Going Back to Go Forward.

We are starting a new sermon series today called "This Is My Story," where we are going to spend the next couple of weeks looking back and trying to discern what is our story. Where have we been. What do we walk in the room carrying in our bones and in our breath.

And what is the story that God is writing. And what's our invitation to join him in what he has been doing for generations. Because the reality is today that your present, who you are in this moment, has been formed by your past, has been shaped by your family of origin, whether you know them all or not. Each and every one of us, when we were born into this world, we were born into a body. We were born into a race and ethnicity, into a people, into a family that represents something.

But more than that, we were born into the story that God has been writing for all of eternity. And we have a story. We are a part of a story. And so today, we're going to talk about how the story that we get to tell and we get to live is not based on our past, although our past has impacted us, but rather it is based on the work that Jesus did on the cross. We can walk in that new life today.

And we have to recognize with that, that our story goes far beyond us and the life that we are going to live. But as we look through the generations of what God has been doing, we recognize that we get to partner now in what he is doing in the future and what is to come. This is the story that we get to live.

Going back to go forward

So today we're talking about the past. Going back. Looking at our past, so that we can go forward and walk in new life with Jesus. The big so what for today is this. Your past influences and informs your present reality. It influences and it informs your present reality. But when we go back to go forward, then we can change.

Random question for you guys today. I want you to think about as we talk about this. What are some things that you do that you're like, "I don't even know where this came from?" Or, "I don't know why I did this?" Or what are those things that you know, like this is something that is so bizarre and unique to my family that only people around me would know?

One of the things in our family that's been a little bit of an awkward point of tension is where do you keep your trash can. Growing up, my mom's entire side of her family, they all kept their trash can under the kitchen sink. And so any home of any person on my mom's side of the family, you walk into their home and you know exactly where to find the trash. And I still remember the first time my mom came into my home and I decided for the first time as an adult not to keep the trash under the sink.

And I could like hear the judgment in her voice. Still polite and kind. But like, "And where's your trash? Where's your trash can?" And then having to tell her, "Mom, I decided that I'm not going to keep my trash under the sink. But I'm going to have a big trash can and it's going to be out in my kitchen."

But it's those little things in life that sometimes we don't even realize. Like we do it because somebody else did this and we saw it and we follow it and we don't even know why. Or you know exactly why. And you have the power to decide. Do I want to continue with that pattern or do I want to start something new. Do I want to continue to live that way or do I want to make changes.

And so it might not be something as simple as where do you keep your trash. But what are those things in your life where you find yourself stuck in these patterns.

### Entering each others stories

The first thing that I want to do today is talk about the reality that every single day we enter the story of the people around us and we bring our story with us. Today, when you walked into this room, you're carrying something with you. We all woke up this morning. We probably did something before this, even if it was just get out of bed and get ready for church, right. We've all lived a full day walking into this room. You probably have some stories to tell. Maybe today was good. Maybe you already experienced some pain or some frustration. Maybe you've already been a little stressed or anxious.

And so you're walking into this room and you're bringing your story. And now you're colliding with the person next to you and you're entering their story. You're entering their process, their journey, their pain or their excitement. And we're meeting right there in the middle.

This can cause some tension sometimes when you don't know what you're walking into. And have you ever been there where you walk into a room and you're like, "I don't know what I walked into, but I walked into something here?" Whether it's bad and you can like feel the tension or like everybody's laughing. You're like, "What's the joke? Like, I didn't get it. What am I walking into?" Every place that we go, we bring a story with us and we enter into somebody else's story.

Last week, we celebrated Easter. We celebrated that the old has gone, the new has come, that Jesus died and was raised back to life. And he said that he came that we can have life and have it to the full. Do you hear that today. Jesus came back so that we can have life to the full. Because of his death and resurrection, that means we have the power to change our stories. We have power to live a better one.

So yes, the past, it impacts us and the past, it informs us. But it does not have the final say. We can be transformed because of Jesus' death and resurrection. Yet we can still find ourselves stuck.

And so for the next few weeks, as we walk through this series and we talk about "This Is My Story," we're going to be looking at stories from Scripture and to take a deeper look at the stories that people have lived for generations, recognizing the stories that they were born into and the stories that they then lived.

The biggest thing that I want us to see over these next few weeks is that the good news is that we were created to be a family. That we were created to share the bloodline with Jesus Christ. And so when we choose to follow him and to be his disciples, we are choosing now to be a part of a new family. Which means yes, we are representing our earthly family, the people that raise us, the people we spend our time with. But now we are entering into a new family. A new story.

And when it comes to this story, the good news for us is, is that it's not really about us. It's that we're not the main character of this story. God is.

