March Gladness 2020, Writing a New Narrative, Rev. Dr. William Curtis

0:05 Well, every head is bowed, every eye is closed as together we pray. Consecrate me to thy service, Lord, by the power of thy grace divine. And let our souls look up with a steadfast hope and our wills be lost in thine. We ask it in the strong and perfect name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, we pray. and all of God's children said together, amen. Lean over, give somebody a big hug. Tell them I'm glad you're alive.

0:40 Let me express how excited, honored, humbled I am to occupy space in this pulpit. I have such a profound love and admiration and respect for your pastor. I refer to him as my little brother, and I am grateful for the gift that he is to the body of Christ. Would you help me to thank God for the Reverend Dr. Howard John Wesley?

1:15 Whenever you sit on the side of the bed at night and say your evening prayers, you ought to ask God in the midst of one of those prayers, would you have done so good to have been blessed with such a gifted pastor? The Bible says that pastors are a gift to the church. And so if it's a gift, it's an expression of love. And God must especially love you, Alfred Street, to have blessed you with one of our nation's most profound and prophetic voices. And so we again thank God for him.

1:48 One of the signs of great leadership is when a leader is not present and those who the leader has tapped and trained can function. And the engine runs as if the leader were present himself into this very, very capable staff who guides us tonight. We are appreciative. Would you help me thank God for those who labor among you, including this music ministry that has ushered us into the presence of God? I want to call your attention tonight to Genesis chapter 15, verses 1 through 6. I don't know what time they told you you were getting out of church tonight, but first night is the longest night of revival. And so ushers have locked the doors and it has just become an all-night prayer vigil. Genesis chapter 15 beginning with verse 1 reading through the conclusion of verse 6 I want to talk to you tonight about writing a new narrative After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, Do not be afraid, Abram. We will refer to him in the sermon as Abraham.

2:57 I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward. But Abram said, Lord God, what will you give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus. Then Abram said, Look, you have given me no offspring. Indeed, one born in my house is my heir. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir. And he brought him outside and said, Look now toward heaven. Count the stars if you are able to number them. And he said to him, So shall your descendants be. And he believed in the Lord, and he accounted it to him for righteousness. Before you take your seat, turn and tell somebody, I want to write a new narrative.

3:49 Turn to the person on the other side, tell them, I want to write a new narrative. Abraham, strong and cunning, brave and valiant. He's recovered his captured nephew, Lot, who was made captive at a time when kings were engaging battles all around. Each of these kings tried to seize land and grow rich off of discovered plunder. Abraham's narrative for the most part has been quiet and uneventful up until now when in order to save his nephew he gathers some men and advances determined to bring his nephew out of captivity and after his successful rescue and recovery mission Abraham is now ready for the most significant encounter of his entire life God wants to crash in on his life and attach a purpose to his life that Abraham is not ready for. This is bigger than his imagination.

4:58 It's larger than his personal plans. That ought not surprise us tonight. Abraham, in fact, is going to know it's God-imagined because you and I know, don't we, all God-imagined plans are bigger than we can initially embrace. And they always carry purposes we know can't be tapped unless tapped by faith in God.

5:24 Abraham, however, carries a thorn in his life. He has not been able to remove it from his emotionality, and it is this. He is 75 years old. And despite being strong and devoted, despite being resolute about things that are right, despite carrying notable ethics, he's not afraid of battle. He lives with a regret nonetheless in these advanced years of his life. And it's the pain of living childless. It has dominated his thinking. It has invaded his personal ambitions. he's not been able to let it go it clouds his emotions and we're going to discover that it even affects some would say it toxifies his theology the tension is just right now in Abraham's life for God to crash in on his life with his purpose that will help him to make sense out of this nagging ambiguity that has disrupted his steps and after this theophany when God introduces him to his greater life's mission it's going to make sense why his life has been made to unfold the way that it has God literally is ready to pivot turn Abraham from his regrets and his ambivalences and to thrust him towards his destiny but he has to get Abraham to first accept that it's time to rewrite his narrative so listen to how imprisoned abraham has been to what has been his running narrative to date we'll rehearse it very quickly he's nobly turned down riches from his recent rescue mission because he really doesn't want anybody to get credit for this strong defeat of his enemies his safe return of lot and the others who had been taken captive and it's literally right after this that chapter 15 has Abraham being invited by God to stand with God in the open space of God's expansive creation.

