Winterfest 2019- Pre-Event Lesson(s)

This pre-event lesson is actually four lessons and was influenced greatly by the work of John Eldredge in his book, “Epic” (The Story God Is Telling and The Role That Is Yours To Play). If you think about it – all the really great stories pretty much have the same themes, the same story line. Things were once good. Then something really bad happened. Now a great battle must be fought or a journey taken. At just the right moment, a hero comes and sets things right, and life is good again.

Braveheart, Shrek, Gladiator, Spiderman, Twilight, It’s A Wonderful Life, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Batman, Star Wars. Have you ever wondered why? That’s because they all borrow their power…their story……their basic elements….from the Real Story…the epic woven into the fabric of our being.

The four sections are: Epic 1- Once Upon a TimeEpic 2 – Enter the VillainEpic 3 – We Need a HeroEpic 4 – Happily Ever After

Adjust and adapt this material to fit the needs and timing of your group. As you prepare for Winterfest, ideally, you will be able to make it a four week-series. Or you can shrink it down to two weeks. It’ll be hard, but you could also try to pack it all in to just one week. These lessons will help prepare your students for the idea of Just One Story at Winterfest.

One other note: A accompanying FREE power point presentation has been built for each of the four lessons. Each power point contains video clips, pictures, scriptures and notes described in the text of each lesson. To receive these power point presentations, simply send an email requesting them to Johnny Markham at JMarkham23@aol.com and he will send them to you via email/Dropbox.

Epic 1 – “Once Upon a Time”

Show the video for The Lord of the Rings - The Fellowship of the Ring. Life is a story!

Sam and Frodo have been on quite the journey. Ever since their adventure began, they’ve seen more wonders and dangers than they could have possibly imagined. The battles, the beauty, the darkness, the death Now near Mordor, two little hobbits on a journey to save the world, Sam looks at Frodo and says, “I wonder what sort of tale we’ve fallen into?” Sam could not have asked a better question.

He understands that there IS a story…a bigger picture. And he understands that they are a part of it.

“I wonder what sort of tale we’ve fallen into?” is a good question for every single one of us to ask.

This weekend, that’s the question I want you to ask of yourself. “What is this story I’m in?”

Life, of course, IS a story.

Life doesn’t come to us like a math problem. It comes to us the way that a story does, scene by scene. You wake up. What will happen next? You don’t get to know-you have to enter in, take the journey as it comes. The sun might be shining. There might be a tornado outside. Your friends might call and invite you to go shopping. You might fail a test.

Life unfolds like a drama. Doesn’t it? Each day has a beginning and an end. There are all sorts of characters, all sorts of settings. A year goes by like a chapter from a novel. Sometimes it seems like a tragedy. Sometimes like a comedy. Most of it seems like a soap opera.

Whatever happens, it’s a story through and through. “All of life is a story…” Madeline L’Engle 

This is helpful to know….when you’re trying to figure this life out…you’d do well to know what this story is all about.

I was a freshman in college and my younger brother had borrowed by silver Camaro. He drove it to school. He had to get up and be at school earlier than I had to be at my class that day. I don’t remember him leaving that morning, but I do remember him coming home while I was still asleep in bed. He woke me up and said, “I was in a wreck this morning, and your car is messed up pretty bad. It’s been towed away.” At first, I didn’t know much. I could see my brother. He looked ok. He said my car was messed up. That’s all I knew. I wanted to know more. So I said, “Tell me more. Tell me what happened.” In other words, tell me the story! As it turned out, it wasn’t my younger brother’s fault. He wasn’t speeding or showing off. Someone else had hit him. He had done nothing wrong. Just one of those things. But knowing the story was helpful for me. It changes the way I felt about the whole event.

Truth be told, you need to know the rest of the story if you want to know just about anything in life.

Jokes are like that. They’re no good if you walk in on the punch line. Then she said, “That’s not my dog.” Everyone else is laughing. You aren’t. What’s so funny? I think I missed something.

