Living A Great Story - Wanting Something Important by Steve Craig

All right, let's pray.

Father, thanks for being such a uh a great God.

Thank you for being such a great father, our dad.

We we just thank you for adopting each of us into your family, and we praise you for that.

And Holy Spirit, we thank you for being our teacher and our counselor, and we ask you to teach us this morning to translate what I say and what we talk about, and that you would just uh speak into each of our hearts.

Give us some each something important that we can take away.

And Jesus, thank you so much for showing us what God our Father is like, for coming and showing us how to how to live.

And it's our honor to follow you.

Thank you for reconnecting us with our Father.

So we praise you and we trust you in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Well, this month we're looking at our lives from a slightly different perspective.

And the idea came from a book that I read this summer.

The book is A Million Miles in a Thousand Years.

It was written by uh Donald Miller.

And he kind of has this unique circumstance where he gets to view his life from a different perspective.

And we're looking at just kind of one aspect of that.

And I want to make sure you know that because this isn't like the cliff notes of his book.

It's really just kind of one thing from the book.

And it's if if if you're a reader, and um I just highly recommend the book.

It's it's it's inspirational and and uh it's challenging and it's uh normal all at the uh the same time.

He had written a book entitled Blue Like Jazz, um, Non-Religious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality.

He was a big bestseller.

He followed it up with another book that uh called Searching for God Knows What that I really liked.

And this new book is just recounting kind of this uh what happened in his life.

And it's a couple of movie producers came to him and they wanted to make a movie out of the book Blue Like Jazz.

And uh but the book's an autobiography, and so they're gonna turn it into a uh into a screenplay and then a movie.

Well, the problem is as soon as they start looking at it closely, it's just too boring to be a movie.

And it's not a boring book at all, but but with books, you get to get inside people's heads, and there's a lot in Blue Like Jazz that is his thoughts, you know, and they're interesting thoughts and that type of thing.

So it's an it's an interesting book, but it wouldn't make for an interesting movie.

And so what he gets to do is he gets the task of sitting down and rewriting his own life story.

It's not just for this movie, it's almost for almost any biographical or autobiographical type movie, it says based on a true story, and it's because they've had to go back, you know, and add a little action, you know, spice it up and uh and and make it more interesting as a movie.

And so that's what he gets to do.

And it's an interesting uh um perspective uh when we try to do the same thing with with our own lives.

And so Don has to learn a lot.

You know, he writes books, he's got to learn about screenplays, and he's gotta learn about uh movies, and he goes to seminars and he kicks around with his friends, and and basically to paraphrase a great story um in a movie or a screenplay is a likable character that wants something important and overcomes conflict to get it.

But the real point of any great story is actually the transformation of the character.

And so we're gonna get a fresh perspective here uh um for a few weeks as we look at at our lives and see if if uh see how we can live a great story.

Last week we talked about the first thing, which is a likable character.

We saw that in a movie, you know, kind of like life, for a character character to be likable, um, you have to take action.

You know, the first part of most movies, there's action that we see the character take that makes us like them.

You know, it's screenwriter talk, it's saving the cat.

There's something that they do.

You know, it's adopting the dog, it's helping the person, it's it's being honest, it's whatever it is.

It's actions because we can't read their minds.

You know, in a movie, we see their actions, you know, and so before we care whether they win the fight or or win the war or win the girl or any of that type of stuff, we first have to care about them.

And so they there's there's something that makes them a likable character.

In Matthew 7 20, Jesus said, Yes, as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions.

And so last week we talked about how we want to live lives of action.

And we're not talking about God liking us.

God loves us, he created us.

He loves us.

His greatest desire is to be connected with us and to be with us.

It doesn't matter what we've done, it doesn't matter what we're gonna do.

God loves us.

But when we get connected with Him, then He fills our spirit.

Our spirit comes alive.

And His love starts pouring through us and starts transforming each of us.

And you can feel it when it's happening.

All of a sudden we start praying things like, God, change me.

Change me.

I don't want to be like that.