7:30 And he tells Abraham, look up. And as far as the eye can see, he sees nothing but stars. And with that setting as the backdrop full of countless possibilities, then God says to him, I am your reward. I'm your reward for being strong and courageous and selfless and shrewd and Abraham your reward is going to be grand and as you might expect that painful and thorny restrictive narrative I described about Abraham living childless well it jumps up on his shoulders and it starts to dominate Abraham's thinking and speaking and before he even recognizes it he starts indicting God of being the contradiction to the very thing God is now revealing. Well this happens Alfred Street because while Abraham is not really a prisoner to his narrative he acts like he is and it's almost as if he says to God standing out in the open expanse of God's creation with God telling him look up in the sky and as he looks up in the sky seeing nothing but countless possibilities and God would dare say to him as countless as the possibilities you see in the sky, that's how much potential still resides inside of you.

8:48 And what is Abraham's response? Grand is what you are offering me. Expansive is what you want to extend through me. Countless is what you think my life has to offer. You want to use me to create a nation as strong and as impactful and significant and countless as the stars you have me out here gazing upon me and it's almost as if Abraham says to God well that's pretty interesting and the reason it's pretty interesting it's almost humorous because I don't even have an heir to leave an inheritance to and when I die I have to leave everything I possess to my servant Eleazar and God in God's patient and grace-giving way he accepts Abraham's pain-filled response and God's loving way being so patient and kind and full of long-suffering he extends such care and God says to him what he says to us tonight he says Abraham of all the things I offer to those I love and to those who follow me I also offer to my children a chance whenever it is necessary and whenever you are ready I give you an opportunity to rewrite your narrative and it really means this it really means no part of what has been the story of your life is restricted to what yet can be you're never restricted by where you are where you've been and what has not happened yet and what has not progressed you are always in the presence of possibilities that rewrite chapters of your life that seemed final and permanent but when you walk with God. Your realities are shaped by destiny and destiny is never limited or controlled or constricted or refined by your current condition or context. Look up at possibility and see how I intend to still use you and don't let what has not happened make you think you are not the one to bring countless possibilities to fruition. I think it begs for us to consider that most of us in here

10:58 need to stop being so devoted to the parts of our narratives that need to change. Stop being restricted about your possibilities because you think you are a prisoner to your past or current realities your narrative can be rewritten now I know I've never stood in this pulpit before but I'm starting to feel like I'm at home here lean over and look at somebody and tell them you can rewrite your narrative you can change how you see life and how you live life and change the way you surrender to how others have shaped their commentary with regard to your life I sense I sense brothers and sisters that all of us know Abraham's conundrum extremely well don't we we all know what it's like to stand in front of what can't be counted and offer the chance to let these countless possibilities envelop us and no sooner than we get excited about the countless possibilities to which we are being introduced than that part of our negative narrative that has nursed our doubts and given unquestioned authority to our fears jumps up on our shoulders and starts reminding us what our narrative has been and before we know it we hesitate we stall in our steps and our emotions and we start thinking I can't ever reach out for countless possibilities because every time I try to do something positive negative has gripped me the failed the failed attempts of the past the repeated letdowns and disappointments the recurring themes of lift and launch followed by crash and burn the choruses of the critics who remind me every day that my dreams are too big and the list can go on and on and the pattern is the same for every one of us in this room every one of us falls victim to living in prison to the narrative that nursed doubt and fears and it too preaches even if the sermon is negative it's sitting in the sanctuary hearing whether it is in sermonic presentation or the chorus is sung

13:10 by the choir or the prayers uttered by those who stand and yet that negative narrative jumps up and starts preaching you know that prayer is not for you you know the promises of that passage are not for you stop expecting so much let me reign in my excitement let me find my quiet spot in the corner of human low ambition before I embarrass myself let me stay in my place and accept the commentary already written for and about me everybody's told me I'll never amount to anything and I may as well become a disciple of that for Abraham it was let me not forget that I'm the childless rescuer of a nephew. I am the defender of territory and possessions threatened by warring kings, but I'm also a man who when he dies doesn't even have anybody from his loins to leave his inheritance to. And of course, we all have our own stories to insert here, but God pulls us like he does Abraham outside to a theophany he plans for every one of us where he bids us to to look up at the endless possibilities that paint the canopy of our lives and his grace offers us the chance to write a new narrative and God knows most of us need it we need a chance to embrace destiny from the side of our human story that is not so weighed down with the heaviness of our past mistakes the weight of our failed attempts and less mature thinking and less surrendered seasons every one of us in this room we're here because we all need a chance to live long enough to distance ourselves from the sting that has characterized our yesterdays to accept that part of the grace of God is not just to let you survive some things but part of the grace of God is to let you edit how your story reads.