Love stories, tragedies, your day at school…Nothing in life makes sense without a story.

Story is how we figure things out.

Two people on a plane A child on a grandmother’s lap Seeing an old friend

Look at our fascination with the News, and with Facebook. All over the globe 24 hours a day, we humans have a craving to know the story. What’s goin’ on? What’s the latest story? We want to feel oriented in our world. Not just the facts---the stories. (Facebook falls short, by the way)

Stories shed light on our lives. Through Frodo we see that we have purpose.

When we see William Wallace in Braveheart, we see passion.

When we see Maximus in Gladiator, we wonder if we have courage like that.

When we see Peter Parker in Spiderman, we see sacrificial love.

We learn all of our most important lessons through story and story deepens all of our most important lessons. Life’s greatest questions are answered through stories.

Our stories tell us Who we are, Why we are here, What we are supposed to do and Where we are going.

As Neo said in “The Matrix Reloaded, “I just wish I knew what I am supposed to do.” If life is a story, what am I supposed to do? What is the plot? What is my role to play? What is this all about?

But this is where we run into a problem….For a lot of us, we feel like we’ve arrived at a movie 45 minutes late. Confused, wondering what’s going on. We know we’re in some sort of story, but what kind? That leads us to try and figure it out….we look for the Larger Story. What is this drama we’ve been dropped in the middle of?

We find ourselves in the middle of a story that is sometimes awesome…some times terrible…often a confusing mixture of both. And we often don’t have a clue what’s goin’ on. Because we’ve lost our story. We’ve settled for uncertainty.

As Frodo said, what sort of tale have we fallen into?

Have you ever been in a large mall or a theme park and seen one of those large maps with a big red star on it that says, You Are Here!? These maps help to orient you…to tell you where you are..to get perspective…to help you get your bearings…to help see the Big Picture.

Wouldn’t that be cool to have something like that in our lives?

“This is where you are in your life. This is where you started. Here is where you made a wrong turn. Here’s where you need to go next. This is the role you’ve been given. Here’s how it’s gonna end. Wouldn’t that be cool? We’ve got it! Maybe not with perfect clarity, but better than most have now. The big picture is available.

If you think about it – all the really great stories pretty much have the same themes, the same story line. Things were once good. Then something really bad happened. Now a great battle must be fought or a journey taken. At just the right moment, a hero comes and sets things right, and life is good again.

Braveheart, Shrek, Gladiator, Spiderman, Twilight, It’s A Wonderful Life, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Batman, Star Wars. Have you ever wondered why?

That’s because they all borrow their power…their story……their basic elements….from the Real Story…the epic woven into the fabric of our being. There is a story written on the human heart.

As Ecclesiastes says it, “He has planted eternity in the human heart.” (Ecclesiastes 3:11 NLT)

Christianity claims to tell us the story. THE Epic story.

The epic story of the ancient past.

The epic story of the dangerous adventure we’re now in.

The epic story of the future waiting for us to discover.

The epic story that has a crucial role for you to play.

Christianity tells us that there is an Author of this Story. And the Author is good.

The good Author tells us how it all began. In the beginning. A wonderful phrase….Once upon a time. All of the really good stories start that way. OUR story starts that way.

In the beginning is used twice in Scriptures. The first is obviously in Genesis 1. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

A few verses later in verse 26, God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness,”

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made;

without him nothing was made.” (John 1:1-3)

These describe God even before the beginning of Creation. Something amazing about God…since before the beginning, He has been about relationship. Father, Son and Holy Spirit as one. Three in One, a union so intimate and personal they are the one and the same. Perfect fellowship. Not alone. The whole story begins in relationship. It’s about relationship. God is relational and He wants to have a relationship with you. That’s also why you’re a part of the Story….to relate to Him. That’s a big part of your role…your purpose…to experience relationship with your Creator. Your personhood comes from His Personhood. Your personality comes from His creation. All of God’s creation reflects His personality. Your origins, your beginnings are not impersonal and accidental. They are personal and purposeful.

