Knowing God Through Story

Dr. Jeff Cary: Good morning, LCU.
It is good for us to be here today.
It's good for us as a community to take this time in our gathered life at LCU to pause
and to turn the affections of our hearts toward what matters most, to turn the affections
of our hearts toward God and toward each other in love.
And so we pray that God would honor this time we have together.
Every fall, we have the gift of getting to host the Lanier Theological Lectures.
These are provided by the generosity of Mark and Becky Lanier and the Lanier Theological Library that is rooted in Houston, Texas.
And they have lots of great speakers come to their library, and they're generous enough to send one to us every fall to give a primary lecture on our campus.
We always get them to come speak in chapel as well.
I want to recognize Charles Mickey.
He is in our audience.
He always comes from the library to bring our speakers to us.
So, Charles, would you please stand up and be recognized?
He and I have a common love for steaks.
We got to eat steak last night together.
So, Charles, would you please give our thanks to the Lanier's when you go back?
Our speaker today and this year for the lecture is Dr. John Walton.
He's a professor of Old Testament, spent a long career teaching at the Moody Bible Institute,
and then had a fairly lengthy career at Wheaton College where he now serves as Professor Emeritus.
He is a very active scholar.
He has published lots of books, lots of articles.
And what he's probably most known for is his work with the book of Genesis.
This evening at 7 o'clock in the Collier Auditorium in the Nursing Building,
he will give a lecture on Genesis 1, the first page of the Bible.
Genesis 1 in the context of the ancient Near East.
And probably many of you know this has been a somewhat controversial page in the Bible
for decades and even the last century.
He's going to address it with grace and with great scholarly acumen.
I hope you will come and listen to his lecture tonight.
So for now, please help me welcome Dr. John Walton.
Dr. John Walton: Good morning.
Wow, it's great to see a full room,
although I can't see a full room
'cause the spotlights are all in my face
and I can only see one row, but I assume you're here.
Great to see you.
So you've heard it from your pastors.
You've heard it from your parents.
You've heard it from your professors.
You've heard it from your youth pastors.
You've heard that it's important to know God.
And most of the time, you know the vibe.
You kind of understand that.
And you shake your head and very sincerely, yes,
it's important to know God.
And maybe in those outside moments, those quiet moments,
it might enter into your brain to say,
what in the world does that mean?
How do I know God?
What does that take?
I mean, it doesn't seem like it's the same as knowing other people in my life.
Did you ever ask yourself,
what does it mean to know God?
How is that possible?
Well, I want to help you with that a little bit
because I think I've got some ideas that can help you.
Think about how you get to know other people.
When you first came into your dorm,
when you sit down in a dining hall with other students,
when you're in a club together, on a team together,
and you meet people you haven't met before.
What happens?
How does it go?
Well, it goes pretty much the same all the time, doesn't it?
You exchange names, you know, where you're from,
what brings you here, right?
And what are you doing when you do that?
You're not just introducing yourself.
What you're doing is you're beginning,
just the very first tiny steps,
you're beginning to tell your story.
and the more you get to know someone
the more you share your story with them
and they share their story with you
sharing stories is how we get to know one another
and your story is not just your past
it's not just your name certainly
and it's not just your past
your story is your past and your present
and even your future.
Your hopes, your dreams, your aspirations, your fears
are all part of your story.
And as you get to know someone more,
that happens as you begin to share more and more
of one another's stories.
And if you become very good friends,
You start to share some of those parts of your story that you don't share easily, that aren't pretty.
And that's an indication of how well you know them.
And sometimes a guy and a girl meet and they start sharing stories and soon they get to the point where they just want to spend all their time sharing stories with one another.
They can't get enough of the story.
And that's when you feel like you really know someone deeply.
You know, when someone comes up to you and says, "Oh, do you know so and so?"
And you might say, "Yes."
But then, how do you say how you know them?
Basically, by choosing some part of their story that will help convey how well you know
them.
So, one time someone asked me, "Do you know so and so?"
And I said, yes.
And they said, well, how well do you know them?
Well, when they were getting their kitchen remodeled, they lived with us for a month.
Oh, okay, you know them pretty well.
We go camping together, okay?
Sharing story is how we know one another.
