Help People Respond To God’s Big Story

 

       Hello everybody, my name is Dean Davis, and this is “Multiply,” the podcast that provides a word of encouragement for Village Church Planters.  

One of the most important roles you will ever have as a church planter is storyteller. Not everyone likes to think of themself as a storyteller. But before we can be an evangelist, before we can be a disciple maker, before we can be a church planter, we must be storytellers. 

When Jesus began his preaching, teaching, disciple-making ministry, he said, “Repent and believe the Good News.” The Good News is the story about God’s plan of salvation that is fulfilled by Jesus through his exemplary life, his sacrificial death, and his victorious resurrection. There are many good ways to share this big story of God at work in the world. We can tell a series of stories from the Bible about God’s wonderful creation, about mankind’s rebellion against God, about how God chose a man, Abraham, to bring blessing back to the world, about mankind’s continued rebellion and the need for sacrifice and confession. We can tell God’s big story by showing the JESUS Film that begins with creation and ends with God’s promise that Jesus will return. We can share the Good News by drawing three circles and telling about our rebellion and inability to escape brokenness in our own strength. We can tell about Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. 

All of these are good ways to share the Good News, but just telling this story is not enough. We have to help people apply this story so they can be transformed by the saving grace of God. You see a lot of people think God’s big story is about other people. They think it’s a story about God and Adam and Eve, about Noah and his children, about Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And they are right; all these people play important parts in God’s story. But if you listen to God’s big story as an outsider who is focused on these big-name characters in the story, you will miss the point. 

The point of God’s big story is that he sent his one and only Son to die to save you and to die to save me. Yes, there are many other people in the story. But until you realize that you are a leading character in God’s big story, you will not be transformed. 

It’s not enough to know that God loves the world. It’s not enough to know that Jesus came to save sinners. What we have to help people understand is that Jesus comes for them and that Jesus comes to them.  

If we can help people see their place in God’s big story, great things will result. When people first hear God’s big story, the light begins to dawn. When they realize that it was their sin that brought Jesus into this world, the day grows brighter. When they realize Jesus died and rose again to save them, the light of the Gospel grows very bright indeed. But when people understand that by repenting and believing the Good News they can be forgiven, redeemed, and transformed, the light of the Gospel becomes glorious. 

So, tell God’s big story, tell it well, tell it often, tell it with stories, with film, with drawings. Tell it to one person and tell it to many. But always, always when you tell the story, help people understand that their response to the love of God is what makes the story complete. If you do this, you will see many lives transformed. 

This has been “Multiply,” and I’m Dean Davis asking, “Who will you share this encouraging word with today? 

#EncouragementForVillageChurchPlanters #God’sBigStory