What a difference it makes to know that at the heart of things is a Heart. A kind, loving, giving heart.

The greatest joys and memories of life are connected to family, friendship and falling in love. The deepest hurts are somehow connected to someone also, to a failure of relationship. That you were loved but are no longer, or that you have never been chosen….

One of the deepest of all human longings is the longing to belong, to be a part of things, to be invited in. We want to be part of the fellowship.

Tell a personal story similar to this one: I grew upon a farm in Tennessee. The farm has been in my family for generations. I could wander around the 100 acres and see reminders of family past. The house that my ancestors built, the old trashed out broken down four door army truck that my great grandfather somehow ended up with after WWII, ponds that my granddad dug with his bulldozer. But the best part was the people, the stories, the connections. I loved the stories of how our house was built down the road and moved years later by a team of mules on rolling logs up the hill to where it now sits. Lawn chairs and long talks, family reunions. I knew I was in a story that began before me and that had a place, a role for me.

We all long to be invited into a story like that. The best part was.. I didn’t have to make it up. It had been going years before I existed…a great adventure and fellowship. A story in which I could be a part. They knew me. They loved me. That is the promise of God. That love is real, and that we can depend on it.

As Jesus said, “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.” (John 17:24)

Frodo could not be a hero unless he was born into a story with many chapters already played out before his time. His moment gets its weight and urgency because of the moments that had gone before.

There was a Life that existed before our own, an Epic story already underway. Once upon a time.

Our journey will continue next week. See you then.

Epic 2 – “Enter the Villain”

We began yesterday at the beginning….Once Upon a Time. In the Beginning. We find ourselves in a Story. An eternal story. A story that includes me and you. The Story that God is telling that has a role for you to play. Act 1 included the first element of all great stories....Once Upon a Time.

Today….Act 2 brings us to the second element of all great stories-Enter the Villain.

Audience Participation-Spontaneous Melodrama- Job and The TerribleHorribleNoGoodVeryBadDay God is good even when you’re having a bad day. All around us, however is not good.

“Why does every story have a villain?” It’s hard to think of a story without one.

Some of the All-Time Great Movie Villains---

Show clip of villain video…… 23:17 – 24:12 Darth Vader and the bad guy from the Superman story…..”You’re right, Mr. Kent….“I am the villain of the story.”

The Big Bad Wolf. Darth Vader. Darth Sidious. Hannibal Lecter. The Wicked Witch of the West. Dark Lord Sauron in Lord of the Rings. Every story has a villain…. because your story does.

A lot of people don’t live like it. A lot of people don’t live as though our story has a villain. That can make life very confusing. All the stories we’ve been telling about the presence of an evil power in the world, all the dark characters that we’ve seen in moves and read about in stories—they are warnings to us. Reminders that there is evil around us.

Look all around us and see the evidence of Evil. War. Famine. Betrayal. Murder.

There is an evil force in this world. Where did it come from?

Something happened before our moment on this stage. Before mankind, came the angels.

Angels are supernatural beings distinctly separate and different from mankind. They were created by God sometime prior to the creation of man.

We read about it in Psalms 148:2, 5. “Praise him, all his angels; praise him, all his heavenly hosts.  Let them praise the name of the LORD, for at his command they were created.”

A Few Things about Angels:

Angel means “messenger of God.”

They don’t reproduce, but are "an innumerable company."   

Angels were created for service to God.

God uses angels to execute His judgment.

Angels are spirits, but they can take on the "appearance of man." 

Scripture describes cherubim and seraphim as having wings.

When seen in their glory, angels have a special brightness upon them.

Angels have superhuman strength. 

Angels can be fearful to look at.

Such was the case for the Old Testament prophet Daniel:

On the twenty-fourth day of the first month, as I was standing on the bank of the great river, the Tigris, I looked up and there before me was a man dressed in linen, with a belt of the finest gold around his waist. His body was like chrysolite, his face like lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and his voice like the sound of a multitude. Daniel 10:4-6

We are not alone in this world.

