Becky Pliego: The One Great Story of the Bible | Grace Agenda 2018 | Women's Seminar

hello ladies thank you for having me here for Lola how very grateful I am to be here today to be able to give this talk it feels like you all this community my our church here has given so much to us and has given so much to me individually to that it feels like this talk is some sort of farm-to-table you planted in me fruit game and here now I am giving it back to you what you planted in me so I I'm very good let's pray thank you Lord because through your perfect word you have been reviving our souls through your testimonies you have been making us wise through your preps you have brought joy to our hearts and through your commandments which are all pure heaven light in her eyes continual Lord through the work of your Holy Spirit to work in our lives even in this talk Lord we pray in Jesus name Amen this pre conference has been wonderful right and it's been all about being in the word so why don't we just start listening to what the author of life the author of the ground story has to say are we reading from three three passages in the Bible so John one Hebrews one and second Corinthians three in the beginning was the word and the Word was with God he was in the beginning with God and all things all things were made through him and without him was not anything made that was made in him was life and the life was the light of men to light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it there was a man sent from God whose name was John he came as a witness to bear witness about the light that all might believe through him he was not the light but came to bear witness about the light the true light which gives light to everyone was coming into the world he was in the world and the world was made through him yet the world did not know him he came to his own and his own people did not receive him but to all who did receive him and believe in his name he gave the right to become children of God who were born not of blood not of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God and the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we have seen his glory glory as the son of from the father full of grace and truth John bore witness about him and cried out this is what this was he of whom I said he who comes after me ranks before me because he was before me for from his fullness we have received grace upon grace for the law was given through Moses and grace and truth came to Jesus Christ and no one has ever seen God - only God who he said the father's side he has made him known long ago at many times and in many ways God has flow to our fathers by the prophets but in these last days he has spoken to us by the son whom he appointed the heir of all things through whom holds he whom he also created the world he is the radiance of the glory of God the exact imprint of his nature and he upholds the universe by the word of his power since we have such hope we are very very bold not like Moses who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end but their minds were heartened for to this day when they read the Old Covenant that's in Vail the remains unlifted because only through Christ it is taken away yet to t stay whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts but when one turns to the Lord the veil is removed now the Lord is the spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom and we all with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another for these comes from the Lord who is the spirit and this is my friends what I pray we all have learned and this Bible reading challenge come to the word day by day to see Jesus without unveiled face in the scriptures to see him in every story we have read in the Bible in every genealogy in every song in every proverb in every warning in every promise and in every chapter of our own lives where we read our Bibles and the Lord lifts the veil from our eyes to see Jesus we then start to begin to understand God's a story of redemption and only then can we start to understand our own story a little bit because our story is not ours you know our story is he's and it fits perfectly in the one ground story that even before the world was he wrote so sorry when we started reading our Bibles for the challenge last fall high stress in our first stock at thrive and in the first webinars that we wanted to be careful not to read the Bible through our own eyes our own perspective our own glasses but remembering that the Bible is God's ground story of redemption in which the main character is nor you nor I but Jesus Christ and now we are only we are only six ways away a wick wicks away from finishing all the reading of the Bible in eight months and I trust that we can see all these clearly we all agree right that the Bible is not about me we've mentioned that but it must affect me that's what we've been listening and that's where we know remember I mentioned in some webinars those of you who have had a chance to listen or in the even in the first star can thrive that the role of a spectator has not been given to anyone each one of us is already in these ground a story and has been given a role to play and we cannot escape that fact we were born into this story and we're born blind and unless the Sun of glory shines on us our hearts and minds will remain blind this is the heart of the matter this is a reason why we're by hearing and understanding and believing God's ground a story is so important if we fail to see if we fail to understand to believe it we will fail all together darkness will continue to be our home and blindness our nature so how do we put these pieces together the Bible is not about me but it must affect me our pastor Wilson wrote in one of his books quote one of the most important things we can learn from Scripture is how to see ourselves accurately in the story in which we find ourselves and and the first thing that we need to see accurately about ourselves in God's grounded story it's our sinful state we all were born in sin we all are daughters of Adam and Eve we all have sinned because we were born slaves to sin and because we loved sinning and because we were born in sin we couldn't see our need for a savior neither we did we want to be saved we did not love God we were born hating God and with an inclination to suppress all truth that came from God this is how our story starts and if we don't start here we cannot keep reading our story accurately in a panic we read how God revealed himself to people he is always the one who comes and reached us out he always we've read our Bibles we know we've seen that he's always the one taking the initiative to save his people he promised a savior that would destroy the Serpent's head and he did that over and over again he gave a staple article lessons in the Bible that tell us I have not forgotten my promise and even though you have forgotten me and my Commandments and our covenant the promised Savior will indeed come my arm is not too short to save my people I am coming to seek and save the Lost and give my life as a ransom for many we have read it we have open our Bibles cut never let us wonder about who he is or about