God’s Ultimate Goal

Welcome to Southwest!

• Reflection Question — What does God desire more than anything else? Today’s sermon will explore that question!
• New Series: The Story of Our Salvation
• Reading the Bible as one big story that ultimately leads to Jesus.
• The Bible is a lot of different things (law, history, poetry, etc.), and it was written at different times and places, but it is nevertheless a single unified story.
• The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus is the culmination of this story.

The Power of our Stories

Everyone has some kind of big-picture story that helps them make sense of their lives.

• “In order to understand our world, to make sense of our lives, and to make our most important decisions about how we ought to be living, we depend upon some story. Which story a person lives out of makes a huge difference in how one interprets events in life.” -Craig Bartholomew & Michael Goheen, The Drama of Scripture. 

Examples of these Fundamental Stories:

• The American Dream (Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness)
• The Hero’s Journey (Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Moana, etc.)
• Our Family’s Legacy (Generational patterns, scripts, or trauma)

There is Only One True Ultimate Story — The Story of the Bible.

The story we choose to follow will influence our perception of the present and our priorities for the future. 

• “You must choose. But choose wisely!” -The Old Dude in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
• The Bible “functions as the authoritative Word of God for us when it becomes the one basic story through which we understand our own experience and thought, and the foundation upon which we base our decisions and actions.” -Bartholomew & Goheen.

What would it look like to approach the Bible as one unified story that leads to Jesus? 

• And what would it look like to adopt this Biblical story as the foundation story of our lives? 

Today’s Message: God’s Ultimate Goal

• Scriptures: Revelation 21-22, 1 Tim. 2:1-7
• Why begin at the end of the Bible? Because we need to know where this story is going. 

What is the ultimate goal that God is pursuing throughout the entire Bible?

• To dwell with his people forever. The story of the Bible tells us how he plans to accomplish that through the sacrifice of his son Jesus. 

Scriptures: Revelation 21:1-8; 22:1-5, 21

• No more sin, death or evil. No more curse.
• God is dwelling with his people. 
• Disciples of Jesus are covered by his grace and enjoy abundant, eternal life.
• Key Point from Revelation 21:27: Only those whose names are written in the book of life will enjoy these blessings from God.

The Four “Sinless” Chapters in the Bible

• Revelation 21-22 are part of a small but unique segment of the Bible — chapters that portray what life is like without any sin.
• Genesis 1 & 2 occurs before the first sin in Genesis 3.
• Revelation 21-22 takes place after sin is defeated for good in Revelation 20.
• The consistent thing we see in these chapters is that God is there, dwelling among his people. That was his original plan and his ultimate goal. 
• Knowing God’s ultimate goal helps the rest of the Bible “click” and make sense as a unified story — God wants to dwell with his people, but sin is getting in the way, so he has to overcome that fundamental problem.

God’s Desire in 1 Timothy 2:1-7

• Command — Pray for all people.
• Why? Because of what God desires — for everyone to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.
• But also because Jesus is a mediator who died as a ransom for all people.

If you are a disciple of Jesus, your day-to-day actions should be based on what God desires (the salvation of all people), who Jesus is (our mediator), and what God has done (sacrificed his son).

• Reflection: Are you basing your life on who God is and what he wants, or on your own narrative of the American Dream?
• Paul’s example — Paul’s story began in opposition to God, but God intervened and allowed him to become part of a better story — God’s story.

What’s Your Story?

There are many possible stories that we can use, but there’s only one solid foundation to build on, and it’s the story of our salvation which we find in the Bible. 

Every other story is a counterfeit narrative that will ultimately prove inadequate. 

Application

• Keep God’s ultimate goal in mind as you read the Bible.
• Reflect on what story you are relying on as the foundational story of your life.
• Don’t blindly accept the counterfeit narratives from the world around us.

Study & Reflection

Read Luke 15:1-32 (Three famous parables about God seeking and saving the lost).

1. What types of people were there listening to Jesus when he told these parables? How do the parables speak to these various audiences?
2. What do these passages teach us about God, Jesus, or his plan for our lives?
3. What do these parables teach us about our lives as people, whether that’s our nature, our standing with God, or our habits and tendencies?
4. What would have happened to the sheep, the coin, and the son if no one came looking for them? What would happen to us if God didn’t pursue us?
5. How do these parables relate to Paul’s teaching in 1 Timothy 2:1-7? 
6. In your own words, what is the big picture story of the Bible (which Bryan talks about)?