 I, Daniel, was the only one who saw the vision; the men with me did not see it, but such terror overwhelmed them that they fled and hid themselves. So I was left alone, gazing at this great vision; I had no strength left, my face turned deathly pale and I was helpless. Daniel 10:7-8

Did you ever notice that in nearly every record of angelic visitation, their first words to mortals are: “Fear Not, Be Not Afraid”? These are not fat, little Valentine’s Day Cupid’s with a bow and arrow. Real angels are awesome, amazing beings, more powerful than you can imagine.

“…the LORD sent an angel, who annihilated all the fighting men and the leaders and officers in the camp of the Assyrian king.” 2 Chronicles 32:21

So the LORD sent a plague on Israel from that morning until the end of the time designated, and seventy thousand of the people from Dan to Beersheba died. When the angel stretched out his hand to destroy Jerusalem, the LORD was grieved because of the calamity and said to the angel who was afflicting the people, “Enough! Withdraw your hand.” 2 Samuel 24:15-16

What kind of story is this? What does all this mean?

Maybe this story we’re in is not nearly as “safe” as we’d like to believe. This is exactly what the Bible….and all the stories that echo it…. has warned us about all these years: We live in a world of the seen and the unseen.

A few more things about angels:

Angels are subject to God.

They are wise but they are not all-knowing.

They are powerful, but they are not all-powerful.

Three angels are mentioned by name: Michael, Gabriel, Lucifer.     

For own own good….we must treat the unseen world as incredibly important.

Here’s why. One of those angels went bad.

“‘You were the model of perfection,    full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. 13 You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone adorned you:    ruby, topaz and emerald, chrysolite, onyx and jasper,    sapphire, turquoise and beryl. Your settings and mountings were made of gold;    on the day you were created they were prepared. 14 You were anointed as a guardian cherub,    for so I ordained you. You were on the holy mount of God;    you walked among the fiery stones. 15 You were blameless in your ways    from the day you were created    till wickedness was found in you. Ezekiel 28:12-15

Standing at the head of all the millions of angels was a captain. The most beautiful, the most powerful of them all. The commander of the armies of God. The guardian of the glory of the Lord. His name was Lucifer. And here is where the story takes its first dramatic turn. Pride entered into Lucifer’s heart.

Lucifer began to not trust God. He thought God was holding out on him. He didn’t merely want to play a role in the story. He wanted the story to be about him. He wanted the throne. He wanted the worship and adoration for himself.

“Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor.” Ezekiel 28:17

Commodus betrayed Maximus. Darth Vader turned on the Jedi. Lucifer turned on his Maker. Through deceit and treachery, he drew one-third of the angels to his side. There was a great battle. The great archangel Michael defended the Almighty. The forces of good won the battle. Lucifer (Satan) and his followers rebelled against God, a war in heaven resulted, and Satan lost.

“Through your widespread trade you were filled with violence, and you sinned. So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God, and I expelled you, O guardian cherub, from among the fiery stones.” Ezekiel 28:16 

So Evil entered the story. I am amazed by the way that most people think about evil. They don’t take it seriously. They don’t live as though The Story has a Villain. Not a cute, funny-looking little devil prancing about in red tights, carrying a pitchfork, but the incarnation of the very worst of every enemy you’ve met in every other story. The Holocaust, child prostitution, terrorist bombings, genocidal governments, hatred.

We all must begin to take evil seriously! You have an Enemy.

Life is very dangerous if you do not account for Him.

“One of the things that surprised me when I first read the New Testament seriously was that it talked so much about a Dark Power in the universe.—a mighty evil spirit who was held to be the Power behind death, disease, and sin ….this is a universe at war.” ~ C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Maybe it surprises you, too. But there is a spiritual war going on and you are in it.

Satan began his rebellion with the idea that God is holding out. That God was not good. Satan decided to be selfish and full of pride. He tried to sit on the throne.

But God and his angels won. Yes. God is powerful. But He is also good.