When we entered earth, we were born into a story that has been told for generations. For all of eternity. And it might sound funny to be like, "What do you mean it's not about me?" But this is where I think sometimes as followers of Jesus, we can get a little backwards. Where we think that we're living a life and we're living a story and God is here to help us make it happen. But the reality is that when we choose to follow Jesus, we die to ourselves. The old has gone. The new has come. And now we are saying, "God, we are surrendering to the story that you have been writing. The story that you are telling. And it is all about you and your glory."

And so that changes how we live. It changes what we do. It means we're not the main character and that takes pressure off of it. It takes the weight of the world off of it. We're recognizing that we don't have to save the world because Jesus did it. But we get to share the good news of what he did. We don't have to heal people because Jesus did. We just have to pray and say, "Holy Spirit, come and do what you said you were going to do. Heal. Restore."

He did it. But in the Old Testament, we read these different stories of generational sin and struggle. Yet in the middle of it, there were so many miracles that took place. And all of these stories that we read Old Testament to New were the stories that were making way for Jesus to come.

### Abrahams story

So we're going to start today reading in Genesis chapter 12 and then we're going to be flipping to 15. If you have your Bibles you can pull it out to Genesis. And before you leave today (in case I forget to mention at the end), we have these little half sheets of paper that have Bible readings for the next four weeks. So if these are stories that you're not familiar with in Genesis, or you are, I want to encourage you to read them again.

We're going to start with Abraham today. Even though we know Adam and Eve are the first people, Abraham is kind of where we're going to pick up the story. And when Abraham was born, it was the start of his life. But he also was born into a story that has been told for generations.

The difference about when we're reading stories like this in the Bible that I always think is cool is, is they lived so much longer than we did. And so you think of even as we have generations. They would have known each other. They would have known like their great, great, great grandparents and things like that. They would have sat down and heard these stories face to face. And so for many of us, like you maybe knew a grandparent. But not a great grandparent or a great, great grandparent. But they would have lived so long that they would have been sitting face to face hearing these stories for generations.

The Lord said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people, and your father's household, and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you. I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse. And all the people on earth will be blessed through you." So Abram left as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was 75 years old when he set out from Haran. He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Haran and they set out for the land of Canaan and they arrived there. Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh and Shechem. At the time the Canaanites were in the land. The Lord appeared to Abram and said, "To your offspring, I will give this land." So he built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him. From there he went towards the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord. Then Abram set out and continued towards the Negev.

Genesis 12:1-9

A few things I want to point out here. We see that Abram is called to leave his land. To leave the place that he had been. Now, this is significant for us to notice here. God is going to make him some promises. But there was first this invitation to say, "I know this is where you come from. But I'm inviting you now to not focus on where you've been. But to look to the future of where I'm inviting you to go." Leave. Go to the land. And God says, "I will show you."

There's this promise there in that. As you follow me, I will continue to show you what's next and to show you what's coming. And so Abram was obedient. He left, it says, as the Lord told him.

God's covenant with Abram

It goes on then in Genesis 15, where we're going to read next. And this is now God's covenant with Abram. And there's some things that have happened up to this point. But now God is speaking to him again.

After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision. "Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward." But Abram said, "O Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?" And Abram said, "You have given me no children. So a servant in my household will be my heir." Then the word of the Lord came to him. "This man will not be your heir. But a son coming from your own body will be your heir." He took him outside and said, "Look up at the heavens and count the stars. If indeed you can count them. Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be." Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

Genesis 15:1-6

What's happening here in this text is we see that the Lord is reminding him. "I am your strength. I am your shield." And Abram's coming back to him and he's like, "Well, God, you promised me that you're going to bless the nations through me and all of these things are going to happen. But I don't have a son." And so he's coming to God and he's like, "I don't understand how this is going to happen." And God is reminding him again. He's saying, "No, this is what I promised you. It is going to happen."

### will be told

The next thing I want to talk about today is the reality that someday your story will be told. Someday people are going to be talking about the life that you lived. It might be one person. It might be a hundred people. I don't know. But people are going to talk about the life that they saw you lived and what will they say about that life.

I've heard it said often that we can be guaranteed that if we do have children of our own, that they are going to have their own struggles. Their own problems. Their own things. But the best thing you can do as a parent is just try to make sure it's not the same struggles that you had. That's the best thing we can do. We cannot protect the people around us. We cannot protect our children and the generations from having pain and for having struggles. But we can work to heal what is happening in our own heart so we are not passing down those things to the people or to the children and the generations that come after us.

