Storytellers

Date: April 15, 2007 9:53 AM Topic: Storytellers

Storytellers Craig Johnson 6.22.07--MCRemix Graduation Tonight is about remembering your story... The people of God are losing their stories. The gap between new generations is shortening as our world speeds up to a blinding pace. • Generations are no longer being defined by a determined amount of years but by how fast culture is changing. • The reason this is such a big deal is because new generations are no longer looking to older generations for guidance but instead they are looking to the culture that created them. ⁃ LISTEN TO THIS: ⁃ According to former Secretary of Education, Richard Riley, ⁃ The Top 10 in demand jobs in 2010 didn’t exist in 2004. ⁃ We are currently preparing students for jobs that don’t exist yet. ⁃ Using technologies that haven’t been invented... ⁃ In order to solve problems that we don’t know are problems yet. ⁃ As of August 2006 there were 100 million registered users on Myspace. ⁃ There are 2.7 billion searches preformed on Google each month. ⁃ To whom were these questions addressed BG

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(Before Google)? The number of text messages sent and received every day exceeds the population of the planet. There are 540,000 words in the english language. About 5 times as many as during Shakespeare’s time. 3,000 new books are published. Daily. It’s estimated that a week’s worth of the NY Times contains more information than a person was likely to come across in a lifetime in the 18th century. It’s estimated that 1.5 exabytes (that’s 1.5x10 to the 18th power) of UNIQUE NEW information will be generated worldwide this year. That is estimated to be more information than in the previous 5,000 years. The amount of new technical information is doubling every 2 years. That means for a student starting a 4 year degree... Half of what they learn in their first year of study will be outdated in their third year of study. It’s predicted to double every 72 hours by 2010.

Our world is changing at a blinding pace!!! The point is not for us to become irrelevant to our culture but not to get swept up in it either. As I read the pages of this life-changing Book, I find myself

caught up over and over into the stories of individuals who as the culture around them rapidly changed, embraced challenges and continually remembered what God has done in their lives. The problem new generations have with the Bible isn’t that they don’t want to believe, it’s that it’s not tangible. When the world is changing this fast and we’re confronted with something that is the same yesterday, today and forever, it’s difficult for us to comprehend it. When we as Christians remember our story we make God tangible again. We remind people that all things are possible with God. We can say, “I know, he did it in me!!!” Master’s Commission remember what the Lord has done in your life over the last nine-months. May you look back when you are a businessman or woman or a pastor leading a church, or wherever you are in your life...may you look back at the stories from this year, when God did the impossible in your life. Let me ask you a quick question MCRemix, and I want Harvest Time to see this... These students are some of the BEST in this church. How many of you prayed and read your Bible every single day BEFORE you came to MCRemix? --Stand up! How many of you do that NOW since you’ve been in MCRemix and will do your best to continue to do this?? NOW THAT’S A TESTIMONY!!

How many of our young adults would go into our universities with more focus and passion (without changing their major 4 times in the first 2 years) if they followed Ephesians 1:11--It is in Christ that you find out who you are and what you’re living for. Would you agree with this statement? Christians should be creating new testimonies in their lives. People can argue deep theological debates all day and night but the one thing NO ONE can argue is what God has done in your life. NO ONE CAN ARGUE WITH YOUR TESTIMONY!! See the dangerous thing to each one of us is being caught week in and week out in the presence of God and not being changed by it. God working in your life through what He says in His Word is what makes Him tangible. SO I WANT TO ASK YOU: WHAT IS YOUR STORY? [VIDEO]--Ed Huie Matt Huie Miles Callahan

What is your story?

Maybe it’s not glamorous, or inspirational, or tragic... Maybe it’s recent, maybe it’s where you’ve come from... But it’s yours. The testament of who God has been and continues to be in your life. I’m reminded of a story about a young boy: His parent’s weren’t rich by any means and they had a lot of children. He was the youngest. Times were tough then and this young boy had to work. Actually he was given quite a responsibility...to watch over the family herd. His family had some sheep and so day in and day out he sat in the field watching the family sheep. He was a boy and so he did what all boys his age would do when they were bored he threw rocks. I can almost picture him gathering up a pile of rocks and choosing his enemy from a distance, those poor trees were blistered and bruised from being pelted with rocks from his sling. Day in, day out in the hot sun of the desert watching probably the most dull animal on the face of the earth. One day not unlike any other before a lion came out of nowhere and attacked the flock. It grabbed a lamb and the young boy without flinching ran after it. Swinging his sling he attacked the lion head on killing it dead in one shot. Picking up the lamb he brought it carefully back to the flock. Shaking with adrenaline after the intense moment, he couldn’t help but thank God for protecting him and his flock. Many of you see where I’m going with this story already so I’ll get to the punch... A YOUNG BOY NAMED DAVID IS CALLED TO THE FRONT-

LINES OF THE BATTLE AGAINST THE PHILISTINES. HE WAS PROMOTED FROM SHEPHERD BOY TO DELIVERY BOY, BRINGING FOOD TO HIS BROTHERS. WHEN HE ARRIVED HE SAW A GIANT OF A MAN NAMED GOLIATH WHO MOCKED THE ARMIES OF THE LIVING GOD...DAVID WOULDN’T SEE IT ANYMORE, HE WENT TO SAUL WHO WAS THE KING AND SAID SINCE NO ONE ELSE WILL DO ANYTHING ABOUT THIS, HE WOULD. SAUL WASN’T SO SURE... 1 Samuel 17:34-37 [NKJV] But David said to Saul, “Your servant used to keep his father’s sheep, and when a lion or a bear came and took a lamb out of the flock, I went out after it and struck it, and delivered the lamb from its mouth; and when it arose against me, I caught it by its beard, and struck and killed it. Your servant has killed both lion and bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the living God.” Moreover David said, “The Lord, who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” I don’t know where you are in your life tonight, what giant you’re facing, what role you feel you are playing... When you are faced with impossible odds do you shy away or do you remember your story? Oh, things may look impossible now, but I serve a God who has done it before and will do it again OVER and OVER if He has to... Master’s Commission may you be the kind of men and women of God that refuse to live off of other people’s stories. May you continue to make you own stories, long after you leave this place. May you remember what an

honor it was to be chosen for this program over the last nine-months. And to each one of you I want to say, thank you, and I am so proud of you. While others only dared to dream about a year like this you had the guts to do, to put yourselves out there, leaving behind everything for nine-months to say, “God here I am, do with me what you will.” I got you a little something... Brian Spessard has been working long and hard trying to put this together in secret. We made only 20 of them. Earlier this year we had a Chapel service where we talked about Psalms. The Psalms are stories of the faithfulness of God. And we encouraged each student to write their own Psalm. And what we did is we collected them and we put them into this book that is my gift to you. When you face impossible odds, may you remember your story. How many Christians do we have in the house tonight?? Do you know that you have a target on your back? Do you know that there is a very real enemy who wants to steal, kill, and destroy you? Revelation 12:11 [NKJV] And they overcame him by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. [Everyone quietly stand to your feet.] Some of you are facing some seemingly impossible

situations... We are going to pray for each other’s needs again, but here’s the deal... I WANT YOU TO THINK OF THESE, NOT AS NEEDS BUT TESTIMONIES IN THE MAKING!!! If you say, I’ve got a testimony in the making, and I want to remember my story, where you’re at right now I want you to just slip up both hands. Believers, I want you to look around and find someone close to you that has their hand up and I want you to pray for their testimony in the making.