The same choice faces us this very day. Do you believe that God is good? Do you trust God? Are you living for yourself and your own selfish interests?

If there were ever a word that basically means the opposite of love, it is selfishness. Unfortunately being selfish is something that is ingrained into every person from a very young age. You can see it in the way young children act.

One of the first words we learn as little kids is “Mine!”

Satan uses powerful weapons- lies, deceptions, and manipulations. Whatever it takes.

How many fishermen do we have here today? You know that to catch a fish, you need a pole, a line, a hook and some attractive bait. Satan can dangle something in front of us that looks good, but contains hidden danger just like the bait on a hook attracts a fish. That bait can be so tempting, but oh how careful we need to be because of the hook that hides within it!

Satan was not destroyed – he is left as a character in the story. And his mission is now to pull you down with him. He comes after you. Which is why the apostle Peter tells us to:

 “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” 1 Peter 5:8

And the apostle Paul gives us this:

“Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Ephesians 6:11-13

Good news: “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” James 4:7

Enter the Villain.

Epic 3 – “We Need a Hero”

Show Great Villains in Movie History Lord Voltemort Joker

We began Act 1 with the idea that We are in a Great Story. And every great story borrows elements of the Great Story….THE Epic of Life. Once Upon a Time. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Can you imagine that process? The power, the beauty. The Garden of Eden. Then something truly amazing occurs:

 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. Genesis 1:26-27

We were created in the image of God. Fearfully and wonderfully made. Amazing! Awesome!

“When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.” Psalm 8:3-5

We were crowned with glory and honor. Why does a woman long to be beautiful? Why does a man hope to be found brave? Because we remember, if only just barely, that we were once more than we are now. God creates us in his image….with the ability the think, to reason, to create, to share, to know joy. He gives us laughter and imagination and wonder. And above all else, He gives us one thing…the ability to choose. God gives us free will. We have the ability to reject him.

Why did He do that? He had already suffered one massive betrayal in the rebellion of Lucifer and his angels. Why?

The answer is simple: if you want a world where love is real, you must allow each person the freedom to choose.

Any parent or lover knows this. Love is chosen. It cannot be forced. If you are God, and you are Love and you want to create a world where love exists, you have to give that freedom. You cannot force love. God loves us that much that He gave us the ultimate dignity….the power to choose…the power of free will. He is not a puppeteer.

And so God places man in a beautiful place. Man has companionship. He has the ability to walk with and talk with God there in the beauty of the Garden of Eden. But God says, Trust me…I have given you all this to enjoy. Trust that my heart for you is good. “Do not eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil…..or you will die.” We read about this in Genesis 3.

 “Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’” “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Genesis 3:1-6  

The Evil Villain was lurking in the Garden. After his failed takeover, he was banished but not destroyed…. He was limited but he was not gone….waiting in the shadows for his chance to take revenge. Know this: The Evil one hates God…..he hates anything that reminds him of the glory of God…..wherever it exists. Unable to overthrow God, he turns his sights on those who bear his image. He goes after God’s kids. You and me. Satan came into the garden and whispered to Adam and Eve- and to all of us, too, “You cannot trust the heart of God….He’s holding out on you. You’ve got to take matters into your own control.” He tempted them with mistrust, power and selfishness. He still does.

God gave mankind the best of everything. And we rebelled. Sin entered this world and things shifted. When sin comes in, things get ugly. It didn’t take long after Adam and Eve sinned. Sin spread like a computer virus.

By the sixth chapter of Genesis, mankind’s downward spiral had reached the point where God had to do something. He couldn’t bear it any longer.

“The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain.” Genesis 6:5-6 

We understand this….we know that in our own hearts, we deal with lust and hatred and racism and betrayal. We are selfish…..the very opposite of how the Trinity lives.

Something went terribly wrong. Satan did his thing and mankind has been suffering ever since. Paradise has been lost. Everywhere you look, you see the effects of the fall of man.