15:15 To rewrite it. Am I talking to anybody in this room? To rewrite it so that it reflects now the power of prayer and the changing power of his word and the effect of his spirit and what its effect has on human thinking and emotions. Every one of us needs a chance to rewrite portions of our narrative and even if people around you will never let you forget who you used to be or what you used to do, you can stand with your shoulders square and say, you're right, but I am forgetting those things which are behind me and pressing to those things which are before me. It's a chance. It's really a chance to prove our thinking to have been honest and transparent, but not always thorough and theological where it proves now that with God all things become possible.

16:11 Who among us tonight can admit that if you wanted, if you had the chance to stand before God, one of the things you would ask God for is a chance to edit a part of your story? I'm sorry is this mic working? Is this test test one two? Let me I just wanted to check because let me say it again How many of you amidst the long list of things you would ask God for? One of the things you would ask God for is can you give me an eraser? And let me go back and take out some stuff in my story Because if I could go back I would have never said yes I would have never showed up. I would have never transferred numbers. I would have never said I wanted to. I would have never stuck my foot in the door. I would have never stayed that long.

17:02 I would have never went in that direction. If you give me a chance, let me edit my story. And I got good news tonight. The good news is you can. The grace of God can let you edit your narrative until it reads almost brand new. And here's how it happens. Here's how it happens. It begins, it begins when you marry, synergize, whatever word you want to use, when you combine, when you fuse one to the other, whatever language you want to use. It begins when you marry the inspirational in your life to the aspirational.

17:51 Everybody say inspirational. Everybody say aspirational. It's right here in the text. The inspiration for Abraham was the result of looking up and seeing countless stars and God asking him, can you count them? And Abraham, of course, could not count them. And then God says, now, Abraham, you will not be able to count your descendants. Of course, the revelation was you won't be able to because they're going to be as numerous as the stars upon which I'm making you gaze. That's inspirational. Can you imagine? God inviting you tonight, step outside of Alfred Street and to look up into the expanse of his creation. And as far as you can see, you see nothing but countless stars. And God says to you tonight, as countless as the stars that you cannot count, you cannot number them. These are the possibilities that are inside of you right now. Can you imagine?

18:43 That's breathtaking, isn't it? It is awe-inspiring. That's one of these makes your heart skip a beat, mind-blowing kind of experience. But what changed the narrative was not Abraham just being inspired. What changed his narrative is when he believed. I wait for it to settle in the inspirational was what he was made to gaze upon the aspirational comes when he decides to appropriate it to his own life and because he appropriates it to his life the scripture says he believed that means in the Hebrew he put his weight on it what is being offered because he trusted the testimony of the one who said it. Looking at the stars was great.

19:38 This exercise under the canopy of the stars was awe-inspiring, but his narrative doesn't change if it merely remains inspirational. Abraham believed God, and for him it becomes aspirational, and he goes from being moved by it to wanting to achieve it. God painted the picture and now it's up to him to act it out, incarnate it, and live it out. Do you know far too many of us in this room tonight have remained prisoners to our current narratives? Because we've been inspired by a lot, but we've never fought to achieve anything. this pivot turn in the stories of our lives are not about being moved to live stronger only but by being determined to achieve it can you accept that in your relationship with God he is showing and revealing and disclosing and inspiring in your life what he wants you to then act out and go after to walk it out, not just praise him for letting you see it, but aspiring to incarnate it.

20:52 I love inspiration. I love inspiration. That's the driving force. I get it. But what's your aspiration? In other words, what changes are you going to make to achieve it? What disciplines will you offer to put muscle on it? I'm talking about after you done shouted all service long. you didn't sang every song and every line with the choir you didn't said amen to every homiletical turn in the sermon you were the first one in and the last one out and you were affirming it with your own praise you were giving it out as language of your own testimony but when you left the premises what new habits did you form what people did you recruit to help you raise the bar and the standard in your life? What places do you need to step into to seize these countless possibilities?

21:47 Who did you need to cut off in order to achieve what God was trying to achieve in you? Your narrative can change but not with you just staying inspired. an atheist once told William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, he said, if I believed what you Christians say you believe about coming judgment and that impenitent rejecters of Christ are going to be lost, he says, I would crawl on my bare knees on crushed glass all over London, warning men night and day to flee for refuge from the coming day of wrath. This is how aspirational I'm trying to encourage you to be. Be so inspired by what you know God can do to rewrite the narrative of your life, to get you to God's fulfilled purposes in your life, that you're willing to aspire to it so much so that if necessary, you'll crawl to your possibilities on crushed glass.

