Living a Great Story - Overcoming Conflict by Steve Craig

Father, thanks for being such a great God.

Thank you for loving us.

Thank you for adopting us as your very own children.

We praise you for that.

We're so thankful for that.

Holy Spirit, thank you for being our teacher and our guide.

And teach us this morning, even as I speak, Holy Spirit, please just translate it into each of our hearts, that each one of us will leave with something directly from you.

And Jesus, we just praise you.

We praise you for showing us what our Father is really like, for giving us a way to connect back with our Father.

And we thank you and we trust you.

And it's in your name that we pray.

Amen.

So this month we're looking at our lives from kind of a slightly different perspective.

The idea comes from a book that Donald Miller wrote.

It's uh called A Million Miles in a Thousand Years.

And in this book, he gets to view his life from a unique perspective.

He had he had written a book uh entitled Blue Like Jazz, and it was a bestseller, and and a couple movie producers come to meet with him, and what they want to do is they want to make a movie out of his book.

And um a lot of books, it's an autobiography.

And a lot of books that are autobiographies, when you see the movie, it says based on a true story.

And the reason is because you know, there's there's there's a lot of books that just aren't really exciting enough um to actually be a movie, because movies require actions, and books can can contain a lot of interesting thoughts.

And that's kind of how Dawn's book was.

It contained a lot of um interesting thoughts, but it needed to have um more uh real action.

So his opportunity was very unique, that he literally got to rewrite his own life story.

And and that's the perspective that that we're looking at is an opportunity to think about our life story through that through that perspective, and rewriting the the rest of our life story.

And it he wrote books, and so Don had to learn about screenplays and and movies, and he went and talked to experts, and he went to seminars and and all that stuff, and and he learned about the elements that make a great movie.

And um, they're basically a likable character that wants something important, overcomes conflict together.

But the point of any great story is really the transformation of that character.

And it's interesting because those same elements that make a great movie are the same elements that can make our lives each great stories.

And so that's what we're looking at together.

How each of our lives can be uh great stories.

We've talked about being a likable character and how in a movie just having likable thoughts doesn't get it done.

We we we see characters um show love, help people, and and they become likable.

And that's part of our great story.

And last week we looked at something important, that it's not gonna be acquiring stuff and it's not gonna be personal uh um position and ambitions and those type of things.

Something important always revolves around people, whether it's our family, it's friends, it's those around us, it's gonna involve loving people and helping people.

And this morning we're gonna talk about the overcoming conflict to get it.

Overcoming conflict, fighting through the obstacles, or even tragedy is the key element to really any great story.

You can see that in one of the most classic movies of all time, Happy Gilmore.

Um Happy does something likeable.

He goes and he visits his uh his grandma at her house, and he wants something important.

And it's something important that Happy wants is not to win the golf tournament.

What he's trying to do is come up with a way for his grandmother to get her house back.

This is something important.

And he overcomes conflict.

I mean, shooter McGavin is this cocky PGA guy, and there's this guy that yells jackass in the back of all his uh backs.

His uh his coach dies from an unexpected alligator head accident.

He overcomes a lot of conflict, but but he gets his grandma's house back.

But the real point of the story is how Happy transforms through the process.

Okay, maybe Happy Gilmore isn't a great story, but I will say that when he fights Bob Barker, that uh that's a pretty great scene.

Saving Private Ryan actually is a great story.

Private James Ryan has three brothers.

All three have just been killed in battle.

Three American flags are scheduled to be delivered to their mom, Mrs.

Ryan, all on the same day.

Her fourth son is missing in action.

The general says it's just it's too much.

It's too much.

Their mom cannot receive a fourth flag.

They have got to save Private Ryan.

So Tom Hanks plays Captain John Miller.

He's a likable character.

His mission is something important, saving Private Ryan.

And the conflict is incredible.

You know, his team's not sure about the mission.

The enemy is overwhelming.

The Germans have them outmanned and they're out uh they're outgunned.

But they do find Private Ryan.

In the final battle, Captain Miller's fatally wounded.

But he's done it.

He's done it.

He's done the something important.

Mrs.

Ryan doesn't get another flag.

Instead, her son James comes home to be with her.

It's a great story that is defined in part by the amount of the conflict.

Our great stories will be defined in part by conflict, by overcoming conflict.

God loves us.

He created us, he will never leave us.

