“Your Yet Unwritten Story”

Introduction

Perhaps you’ve heard the stories a hundred times. They still fascinate extraordinary individuals who lived on this earth many years ago. We tell our children, and rightfully so, about the story of the man who built the boat in a very wicked time. All of that time building the boat, and only eight were saved through water, and the world was judged. The story of Abraham, and of all we could say about this father of the faithful. I think the story that is most poignant to perhaps all of us is the instruction to sacrifice his son, the beloved, long-awaited, two and a half decades, the son of the promise on Mount Moriah. And the story of the great leader who led the people of Israel out of bondage through the Red Sea to a new era of hope and blessing.

And the marvelous strong man with great locks of hair who single handedly fought the wicked Philistines, Samson, and the story of Ruth, an outsider who became an insider and found inclusion in the lineage of our Lord. And later we read of the heroic young man who was willing to do what no one else would by faith accept the challenge of the Goliath giant. And there’s the story of Elijah, the prophet of God who called down fire from heaven in the great contest at Mount Carmel. And then there’s the woman who stood up on behalf of her people and saved the nation of Israel while they were in exile. And the list goes on. But now I want to talk about you. I want to talk to you this morning about your yet unwritten story.

And like these people we’ve just briefly discussed from the Bible, is it possible that your story could be a fascinating story of faith, courage, and accomplishment.

The answer to that question is no way, Jose. No. Yes. The answer to that question is yes. But I don’t know that we see it that way. We look at these stories of the Bible and we say, what relevance does that have to me? Those are the great people. And they certainly were people for extraordinary moments in history who performed extraordinary acts of faith and courage and accomplishment, but that does not argue that they were of superhuman abilities. And this lesson this morning is not for the most talented among us. Merely.

It is not for our most skilled Bible class teachers. It is for every last one of you who live by faith. What’s possible for you in your yet incomplete, unwritten story? I know what’s been, or at least you know what’s been better than I know what’s been for your life. But regardless of what’s been to this point, your story is not complete because I think you still have a pulse today. What might God have planned for you yet? I want you to give some thought to that. And I want to look at three texts with you briefly, and I’m going to ask you to turn in your Bible to look at these texts and see what they have in common and make some observations. The first is a Psalm of David in Psalm 139.

1. God's Intentions for You

What might these passages be saying about God’s intentions for your life? God’s intentions for you. In this marvelous Psalm that I preached about a lot lately, and I do so in meetings about everywhere I go, as I talk about the phrase, when I awake from verse 18 of Psalm 139, and talk about what’s going on in this Psalm in regard to being impressed with God, what he knows, his power, his presence, and his ability to create, as he says in verse 14, that I am fearfully and wonderfully made and wonderful are your works, and my soul knows it very well. You weaved me in my mother’s womb, he says in verse 13, and he says, I was skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth. Now I want you to notice verse 16.

And in your book, they were all written. The days that were ordained for me.

When as yet there was not one of them. God had every day of David’s life in view. Before there was yet a single day. Is that what the text is saying? What kind of implications are there to such a statement as that? Well, this gets a little more interesting. Let’s flip over a few more pages in your Bible to Jeremiah chapter one. In Jeremiah chapter 1, extraordinary. The Lord stretches out his hand and touches Jeremiah’s mouth and says, I have an incredible job for you to do.

I’ve appointed you this day over the nations and over the kingdoms to pluck up and to break down, to overthrow and to destroy, to build and to plant. And that’s not going to go over very well. I’ll just give you the what happens afterwards. That’s not going to be very well received. But I want you to go back a few verses.

I’ve had my eye on you. How long have you had your eye on me? Verse 5. Before I formed you in the womb. That sounds like Psalm 139, doesn’t it? Before I formed you in the womb, I consecrated you. I set you apart. I have my eyes on you. Jeremiah, you’re the perfect man for this job. And like a lot of the prophets, it’s like, boy, I was really born into the wrong time period. And if anybody could say that, it would have been Jeremiah and his friend Baruch. It’s like, boy, how did we land this job? Could I have been born a couple hundred years later, please? This is not a lot of fun. I have appointed you a prophet to the nations. Before I formed you in the womb.

I consecrate. Okay, now let me take you to where this really gets puzzling. Let’s go to the book of Galatians in Galatians chapter 1. This it gets it gets harder. In Galatians chapter 1, when Paul is describing how he is now being used by his Lord, though he was once an opposer of these very things, he says in verse 15, but when he who had set me apart, even from my mother’s womb. Now that sounds like Psalm 139 in Jeremiah chapter 1. When he had set me apart even from my mother’s womb and called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his son in me that I might preach him among the Gentiles.

