a lot of our understanding of the story and pulled out truths about who God is from the story and we're going to see one of the key truths this is a foundational truth to the story of scripture there are very few that are at this level that Paul

11:47 explains for us and he does it coming off of Abraham he says in Abraham the story of this person we can learn a character trait about God that is enduring and eternal and has practical and immediate ramifications for anybody reading the text that means you and me so in Romans chapter four verse 13 for the promise to Abraham in his offspring that he would be heir of the world did

12:28 not come through the law but the righteousness of faith just a brief introduction to Abraham he started off as Abram he was part of this group of people in the fertile crescent called the hapiru people it exists kind of extra big biblically we can see evidence of it in stories outside of the scriptures that there was this group of people called the hapiru people in the fertile crescent they were socially marginalized they tended to be landless Abraham's dad had intended to leave because there was nothing for him in the fertile crescent and he got as far as like herons area

13:01 right at the top and then stopped and settled he didn't go any further and the sort of Abram starts when he's his the son of his dad he's part of this hapiru people his wife is barren and they're old this is bad for him because the way he could build wealth when he doesn't own land is to get lots of kids lots of kids means he could keep lots of sheep not just the sheep he can manage to keep and he get paid for all the sheep that he keeps so he could build wealth if he could build kids but he can't build kids so he's he doesn't have land he doesn't have kids he's not getting anywhere

13:33 and breaking into this story is the voice of god this is god at this time is known as the god of creation and life he's not the god of crops or money or power he's the god of creation in life and he breaks into the story of Abram he says Abram would you come with me and i will get through you all the nations of the world will be blessed and out of you will come a whole nation and i'll give you land

14:04 just follow me and at critical points genesis chapter 12 genesis chapter 17 god over and over genesis chapter 15 comes and promises to Abram Abram i will give you this thing and Abram i will just give you this thing and Abram is remembered in Matthew's genealogy and all the times leading up to that our god takes the name of the god of Abraham Isaac and Jacob because unique

14:35 among the people of the world when god approached Abram and said i'll give you this Abram's response was okay i'll take it defining characteristic of the people of god that are not going to be characteristic of the people of god throughout the story of scriptures that they're willing to let god give them things especially things that they could never get on their own god said Abram i'll bless the whole world through i'll give you a whole nation i'll give you land

15:07 Abram already knew he couldn't have kids and there was no way he could get land god said i'll give those to you Abram said i'll take it what next and for years he said the same thing Paul wants us to understand a defining characteristic about that he said for the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world beautiful did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith verse 14 for if it is

15:37 the adherence of the law who are to be heirs faith is null and the promise is void for the law brings wrath he's saying if god told Abram hey Abram i'll give you the world if you do exactly what i say all the time and without fail Paul says if that were how it worked it would not be a gift it would be wrath Abram would fail and so would all of his kids the gift of god would be some kind of judgment

16:14 so the gift of god cannot come through the law through doing what god says we ought to do it must come through something else for the law brings wrath but where there is no law there is no transgression you can't break the the rules if there are no rules he says can't break the rules if there are no rules he says the gift of god cannot be about following the rules because then all it would be is judgment and not gift at all

16:47 he says but if there are no rules then you cannot break the rules and look at verse 16 this is why it depends on faith in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his off spring not only to the adherence of the law if you want to keep the law great there are rules out there the rules are helpful if you'd like to keep the rules great not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham who is the father of us all

17:23 that i just want to call out one point here he says that is why it must depend on faith in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring this is key in those stories in genesis chapter 12 in genesis chapter 15 in genesis chapter 17 over and over god makes an unconditional promise to Abraham and to his children he promises covenant relationship free gift inclusion in the people of god to Abraham's children before they're even born

17:57 they can't be rule followers yet they haven't even done anything do you remember when paul said while we were yet dead in our sins did Christ die for us there's a characteristic of god that is consistent all throughout the story of scripture that we begin to see for the first time here in Abraham and paul is breaking it down for us and it's important that we get it and you will see why in just a minute so he says that's how we it can be guaranteed to his offspring because it's all gift okay as is written i have made you the father of many

18:31 nations in the presence of god in whom he believed we got to get this phrase because it's too beautiful okay he said in verse so 16 this is why it depends on faith in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham who is the father of us all as it is written

19:01 god says i have made you the father of many nations Abraham and in the presence of god in whom he believed who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist you want to know what god gave this gift to Abraham the one who brings dead things to life and calls things into existence you want to know which god

19:37 is at the base of the story of scripture it's the god who brings dead things to life and calls worlds into existence this is the one in whose presence Abraham said i'll take the free gift without rules now look at verse 18 this is where i want to point out something i um you know when i was a kid you know i said my dad has been working at the church for 36 years