“The whole world is under the control of the evil one.” 1 John 5:19

It is dark. Darkness reigns. We are captive. The situation appears hopeless. We need to be rescued. We need a hero.

Show video of Shrek to the rescue of Fiona. DVD Chapter 5 14:30 – 18:38

Jack rescues Rose in Titanic. William Wallace rises up and rescues Scotland. Luke Skywalker rises up and rescues the princess. Nemo’s father rescues him. Aslan comes to rescue Narnia.

Why does very great story have a rescue? Because yours does. THE Epic story has the greatest rescue of all time.

The day Adam and Eve sinned, they ran and hid in the bushes. And God came looking for them. He called to Adam, “Where are you?” That began the long and painful pursuit of mankind. Though we mistrusted and betrayed Him, and fell into the hands of our enemy, He did not abandon us.

A quick read of the Old Testament is enough to convince us the RESCUE is God’s plan. Noah. Abraham. The nation of Israel. You see God looking for a people who will turn to Him from the heart, be in relationship with Him again.

You see it clearly in The Exodus, where God goes to war against the wicked Egyptian taskmasters to set his captive people free. 400 years they’ve

suffered in a life of despair. Suddenly, blood, hail, locusts, Darkness. Death. Plague after plague descends on Egypt. Pharaoh releases his grip, but only for a moment. The fleeing slaves are pinned up against the Red Sea when Egypt makes a last charge, coming after them in chariots. All those chasing God’s people drowned in the sea. Standing in shock and joy on the opposite shore, God’s people proclaimed, “The LORD is a warrior!” (Exodus 15:3) God is a warrior. He has come to rescue us.

Guess what. Not long later….those people were complaining. They don’t like the food. They don’t like the water. The journey of freedom is too hard. They want to go back to Egypt.

The dilemma of the human story is this: We don’t know if we want to be rescued.

We are so comfortable and content in our small stories and our false gods that we miss out on the big picture. We miss real life. We’ve bought a cheap substitute and don’t even recognize it when the real thing comes along. And the evil one has no intentions of letting his captives walk away scot-free. He entices us, seduces us, deceives us, assaults us, whatever it takes to keep us in darkness.

When you read the prophets of the Old Testament you get a glimpse of what it feels like to be God.

“I long to be gracious to you. You are precious and honored in my sight, because I love you. But you are the offspring of adulterers. You have made your bed on a high and lofty hill, forsaking me, you uncovered your bed, you climbed into it and opened it wide. You have been false to me. “ From Isaiah

I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me. What fault did you find in me that you strayed so far from me? Should I not avenge myself? I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving kindness. What have I done to make you hate me so much? From Jeremiah

God has been betrayed time and time again, yet He continues to love us and pursue us. The challenge God faces is rescuing a people who have no idea they need rescuing. We are captivated by the lies and deceptions of our enemy. Comfortable in our bondage. Content in our slavery.

But God has something up His sleeve.

Suppose there was a king who loved a humble maiden. This king was like no other king. Every statesman trembled before his power. No one dared breathe a word against him, because he had the strength to crush all opponents. But this mighty king was terribly in love with a humble maiden. How could he declare his love for her? In an odd sort of way, his kingliness tied his hands. If he brought her to the palace and crowned her head with jewels and clothed her in royal robes, she for sure wouldn’t resist—nobody dared resist him. But would she love him? She would say she loved him of course, but would she truly? Would she be happy at his side? How could he know? If he rode to her forest cottage in his royal carriage, with an armed escort waiving bright banners, that too would overwhelm her. He did not want a cringing subject. He wanted a lover.

So what did he do? The mighty and powerful king disguised himself as a beggar and went alone to the maiden’s door in the wood to win her heart.

It is a parable of the coming of Jesus of Nazareth. God Himself –The King of all Creation- takes on human flesh and enters our story as one of us. He set aside His glory, clothed Himself with humility and moved into enemy territory to whisper the words of love to His own: “I have come for you.”

God created us for relationship and He will not give up on us. He is still looking for His children. And He will have to pay a great price.

“Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Matthew 20:28 The only way out is ransom.

The coming of Jesus of Nazareth was far more like the opening scenes of Saving Private Ryan. A dangerous mission, a great invasion, a daring raid into enemy territory, to save the world, but also to save one man.

Jesus told a story like that to shed light on His own coming.: “If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine and on the hills and go to look for the one? Matthew 18:12. In the middle of the great invasion, like the storming of the beaches at Normandy, God set his sights on one lost soul. You.

Historically speaking, Jesus of Nazareth was betrayed by one of his followers,

handed over to the Romans by the Jewish religious leaders, and crucified. But there was a larger story unfolding in all that death. He gave His life willingly to ransom us from the evil one, to pay the price for our betrayal, and to prove once and for all that the heart of God is good. And that you matter to Him.

“For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” Colossians 1:13-14

The life, death and resurrection of Jesus forever answers the question, ‘what does God feel about me?” Even at our deepest betrayal, when we had run furthest from Him, and gotten so lost we couldn’t find our way back home, God came and died to rescue us.

Of course that’s not the end of the Story. The battle still rages. But now you know The Story. You know that there IS a battle and that it is between good and evil…and Good has come to rescue you…..but you have the choice.

Epic 4 – “Happily Ever After”

We began Act 1 with the idea that We are in a Great Story. And every great story borrows elements of the Great Story….THE Epic of Life. 1. Once Upon a Time. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The Beauty of the Garden of Eden. Then something truly awful occurred. Our enemy, the villain showed up, began wreaking havoc, stealing, killing and destroying. We needed a hero to rescue us. Jesus came to do just that.

Which leads us to the fourth and final act. The fourth element that is a part of every great story…..Happily Ever After. Did you ever cry at the end of a movie? Brian’s Song. My Life with Michael Keaton. Some of the best endings can bring us to tears. Because God has set eternity in our hearts.

I think of the end of the movie Apollo 13, based on the true story of the mission to the moon that fell to pieces, and the battle against all odds to bring those three astronauts home safely. Unknown damage has been done to the space capsule in an explosion. Their guidance system could be malfunctioning; they might miss the earth entirely. Power has been lost; their parachutes might be three blocks of ice. The heat shield that protects the men from the inferno of reentry might be cracked. Will their little ark get them home?

The world has gathered in front of TV’s to witness one of the greatest dramas of the 20th century. All radio contact is lost during the “blackout” as the command module plunges into the earth’s atmosphere., hurling homeward at a speed of 35,245 feet per second. It is the final moment of their ordeal. The world is holding its collective breath, watching the sky as the news announcer states, “No reentering ship has ever taken longer than three minutes to emerge from the blackout. This is the critical moment. Will the heat shield hold? Will the command module survive the intense heat of reentry? If not….there’ll only be …. silence. At Mission Control n Houston, all is silent. Seconds tick by like hours as the blackout continues. There is no word from the astronauts. All eyes remain fixed on the vacant sky.

Flight Monitor in Houston announces the end of the blackout period. “That’s three minutes. Standing by for acquisition.” Mission control attempts to contact the lost men.

“Odyssey, this is Houston, do you read me?”

Silence. Only the crackling static of the radio. “Odyssey, Houston do you read?”

Still nothing. The news anchor admits, “The expected time of reentry has come…and gone. About all any of us can do now is just listen and hope.”

The families of the tree men are quietly holding hands. Tears begin to run down their cheeks. A few turn their eyes away as if to avoid the inevitable. In Houston, men hang their heads; they did all they could possibly do. Another full minute passes. Still nothing. The capsule is way, way past the point of no return. Silence.

“Odyssey….uh Houston….do you read?” The radio begins to crackle as the TV screen reveals a tiny speck emerging from the clouds. Red parachutes burst open and we hear a reply from the spacecraft: “Hello, Houston… this is Odyssey. It’s good to see you again!