Even compared to Jeremiah. From persecutor to the way to promoter of the way. A killer of Christians to a one who saves people unto Christ. What are we going to make of these texts? And how does it relate to my question this morning about your yet unwritten story? Let me tell you what I think we do to these passages that is a huge mistake. We so often spend all of our time talking about what these passages don’t mean that we lose the wonder about what they do mean in our lives, because immediately what we begin talking about, and rightfully so to some degree, is God’s amazing foreknowledge. He has these glorious intentions for these three men, David and Jeremiah and the Apostle Paul, extending all the way back to the time before they ever were.

And what this loudly testifies to is what our God knows. His amazing foreknowledge. But mistakes are made, conclusions are drawn about these texts that are not so. Because God foreknows something, some then conclude and teach that God therefore causes everything that occurs. No, God does not determine every action of all men at all times. His goodness makes him clearly incapable of being the author of evil. And if he is calling the shots on everything that happens, then he is an instigator of evil. And the goodness of God just simply won’t allow that conclusion. These passages must not cause us to choose fatalism. The belief that all events are predetermined and therefore inevitable. As one affirmed, fatalism can breed indifference to the human cost of war. I mean, if you think about this, if everything is determined ahead of time by some force outside of ourselves, some supernatural force that here’s the way men reason.

Just send them out into the battlefield if they get slaughtered. Well, it was meant to be. That’s fatalistic. Casualties by the hundreds of thousands, no big deal. It’s what was gonna happen. And so what happened? I did a whole, I did a couple of sermons on this. If it’s meant to be, it’ll be. It’ll be, maybe if it’s meant to be.

Like preaching that and singing that. So then I guess we’re just determined or destined. I’m destined. If you’re a flunky, you were just destined to be a flunky. You were destined to be an alcoholic. Or a gambler or a porn addict or a smartphone addict. Whatever the case may be, I didn’t choose, it just happened. It’s what I was destined to be. Listen, and I said we spend a lot of time talking about what these passages are not saying. I’m done with that this morning. That’s it. Freedom to choose. Freedom to choose echoes throughout the Bible story. Freedom to choose. I could just start citing Genesis 4 between Cain and Abel that we referenced in Bible class. We could move from there to Deuteronomy chapter 30.

Actually, go back to Genesis 3 and the initial really bad choice that Adam and Eve make. Deuteronomy chapter 30, Joshua 24, when Joshua says, Choose you this day whom you will serve, Ezekiel 18, the soul that sins, it shall die. Those come immediately to mind, but there are many more that we could show. But his knowledge knows no boundaries. And that’s just beyond our mind’s ability to grasp. I’m sorry. We just can’t fathom all of that. And we want to understand all of that. How can God know something and therefore not cause it to occur? And I will tell you, such knowledge is too wonderful for me. That’s what is said previously in Psalm 139 when David is contemplating what God knows. That he knows a word on my tongue before I ever speak it.

It is too high, I cannot attain to it. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. The fact that God foreknows what he does, and because he is awesomely sovereign, can bring about his desires no matter what men do, no matter what they choose, no matter how opposed to him they are.

And that’s what those texts are saying. God’s gonna have his way.

He’s going to use Jeremiah the way he’s going to use Jeremiah, because he knows what they’re going to bring to the table. He knows the hearts that they possess. He knows the choices that they will make.

How unsearchable are his judgments, and unfathomable his ways. They’re past finding out. Paul says in Romans chapter 11, and I love that statement in Romans 11, verse 33, when he’s just overwhelmed by it all. This whole message of God’s plan to redeem man and bring Jew and Gentile into one body and the culmination of all of this over centuries, despite the failings of even his best, despite the failings of men and women, despite the opposition of all the spiritual forces, everything the devil could throw at it, including the kitchen sink. He threw it all at it. Spiritual forces gave everything that they could to oppose God and to defeat him, along with all the wicked ponds that they used, and he still uses. And God still wins.

God still accomplishes his eternal plan. And so these passages, like so many others in the Bible story, simply pointing up, point us to God’s awesome sovereignty. And so Paul just says, this God that we serve is incredible. Our Lord is abundant in strength, the psalmist said.

Psalm 145, 4 and 5. So his intentions for David and Jeremiah and the remarkable transformation of Saul the persecutor to Paul the Apostle, simply show how unrivaled and how marvelous God is.

I think these stories, these three texts in particular, point out something very important. I’ve made this point before. When God saves us, he does so not on the basis of who we are. He saves us on the basis of who we will become.