20:13 uh i'm 38 right now for you math heads that means i was two when he started the church he had like a couple families he knocked on doors around lake mary as it was building up into an actual neighborhood and they were cutting down orange groves and and for a lot of reasons my dad worked hard to have a good relationship with me i had a good relationship with my dad growing up enough that by the time i went to college and in disseminary when i had a question or a

20:45 challenge he was the one i would call to process it with so i really i looked up to my dad for a lot of key things and then uh the seminary sent me to work with my dad actually work for my dad and for the next probably five years i argued with no one more than my father i mean in meetings outside of meetings grilling by the pool i mean just

21:19 frustrated i saw a whole new side of them uh and then for the last four years something turned and i was able to appreciate the things i got from him and and recognize that he is less than perfect so the less than perfect doesn't detract from the beauty that he's given

21:52 there is great comfort and even like significance in receiving some kind of inheritance I am at a place in my faith where i have equal celebration in the inheritance of the generations

22:27 that have gone before me the him i mentioned that i like him the him i was playing yesterday that's my new favorite is for all the saints who from their labor rest would that we could fight like they did receive the encouragement that they did you have forebears in faith who are you who have given you an actual inheritance they were not

23:01 perfect but there is good that has come down we're about to walk right into it look at it with me and verse 18 you can see why uh paul must have been a genius to write a sentence like this it's like a beautiful and like exact at the same time verse 18 in hope he believed against hope that he should become the father of many nations

23:37 as he had been told so shall your offspring be he did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body which was as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old or when he considered the barrenness of sarah's womb no distrust made him waver concerning the promise of god but he grew strong in faith and he gave glory to god fully convinced that god was able to do what he had promised

24:09 that is why his faith was counted to him as righteousness this is why there are no rules because against all hope in hope you believe that god can do the thing he promised he said i'll go to prepare a place for you if i go to prepare a place for you i'll come back and get you he promised that there was a world beyond this one

24:44 he promised that he could preserve and protect your life he promised that he could turn you into a compassionate generous life-giving person against all hope in hope we believe just like Abraham though his body was as good as dead and his wife womb was barren god told him he would make him the father of many nations and so Abraham says i'll take it i love that i am allowed to believe

25:26 that impossible things can happen at the prerogative of god I love that i am allowed to believe that injustice can be turned back that greed can be thwarted that selfishness can be undone that anger can be absolved i love that i belong to a people who for generations have believed the impossible can be done at the prerogative of the god who brings

26:00 dead things to life and speaks worlds into existence he did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body which was as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old or when he considered the barrenness of seren's womb no distrust made him waver concerning the promise of god but he grew strong in his faith and he gave glory to god fully convinced that god was able to do what he had promised that is why his faith was counted

26:35 to him as righteousness that's why there are no rules because the core characteristic of the people of god throughout the whole story of scripture is that they let god be god and give them good things it rests in god prerogative god's prerogative not in my obedience verse 23 but the words it counted to him were not written for his sake alone

27:13 um i like this because it recognizes that the event happened there was a moment and there were moments when god spoke to abraham made him a promise abraham said i'll take it and god said cool that's all the rules there are you have good standing with me this is right you have good standing with me i can continue to give you good things there was a moment where that actually happened and paul's acknowledging that actually happened and then he said somebody wrote

27:48 it down most likely according to our tradition uh moses wrote it down when they were wandering in the desert because he had nothing else to do with the insulin israelites wrote down the first five books of the scriptures and he said it was written down not for abraham's sake but the words it was counted to him were not written for his sake alone but for ours also

28:22 it was counted to him as righteousness his willingness to let god give him good things was the only qualifier needed to receive them from god it was counted him as righteous and it was written not for his sake alone but for ours also it will be counted to us who believe in him who raised the dead jesus our lord who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for

28:53 our justification paul says the same qualifier that was present in abraham to inaugurate again the people of god on earth this side of the garden was present in christ in the garden of gethsemane and the power that raised him from the dead is the same power that breathed into abraham adam in the beginning and converse with abraham and moses and comes to you today you and i can take

29:28 our place in the long lineage the genealogy of the people of god unbroken throughout every era of the world down to today the 21st century in orlando the continuation of the people of god whose one characteristic is that we believe god can do the thing he promises your story and the story of scripture come together at that point the point where we believe god

30:04 can do the thing he promises my prayer is that we would be a congregation of people who recognize that we are in this unbroken story because god gives good things to those who let him let me pray. a lord thank you for the gift of life and love and faith mature those in us this morning nakus people with deep and confident

30:40 faith and the willingness and persistence to hope against hope and to be counted righteous with you eat us now in the places where we need fortification as we worship you together in jesus name we pray amen