22:48 That's the first thing. Inspiration and aspiration have to be synergized. Second thing this text teaches, in my estimation, is this. Rewriting your narrative will only be fruitful where flexibility becomes the offering you give to God. Let the church say flexibility. Now, don't look next to you. Don't look in front or in back of you. Because whenever you talk about flexibility in church, it causes allergic reactions. Abraham is so stuck in his rehearsal of his narrative to date that he has difficulty embracing the possibility of anything different now listen to how rigid he is he's so rigid that in one verse he repeats himself Abram says God master what use are your gifts as long as I'm childless and Eliezer of Damascus is going to inherit everything I own same verse he continues see you have given me no children you just said that are y'all listening to me I mean it was very clear he says I'm childless then he follows it up by saying you have given me no children and now a mere house servant is going to get all that I own.

24:16 Verse 4, is God giving him a chance to expand? Or what I want to suggest tonight is God giving him a chance to offer some flexibility. Don't worry, God says. He won't be your heir. A son from your body is going to be your heir. Now remember, he's not talking to a young man. Abraham is 75. I'm 53. And if God says to me, he's about to bring countless anything from me. it's one thing if you say this to a 25 year old a 19 year old but in order to receive this as a 75 year old you need some flexibility now here's the theological tension if the prison guard of a stuck narrative is rigidity then the rescuer that frees us to a narrative rewrite must be flexibility do I need to say it again if the prison guard of a stuck narrative is rigidity then the rescuer that frees us to a narrative rewrite must be flexibility we children of God can sometimes forget we serve a God of creative imagination but unfortunately we practice a religion of institutional rigidity.

26:00 Faith and flexibility grow up playing in the same field. In fact, they choose each other when drafting teams regardless of the sport being played. You are only going to live your best life when you can learn to offer God flexibility. And you can replace that with the word faith if you want. You can't ever stop believing that you serve a God who can do anything. There's not greater flexibility in my estimation than what was necessary for your salvation, and that is resurrection after crucifixion. You need flexibility to believe in a risen Savior, and you can worship a risen Savior with a rigid belief. You got to be flexible. if you're going to add if you're going to add powerful substance to your narrative or change the themes that have been running through your narratives to date you're going to have to nurture a spirit that is flexible I mean you got to be flexible to look out among thousands of people and to trust that two fish and five loaves are going to be sufficient I'm sorry y'all I'm starting to feel like preaching here you have to be flexible to stand in a boat and be invited outside of it and never having seen anybody else walk on water and step out simply because Jesus bids you come you gotta be flexible to be constructing an ark in a drought when neighbors are passing by trying to remind you that it hasn't rained in a mighty long time Like you got to be flexible to be in church on a Monday night expressing praise to God when you have dysfunction in the White House and little options in terms of the current campaign trail.

27:58 You got to be flexible to watch them drop the interest rate and know that your bank account is already mighty anemic. And you've got to be flexible to be in here tonight and know that God is still on his throne and he's working all things together for our God. grab somebody and tell them stop being so rigid you serve a God of creative imagination just because you don't see it doesn't mean he can't bring it to pass and just because it hasn't happened doesn't mean he can't make it happen because with God all things are possible You got to be flexible.

28:47 One man says, and I'll close. One man said, I am a man of fixed and unbending principles. Now you would think that's a terrible testimony to have, right? Let's do what he says again. He says, I'm a man of fixed and unbending principles. That sounds rigid, doesn't it? Are y'all talking to me tonight? It sounds rigid, doesn't it? I'm a man of fixed and unbending principles. But then he followed it up by saying, the first of my fixed and unbending principles is this, be flexible at all times. you can rewrite your narrative but you're gonna have to offer God some flexibility not so stubborn open up to God blessing you with the ability to adjust and to discover new ways of thinking and new ways of doing what he does one of the greatest masterpieces I'm done one of the greatest masterpieces in human engineering is the Golden Gate Bridge one one writer with regard to the Golden Gate Bridge, after having observed it, said it was one of the greatest privileges of his life. In fact, he says, in his opinion, while there are those who are more knowledgeable, architects, engineers, mathematicians, physicists, he says he labels it as the enormous exception. And the reason he labels it as the enormous exception is because of how it was constructed. The Golden Gate Bridge has concrete roadway on it.