Like no other.

To make beauty out of ashes. Jeremia 29, 11 is extraordinary in its context, and I don’t have time to go into it completely this morning. And basically, God comes to his people and he says, now you’re going to go off into captivity for 70 years. I don’t want you to listen to the dreamers. The dreamers, they’re not for me, the ones who come and tell you it’s not this way. He said, Look, you need to pray for the city where you’re going to live because your wealth, the welfare of that city is your welfare. And he says, it’s going to be the way I’ve determined it. You’re going to be there for 70 years, so you better set up shop there. But know this. It’s not always going to be this way.

Better times are coming. I have plans for you. For your welfare, and not for your calamity. For you have a future and a hope. And so you’re going to go through things because of judgment that are not desirable, but there is a brighter future on the horizon. Could God be planning a brighter horizon for you and for me?

Isaiah 61, that passage Jesus quotes in his hometown of Nazareth, the more I read it, the more I’m in love with it. I love Isaiah 61. And he says in Isaiah 61 and verse 3, to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes. The history of Israel has been littered with problems and disobedience and rejection and punishment, hard times, and he says, there is a new era coming for the people of God because of our amazing God. And Jerusalem shall be a praise in all the earth. I wish people understood that in Isaiah 62. He’s not talking about literal Jerusalem. He’s talking about this. The planting of the Lord, oaks of righteousness, that’s what’s coming. People who would be firmly planted as people of faith, oaks of righteousness that will bring glory to their God.

These three guys, interesting journey in their lives. We know a lot about them. What these three alone did affected generations of people. Affected thousands of people. What might God have planned for us? And for you, for you in particular. Hey, God is still at work. I know that. God is still at work, or you wouldn’t be here. And I wouldn’t be here. The only reason why this place hasn’t been set on fire is because of the long suffering of our Lord, and we should account that as salvation, 2 Peter 3 and verse 15, because He’s not willing that any should perish. The reason why you are breathing air today is because God is still at work. Who knows? What purposes God may have for you in such a time as this, like he did for Esther and Esther 414.

I am convinced, and listen, we’re getting to the crux of this right now. I am convinced that too many of the Lord’s people have a teeny tiny myopic view of their lives and what they mean on the stage of history. Lauren sent me a link on Monday when she heard last week what I was going to preach this week, your yet unwritten story. It was a link to an Audible piece called God is Writing Your Story. Quit trying to steal the pen. And what I discovered is that’s a very common expression, actually, in religious circles. You’ll find, just go to Google Images. You’ll find it all over the place.

But I’m sure it was really good. Are we trying to steal the pen? Be confident as his faithful one. And I assume that’s what you’re striving to be and want to be. Be confident as his faithful one that God is directing your path.

2. Settle Your Spiritual Past

So I want to talk to you not only about your astounding opportunity, but what your response should be to these thoughts. What should be your immediate response to these passages that we’ve looked at? What we understand about our God and what he can accomplish, and what might be on the horizon for us. And the very near horizon, or what God might be trying to accomplish with your faithfulness. What should be your immediate response? And the first thing that I want to suggest to you as we wrap this up this morning is you need to settle your spiritual past. Whatever glorious intentions God might have for you, it starts right here that whatever mess is back there has to be dealt with. We learned that in the Saul story alone.

He was not ready to be an apostle to the Gentiles and effectively serve like perhaps no other has ever served in the kingdom of God. He was not ready to do that until the events on the road to Damascus, and he started to see the light after his blindness. So where this story begins is that you have to settle your spiritual past. And that means, not just in regard to whatever sin might be on your account and not cleansed in the blood of Christ as we respond to his offer in faith, desirous of turning away from an old sinful way of life unto his way and purposes for us. But it may even involve the repairing of relationships, laying a gift at the altar, as Jesus says, and go mending a relationship.

3. Cultivate Faithfulness

As much as it lies within you. Settle your spiritual past. Then you’re ready. Once you’ve settled your spiritual past, you need to start now to cultivate faithfulness. Rome wasn’t built in a day. These men that God used in these three accounts were not ready in a moment. They became the great instruments they were because they prepared themselves for those moments. They cultivated faithfulness, delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. You’ll hear that verse a lot. Psalm 37 and verse 4, because people read it and they go, that sounds really good. If I delight in the Lord, I’m getting good stuff. Now, here’s the thing about that verse. You gotta like what God gives. When it says, delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

It doesn’t mean it’s going to be a blank check and he’ll give you whatever it is that you might dream up that you really want. But what you need to notice also about Psalm 37 is all the verses that surround that. The forsaking of evil, for instance, and doing good, but also this concept of cultivating faithfulness and trust. To be ready for the Lord’s purposes for us, we need to demonstrate a walk of faithfulness, as we talked about last Sunday night. And we sang about.

