The Sermon in a Nutshell: September 6

This week's sermon was called “God Makes a Deal.” The sermon text was taken from Genesis 12:1-3, although we also looked at Genesis 22:15 and following and then connected it to the New Testament by looking at 1 Corinthians 12:12 and following. As we looked at the way God made a deal with Abraham whereby He was going to bless all nations and peoples of the world, we saw that when we find ourselves in God's story, we play A major role, but we don't play THE major role. When God called Abraham and told him that He was going to use him in His plan to restore Creation to His intended purpose, God gave Abraham a command as well as a promise. As we looked at the life of Abraham, we saw that everything that happened to Abraham was part of a faith journey that led him to trusting God's promise to him. We then looked at the way that God fulfilled this promise to Abraham by sending Jesus, Abraham's Offspring, to bring redemption in His death and resurrection. Finally, as we connected to the New Testament, we saw that we all, as members of the church which is the Body of Christ, continue to play a major role in God's story as He uses each one of us to work together to fulfill His plan to bring redemption to all peoples. All throughout God's redemption story, He has used individual human beings to work with Him in fulfilling His plans. While this does give us a sense of just how valuable we all are, we are also humbled as we see that God is at work behind the scenes in each of our lives, giving us strength and wisdom and guidance. This is how we can say that although we play a major role in God's story as He works through us, we don't play THE major role precisely because it is Him working through us.