UPPER STORY / LOWER STORY
In one little Midwestern town, Miss Jones had the
distinction of being the oldest resident in town. So when she died, the editor
of the local paper wanted to print a little article remembering this dear old
lady, except he couldn't think of anything to say when he sat down to write the
article. Miss Jones had never done anything terribly wrong. She had never spent
a night in jail or had ever been drunk. On the other hand, she had never done
anything significant.
With this still on his mind, the editor went down to the
local café, and there he ran into the local funeral director. He too was having
the same trouble. He wanted to put something on Miss Jones' tombstone besides
"Miss Nancy Jones, born such-and-such a date and died such-and-such a
date," but he couldn't think of anything to write either.
The editor decided to go back to his office and assign the
job of writing up a small article for both the paper and the tombstone to the
first reporter he saw. When he got to the office, he ran into the sports editor,
who got the assignment. So somewhere in some little community in the Midwest
there is a tombstone which reads:
Here lie the bones of Nancy Jones,
For her life held no terrors.
She lived an old maid. She died an old maid.
No hits, no runs, no errors.
It’s sad to think that is the way many Christians live their lives. They've never done anything terribly wrong, but they never accomplish anything significant for the Lord. (Sermon Central: From a sermon by C. Philip Green, Take a Risk, 5/25/2012)
Many people think their life is all about them and that their life doesn’t mean much in the big scheme of things. A lot of people never realize that their story is part of God’s greater story.
Maybe you’ve never thought much about that before, but every
one of our stories are part of God’s story.
As we kick off “The Story” today, we are beginning an amazing journey
together. And along this journey you are
going to be asked to think about your story and you are going to see how your
story fits in God’s story.
A Time When You Weren’t
I’m going
to ask you to think about the beginning of your story for a moment. I invite you to close your eyes for a minute
and think about your earliest memory. What
is the first thing you remember? Where
are you and who are you with? Can you
recall how you felt at that time?
Now I want
you to go back even further and think about a time when you weren’t. Think about a time before you were born;
before you were even thought of. (pause)
Isn’t it
strange to think about a time before you were born? There actually was such a time. Before you were born, people were eating and
drinking, sleeping, working; life was going on without you. But then God decided to create you. And we know that God doesn’t do anything for
no reason. When He created you, He had a
plan for you. There is something He
wanted you to do that no one else could.
Otherwise, He wouldn’t have made you.
Isn’t that amazing to think about?
God created you so that your story could be a part of His story.
So as we
begin this journey together, we are going to learn about the Lower Story and
the Upper Story. The lower story is your
story and my story and the stories of all the people in the Bible. The Upper story is God’s story and we will
see how all of those lower stories make up the upper story; how God puts all of
our stories together for His purpose.
Some of you
may have done the Year of the Bible with us a few years ago. Some of you may have started but just
couldn’t get through it. Others may have
never even attempted to read the Bible before.
Did you know that:
- 92% of Americans own a Bible?
- The average American family actually owns 4 Bibles, but 41% confess to never reading it.
- Less than 50% of Americans can name the first book in the Bible.
- 59% say they read the Bible occasionally
- 64% don’t read it because they are too busy
- 80% say that it’s too confusing and hard to understand.
That makes us a Biblically illiterate society. Let’s take a look at this video that gives us
a rather humorous reality check about some people’s knowledge of the Bible.
Now, that illustration exaggerates the point, and the point is that if we aren’t reading God’s Word, there is no way we will ever understand what God’s expectations are, we will never fully understand what Jesus did for us, and we will never fully realize that our story is part of something bigger; it’s part of God’s story.
So what the
book The Story does, is take the Bible and present it just like you would read
a novel. Each week you will read one
chapter, which is about 10 pages. I
encourage you to not read ahead. Some
people who have read The Story have said that they can’t put it down. Put it down!
It’s important that we all, literally, stay on the same page. Starting this week, the small groups will
start to meet to discuss the first chapter.
We have 11 small groups and Sunday school classes that will be meeting
for discussion.
And as you go through the book and the bible study, you will
begin to see how God took the stories of Adam & Eve, Abraham, Noah, David,
the Disciples, and Paul and wove them all together for His greater
purpose. You see, we tend to view the
Bible as being full of individual characters that you studied in Sunday
school. But as we read the Bible as a
Story, this is an opportunity to see how all of those individual lives are
woven together to tell one grand story.
And as you go along, you will begin to see how each of our individual
stories have been woven together.
Here is a visual of us being part of a larger picture. Here is a copy of our church directory with
all of our individual pictures. All of
these individuals and families have a story.
But here is a picture of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, and if you
look closely, this picture of Jesus is made up of all of our pictures. So all of our little pictures have been put
together to make up the big picture. Do
you see how that works?
It’s the same way with our individual lives. Your everyday life of going to work or to
school, doing homework or laundry, paying bills or cooking dinner –that is all
part of God’s story. God is using you to
fulfill His greater purpose. I love how
Randy Frazee talks about this. He says
that every single person, whether they think so or not, is part of God’s
story. Some people are protagonists and
others are antagonists. Some are good
guys and some are bad guys….but they are all part of the story.
We all have a choice of which part we are going to
play. Do you want to be the good guy or
the bad guy in the story? You have to
choose to align your lower story to God’s upper story. But no matter what, God is going to work
things out for His purpose. Again,
Romans 8:28 says:
“And we know that in all things God works for the good of
those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
So today you have 2 choices to make.
First, are you going to be a good guy or a bad guy in God’s story? You don’t have to get to chapter 31 to realize that God wins, so you should choose carefully.
Second, you have a choice to be in the Word of God through The Story for the next 31 weeks. We are going to read it, study it, preach it and live it. Are you in?
Let’s pray:
Lord Jesus, last week we all confessed and repented of our
sins and this week we acknowledge that we want to align our story to your Upper
story. We want to be the good guys in
your ongoing story. I pray for every
person who has made the commitment to read The Story. Motivate each person; inspire them and make
them hungry for your Word every day. May
this journey together be a blessing to each person and may it encourage us to
help further your kingdom here in this place.
In your Holy Name we pray. Amen.
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