i will be your god-narrative

8/13/2019 I Will Be Your God-narrative

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As we follow Jesus Christ, two of the greatest tools we have tohelp us grow as believers are: reading the Bible, and prayer.

However, sometimes reading the Bible can be difficult. Although

the Bible consists of 66 different books written by many differentpeople, it is one story from beginning to end. It is the story of Godand his relationship with his people.

Our purpose today is to talk about one of the main themes thatruns through the entire bible, that can help us to understandwhat God is doing in the world. God is still writing this storytoday, and we are a part of that story.

There is one main theme that runs through the Bible. And thatis:

God wants to be our God and he wants us to be hispeople.

Let's start at the beginning of the story, in Genesis, where Godcreates man and woman, and then follow this theme through thebible to the book of Revelation.

We start with the seven days of creation. God created theheavens and the earth for his people, so that they would have aplace to live and work and play.

Each day God creates something new. The first day he createdLight, and said it was good. Then on the second day he separatedthe waters and created the sky. Then he brought forth the landand produced vegetation and trees, and called that third daygood.


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On the fourth day he created the sun and moon and stars, andseparated day from night.

The fifth day, God filled the seas with living creatures and the airwith birds, and commanded them to increase and fill the seasand the air after their own kind.

God then created the creatures that move along the ground, andwild animals and livestock on the sixth day. He then created manand woman and put them in the Garden to take care of it. Butunlike everything else God had created so far, only man andwoman are said to be created in the image of God.

What does it mean when we ask why God created humans in hisimage? I think it means that he had a special plan for them. Hewanted to be their God, and he wanted them to be his people.

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God did not speak humans into existence .

Gen 1 26 Then God said, Let us make humankind in our image,according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over thefish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle,and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over everycreeping thing that creeps upon the earth. 27 So God createdhumankind in his image, in the image of God he created them;male and female he created them.

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Genesis says God formed man from the dust of the earth andthen breathed life into him. When he created Eve he took a ribfrom Adam to form her. God gave special attention to humans.He created them unlike any other living thing on earth. He


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created them in his own image. He placed the very essence ofhimself into them. He was their God, and they were his people.

God also created a special place for them to live and had aspecial relationship with him. God walked with them and talkedwith them in the Garden.

Humans were free to interact face-to-face with God. God gavethem everything they needed to live. He also gave them oneinstruction they were not to eat the fruit of the tree of theknowledge of good and evil.

Gen 3 8 That evening they heard the Lord God walking in thegarden, and they hid from him among the trees.

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It says in this verse of scripture that God was walking around inthe Garden in the evening. Why? He would come into the gardento look at his work and to visit with Adam and Eve, to talk tothem and ask how they were doing. He enjoyed being with them.He had a special relationship with them. He had given themeverything they needed for a good life.

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But there were problems on that one day. They had donesomething wrong, and now they were afraid of God, and did notwant to visit with him. In fact, they were hiding from him. Why?

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Then Eve met the serpent. He convinced her that God was hidingthe truth from her and Adam. He convinced her to eat theforbidden fruit. When they ate the fruit, their eyes were opened.Adam and Eve tried to hide from God. Sin had entered into theworld.

This made God very angry and he sent Adam and Eve out of theGarden. They no longer had the close personal relationship theyonce enjoyed with God.

Not only were Adam and Eve sent out from the Garden, but Godcursed the ground as well. Adam and Eve could no longer enjoyall that God had given them. Now they would have to work hardall their lives in order to make enough food to survive. When theyplanted seeds, the ground would also produce weeds and thorns.

Gen 3 17 And he said to the man, You listened to your wife andate the fruit which I told you not to eat. Because of what you

have done, the ground will be under a curse. You will have towork hard all your life to make it produce enough food for you. 18 It will produce weeds and thorns, and you will have to eat wildplants.

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The weeds and thorns are not only physical, but they are also asymbol of their spiritual lives. Because of sin Adam and Evebecame more and more distant from God. Their spiritual livesproduced weeds and thorns. It was unfruitful.


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We read the stories of what happened in the world after Adamand Eve left the Garden. They had two sons, Cain and Abel. Cainkilled Abel. The world became more and more sinful.

By the time of Noah, the Bible tells us that people would onlythink evil things all the time.

Gen 6 5 When the Lord saw how wicked everyone on earth wasand how evil their thoughts were all the time, he was sorry thathe had ever made them and put them on the earth. He was sofilled with regret that he said, I will wipe out these people I havecreated, and also the animals and the birds, because I am sorrythat I made any of them. But the Lord was pleased with Noah.

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God was sorry he created humans and he sent a flood to destroythe world. Only Noah and his family survived because they alonechose to obey God. God blessed Noah and his sons and told themto "be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth." Soon, the worldbecame populated once more. but once more, they fell into sin.