It doesn't matter what we've done or or will do.

His greatest desire is to be connected with us.

You know, we get tired of doing it our own way, and we turn to Jesus.

And he makes us come alive inside and he fills us, and he starts the process of transforming us.

And his love flows through us into action and into loving other people.

And we're connected with him, but we still live in a messed up world.

And we're gonna have our share of conflict, our share of heartbreak, our share of tragedy.

Sometimes we bring it on ourselves.

A lot of the time, it's just part of life.

Jesus said, I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me.

Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows.

But take heart, because I have overcome the world.

See, it doesn't mean that God doesn't love us.

It doesn't mean that God has forgotten about us.

Or that he's not paying attention when we have conflict.

Romans 8, it says, can anything ever separate us from Christ's love?

Listen to this part.

It says, does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death?

As the scriptures say, for your sake we are killed every day.

We are being slaughtered like sheep.

No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ who loved us.

See, God loves us.

That does not change.

He loves us.

But we will have our share of sorrow and tragedy and conflict.

The Apostle Paul was a pretty sold-out guy.

He was tight with God.

I've worked much harder, been jailed more often, beaten up more times than I can count, and at death's door time after time.

I've been flogged by the Jewish leaders five times with 39 lashes, beaten by Roman rods three times, pummeled with rocks once.

I've been shipwrecked three times and immersed in the open sea for a night and a day.

And hard traveling year in and year out.

I've had to ford rivers, fend off robbers, struggle with friends, struggle with foes.

I've been at risk in the city, at risk in the country, endangered by desert sun and sea storm, and betrayed by those I thought were my brothers.

I've known drudgery and hard labor, many a long and lonely night without sleep, many a missed meal, blasted by the cold, naked to the weather.

Where is God in all of that?

Where he is is with Paul.

He's with Paul.

He's helping him get through all that conflict.

In Philippians 4, he says, I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything.

I've learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little, for I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength.

God gets us through anything.

God gets us through everything.

With God, we overcome the conflict.

And I don't know what conflict uh you're facing, but I know this you're gonna get through it.

You're gonna get through it.

You can take it, you're gonna make it, you're gonna get through it.

Jesus will get you through it.

You will overcome the conflict.

I think of Bill Patterson.

Bill's sitting right here.

Asked Bill Friday if I could talk about him.

Bill had brain surgery uh two and a half weeks ago.

And uh eight hour surgery, at the end of the surgery, he gets uh a tough diagnosis.

It's cancer.

And Bill and Candy and Katie and all of us that love them, we are in a conflict.

We've got ourselves a conflict.

So I go to see Bill at the hospital, and I'm praying, oh God, just give me something to encourage Bill.

And I get there, and Bill doesn't need encouraged, he needs restraint.

I mean, he is like, I'm getting out of this, out of this hospital.

I gotta get out of here.

I'm ready to go.

And he is so full of life, and he's so full of God, and he's got this great scar than any of us guys would be jealous of.

But he is ready to go.

And God is all over Bill.

In Bill, around Bill.

And so we're asking God for a huge miracle, because God does huge mirac, huge miracles.

And God's ways are also above above our ways.

And I'll tell you this: whatever his way is with Bill, he's gonna get through it.

He's gonna make it, he's gonna overcome it.

He will overcome the conflict.

Because like Paul, he can do anything.

He can do everything.

Because Jesus will give him the strength.

It doesn't matter what your conflict is.

If it's your health or your marriage, if it's your family, if it's depression, if it's financial, if it's addictions, God will get you through the conflict.

He loves you.

He will get you through the conflict.

Jesus faced all kinds of conflicts.

Mobs attacked him.

People lied about him, his friends deserted him.

The biggest conflict Jesus ever faced was dying.

It's no different than us.

The biggest conflict that Jesus ever faced was dying.

And he overcame that too.

I mentioned that because I want you to know that you can overcome every conflict with God.

Every conflict.

See, God created us part physical and he created us part spiritual.

And so when we think about dying, that feels like the end of the story.

It's not the end of the story.

It is just our greatest conflict.

It's just part of our great story.

Overcoming conflict.

Here's the truth.

The truth is it is just part of the conflict.

In 1 Corinthians 15, it says, It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown.

For when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever.

And we who are living will also be transformed.

For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die.

Our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies.

