Acts 13:13-25

Acts 13:13-25
English Standard Version (ESV)

  Because I love to make rampant generalizations, I'm going to say that we, as a collective society, are really into ourselves.  When society has reached a point where people are having plastic surgery to look better in their selfies, I think it's safe to say that we think very highly of ourselves.  We spent a lot of time thinking about ourselves, and when we're not thinking about ourselves, we're thinking about how to make other people think about us.  Social media is great at this -- look at this!  look over here!  Like me!  Favorite me!  Me!
  As Christians, we're rooted in a long line of church history.  It's not about us, and it's not even about here and now.  We stand in a long tradition of people who have been faithfully living selflessly, serving one another, and if we're going to be serious about telling people about God, we can't just talk about ourselves, we need to talk about what God has been doing throughout time and space.
  See, in today's world the message is generally "What's okay for you is fine as long as it doesn't affect me."  We personalize everything and let others do the same.
  But when we point out that God has been moving in an arc that transcends the here and now, that reaches back into history and binds people together, creating connections through the power of the Holy Spirit, and that God has never broken a promise and is building this amazing Kingdom with singular purpose throughout history, we tell a much more powerful story than the one that just talks about God and me.
  It's important to link ourselves as part of the story and part of God's story, but by giving it context, we point out how much bigger God is, and then the love of God is even more amazing and more compelling, because the God who is that big reaches down into human history and intercedes on our behalf, on your behalf, to forgive our sins and love us as individuals.
  That's a great story.  Let's tell that story.  Let's live it!