I don't want to lose my temper anymore.

I don't want to think like this.

You know, it's it's his spirit that is transforming us from the inside out, and it's his love that is pouring through us, but it pours out of us in action.

And so it's not enough to think good thoughts.

Oh, man, I sure have a beautiful wife.

I need to tell her.

I need to say, honey, you're beautiful.

I need to demonstrate that I love her.

Same with our kids.

You know, I sure love my kids.

Well, I need the action, you know?

So I demonstrate, I spend time, I stop, and I listen, and I and I encourage.

And it's true of our whole lives.

We want to live lives of action.

We want to demonstrate love with action.

And then we get to the next part, which is wanting something important.

So that's what we're gonna talk about this morning.

A likable character that wants something important.

You know, if we just want something, it can be the basis for a good story.

Wanting something.

Ferris Bueller's day off.

He wanted something.

A day off.

You know, and it's a good story.

Likeable character, he wants something, he overcomes conflict to get it, and he is transformed in the process.

You know, he was kind of a self-centered kid that by the end cares about other people.

But it's still just a good story.

For a movie to be a great story, the character has to want something that is important.

Important.

Schindler's list.

Oscar Schindler wants something important to save the lives of Polish Jewish people during the Holocaust.

And so he overcomes conflict to get it.

And he is transformed in the process.

He goes from a greedy guy kind of capitalizing on an atrocity to a courageous man who's heartbroken because he because he didn't do more.

It's a great story.

And God has a great story planned for each and every one of us.

And part of that great story is wanting something important.

We are created in the image of God.

And in us is a desire, is a desire to make a difference.

You know, we might have gotten so beaten down and discouraged that we're just hanging on, but still, inside of us, there's something.

We want to make an impact.

We want to make a big difference.

You know what's why an addict wakes up one day and looks around at all the crap and destruction and says, you know, I'm made for more than this.

God created me for something more.

You know that's why Tony Dungy, you know, the coach of the Indianapolis Colts, why he would retire when he had arguably the best quarterback and the best team in all of football.

See, winning Super Bowls is nice.

But he wants to do something important.

And so he leads a Jesus-based mentoring group for young kids.

And now he's living a great story.

See, it doesn't matter if we're at a low point or if we're at a high point this morning.

There is something inside each of us, something inside of me, that wants to live a great story, that wants to make a difference, that wants to have an impact.

It's how God created us.

That comes from God.

He put that in each one of us.

We are created in his image.

And the something important always involves loving others and helping people.

In Romans 15, it says, strength is for service, not status.

Each one of us needs to look after the good of the people around us, asking ourselves, how can I help?

That's exactly what Jesus did.

He didn't make it easy for himself by avoiding people's troubles, but he waited right in and helped out.

I took on the troubles of the troubled, is the way that Scripture puts it.

Even if it was written in Scripture long ago, you can be sure it's written for us.

And, you know, for some of us, we're all about it.

You know, and and um it's a hope that you'll you'll find this just encouraging, really.

Um, for others, it's frustrating because you want to help, you want to make a difference, you want to have a life of impact, but you're just not sure what that means specifically.

You know, what is it I'm supposed to do?

You know, what what is my purpose in life?

What does God want me to do?

Why doesn't he show me that's something important?

And perhaps he already has.

And perhaps he already has.

There's a couple of big ways that God shows us that's something important.

The first is our hearts.

He actually puts important things on our hearts.

In Psalms 37, David says, God gives us the desires of our hearts.

So I used to think, sweet, this is gonna work out fine.

Because I desire a new Porsche.

This is gonna be great.

But I come to understand, well, I mean, I will say that God is our dad, and he does want to bless us.

He does.

That's his heart.

But the more important thing is that he actually puts our desires on our heart.

It's his desires that he puts on our heart.

So the desires that are deep in our heart come from God.

He put them there.

He gives us our desires.

And so if you're wondering, what can I do?

What can I do?

It's a simple question.

What breaks your heart?

What is it that breaks your heart?

It could be anything.

You know, it's different things for for each of us.