See, we are gonna overcome the conflict.

It's part of our great story.

And because of that, we don't have to live in fear of anything.

Of anything.

If we don't fear dying, what are we gonna fear?

If we don't fear anything, we're gonna overcome everything.

God gets us through the conflict.

In Hebrews 2, it says, because God's children are human beings, made of flesh and blood, his son also became flesh and blood.

For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil who had the power of death.

And only in this way could he set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying.

We are set free from fear.

We are not afraid of dying, we're not afraid of anything.

We are going to overcome it.

We're gonna get through it.

I mean, what conflict can God not get us through?

He can get us through everything.

There isn't one.

There isn't one.

So I don't know what conflict you're facing, but it's just gonna be part of your great story.

A likable character that wants something important that overcomes conflict to get it.

But the real point is the transformation of us.

God will get us through whatever the conflict is that we're facing right now.

He will help us overcome whatever the conflict is that we're facing right now.

So what do we do?

What do we do when we're facing conflict?

What's our part?

There's so many great interactions in the Bible.

One of my favorites is in the book of Exodus.

It's a conversation between Moses and God.

Moses is living a great story.

He's a likable character.

He wants something important.

The children of Israel to be free.

And so the plagues have happened.

Pharaohs let them all go, but quickly he changes his mind.

They're heading out, and the Egyptian army is right behind them.

They're chasing him down.

And the Israelites and Moses, they come to the Red Sea.

There's no way out.

It's going to be their greatest conflict.

The Egyptian army bearing down on them a whole ocean in front of them.

So listen to what Moses tells the children of Israel.

But Moses told the people, don't be afraid.

Just stand still and watch the Lord rescue you today.

The Egyptians you see today will never be seen again.

The Lord Himself will fight for you.

Just stay calm.

What faith.

What faith?

Don't be afraid.

Just stand still.

Okay, that's not the part of this conversation I want us to get a hold of this morning.

I want to get a hold of God's reply to Moses.

Then the Lord said to Moses, Why are you crying out to me?

Tell the people to get moving.

Pick up your staff and raise your hand over the seed.

Divide the water so the Israelites can walk through the middle of the sea on dry ground.

What do we do in a conflict?

When we're facing our own Red Sea, we get moving, we get moving, we get moving.

I know it's difficult sometimes, but we have to get moving.

Do something.

I've been through some big conflicts.

And I've been through something too big for me to handle.

Just overwhelming.

You know, you don't even know where to start.

An idea that has helped me is the idea of one thing.

Of just starting with one thing.

Say if your conflict is your marriage.

A lot of times our conflicts in our marriage are overwhelming.

You know, there's usually a past and a present and things said and things done and baggage, and it's just complicated, and it's and it's it's overwhelming.

And we don't know where to start.

But today we can do one thing.

I mean, the one thing might be just both decide, hey, we're gonna we're gonna go to that marriage group when it starts.

But it might be you're not gonna make it three and a half weeks in your minds.

You know, we need to do something now.

Well, you can just do one thing.

One thing today.

You can stop at the info desk, you can grab a card.

We've got cards there that recommend uh a good marriage counselor.

Grab one of those cards, and that's it.

That's it.

That's the one thing.

So you wake up tomorrow morning and you know what?

You already know a good marriage counselor.

And so you call them and you set up an appointment, and that's it.

It's one thing.

And you wake up Tuesday, you know, and you probably didn't get in right away, and so you're gonna have to wait till Thursday or Friday.

And so you ask God, okay, what's the one thing?

What's the one thing?

You know, and so maybe you go and apologize.

You know, I'm sorry I called you that.

I'm sorry I said that.

I didn't really mean it.

And it's the one thing.

And you wake up Wednesday morning, God, what's the one thing?

You know, well, you already apologized, so maybe it's something I can do.

Maybe I can help.

Maybe I can demonstrate love, maybe I can I can do something.

It's the one thing.

And then Thursday you get up and oh, you got your counseling appointment.

So you make sure, and you go to that appointment.

And if we string 365 days of one thing together, a year from now, we will be overcoming our conflict.

We will have wanted something important, a great marriage.

God will have fought that battle with us, and we will be overcoming that conflict to get it.

Doing one thing today, do one thing.

We gotta get moving.

We just gotta get moving.

It's true in our business, it's true with our kids.

What is the one thing?

