The Story of God - City Alive Church

The book of Deuteronomy records Moses' final words to the Israelites at the border of the Promised Land. There is one God: Yahweh. All his commands are really one command: Love.

At the edge of the of the Promised Land, Israel is enticed into idol worship and sexual sin. When an Israelite man brings a Midianite woman into the camp, Phinehas kills them both and is approved by God. Stories like this teach us about our own battle with the enemy. Sin has to be put to death.

Across the Jordan River from Jericho, Israel is camped in the Plains of Moab. The King of Moab hires a prophet to curse them, but instead he blesses them four times. This story teaches us that nothing can curse what God has blessed.

Israel becomes impatient in the wilderness. They rebel. God's judgment comes. They ask for mercy. God forgives. This pattern repeats again and again throughout Israel's wilderness journey. And it reveals to us one of the core ideas of the Bible: God has provided a priest for sinners.

Moses sends spies into the land, who find that it's just as good as God said it was. But they also find giants. Ten of the spies want to turn back to Egypt, but two believe they should move ahead and conquer the land. Their choice is the same as ours: will we turn back in unbelief or will we boldly step into the promise of God?

After spending a year at Mount Sinai, Israel sets out for the Promised Land. They have a salvation in their past and a promise in their future, but in between they have a desert. The wilderness is the "in-between" place, full of trials and tests. How we handle the wilderness determines whether or not we make it into the Promised Land.

The Israelites depart from Mount Sinai with the newly constructed Tabernacle. The Cloud of God's personal presence is in their midst as they move through the wilderness. They move when and where the Cloud moves. And they camp around the Cloud when it stays still. They orient their entire culture around the presence of God.

Moses prays one of the greatest prayers in the Bible: "Lord, show me your glory!" And God answers. Yahweh appears before Moses on Sinai, declaring his own name and identity. When Moses comes down the mountain, his face is radiating with the glory of God.

God gives Moses precise details for how to build the tabernacle, various laws for the people follow, and specific instructions for the sacrifices. These are the terms of the Sinai Covenant. For the first time since Eden, God brings his own personal presence and glory to live among humanity.

Moses is receiving the Law on top of Sinai, but the Israelites down on the ground get nervous and impatient. They decide to make a golden calf and worship it as their new god instead. Although the covenant is broken shortly after it began, Moses the Mediator asks God to have mercy on them.

On Mount Sinai God gives Moses the Law. The Ten Commandments are at the heart of God's Law. And God himself carves them on tablets of stone. Through them God reveals his heart for how we should live as his covenant people.

Moses arrives back at Sinai with the Israelites. But this time the entire mountain is on fire. Thunder and lighting, a trumpet blast, and an earthquake occur as God himself descends onto the mountain. He enters into a covenant with the Israelites. It's a covenant marked by: grace, relationship, mission, blood, and meal.

Israel takes up the sword for the first time as the Amalekites attack. As long as Moses holds up his hands, victory is assured. Yahweh is the banner of victory for his people.

A month out from the Exodus, Israel grumbles without food and water. But God reveals his glory to them. He provides manna from heaven and water from a rock. Even though Israel is in new territory, they have the same God.

Israel comes out of Egypt in battle formation, with Yahweh himself as their champion leading the way. The Lord manifests his presence as a pillar of cloud and fire. Pharaoh and his armies pursue the Israelites to a dead end, but Yahweh parts the Red Sea and leads Israel through on dry ground.

Pharaoh's continual rebellion leads to the tenth and final plague. God himself descends to strike all the firstborn across the land of Egypt. This plague will not spare Egyptian or Israelite. But for Israel, God provides a way of escape: an unblemished lamb. When he sees the blood of the lamb, he will pass over the house and it will be saved.

God reveals the greatness of his name through powerful signs and wonders. The Lord demonstrates his mastery and sovereignty over every power in heaven and earth by plunging Egypt into chaos, darkness, and death. Pharaoh resists and offers Israel counterfeit freedoms. But God is committed to a full exodus for his people.

God reveals himself in fire to Moses in a tree on a mountain, and that random place becomes a holy place. Over the course of Israel's journey in Exodus, God will continue to manifest his presence as fire. God also reveals to Moses his Name: YHWH / I AM. And he commissions Moses to rescue his people.

Before Moses parted the Red Sea, encountered God on the mountain, or brought down the 10 Commandments, Moses had to make a choice: was he going to be an Israelite or an Egyptian? Moses decides to get out of Egypt, but in the wilderness God gets Egypt out of him. He was looking ahead to a better city, whose Builder and Maker is God.

Jacob's large family in Egypt has become a small nation. God's promises to the patriarchs are coming true. Pharaoh enslaves the Israelites, but his plans are no match for the promise of God. The more he oppresses them, the more they multiply. And God's response is to raise up a deliverer who will rescue his people.

Joseph has been cast down, but God raises him up. Joseph learns that his calling is bigger than he is, and that God has positioned him to prepare for a coming famine. In the middle of terrible evil, the Sovereign God has been working all of it for good. Joseph's redemptive suffering rescues his people and saves many lives.