30:23 And yet it is constructed to have flexibility where it can go up 10 feet, down 10 feet, sway 22 feet to the left, and 22 feet to the right. Y'all, just like my members.

30:45 Look at them and be like, where are you going with this? Let me start all over again. Give an honor to God, to the pastors, saints, and friends. I want to ask you to open your Bibles, okay? Golden Gate Bridge. It's a phenom. You got to see it before you exit this earth because of the way it's constructed. Concrete roadway. But it is constructed in a way that it can go 10 feet up, 10 feet down, 22 feet to the left, 22 feet to the right now in every city we got some members of our church and they a little slow and trying to get illustrations so let me say it one more time golden gate bridge it's a phenom because those who constructed it constructed it so that it can have flexibility and even though to cross it, you are crossing it on concrete.

31:43 It gives way 10 feet up, 10 feet down, 22 feet to the left, 22 feet to the right. All of its wires, all of its pulling, everything is connected and then cemented to a foundation that is deep down in the water. so when the architects were interviewed and asked why do you have so much confidence in the golden gate bridge that even when the wind blows or the storm comes that it will not crumble or fall into the water they say we don't have confidence in its flexibility because of the strength of its wiring and we don't have faith in its foundation because of the concrete. We've got faith in its flexibility because we anchored it to a solid foundation.

32:40 You know why you can be flexible tonight? Because your soul has been anchored in Jesus so that you can say, God, I feel it in here, so that you are able to testify that though the storms of life are raging, your soul has been anchored in the Lord. Do I have any company here? Grab somebody by the hand. Shake it like you're trying to shake it off and tell them I'm solid. Tell them I'm fixed. Tell them I'm stable because my soul has been anchored in the Lord. in fact that's how I know we gonna be all right because no matter how much swaying we gotta do in life and no matter how much the storm rocks us from side to side if we're stable in Jesus we can say come on me from day to day but my soul has been anchored in the Lord I'm trying not to play with y'all tonight Put your arm around somebody pull them real close and tell them don't you get weary And your well-doing for in due season you go reap if you're faint because Jesus is the center of my joy Somebody toss your head back and if you're not too ashamed

34:18 Oh you can't shout unless you're ready to rewrite your narrative but do I have anybody in here who says I must start tonight by forgetting those things which are behind me and pressing forward to those things which are before me I'm gonna press For the prize. It doesn't matter how inspired you are, you can sit in here and shout about getting out of debt all you want.

35:19 Until you aspire to do something about it, you're just going to be broke with a nice praise. Let me see the hand of every person who says I'm ready to start rewriting.

35:44 And no matter what it has been, if God lets me wake up in the morning, it's almost like I have the right to image him putting the pen in my hand and giving me the chance to write the next chapter of my life. and no matter what a previous chapter has been that chapter may have denial that chapter may be described by how you have forsaken by how you let fear guide and lead your next chapter can be preaching a sermon and 3,000 people being converted Your narrative can read you standing at the stoning pit And the cloak being cast at your feet And the next chapter you running down the street of Corinth Saying though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels And have not love it profits me nothing All I'm trying to say to somebody in here tonight is I don't care what last chapter read You got another chapter to write and eyes have not seen and ears have not heard and minds have not conceived what great things God has in store for you come on hands are lifted heads are elevated so God this is our prayer tonight thank you for inviting us into the open expanse of your creation and thank you for bidding us to look up to see the countless possibilities that you have decorated the night sky with. And my prayer tonight is that somebody would be so inspired and yet match that inspiration with such aspiration that when they leave this place, they're determined that faith without works is dead.

37:39 So we want to leave after benediction, determined to put works to our faith. And then my prayer is make us flexible as your people. One thing that we're resolute about is that you are Lord. Everything else about our relationship with you, we want it to remain fluid so that you can show us a new and more profound way. And no matter what our beliefs have been to date, you can show us a more excellent way. And for it, we give you thanks. Thank you. You are an active God and a progressive God. And tonight we want to meet you with that same kind of offering. Exercise your creative imagination in us so that people around us will be amazed at the things you are able to do in and through our lives. This is our prayer in Jesus' name.

38:32 Come on, pray with me out loud. God, I come in Jesus' name, and I confess that Jesus is Lord. Come into my life. Save me. Convert me. I want to live for you, and I thank you that tonight by faith I receive the gift of salvation. In Jesus' name, amen.