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Then, God called a man by the name of Abraham to leave hishome and travel to a land that God would give him.God promised to bless Abraham and to make his descendantsinto a great nation. He also promised that he will be Abraham sGod and the God of the descendants of Abraham. God toldAbraham:Genesis 17 7"I will confirm my covenant with you and yourdescendants after you, from generation to generation. This is theeverlasting covenant: I will always be your God and the God of

your descendants."


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Abraham had a son named Isaac. Isaac had two sons Jacoband Esau. Jacob and Esau grew up and had families of theirown. Jacob had 12 sons -- who became leaders of the 12 tribes of

Israel. During a time of great famine, Jacob took his family intoEgypt. Egypt saw that the Israelites were growing in numbers,and began to treat them as slaves. They lived in slavery for 400

years. But this was still part of God s plan to have a people forhimself.

God called Moses to lead the Jewish people out of slavery into theland that he had promised Abraham many years before. God toldMoses:

Exodus 5Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt and theycame to the foot of Mt. Sinai. God told the people, "If youwill obey me and keep my covenant, you will be my ownspecial treasure from among all the peoples on earth; forall the earth belongs to me."

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God gave Moses the Ten commandments and other instructionson how his people were to live their lives. We see God at workwith the people of Israel. He reminds them again and again thatHe wants to be their God, and that he wants them to be hispeople.

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I will walk among you and be your God, and youwill be my people.

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He says that if you are going to be my people, you have a choiceto make: Either obey me or disobey me. Whatever your choice,there will be consequences for your decision.

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God tells the people what will happen if they choose not to obeyhim and to be his people.

( )Deut 30 19 I am now giving you the choice between life and death,between God s blessing and God s curse, and I call heaven andearth to witness the choice you make. Choose life. 20 Love theLord your God, obey him and be faithful to him, and then youand your descendants will live long in the land that he promisedto give your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

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I think God is asking us the same question today. What choice

will you make? What is your decision? Will you be my people? ?

? ?After leaving Mt- Sinai we follow God s people, the people of Israel,as they wandered in the wilderness for forty years. They finallyreach the land that God promised to give them. But once they areliving in the land, we quickly see that the people turned awayfrom God.

In the book of Judges we can see a cycle of sin and repentanceand then sin again over and over.

Judges 3 3

1. Israel sins.


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7 The Israelites did what was evil in the sight of the Lord,forgetting the Lord their God, and worshiping the Baals and theAsherahs.

2. God sends an enemy country to conquer them and punishthem for sinning against God;

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8 Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, andhe sold them into the hand of King Cushan-rishathaim of Aram-naharaim; and the Israelites served Cushan-rishathaim eight

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3. They repent of their sin and cry out to God to save them.

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9 But when the Israelites cried out to the Lord, the Lord raised upa deliverer for the Israelites, who delivered them, Othniel son ofKenaz, Caleb s younger brother.

4. God sends someone to deliver them and they defeat the enemy

who is oppressing them.

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10 The spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he judged Israel; hewent out to war, and the Lord gave King Cushan-rishathaim ofAram into his hand; and his hand prevailed over Cushan-rishathaim.

5. Finally, there is a time of peace until the judge dies, then theyreturn to sinning against the God how wants to be their God.

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11 So the land had rest forty years. Then Othniel son of Kenazdied. 12 Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, and


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because they did this evil the LORD gave Eglon king of Moabpower over Israel.

Later, Israel becomes a nation and God gives them a king. Hechooses David, because he was a man after God s own heart.

After David dies, all those who became king after him start to dothe same thing, and they sin again and again. God wants to betheir God, but the people act as if they don t want to be hispeople.

The writer of the history of the kings of Israel tells the story ofeach of the Kings who ruled, and tells us what kind of King theywere. One kind is mostly good, doing what is right in the eyes ofGod, or,

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4 2 Kings 15 3 He did what was right in the sight of the Lord,

just as his father Amaziah had done. 4 However, the highplaces were not taken away; the people still sacrificed andmade offerings on the high places.

The second kind of king only does evil in the eyes of God.

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2 Kings 23 32 He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, just as his ancestors had done.

God sent enemy countries to attack Israel to punish them fortheir sin, but he did not give up on his people. His promise wasstill good: he wanted to be their God and he wanted them to behis people. But he made a new promise, that he would sendsomeone who would help them to obey God.

The prophet Isaiah is one of the prophets who told the peopleabout God s promise to help them.


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2 Isa 11 1 The royal line of David is like a tree that has been cutdown; but just as new branches sprout from a stump, so a newking will arise from among David s descendants. 2 And the Spiritof the Lord will rest on him

(read text)Israel kept sinning against God, and things were really gettingbad for Israel. God sent the prophet Jeremiah to Israel to warnthem that they were not keeping their part of the promise to beGod s people. As a result, they were going to be conquered by an enemy nation.