Joseph is his father's favorite son. He has a colorful robe and big dreams. But instead of rising up, his life takes one downward turn after another. He goes down into a pit, down to Egypt, and down into prison. And yet through all the "downs", the loyal love and presence of God was with Joseph.

Jacob returns home after 20 years. The night before he is about to see Esau again, he is left alone until a mysterious stranger comes to wrestle with him until daybreak. Jacob has been the heel grabber from the womb, but the real person he was wrestling with throughout his life wasn't his brother Esau or his uncle Laban, it was the Lord. And this wrestling match with God changes his life and his name forever.

In exile for 20 years working for his uncle Laban, God continues his deep transformative work in Jacob's life. The deceiver is himself deceived, but God's plan to redeem the world is at work through this growing family.

Jacob goes on the run, fleeing from Esau's wrath. When it seems like he has lost everything, he is met by God in a dream where heaven and earth come together. Often in life, it's in our darkest moments that God reveals himself to us the most.

In our world, talk is cheap. But here Jacob deceives his own aging father to receive a blessing, a blessing that will alter the course of his life and his family for generations. Isaac, though wrongfully deceived, is carrying out the purposes of God. Like Isaac we are caught up in a story much bigger than we are, a story where God uses all things to move forward his story with the world.

The brothers, Hairy and Heel, are at it again. Jacob takes advantage of his brother in a moment of need and Esau trades his birthright to gulp down a bowl of soup. Who would trade their rich inheritance in God for a single moment of pleasure? Sadly, we all do it all the time. But in Christ, we are offered a better meal, one that satisfies our hearts forever.

Yahweh asks Abraham to do the unthinkable: sacrifice his own son, the son he waited decades for. But at this point in his journey, Abraham fully trusts the Lord. And of course, God provides a ram. The explosive truth revealed in this story is that Yahweh is not like the other gods demanding sacrifices, because Yahweh provides his own sacrifice.

After decades of waiting, God's promise comes to pass, and Isaac is born. His name means laughter, because God brings abundant joy out of their sorrow and shame. This is the God who is faithful to fulfill his promises, and he brings life out of dead places.

Abraham operates in the "family business" that he is called to in blessing the nations. In this story, he stands in the gap as a priest for a wicked people. We learn something fascinating about God: he allows a righteous few to save the sinful many.

God reiterates his covenant to Abram by giving him a new name: Abraham. And he asks Abraham to set himself apart through a physical sign: circumcision. This physical marker will set him and his descendants apart, not just as a removal of skin from the body, but as a cutting away of the old life, so they could be set apart for God.

Growing older in age, Abraham and Sarah attempt to bring about God's promises on their own terms. As a result, Sarah's slave Hagar gets deeply wounded. But God's value system is different than ours. Here this runaway slave with no answers and no hope finds out that God sees her. And not only does God see her, she gets to see God.

God has made big promises to Abraham and his descendants. But how can Abraham know they will come to pass? He is an old man without a single child. God's proof is a covenant. In this fascinating encounter with the Lord, Abraham sees the covenant God put his own life on the line to guarantee his word.

Genesis 1-11 deals with global events, describing the brokenness of humanity and the curse of sin on a massive scale. But the Story of God takes a huge turn in Genesis 12. God's solution to the curse is a people of blessing. God chooses a man named Abraham. His family will be at the center of the God's Story with the world. Through his descendants, the whole world will be redeemed.

Noah is out of step with the world so he can walk with God. God hits reset on his creation, allowing the waters of chaos to wash away the violence and wickedness. The fresh start echoes Genesis 1 as a new creation: out of the waters come the dry land, with a man, his family, and all the animals. Then God puts the rainbow in the sky, declaring peace, and pointing to a new covenant to come.

Outside the eternal life of God in Eden, Adam and Eve's family experiences the destructive effects of sin up close. Cain allows sin to corrupt his heart, he kills his brother Abel, and he is driven out from the presence of God. But Abel's death is a sign of another innocent death to come, the death of Christ. Abel's blood cried out for justice, but Jesus' blood cries out for mercy.

Adam and Eve were given authority over everything on the earth. Yet when a snake comes into the garden, they don't use their God-given authority to drive it out. Instead, they give their authority to it by listening to its voice. God's story seems to be off track as sin and death enter the world. But God promises a descendant of the woman who will crush the head of the serpent.

As the crowing achievement of his creation, God places man and woman as his image bearers. They are called to extended his leadership over creation as priests and kings. God forms them out of two things: the dust of the earth and his own Spirit.

We kick off the Story of God in the beginning! Our good God makes a world that's only good, right, and whole. There is no such thing as neutral or secular space because the entire cosmos exists through the power and love of the Creator God. Yahweh is King who drives out darkness and brings light, and who fills the void with life.

This podcast feed is for the "Story of God" sermon series at City Alive Church. In this brief introductory episode Joey explains some of the heart behind the series and what to expect as the series progresses. You can find the main podcast feed for all of our sermons by searching "City Alive Church".