And sometimes, of course, you get to the point where you've shared your story with someone else
and the two of you decide to spend life together.
And you continue sharing stories.
And sometimes, sadly, marriages go wrong.
And one of the first indicators of that is when the couple has stopped sharing stories.
They just don't seem to care anymore about the day-by-day story.
Sharing stories.
Our stories are important.
Our stories are in large measure our identity.
And when you know someone well and they're close friends,
your stories begin to intertwine.
And they become part of your story and you become part of theirs.
Now I suspect by now you have an idea where I'm going with this.
Because let's go back to our question.
How do we know God?
And yeah, my answer is pretty much the same.
It's all about sharing stories.
Now we share our stories with God when we pray.
That's us sharing our story.
Prayer is not just asking for things.
You know that, right?
Prayer is not just your list of things you want.
After all, if you were in a relationship with someone at some level,
and all you ever talked to them about was the things you wanted them to do for you,
that wouldn't be a very healthy relationship, would it?
So prayer is the way we share our stories with God.
And you might say, well, God knows all of that.
He knows my story.
He knows what I've been up to today.
Well, there's something about sharing it, about hearing it.
It's something my wife and I have taken seriously over the years.
We spend a lot of time sharing stories.
We take long walks and just talk about our day, talk about what we're thinking,
talk about things of the past or in the present or in the future, sharing stories.
It builds relationship when you share your story with someone.
But I want to talk a little more about the other side of it.
Because God also shares his story with us.
Not in words that we can hear, but in words that we can read.
Because, yes, that's what the Bible is.
the Bible
is not some kind of
textbook for theology
it's not some kind of
guideline for all morality
it's not a science book or a history book
the Bible
is God's story
a story that he's shared with us
so that we might know him.
We get to know God by getting to know his story.
Sometimes people talk about that the Bible is a way to get to know kind of a deep theology,
to know God deeply.
And there's limits to how deeply we can know God
because we're not like him.
He's not like us.
But he shares his story with us
so that we can get a sense of his track record.
What is God's past?
Well, we've got the story of Israel.
We've got the story of Jesus.
We've got the story of the church.
We've got the story of God's past
that shows us his track record.
And you know, as you can tell, as you know when you read scripture, it's not always as if everything always goes the same way.
What we see when we read scripture is that in all the varied and many different scenarios that can happen, that God just works along with his people.
He works through people. He works with people. Sometimes he works despite what the people themselves want to do.
He can work through Joshua, but he can also work through Nebuchadnezzar.
It's God's way.
We read his story.
And as we read his story, it's supposed to be just like it is in our relationships here.
As we become more and more acquainted with his story and continually share our story,
The idea is that our stories become intertwined.
He takes his place in our story, and we take our place in his story.
That's what we're doing.
That's what's supposed to happen when we read the Bible.
We are supposed to get more and more of a sense of God's story
so that we feel like we know him.
It doesn't mean that he promises to act in our lives
the way he acted in someone else's,
but we become aware of what he can do.
And the more we get to know him through his stories,
the more we can sense the ways in which we can become participants in his story.
Some of you on your phones or your laptops or whatever have facial recognition software.
So you open up your device and it pins your face and says, hello.
It recognizes you.
Now, I've been told by people who design that kind of software
that that software improves its profile of you every time it pings your face.
And the more times it's done that, the more times it's used,
the more comprehensive your profile is.
And that means it gets harder to fool that program.
If something else goes on with your face, you cut off all your hair or you have a big cut on your face or who knows what.
It won't be fooled because it's pinged your face so many times that it can recognize you despite those things that might throw it off.
And I think that's a great analogy for thinking about how scripture helps us to know God.
I like to think of it that every time I open the pages of scripture
I'm pinging the face of God
one more shot, one more look, a different angle
a different perspective, a different vantage point
pinging the face of God
and the more and more that I do that
the less that I can be fooled
I run into some pastors
I say, what's God doing there?
or that sounds weird for God to do that, right?
But the more I develop this full profile
of what God is up to, what he's been doing, his story,
the less easily I'll be fooled
into coming to some false conclusion,
pinging the face of God.
Now this can help us as we think about what we are doing when we read the Bible.
We're engaged in trying to know God.
