Tour 1: Creation - The Endgame

What Did You See?

Start by asking: 1. ”What did you see?" then, simply ask, 2. "What struck you?”

  1. “What did you see?”

    • We talked about tending to run away from the face of God

    • We looked at the first epoch: Creation

    • We reiterated our quest to gaze upon the crown jewel in the nature of God

    • We looked at the three questions, why did Jesus leave; why does God send; and what is God’s endgame; and then a 4th: why did Jesus curse the fig tree

    • We looked at the issue that it wasn’t the season for figs and the pre-fig nut that the fig tree produces: the “tqash”

    • We talked about how God always acts in accordance with His nature

    • We looked at God’s actions in creation where He created creatures, not simply to look good, but He equipped them, empowered them, and sent them to be creative agents

    • We talked about “the problem of familiarity”

    • We talked about how God created everything to be fruitful and that it all was to be done out of and through divine relationships

    • We looked at the passage in Genesis that man was made to not only be fruitful, but also to be the cultivator of life

    • We watched a vignette about the flourishing life God has created on the earth

    • We looked at a lot of passages from Genesis to Revelation that God is the God of Life, charging all of His creatures to flourish

    • Jesus talked often about fruitfulness

    • We looked at the link between fruitfulness and glorifying God

    • That the purpose of abiding in Christ was to be fruitful

    • We talked about “Meo-Christianity” – where Christianity becomes all about me

    • And “true-Christianity” – where it is all about Him and what He wants to do through me

    • We looked at several “shocking” things: salvation is not God’s endgame; abiding in Christ is not God’s endgame

    • We talked about God’s endgame: that His creatures bear fruit and therefore bring glory to God

    • We looked at the three ways that we are to be fruitful

      • Physically

      • Vocationally

        • the stories of the kid who wants to be a plumber and Luigi, shoemaker

        • the tendency to think that our vocation isn’t valuable to the kingdom

      • Ministerially

        • The tendency to think that only pastors, missionaries, professional Christian ministries are the ministers

        • All of us are to be fruitful ministerially

    • We talked about God being serious about His creatures being fruitful

      • Parable of the talents

      • Parable of the gardener and the fig tree

      • Jesus on burning the unfruitful branches

    • We clarified that this is not talking about salvation, we are not saved by works, but saved for good works and fruitfulness

    • We heard: truth is not God’s endgame

      • it is easy for evangelicals to act as if it is

    • We looked at the dead sea – living water flows in but nothing flows out

      • God doesn’t want us to become a dead sea

    • Selfishness blocks our fruitfulness along with skepticism and our hunger for significance

    • We looked at the radical statement: I am not the endgame

    • We looked at a series of passages that God desires for us to be fruitful, from creating us, abiding in Him and pruning us

    • We even looked at the passage regarding being joined with Christ, Unio Mystica, for the purpose of being fruitful

      • our relationship with Christ is so that we might glorify God by being fruitful

    • Haunting statement:

      • It’s not about me; it all about Him and what He wants to do through me

    • We are not the “lamp” of the world; we are the “light” of the world

    • We heard interviews with people trying to answer the question: “Why am I here?”

    • We revisited the question: why did Jesus leave?

      • That we would do greater works if He left

      • Dumb animals (like horses) just follow the leader

    • We talked about Jesus leaving and then we were empowered by the Holy Spirit so that we might be fruitful

    • We mentioned that this is the most difficult thing for us to grasp: that the fullness of God has taken up residence within us

  2. So, What struck you?