Although God was going to judge the people for their

disobedience, he also promised that he would do something tohelp them to be the people of God. He said he would make a newcovenant with them, and instead of giving them the 10commandments written on a piece stone, he would write hiscommandment on their hearts.

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Jer 31 33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the houseof Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law withinthem, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God,and they shall be my people.

But they had to wait for God s promise to be fulfilled. Finally, 500 years later the time was right, and God sent his son Jesus tobe born of a human mother.

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Gal 4 4 But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son,born of a woman, born under the law


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Jesus was sent to remind people of what God wanted: He wantsto be our God and he wants us to be his people.

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In Mark 12, a Jewish leader asked Jesus what was the mostimportant of the Ten Commandments. This is what Jesus said:

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Mark 12 29 Jesus replied, The most important one is this:Listen, Israel! The Lord our God is the only Lord. Love the Lord

your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.

God wants to be our God, says Jesus, therefore we must love himwith all our heart, soul, mind and strength.

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31 The second most important commandment is this: Love yourneighbor as you love yourself. There is no other commandmentmore important than these two.

If we are to be the people of God, we must love our neighbor aswell.

What does it mean to love your neighbor as yourself? We can lookback at what the prophet Isaiah said to the people of Israel whowere following God only with their lips, but not with their heart:

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Isa 585 Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day forpeople to humble themselves? Is it only fo r bowing one s head

like a reed and for lying in sackcloth and ashes? Is that what youcall a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD? 6 Is not this the kindof fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice anduntie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and breakevery yoke? 7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry and toprovide the poor wanderer with shelter when you see thenaked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own fleshand blood?

To be a people of God, we must act as people of God. Isaiah offersways in which to do this: give clothing to those who need it; givefood to those who are hungry, give shelter to people who havenone, free people from prison.

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To say it another way, we can show God how much we love him,

and want to be his people, by showing love to our neighbors.

You do not want to be hungry, homeless, in need of clothing. Godsays that if you love your neighbor as yourself, do for them as

you want someone to do for you. That is what it means to love your neighbor as yourself, and to show that you want God to be your God.


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Not only did Jesus preach the message that God wants us to behis people, and that he wants be our God, he made it possible forthis to happen.

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Romans 5 10 For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled toGod through the death of his Son, much more surely, havingbeen reconciled, will we be saved by his life.

By the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the son of God,God has brought us into a new relationship with him

It is because of his death that we can have new life as his people.

It is because he was raised from the dead that we can have powerin our lives to be his people. He does this through the Holy Spirit,which he gives everyone who believes in Jesus Christ.

I don t know if you have asked yourself this question, but the onequestion that we haven t answered yet is, why does God want usto be his people?

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Paul wrote a letter to Christians living in the Greek city ofCorinth to warn them about going to pagan temples andworshipping idols.

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2 Cor 6 16 What agreement has the temple of God with idols? Forwe are the temple of the living God; as God said, I will live inthem and walk among them, and I will be their God, and theyshall be my people.


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17 Therefore come out from them, and be separate from them,says the Lord, and touch nothing unclean; then I will welcome

you, 18 and I will be your father, and you shall be my sons anddaughters, says the Lord Almighty.

The reason why they should not go to temples to worship idols isbecause God is making his people into a temple where he canlive. The Jewish people believed that God lived in the Temple in

Jerusalem.

Now, because God lives in Jesus Christ, so he wants to live in us.All of us together are a temple where God lives. Notice what Paulsays at the end of this verse:

I will be your father, and you shall be my sons anddaughters, says the Lord Almighty.

So each of us are a piece that God is using to build his temple.

Our job is to keep our part of the temple clean so that God willwant to live there.

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Consequently, therefore, you are no longer strangersand foreigners, but you are fellow citizens of the saints andmembers of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation ofthe apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being thecornerstone, 21 in whom the whole building, joined together,grows into a holy temple in the Lord, 22 in whom you also arebuilt up together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.


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Finally, in the last book of the bible, we read that God is bringingtime and history to an end. He is restoring everything back towhat it was like in the garden with Adam and Eve. Notice whathe says here:

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Revelation 21 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with themas their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself will bewith them;

So we have come completely around the circle to the goal thatGod put in place at the beginning of history, and what he hasbeen working on since the beginning of time.

(Talk about the idea of an overview of the bible that will help us tounderstand the bible better when we read it, and which will helpus to grow as Gods sons and daughters.

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Exodus 33 15 Then Moses said, If you don t personally go withus, don t make us leave this place. 16 How will anyone know that

you look favorably on me on me and on your people if youdon t go with us? For your presence among us sets your peopleand me apart from all other people on the earth.

i will be your god-narrative

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