How can we get moving?

You know, Bill Patterson's already had an answer to prayer, and he's had a small miracle because next Sunday he's on a plane to Houston.

There's a uh a treatment center that specializes in Bill's um type of cancer.

So he's facing a big conflict.

But what's he doing?

He's got moving, he's moving, he's moving, he's moving.

And for us to overcome conflict, we gotta get moving.

We just gotta get moving.

String some one thing together.

Let God multiply that into a big victory.

As a very quick aside, I just want to speak to those of you whose big conflict is uh severe depression or something like that.

That is such a tough one.

And I don't want you to think that I think, oh, just get moving.

I know that you would if you could.

God knows it.

God knows it too.

And he's gonna help you.

Maybe there's just a small thing.

Maybe there there's a little action, a small thing that can compound, and God will multiply and multiply and multiply.

I've seen so many people that have overcome that conflict.

And God will get you through that one too.

He will get you through that one too.

Most of our conflicts are a lot more straightforward.

You know, Moses and the Israelites' conflict was pretty straightforward.

Egyptians, Red Sea.

Army behind them, ocean in front of them.

God said, What are you doing standing there crying out to me?

Get moving.

And so they did.

And they got to the other side and they sang a song.

This is the song they sang.

I'm singing my heart out to God.

What a victory.

He pitched horse and rider into the sea.

God is my strength.

God is my song.

And yes, God is my salvation.

This is the kind of God I have.

And I'm telling the world.

This is the God of my Father.

I'm spreading the news far and wide.

God is a fighter.

Pure God through and through.

God is a fighter.

And He's going to fight for you.

See, God loves us.

He does.

But we don't get a pass on the conflict.

He helps us overcome it.

He gets us through it.

You're going to make it.

You're going to make it.

We're going to finish in a minute.

You know, if the worship team wants to come up, let's stand and we'll get ready to sing one last song together.

I mentioned Saving Private Ryan.

At the beginning of that movie, there's just a very memorable scene.

It's 27 minutes long, and it's the invasion of Normandy.

And the boys are hitting the beach.

And it's intense and it's uh it's frightening.

Enemy is all around them.

Bullets flying.

It's something you really don't forget once you've seen it.

But that's not the start of the movie.

The movie starts with an elderly James Ryan.

And he and his family are walking through the cemetery that sits above Omaha Beach.

It's on a bluff and it overlooks that beach.

And there's over 9,000 American heroes that are buried there in that cemetery.

And he and his family are walking through the cemetery, and they get to a grave marker.

And it's the marker of Captain John Miller.

And it's there that the movie segues into that dramatic scene and into the story of saving private Ryan.

And the movie ends right there with James Ryan and his wife.

And Ryan turns to his wife.

He says, Tell me I've lived a good life.

And she says, What?

And he says, Tell me I'm a good man.

And she says, You are.

And he salutes, and the movie ends.

Because, see, the thing is, a great price had been paid for his life.

And he wanted it, he wanted it to count.

He wanted to make sure that it counted.

And a great price has been paid for our lives.

A great price.

I mean, for Jesus even to come to earth as a man, for him to go through what he did here, to die the way that he did.

You know, to so we can have a great relationship with God.

So we can be connected with our Father.

And it's not like we have to earn it.

In fact, he doesn't want us to earn it.

He doesn't want us to think that way.

We don't have to pay him back, we don't have to earn it.

But it's such a great, great price.

We can make it count.

We can make it count.

We can make have lives, live lives that make a difference.

Live lives that help and love.

Live great stories.

We can make it count.

And together we'll live great stories.

We'll be likable characters.

We'll want something important.

We'll overcome conflict to get it.

But the point of all of our stories will really be the transformation of us.

How God is transforming us.

So next week we'll talk about that.

Let's pray.

Father, thank you for being such a great God.

Thank you for loving us so much.

Thank you for everything that you've done for us.

Thank you for getting us through anything.

Thank you for getting us through everything.

We praise you for that.

We trust you with that.

Just help us to trust you more.

Father, if there's anybody going through conflict this morning, you are a great fighter.

Fight for them, Father.

Help us each overcome the conflict that we're facing us.

Fill us with you.

Fill us with life.

Fill us with your love.

Help each of us to live great stories.

We praise you and we thank you and we trust you and we love you.

And in Jesus' name, amen.