his character his attributes his will for us his commands he has always come into his a story this is story which is his and he has always made himself known to us this mystery if God wanting to be known was not only unfolded in the inker it has started at the garden right it's God who came and sought for Adam and Eve where are you the question it is not did not start with men asking God questions but started in God coming and seeking and asking answers from from his creatures God wants to be known that's why we have our Bibles God has revealed to us what he wants us to know and we would we meet to know his word sufficient and clear and infallible we can read it and trust that as we take the book of God and open it and read it we can know God and his ground story think about that like we can't know God the creator of all things we can know him we don't have to be wondering we can know God he can lift the veil from our faces and eyes and we can see him so God came and made himself known to us and gave himself for us to make us his own through his spirit he has lifted the veil from our eyes so that we can see him we have read our Bibles we're reading our Bibles we will continue reading our Bibles and to know the many ways in which God has made himself known we we've seen him that we've seen that in judgment and mercy he came to the garden he came asking questions and exercising judgments and also giving hope of eternal life and victory in judgment he also came and brought a flawed but also a way to be saved in the midst of that judgment her baptism and salvation and cries were present there in a strange land where we we're slaves he came he came with her outstretched hand to bring judgment on his sentiments to crush the head their head and bring salvation to his chosen people the land was slain and life and freedom we're passed that is our story - in the wilderness he came he came as a cloud and a column of fire he came and gave and gave our ancestors bread from heaven and water from the rock he wanted us to see Jesus there in the wall in the wilderness he gave us his written word he made a covenant with them he told them to build a house for him so that he could dwell among them so they did and so he came and he dad we see Jesus to his glory filled a tabernacle and also it and feared him God made his name known among his people and among the nations around them and the promise never failed and this is our story - God opened a way for his people to conquer the promised land he gave them victory victories and soon they forgot his name but he didn't forget there's Joe just came and people did what was right in their own eyes and in their own eyes they did what was evil and they were utterly depraved and without excuse days to press the truth of God they knew and reveled against their king and asked Kings like the other nations thinking that that would be the best and through all these years God kept pursuing them with new mercies and also with warnings calls to repentance and judgments their kings failed them and led them into slavery the prophets of the Lord cried and kept proclaiming the gospel repent and believe until the great date of judgment came and the northern and southern kingdoms were taking captives to land of the promise was desolate the temple was burned the walls of Jerusalem destroyed but God had not yet finished and that is our story - could plan for his people to be seventy years in the Exile centuries before that happened when they were in the wilderness he promised that if his people would call on him from the land of the Exile he would answer them and redeemed to restore them and give them a new heart and peace true peace so they called him him and God moved their hearts of powerful men to bring them back to the land where he had promised this story would continue the rebuilding of the walls around to Jerusalem and the temple were finished just in time so that the Scriptures will be accomplished and God came again to meet his people in the land he promised them to difference this time was that God's glory not come in a cloud but he would enter his own story as a man the second person of the Trinity humbled and emptied himself and was born in the likeness of men the Promised One came among us and dwelt among us and died among us who rose from the dead among us and ascended to heaven and are our ancestors saw it he crushed the Serpent's head among us and this is our story sisters this is where God's ground story meets us with the Gospel message clearly proclaimed repent and believe Christ has come he's King he's king of the whole story of the whole world including your story and your own little world who will respond to his calling to his calling by grace through faith and turn away from our sins to our God's mercy we know we are on the right side of the story because through Christ we have been made righteous before God this is our story here these are our people here this is the story of our journey here in this book are our songs here in this book are our prayers and God's promises to us this is our very are very very live in the most literal sense of the world what is your story and which chapter are you living now someone said that we should never mistake a chapter for the story and how true is that the more we immerse ourselves in the in this grand story we will learn to read our own stories better when we go through trials of various kinds through wilderness through abandonment through the trials through physical or emotional pain we will find comfort in knowing that we are not alone that our brothers and sisters throughout all the ages have gone through trials like ours and each one of them was sustained but when by faith they fix their eyes on their recent Redeemer who leaves forever we have read it we have read it haven't we job and David and Paul are brothers where we know and love and meditate on God's ground story of redemption who will be better prepared to face trial some temptations yes we will have specific promises to pray and trust and hold on to hour by hour yes but we will have more than that more than individual verses we will be able to persevere getting hold of the whole narrative of God's character reveal to us in the scripture in the whole Ground story we will know in whom we have trusted because he has made himself known to us in the word we will know the one who gives the promises that we keep so dear we will know how he writes the stories and we will know how he likes to finish his stories always bringing glory to his name and good to his people when we are immersed in God's ground story we will not be easily shaken when we see a great sea in front of us and an army of those who want to enslave us again behind us because we know that the same God who opened the Red Sea will open a way for us we know that he will provide a way of escape that we may be able to endure we know we will know in our very hardened hearts to the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials we will know it because we have read the whole story we hold on to everything that we've read we know in whom we have trusted where we are in the midst of a great storms and our hearts tremble we will know that we