You see, Abraham. What we see happen next in the chapters to come is that he goes on to take things into his own hands. To take that pen and to try and write his own story. See, God is telling him, "I am going to give you a son. I am going to do that." But instead of waiting for what God was going to do, he started to make plans and to do it on his own.

And what happens is instead of waiting for the promised child through his wife, Sarah, he goes and Sarah says, "Here's my maidservant. Take her. She can carry your child." And that's when they give birth to Ishmael. And then instead of waiting for the promise that God had.

What we see here is that Abraham received this promise from God and he started to center his entire life around fulfilling the promise that God had given him rather than being obedient and waiting for God to do what he said he was going to do. He centered his entire life around trying to make the promise happen rather than waiting for God to do what he said he was going to do.

Now, the promise is God's. When he tells us these things and he speaks to us, it's his. It's not ours. It's his story, not ours. And we have to continue to remember that our job is to be obedient. To being faithful to his presence. To being faithful to being with God and in tune with his Holy Spirit. Not trying to make things happen. Because we can trust that God will fulfill every single promise because it's his promise. It's for his glory.

And so we have to ask ourselves. Is our life centered around being faithful to the presence of God. Or is our life centered around trying to fulfill the promises that he's given us. Because those are two very different ways to live. And that was the downfall of Abraham in this moment. He started to center his life around trying to fulfill the things that God has promised him rather than centering his life around the presence of God and waiting and being faithful there.

You can decide the story you will tell

The next thing today is that you can decide the story that you will tell. You see something significant happens in Genesis 12 when Abraham left his homeland. He was choosing to live a different story. But before that, he was born into a story. He has a past that influenced him and impacted him. And this is found earlier in Genesis.

Abraham, he was originally named (which we're reading in 12 and 15 here in Genesis still), Abram. He's born in the city of Ur. And in a way the city that he was born into, a lot of commentators will describe it as like a place of war. And this was during a time of idol worship. So it was very prevalent for him that they would have been worshiping all sorts of idols in the city around him. His father was Terah and he had two different brothers, Nahor and Haran.

At one point, they moved from the city of Ur to the city of Haran. And this could have been for numerous different reasons. They're not really sure why. But it's also important to know that he comes from the line of Shem, who was one of Noah's sons. So we have Noah. We have Shem. And then later we get to Abraham. He comes from that line.

During Abraham's time in Haran, he marries Sarai, who was his half sister. And they had already up into the point in Genesis chapter 12, they had faced many different challenges as a family. They struggled with infertility. They had lost Abraham's brother. So there was grief that was happening.

And this is in a time in a moment where children were highly valued. In the sense that as a woman, if you could not bear children, you had no value. And as a man, if you wanted anyone to inherit everything that you had worked for, you needed a son. And so they are coming into Genesis chapter 12 where Sarah's barren. So she's feeling like, "I have no value because of the story and the place and the time that I'm born into." In a moment where your only value as a woman is to birth children. And Abraham's coming into this story, being born into a city that centered their lives around the worship of idols. And it also has this severe pressure to have a son to continue on his legacy.

So now we find that despite all of these challenges, including the infertility, the loss of his brother, that Abraham remained faithful to God. Now this places a little more significance on the way that he followed God. When we know the things that he has been through up to that point. Because loss is in his story. Grief is in his story. Idols are in his story. But then he decides to leave all of that and walk away and to change his story.

Later we read in Genesis 17:5, where God changes his name. God says to Abram, "No longer will you be called Abram. You will be named Abraham for I have made you the father of many nations." And that's what his name means there. And then I love this. Because later we see, if we go back to that timeline there, you see that there's another name that has changed. So Abram's name is changed to Abraham. But later, Jacob, his grandson's name, is changed to Israel.

You see twice in the story of these generations, we see that God comes in and he changes their names. He changes their stories. We get stuck in life when we believe that we cannot change. We get stuck when we believe that we cannot move forward. When we believe that our past has impacted us in a way that we're just formed, we're finished, we're final, and there's nowhere to go from here.

Your past has influenced who you are. Your past has impacted what you are. You carry things into this room today because of your family and the generations that have come before you. The hurts. The pains you've experienced. The joys. The excitements. And it can inform you of the things that you can ask for healing for. That you can ask for freedom from. That you can ask for God to redeem. Because it does not have the final say.

Because when we say yes to following Jesus, we are now a part of a new family and have a new DNA that says we can continue to change and be transformed into the likeness of Jesus. And this is good news for us today.

So we get stuck when we believe that we cannot change. And then I think the other thing when we get stuck sometimes, it's because we believe that the way of following Jesus is more in line with the culture around us than it is Christ.