Cheers. Shouts of joy. Hugs all around. Tears and more tears of happiness and relief. At Mission Control, Flight Contact, a good friend of the men on board speaks: “Odyssey, welcome home….we’re glad to see you.”

And I am bawling. Every time I see this I cry.

We long to make it home! It’s written on every human heart.

Video of Gladiator showing how Maximus enters the fields of heaven to be reunited with his family.

We have a longing for the happily ever after. Age will conquer you here. Everyone dies. Your time on this planet will come to an end. You will breathe your last breath. Is that the end of the story?

Our enemy’s most insidious acts is when he has stolen our hope. He tells us this is all there is. There’s nothing more. This is as good as it gets. A lie.

In Revelation 21:1, John was given a glimpse into the future. He said, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth.”

God has always been about redeeming and restoring. When Jesus was here, He restored sight to blind; hearing to the deaf. When he touched the lame, they could walk and run and jump with joy like never before. And He called the dead back to life, giving them back to their families. Do you see? Jesus was about restoring brokenness. The coming of the kingdom of God restores, heals, redeems.

This is our future. After He laid down his life for us, he was laid in a tomb. He was buried just like any other dead person. His family and friends mourned. His enemies rejoiced. And most of the world went on with business as usual, clueless to the Epic around them. Then after three days, at dawn, his story took a dramatic turn.

“Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?” But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’” Mark 16:2-7 

Jesus came back. He showed up again. He was restored to them. He walked into the house where they had gathered to support each other and asked if they had anything to eat. It was the most stunning, incredible, unbelievable, happiest ending to a story that you could imagine.

And it is ours. The resurrection of Jesus was the first of many, the forerunner of our own. He paved the way.

 “But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died.” 1 Corinthians 15:20 

 “God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son. The Son stands first in the line of humanity he restored.” Romans 8:29 (The Message)

So, we, too, can live and never die. Be made new again. Restored. In Paradise. It’ll be more awesome than you can imagine. Eternity with the Creator. Face to face with God the Son, Jesus. We will get to hear him laugh. No sadness, separation, sickness, sorrow, sin.

“The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come. “Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’ “But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. Matthew 22:2-5 

The hard truth is that we have to understand that not everybody lives happily after. Not in any story and sadly, not in this story. The promise of happily ever after is only for those who choose to walk with God. Many people do not want the life that God offers them.

The live their lives saying to God, Not your will but my will be done, so that on that day God will say, OK, have it your way. Not my will but yours be done.

It is His will that none of us perish. God “is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9

The lover of our souls, the One who has pursued us all through space and time and gave His life to rescue us from the Kingdom of Darkness has made it clear: He does not want to lose us. He longs for you to be with Him forever.

But some of us insist on our will be done over His. He allows us that freedom to choose. We seem to forget –or we refuse to remember that we are the ones who betrayed Him, not vice versa. We are the ones who listened to the lies of the Evil One; who chose to mistrust the heart of God.

Some refuse to come to the wedding banquet of God. They don’t want God. They reject His offer of forgiveness and reconciliation through Jesus. What is He supposed to do? The universe has only two options. If they insist, God will leave to them what they’ve wanted---to be left to themselves.

Until then, the invitation to life stands.

“I have set before you life and death…Now choose life.” Deuteronomy 30:19

“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

The final act of this Epic is all about restoring life to be as it was always meant to be. It is the return of the beauty, the intimacy, and the adventure we were created to enjoy and have longed for every day of our lives. And yet, better, because it never ends or gets old. We can never lose it again. It cannot be taken away.

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. Matthew 25:34

“Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” John 14:2-3

THIS is the tale you’ve fallen into. How would you live differently if you believed it to be true? THIS is the gospel….the good news of Jesus. Now—what is your part? What is your role to play in the story?

To find our lives, we must turn to our Maker. We must yield our all to Him. We must hear his call. Obey his Word. Turn from our selfish lives. Confess it to others and show the world at your baptism that you are dying to self and raising p to live for Him….in this life and in the next….happily ever after.

This is the gospel. This is the Epic we are living in. May you play your part well.