can call on the one who still will still rule say over the sea and the wind we know who is our God we have read it here when we see in and when we grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom by whom we were sealed for the day of the redemption we will not fall to never raise arise again because we know because we have read we have an assurance that God is always ready to forgive the one who repents we will not linger and guilt forever and ever because we know that many have fall but God has always raised them up when they have repented right we know that there is no sin that is greater than God when he will we come and repent because we have read our Bibles where we are forgiven but we still have to deal with consequences of our own sins we will know that even their God will not leave us nor forsake us we have ready in the word so we take courage and asked for mercy trusting that he will make a way for us to come back and rebuild what in our foolishness we may be torn down we have read our Bibles and will continue reading them so we know that he is a God who loves to forgive and restore when we fall in despair inhat can't find words to pray we can turn to the sons to all the scripture and pray where we cannot even utter a word we know that Jesus our mediator is interceding for us even now when we come to a really hard chapter in our own story and we do not know what we must do because honestly sometimes there is like literally nothing that we can do we will remember the one thing that we can do the same thing that your house affected we will pray Lord we do not know what to do but our eyes are on you we will pray like the psalmist Oh Lord these things and those are the things and these other circumstances and these and that but ask for me I will call upon God and the Lord shall save me evening and morning and an afternoon I utter and I utter my voice I will be praying I will be praying and he hears my voice and then of course but God or fight' hope how you can see clearly in all these different circumstances at chapters of our own stories we are not called to stand unshakeable and firm standing only on one verse we will remain steadfast only when we're standing on the whole of God we have our hope strengthened every time we come and open the book of God and read it because we when we read the whole Bible what we're doing is we're training our minds and our hearts to think and see the whole picture and live with our eyes fixed on our Redeemer who leaves and reigns forever because we have read the Word of God we know that even though some of God's ways are a mystery to us he is not a mystery to us that should be so comforting he has made himself known so we don't walk us straight when we don't have all the answers we want we don't stop stop coming to church when we feel abandoned or because we have read because we have read the whole counsel of God and know that God has never saved people to live them alone we know that he s always saved and rescue individuals to make them part of his people of his church because we've read the Bible we won't stop coming to church we've read the story of our brother job and the answer that God gave him in is the answer that God still gives us when we go through trials trust in my sovereignty trust that even in the midst of this trial I am compassionate and merciful James tells us that we don't we don't want to miss that lesson from job right in James 5 Jesus Christ came to seek and save sinners he came to redeem your very own life your own story and that starts when you hear the gospel message repent repent and believe the Holy Spirit in his kindness he will lead you and to repentance he will remove the veil from your eyes so that you can see his glory revealed in the scriptures and in doing so over and over again in opening coming to the word and opening it and reading it over and over again day after day you will indeed receive grace pancrase our stories are not ours friends and that is good news our stories are written by the hand of God who is all-wise all good perfectly just and loving we can stop trying to pretend that we get to write our own stories we can't stop being bitter because it is impossible for us to rewrite our own story or the story of someone we love we can stop trying to assert God's plays by pretending that we are like him all-wise omniscient omnipotent and that we could get to add our voice to the way God is writing our story or the story of our children or friends or church or nation we can't truly rest assured because we know God not only one verse about God but God himself revealed in the scriptures and from his fullness we have indeed received grace upon grace and the top of that more Grace and more grace and more sustaining grace endless endlessly forever I don't even know if endlessly we should be there or not but you get the point it never ends because he loves to give more grace to the humble right that's what Jim says he gives more grace to the humble and see when we read the Bible more and more and more and we're immersed in the scripture what happens just humbles us whole that you are so merciful that you did not destroy us but you were so compassionate and so merciful and that you were always ready to forgive those who were brokenhearted there's more grace sustaining grace for the one who comes for the one who repents for the one who believes always more grace abundant grace sustaining grace probably reading the Bible and have seen that every story need was sended by the way I'm sorry the way God intended for it to be ended God does not have plans be God does not have a plan B for your life neither for my life he is writing his written the perfect story and it's always plan a always no sin can crush his perfect plans and no human effort can improve his perfect plan God is God and all his ways all of his ways are perfect wonderful miserable oh how are we not to love him and trust in him and read his word every time how we not going to do that doesn't want to know God friends when we find ourselves in the midst of a very difficult trial we must remember remember remember remember and assure our hearts and teller ourselves our friends our enemy and the same words that David said in Psalm 4 to 11 for I'm gonna just put a thing here different songs oh listen to me soul and everyone who is watching me going through this very hard chapter in my life I still have many more prices to sing I have not yet finished him praising God for all his mercies and goodness towards me and my family and my children and my church my story isn't over yet have so many things already to give thanks for and I am sure that I will have many more to give thanks for I will continue to raise and tell the next generation so that they should set their hope in God don't stop looking pay attention keep your eyes open because you will hear me seeing through grace by faith a doxology to my Redeemer until my last breath for that is a good thing to do [Applause]

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Keywords: canonpress, christchurch, beckypliego, graceagenda

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Length: 32min 9sec (1929 seconds)

Published: Wed May 30 2018