One of the things that I think is key in this story of Abraham and Isaac and Ishmael, where God says, "I'm promising you this son through Sarah." And instead of waiting for her to give birth to Isaac, which she eventually does, they go and they give birth to Ishmael through their maidservant, Hagar. This is a tragic, tragic story that takes place here. But culturally, this was normal. So culturally, it would have been so normal to have multiple wives and it would have been so normal to say, "Well, I can't carry your child. So here, go sleep with her. She can carry your child."

That would have been normal. But that was not the way that God had intended it to be. And it's easy for us to think that that only happens in the Old Testament or Scripture. But I think it happens way more often than we like to admit. Where we find ourselves living and following the ways of culture and not the ways of Christ. We find ourselves doing things that even maybe other Christians around us are going to say, "Well, that's pretty normal. Other people do it. So it must be okay."

When we choose to follow Jesus, we are laying everything else down and we are saying, "And we want to look closely. We want to know his word. We want to know his presence. We want to know that we are following Jesus as the way. Not the people around us or what other people would even say is normal."

I think it's important for us as we continue to process our past. Even think. How has Christian culture impacted us. How has the church informed us. And what are those things that maybe we have to be honest and say that might've been the way of Christian culture. That might have been the way of the church. But I don't know if that's the way of Jesus.

Gods story, not yours

One of the things that I think we fall trapped to often at this stage of the American church is believing that we are the main characters of the story. Of believing that it's all about us. We can get caught up in these moments of saying, like, "God has all these promises for me." And yes, he does, right. Like, God came and he's came to just save me. And like, yes, he did come to save you. But it goes far beyond you and the life that you are living.

It is not this moment of us waking up every day and saying, "God, you're a part of my story." But us saying, "God, it's your story. And what an honor that I get to play a role today. What an honor that I get to wake up and I get to hear your voice through Scripture. And I get to say, 'Lord, like, what do you have. What's happening. Where are you moving. Holy Spirit. And how can I partner with you in this moment?'" That is our role of following Jesus.

We are not the main character. He is. We're not writing the story. He is. And we get to wake up every day and surrender to that and say, "God, how are you inviting me to partner with your Holy Spirit in what you are doing."

And when we live this type of way, it changes things. It changes the way that we make decisions. We're no longer doing it in isolation. We're no longer saying the things of, "Well, I have to do what's best for me or what's right for me." We are now laying down our lives for the people around us and saying, "God, where is the place that you want me to be present. Where is the place that you want me to be pouring into. God, what are you doing and how can I partner with your presence in this moment."

It changes the way we make decisions. We now don't center our lives around comfort. We center it around laying it down for people. We no longer are making excuses. We're no longer storing up for ourselves treasures here on earth. But investing into the kingdom in sacrificial ways.

But we need to know how our past has impacted our present reality. Because if we don't, what we're going to find is the same thing that happened for generations and generations in the Old Testament. They weren't willing to go back and to name the sins of the past. They weren't willing to go back and ask for healing and forgiveness and freedom and redemption from the things of the past.

They let it impact them in a way that it formed them and then directed how they made decisions and lived their lives. But I believe that if we can go back and if we can take time to know our stories, to know our past, how it's impacted us, that it will inform us so that we can change and be transformed into the likeness of Jesus.

###

So next week, we're going to talk more about patterns in our past. But I want to just name a few. We see that with Abraham and Sarah, in part of their stories, that there was lying and deceptions. And we see that in Isaac and Rebecca and their story as it goes on. We see a history and patterns of the abuse of women, of rivalry between brothers. But Jesus comes and redefines family.

So then we have an invitation to study our story so that we can tell a better one. And that what I want to invite us into for these next few weeks is to take time to look back so that we can go forward.

So one of the ways that we're going to do that is through this practice called the Genogram. So this is a common practice for a lot of people. Maybe you've done this if you've ever done any kind of family systems therapy or anything like that. But basically what you're going to do is for the next month, we're going to go back and we're going to practice going through our stories as best that we can to understand like, "Where did we come from. How did we get this way. What are the things that I do and why do I do them."

And so I have a bit of homework for you. And so if you're taking notes or if you want to pull your phone out and we're going to work through this in our small group communities. And so if you're not a part of one, I would highly encourage you to jump in.

But what we're going to do is for next week, I want you to take time and I want you to go through and name the people in your family that came before you, whoever you know. And even if you didn't meet them, if you like know someone that knows them, or if you know anything about them, they don't have to be alive. And so like for me, I'll probably go to like my great grandparents because I know a little bit about them.