We're not just looking for little nuggets for the day,
little inspirational thoughts, motivational ideas that will get us through the day.
To say it another way, this isn't about you.
we're not just trying to pull little thingamabobs out
and say what does that do for me
i like to call it the me box
so lots of times what happens is we look at all of the bits of scripture maybe it's a psalm maybe
it's a proverb, maybe it's a Bible story, maybe it's a law, okay? We look at all the little bits
and our inclination too often is we look at each of the bits. We want to try to figure out right
away, how do I drop that bit into the me box? Sometimes we frame it as baldly as what does
this mean to me, but sometimes we don't quite get there, but still we think that
embracing the word of God and finding its application and its relevance means
dropping it in the me box.
My beliefs, my causes, my science, my
whatever it might be, my agenda, my identity, my benefits.
Dropping it into the me box.
And I want to suggest you an alternative.
Once we recognize that this is God's story,
it's the story of how he is working out his plans and purposes
across the scope of time and history.
So as we read the bits, as we encounter them,
instead of saying, how do I take this isolated, independent bit
and drop it into the me box,
I want to encourage you to think a different way.
I want you to think that I'm going to look at this bit, whatever it is, and the question
I'm going to ask is, how do I push that up into the God box?
How do I think about what that bit tells me about God's story, about how God is working
in the world, how God is working through people?
And they're people like me, like you.
There are people who have flaws and weaknesses, people who fail.
And somehow, God seems to be able to work out his plans and purposes anyway.
That's no excuse for failure or faithlessness.
But to see that that's how God can work.
And so, as we look at all the bits,
We want to ask the question, how does that help me populate the God box?
How does that enhance my understanding of what God's plans and purposes are and how he carries them out?
Because he's still carrying them out today, and he's doing it all around us, in us, through us.
And then the relevance of that comes when we recognize that we're supposed to take that growing, deepening God box,
our pinging the face of God, getting a fuller and fuller understanding.
We're supposed to take that to help us know how to participate.
Participate in God's story.
Become a part of God's plans and purposes.
Because it's not about me.
It's not about the me box.
But how can we be part of this wonderful scope of God's plans and purposes?
And we can only learn about that in the Bible.
so if the Bible is God's story
and we get to know God
by encountering
his story
then somebody who comes to me and says
I want to know God
I'm going to say
are you in the story?
are you
spending time in the story?
because there's no place else to get it
and no way else to do it
let me end with an illustration
so you're driving along
the road of life
in your luxury car
your luxury sedan
cruising along life
looking for your best life now
here we go
and suddenly you see Jesus
by the side of the road
with his thumb out
hitchhiking
you say oh this is good
this is good
pull up the car, throw open the door. Come on, Jesus. I got a space here right in the passenger
seat. You're on shotgun and you can help me navigate and you can get me to my best life now.
Let's go. Woo. Road trip. This is going to be fun. Road trip with Jesus.
So you go cruising along. You get to a fork in the road and you say, okay, Jesus,
Which way should I go for my best life now?
This is a me trip.
And he says, get out of the car.
Oh, okay.
So you get out of the car and you shut the door and the door falls off.
And you say, wait, this is a rusty old clunker.
I thought I was in a luxury sedan.
This thing's falling apart.
What am I going to do now?
And Jesus says, follow me.
You say, okay, well, my ride's gone, so okay.
Follow Jesus.
And he takes you to the train station.
Brings you up on the platform.
Says, this is my train.
Here's your ticket. I got it for you.
Climb on.
Because now you're a passenger.
going where I'm going, part of my program.
It's not your best life now.
It's my kingdom now.
And you're on the kingdom train.
And it's all about God, not about you.
Sit where you want.
Enjoy the ride.
Be part of what I'm doing.
God's plans and purposes
that's our goal
to be part
of that whole program
that's how we know God
let's pray
Lord we are grateful that you want
to know us
that you've made it possible for us to know
you
we are in relationship with you living life together sharing stories
that's what relationship is and how it grows deeper and we long for it so please lord
help us to look beyond ourselves to see that our prayer should be to bring honor to your name
as Jesus told us.
Your name be honored, not mine.
Your will be done, not mine.
Your kingdom come, not mine.
Thank you, Jesus.
Amen.
You are dismissed.