It could be poverty, it could be discrimination, it could be sickness, it could be people that don't have friends, it could be people that don't have God, people worn down by religion, it could be people that don't understand how valuable they are, it could be people who've lost loved ones, it could be single moms who are driving an unsafe car, it could be children who won't have Christmas presents, it could be anything.

People who don't have hope, people who have no direction, broken relationships.

It doesn't have to be world peace.

It can be anything.

What breaks your heart?

Is there a desire that God's put on your heart?

And we don't have to solve the whole problem.

Most things are too big for us to solve.

But maybe we can help.

I mean, if our heart is breaking, there is something we can do to help.

Just one thing.

Just one thing that we can do to help.

And sometimes that one thing is the piece of a big jigsaw puzzle.

And sometimes that one thing grows into something really big in our lives.

Sometimes it's something we can do together.

You know, it's the it's here as a church, or it's it's part of the love squad, or it's a, I mean, it could be so many different things.

What breaks your heart?

What's the one thing we can do to help?

Sometimes God doesn't show us something important.

Sometimes He just propels us right into it.

You know, in the movies, they call that an inciting incident.

I didn't know what that meant.

I never heard that phrase, but it's a screenwriting screenwriting term.

It's an inciting incident.

It's something that happens in almost every movie that propels the character into the story.

You can pick it out just as you're thinking about movies or as you're watching movies.

There's an inciting incident.

The daughter gets kidnapped.

You know, the karate kid gets uh gets bullied.

Something happens.

And the character is propelled into the story, sometimes forced into the story.

You know, in Avatar.

Okay, Jake gets stuck overnight in the woods.

The Navi girl saves him.

And now he's propelled into a whole different story.

And Toy Story 3.

And he's going to college.

You know, he's trying to figure out what to do with the toys.

It's the inciting incident that propels all the characters into the story.

In the Bible, Joshua's sold into slavery, David's confronted with Goliath, Peter denies Jesus.

They're all propelled into their stories.

I mentioned Schindler's list.

Okay, Oscar Schindler is just profiting, you know, from from the whole thing until he sees some Jewish people being brutally murdered.

It's his inciting incident.

It's what draws him into his great story.

And so maybe you've had an inciting incident.

That's another way for us to get into the something important.

In 2 Corinthians 1, it said, All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort.

He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others.

When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.

This is God's favorite inciting incident.

Some kind of trouble.

He doesn't create the trouble, but he gets us through it.

And then we want to do something important, help others in a similar situation.

Susan and I have had a few inciting incidents.

We've actually had a few exciting incidents too.

But we've had a few inciting incidents.

You know, the first was probably when she was 17, almost 18.

I was 20.

We were dating, we met at uh we met at church, and and uh we were really involved at the church, and we got pregnant.

Okay, the the reaction from this small church was really tough.

Really tough.

I would tell you the whole story, but it would just bum you out.

So I'm gonna skip it.

You know, and and we had messed up.

We didn't do things the way God had planned.

We had messed up.

Um, but we were scared and we were ashamed and uh we needed we needed help, we needed love, we needed encouragement, and we got really a big dose of condemnation and self-righteousness and religion.

And so we got to experience firsthand what that feels like.

And we did end up getting help and love and encouragement, but we got it directly from God.

Directly from God.

I mean, he gave us everything we needed, he took care of us.

It came from God.

But for us, in screenwriter terms, it was an inciting instant.

You know, it propelled Susan and I into a whole nother story, a whole new way of thinking, a whole new desire to help.

Susan and I were watching a video series about uh Marriage Friday night.

Dave Ramsey and his wife Sharon were talking about their marriage and how they went through the stress and the embarrassment of bankruptcy and they lost everything, and that became their inciting incident.

That is what God used to propel them into their great story.

And so now they help really millions of people in that situation or avoiding that situation, having strength and peace in their finances.

William Young had been through a lot of tragedy in his life, sexual abuse and uh the death of loved ones.

He had a wife and six children at home.

They owned a house and they were struggling financially, and he so much wanted to keep that house.