And so go back and name those people and then name three things or ways that you would describe them. Just three ways that you would describe them. And so we're going to keep going. Then in the next week, we're going to start to look at patterns and different things that are happening. But for this first week, I just want you to go back and to name the people that have come before you and then the people that are currently in your family and three different ways that you know things about them or ways that you would describe them.

And for different sides of the family, depending on your family dynamic, you may know nothing and you may know something. But even that will inform who you are today as a follower of Jesus.

Closing: the better story

So there's that question. Then even as we get into this, it might feel a little like, "Well, that's just really practical. How is that going to help me be a disciple of Jesus?" But here's the thing that I want you to hear today. Jesus didn't come back to life. He didn't die on the cross and three days later come back to life for us to stay the same. He didn't come back to life and then ascend into heaven to just say, "Okay, now try to just do the best that you can until I come back again."

He came back so that we can walk with him in new life. That we can partner with him in his Holy Spirit and ushering in the kingdom of heaven. He came back so that you can change and be transformed into his likeness and share the good news of the gospel until he comes again. He came back so that we can tell a better story. So that we can share in his story.

And so the power of us going back to say, "Who am I as a follower of Jesus. How have I been formed. And then what do I need to have unformed from my life. What do I need to be healed from. What are those generational patterns that maybe I wasn't even aware of until this moment."

I want you to know here though that Abraham, as we will continue to reference him and look at his story through the next few weeks, he wasn't known by his mistakes when it came down to it, although he made many. He was known for making way for Jesus. And it was through his line that Jesus came. And we see that Sarah did have a miraculous son in her old age, that Isaac blessed Jacob, who then was named Israel and had 12 sons. And it was from one of the sons, Judah, the tribe of Judah, that Jesus came.

We see that all these miracles took place in the midst of all these mistakes. And it was messy. It was messy. So if you're here thinking today, and I'm already talking about looking back at your family and you're like, "I don't want to do that. That's really messy. My family's messy. Nobody wants to think about it. Nobody wants to talk about it." Like, I get it. But Jesus came from a messy family line. It was a bunch of messy, broken people that made way for Jesus to come.

And I believe that we are being invited today to say yes to partnering with God's Holy Spirit and ushering his kingdom in a new way and being a part of a new family. But part of that is going to continue to heal from our past. Heal from the brokenness. Be set free from the things that have kept us bound and to walk in that newness.

But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn, not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God.

John 1:12-13

The spirit you received does not make you slaves so that you live in fear again. Rather, the spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." The spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Now, if we are children, then we are heirs. Heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings, in order that we may also share in his glory.

Romans 8:15-17

Jesus was sitting there and he's talking to a crowd and they come out and they say to him, "Who would like your mother, your brothers, your sisters. They're standing outside. They want to speak to you." And Jesus says to them, "Whoever does the will of my father is my mother, my sisters, my brothers."

Matthew 12:46-50

Jesus came back so that you could not only share in his sufferings. But share in his glory. He came back so that you too can say, "This is my story. The story that I've lived. The story that I've experienced. The story that I was born into does not have the final say because of Jesus. But when I say yes to following him, I'm now a son. I'm now a daughter. I'm now a child of God. And I can say, 'This is my story. A story of healing. A story of redemption. A story of being set free. Of living differently. A story of being changed.'"

This is our story today. This is your inheritance. God has been telling the story of his kingdom coming for generations. And the good news for us today is that we don't have to write it. We don't have to try and figure out how it's going to happen.

We can take a deep breath and we can surrender and say, "God, I trust that you're writing an incredible story and I'm ready to live it out." We don't have to write it. We just have to play our part today.

So yes, your past may have impacted and formed you to be who you are today. And your past can continue to inform you of ways that you need to grow, the curses that you need to break, the ways you need to be set free. But it does not have the final say. Jesus does. He says, "If you follow me, you're part of a new family now. A new story. A better story. A story that you are going to be proud to tell."

And this is good news for us today. So when we go back to look at our past, we don't stay there. But we go back so that we can be set free to move forward.

So I want to invite you to stand with me today. And we're just going to close in a time of worship as we continue to remind ourselves that it's God's story. That it's his promise to fulfill. And so wherever you're at today, I just invite you to take a moment and to just say, "God, I surrender to your story. I surrender to what you did on the cross to your son Jesus. I surrender to how your Holy Spirit is continuing to work and inviting me to partner with you in seeing your kingdom come."

To just take a moment and to say, "Holy Spirit, would you show me. Would you even now show me ways that I need to ask you to come and to heal and to redeem and to restore if things have already come up to mind as I've been speaking. But to just center our lives around saying, 'God, we are living for you and to your glory. And we surrender to the story that you have been writing for generations.'"

And so let's just close in this time of worship together.