Should have had you sing them again. Holy to the Lord. Holy to the Lord.

4. Embrace His Path

A life consecrated to Him. Holy to the Lord. Are you singing day by day? In my life, Lord, be glorified. In our church, Lord, be glorified. You see, cultivate faithfulness. And once that is underway, then embrace his path, whatever it is that he might throw in your path to do heroically by faith, because it’s the right thing to do. Because it assists someone else along the way. You have to overcome your fear. I heard a guy say this once. You have to overcome your fear and tip your skis and go down the hill. I heard that. I don’t ski, but I’m gonna take his word for it. You know, there’s a great story like that in the Bible. Might not be the first one that comes to mind, and it’s about a woman who’s a hero, though the story as it’s being told will make you think that another woman’s actually going to be the hero, but no, it’s it’s her.

It’s a little, it’s well, we would call her a nobody. Her name was JL, the wife of Heber the Kenite. She’s just at home. She’s not in the war. She’s just at home, and this guy comes running by, just so happens to be the leader of the opposing army, Sisera, who is fleeing for his life. Hey, come on in here. You know what she did when she saw Sisera running by, she tipped her skis. She saw a place. How about some more milk? And he lays down for some repose, and the next thing you know, he awakens to the judgment of God. Because a tent peg is driven with a hammer through his skull by JL. You know what that says? Oh. This is what God’s thrown in my path today.

5. Revel in What You Are

And I’m going to do the right thing. How big is it when you save one marriage? Five or ten or a hundred. How big is that? How big is it when you say that intercessory prayer for someone who needs it? How important is that cup of cold water? Well, it must be pretty important because you shall in no wise lose your reward. That cup of cold water given in his name that encourages the downtrodden and the discouraged. Because you did a little something to help in the Lord’s great cause. Your faith makes a difference and can’t always be measured in tangible ways. Fourthly, you need to revel in what you are. Now that is not rebel. Okay, that’s not the word. I like the word rebel, even though it’s most commonly used in regard to outrageous behavior sometimes that is sinful and not good.

Revelries. But it’s to enjoy something with intensity. It’s not always used in regard to negative things. One example was she reveled in her unaccustomed leisure. She really excited, she was really excited about the fact that she had some moments of leisure, one author wrote.

This treasure in earthen vessels. That the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not of ourselves. We do not preach ourselves, but Christ as Lord and ourselves as bondservants for his sake. Those are probably my two favorite passages in the New Testament. 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 5 and following.

6. Know What Today Is

And the fact that God can take me, who has been wicked, who could not save myself, and use me and transform me and employ me to help others and advance his cause. It is amazing, it’s astounding. I just don’t think we’re impressed with it like we should be. And the reason why we’re not as impressed with it like we should be is because we care more about inferior stuff, inferior trinkets to this. Our employment in God’s things ought to cause us to revel. And finally, you need to know what today is. Okay, settle your spiritual past. Start cultivating faithfulness. Walk trusting in the Lord daily, communicating with him, doing his will, seeing yourself as holy unto him. Embrace His path. Whatever He throws in your path, be ready to confess, be ready to work, be ready to sacrifice, be ready to say that timely word that helps someone else.

Embrace His path. Be excited that you’re employed. I’m in the game. It’s awesome. This is the most awesome game there is. Wow. Not because some guy can jump over a guy seven feet tall and dunk a basketball. That happened last night. But because God can use little nobodies like me in a powerful way.

Today is an opportunity for a fresh slate. That’s the wonderful thing about this kingdom. All things can become new. Like when we put on the Lord at the very beginning. Any man is in Christ, he’s a new creature. Old things have passed away and new things have come. We can lay aside whatever has happened in the past, and we can reach forward to what lies before and press toward the mark of the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus, as my friend Max Dawson says, Christianity is the land of new beginnings. And so whatever has been before, everything before February 16th, 2020 is just that. It’s done. You can’t fix it. It happened, other than the fact that you can deal with the spiritual ramifications of it.

Conclusion

I can’t undo it. But here’s the great thing. I can change what’s happening henceforth. And I can take a trajectory that leads me to accomplish things that I have yet to accomplish in my service to the Lord. And who knows what the storm is going to look like. Who knows how many hundreds and thousands of people that your faith and perseverance could affect. How fascinating is your story? How remarkable is it? Well, it really depends on you and what you will do with the opportunity. Let’s stand the same.