It was huge to him, and it got foreclosed on.

And so the eight of them moved into this small rental house out in the woods, and it's there that he sat down and wrote a story to explain to his children how God loves us even amidst all this tragedy.

And losing that house was his inciting incident that propelled him into his story.

Because the title of that story was The Shack.

You know, and God's used that to help millions of people understand how he loves us amidst tragedy.

So I'll say that if you are in trouble this morning, hang on tight.

You're about to be propelled into your story.

Reminds me of my favorite roller coaster.

It's uh it's in Universal Studios uh down in Orlando.

It's an incredible Hulk.

I don't know if anybody's uh written it.

But the cool thing about this roller coaster, most roller coasters, you know, you ratchet up the up to the top and you're ready and you're you know nervous and you go down.

This one, man, it is like boom out of the chute, you're 60 miles an hour.

And often that's how it feels when God propels us into our story.

You know, we're just getting the seatbelt on, just pulling the shoulder, harness down, and boom, we're into a story.

A great story.

So if you're in trouble this morning, it's how God works.

It's one of the ways He He uses, one of the main ways He uses to propel us to live the great story, the great story that He's planned for each of us.

So how do we know our something important?

I mean, is there something that breaks your heart?

Have you had an insighting incident?

Been through a time where it was God that comforted you, that helped you, and now you're equipped to help and comfort others.

If you're not sure about those two, I've got a great fallback plan.

In fact, you might get to be one of the coolest roles that God has.

A special agent.

Show me what what to do.

Who can I help today?

And He will.

He will.

And you'll be wanting.

Something important to love and to help others.

And you'll be living a great story.

As a quick aside, I guess, you know, we're talking about how each of us is designed and planned and created to live a great story.

But that doesn't mean we have to do it on our own.

Much of what God has for us to do, we do together.

We do with each other.

It might be as couples, it might be as families, it might be as groups of friends.

Ecclesiastes 4.

It says, two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed.

If one person falls, the other can reach out and help.

But someone who falls alone is in real trouble.

We need each other.

We need each other.

Have you ever thought why go to church at all?

Why go to church at all?

I remember thinking that.

Because it was only an hour and a half ago.

See, it's a good question.

But it's not to check it off of our Christian to-do list.

It's because we need each other to live a great story.

That's God's plan.

That's how He designed it.

We need each other to live a great story.

In Hebrews 10.25, it says, let's see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out.

Not avoiding worship together as some do, but spurring each other on, especially as we see the big day approaching.

See, that's one of the main reasons.

We think of everything that we do, one of the main reasons God wants us to be together is to encourage each other, to love, and to help, to spur each other on.

And we will.

And we will.

And we'll get there together together.

And what we're doing together as a church is something important.

I mean, it's big time important.

And you may not always get to see it, the impact that we're making in each other's lives.

But it's just huge.

And it's just the start.

It is only the start.

And so together, that's something important.

If the worship team wants to come up, we'll finish here in a minute.

Let's stand and we'll get ready to sing a last song together.

See, the one thing I don't want you to feel is that to uh to live a great story, you've got to be some kind of Christian superhero.

See, the something important might be raising your children.

Something important might be loving your spouse.

The something important can be helping a friend.

Because every morning they get to encounter God's kids.

And they get to show them and tell them how valuable they are, how important they are.

Help them start their day with joy and encourage.

It's something really, really important.

And the point is that something important is not going to be possessions.

It's not going to be status.

It's not going to be personal achievement.

It will be loving others.

It will be helping people.

And we will live great stories together.

We'll do it together.

We'll be likable characters.

We'll want something important.

We'll overcome conflict to get it.

But the point of each of our stories will be that God is transforming us.

So next week we'll talk about overcoming conflict to get it.

Let's pray.

Father, I just praise you.

I thank you for being such a great God.

I thank you.

Thank you for planning a great story for each of us.

God, please fill us.

Give us the desire.

Give us the enthusiasm, and give us the love to live it.

We thank you.

We praise you.

We trust you.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.