Matt Chandler - The Story of the Nations

If you have your Bibles or a device where you read your Bible, when we get to the application portion of the sermon, we’re going to look at Acts 1:8. I’ll put that on the screen too, but if you want to take notes or highlight or underline in your Bible, I would go to Acts 1:8. My attempt over the next 34 minutes is to cover the story of the Bible, so don’t panic. I think I can do it. I’m a little offended at your laughter, but I think you have history on your side. Before that, we haven’t done this in a while, and there was a global pandemic, so I want to just be personally reminded of who’s in the room. How many of you became Christians before your 10th birthday? How many became Christians after that? That’s amazing. That’s my wife, Lauren; she gave her life to Jesus as she understood Him at seven years old. I don’t remember being seven, but at seven, she gave her life to Jesus, and her whole story has been growing up into that decision. Like everybody else, she’s had ups and downs, but she was seven when she gave her life to Jesus. That’s what I want for my kids. I just want them to know who He is and to want to follow Him. How many of you became Christians between the ages of 10 and 20? That was me, three days before my 18th birthday. Okay, how many between the ages of 20 and 30? 30 and 40? Double dang! 40 and 50? Any in their 50s to 60s? We had a couple in the night. Alright, this one—trust me, if you feel like you can, I mean, we might just… if you’re not a Christian and you’re still trying to figure this out, maybe that’s you. If you’re here and feeling unsure, that’s okay. A couple of you? Great. Here’s what I want to do: I want to show you, as quickly as I can, the story that you’re a part of, and then I want to tell you what we need to do about it. Here’s what’s crazy—whether you’re a Christian or not, you’re part of this story. The story I’m about to show you is the only story there is. You and I might have these little sub-stories, but that’s all they are—little sub-stories. You know, the Bible says that we’re here today and gone tomorrow; it cuts that time in half. It’s like you’re here in the morning and gone in the afternoon. When you consider yourself up against someone who is outside of time and space, the Alpha and the Omega, who has always been and will always be, if you get your normal 80 years of life, how minute and ultimately insignificant is 80 years in the face of eternity outside of time and space? So whether you love Jesus and follow Him, or hate Jesus and want nothing to do with Him, you’re in this story. I’ve said this for 20 years: no one gets a choice about whether their life is going to glorify God. You will glorify God either as an object of His grace or an object of His wrath by refusing to submit to His lordship while serving yourself as God. Those are the only options. So even the most hardened, angry atheist ultimately serves to bring glory to God as His just, right wrath is given to that person based on that person’s choice. You tracking with me? That’s heavy stuff, and you might be thinking, «Tell a joke! I brought a friend!» But that’s where we are. That’s the reality. If your opinion of God and what He should do affected God, then He wouldn’t be a God I would want to worship. If the Creator God of the universe has a fear of man issue, then He isn’t big enough for my worship—certainly not worthy of our respect. Yet because He is God, the Alpha and the Omega, who has always been and will always be outside of time and space, the only story there is is the one He’s writing, and you and I find ourselves caught up in that story today. So I want to show you where our lives are embedded, starting in Genesis 12. But before we get to Genesis 12, I want to remind you what has happened before. See why this is going to take a while? What we read in Genesis 1 and 2 is that God creates the cosmos; He creates all that is, and He calls it good, and there is what the Hebrews call shalom. Right there, there was a way of living that brought glory to God and led to human flourishing. There was food without gluttony, there was sex without lust, and there were relationships without fear or manipulation. They were naked and unashamed—that doesn’t just refer to their physical state but to their spiritual, mental, emotional state; naked and unashamed, completely known, with no shame. Can you imagine? That’s the cosmos, and they’re in the presence of God; more on that in a bit. Then sin enters the cosmos through the rebellion of the man and woman, and sin fractures.