Date: April 15, 2007 9:53 AM

Topic: Storytellers

Storytellers
Craig Johnson
6.22.07--MCRemix Graduation

Tonight is about remembering your story...

The people of God are losing their stories.

The gap between new generations is shortening as our

world speeds up to a blinding pace.
• Generations are no longer being defined by a
determined amount of years but by how fast culture is
changing.
• The reason this is such a big deal is because new
generations are no longer looking to older generations
for guidance but instead they are looking to the
culture that created them.
⁃ LISTEN TO THIS:
⁃ According to former Secretary of Education,
Richard Riley,
⁃ The Top 10 in demand jobs in 2010 didn’t
exist in 2004.
⁃ We are currently preparing students for jobs
that don’t exist yet.
⁃ Using technologies that haven’t been
invented...
⁃ In order to solve problems that we don’t
know are problems yet.
⁃ As of August 2006 there were 100 million
registered users on Myspace.
⁃ There are 2.7 billion searches preformed on
Google each month.
⁃ To whom were these questions addressed BG
 (Before Google)?
⁃ The number of text messages sent and
received every day exceeds the population of
the planet.
⁃ There are 540,000 words in the english
language.
⁃ About 5 times as many as during
Shakespeare’s time.
⁃ 3,000 new books are published.
⁃ Daily.
⁃ It’s estimated that a week’s worth of the NY
Times contains more information than a
person was likely to come across in a lifetime
in the 18th century.
⁃ It’s estimated that 1.5 exabytes (that’s
1.5x10 to the 18th power) of UNIQUE NEW
information will be generated worldwide this
year.
⁃ That is estimated to be more information
than in the previous 5,000 years.
⁃ The amount of new technical information is
doubling every 2 years.
⁃ That means for a student starting a 4 year
degree...
⁃ Half of what they learn in their first year of
study will be outdated in their third year of
study.
⁃ It’s predicted to double every 72 hours by
2010.

Our world is changing at a blinding pace!!!

The point is not for us to become irrelevant to our culture

but not to get swept up in it either.

As I read the pages of this life-changing Book, I find myself

caught up over and over into the stories of individuals who
as the culture around them rapidly changed, embraced
challenges and continually remembered what God has done
in their lives.

The problem new generations have with the Bible isn’t that
they don’t want to believe, it’s that it’s not tangible.

When the world is changing this fast and we’re confronted

with something that is the same yesterday, today and
forever, it’s difficult for us to comprehend it.

When we as Christians remember our story we make God

tangible again.

We remind people that all things are possible with God.

We can say, “I know, he did it in me!!!”

Master’s Commission remember what the Lord has done in

your life over the last nine-months. May you look back
when you are a businessman or woman or a pastor leading
a church, or wherever you are in your life...may you look
back at the stories from this year, when God did the
impossible in your life.

Let me ask you a quick question MCRemix, and I want

Harvest Time to see this... These students are some of the
BEST in this church.

How many of you prayed and read your Bible every single
day BEFORE you came to MCRemix? --Stand up!
How many of you do that NOW since you’ve been in
MCRemix and will do your best to continue to do this??

NOW THAT’S A TESTIMONY!!

How many of our young adults would go into our
universities with more focus and passion (without changing
their major 4 times in the first 2 years) if they followed
Ephesians 1:11--It is in Christ that you find out who you
are and what you’re living for.

Would you agree with this statement?

Christians should be creating new testimonies in their lives.

People can argue deep theological debates all day and night
but the one thing NO ONE can argue is what God has done
in your life.

NO ONE CAN ARGUE WITH YOUR TESTIMONY!!

See the dangerous thing to each one of us is being caught

week in and week out in the presence of God and not being
changed by it.

God working in your life through what He says in His Word

is what makes Him tangible.

SO I WANT TO ASK YOU:

WHAT IS YOUR STORY?

[VIDEO]--Ed Huie

Matt Huie
Miles Callahan

What is your story?

Maybe it’s not glamorous, or inspirational, or tragic...

Maybe it’s recent, maybe it’s where you’ve come from...

But it’s yours. The testament of who God has been and
continues to be in your life.

I’m reminded of a story about a young boy:

His parent’s weren’t rich by any means and they had a lot
of children. He was the youngest. Times were tough then
and this young boy had to work. Actually he was given
quite a responsibility...to watch over the family herd. His
family had some sheep and so day in and day out he sat in
the field watching the family sheep. He was a boy and so
he did what all boys his age would do when they were
bored he threw rocks. I can almost picture him gathering
up a pile of rocks and choosing his enemy from a distance,
those poor trees were blistered and bruised from being
pelted with rocks from his sling. Day in, day out in the hot
sun of the desert watching probably the most dull animal
on the face of the earth.

One day not unlike any other before a lion came out of
nowhere and attacked the flock. It grabbed a lamb and the
young boy without flinching ran after it. Swinging his sling
he attacked the lion head on killing it dead in one shot.
Picking up the lamb he brought it carefully back to the
flock. Shaking with adrenaline after the intense moment,
he couldn’t help but thank God for protecting him and his
flock.

Many of you see where I’m going with this story already so
I’ll get to the punch...

A YOUNG BOY NAMED DAVID IS CALLED TO THE FRONT-

LINES OF THE BATTLE AGAINST THE PHILISTINES. HE
WAS PROMOTED FROM SHEPHERD BOY TO DELIVERY
BOY, BRINGING FOOD TO HIS BROTHERS. WHEN HE
ARRIVED HE SAW A GIANT OF A MAN NAMED GOLIATH
WHO MOCKED THE ARMIES OF THE LIVING GOD...DAVID
WOULDN’T SEE IT ANYMORE, HE WENT TO SAUL WHO
WAS THE KING AND SAID SINCE NO ONE ELSE WILL DO
ANYTHING ABOUT THIS, HE WOULD. SAUL WASN’T SO
SURE...

1 Samuel 17:34-37 [NKJV]

But David said to Saul, “Your servant used to keep his
father’s sheep, and when a lion or a bear came and took a
lamb out of the flock, I went out after it and struck it, and
delivered the lamb from its mouth; and when it arose
against me, I caught it by its beard, and struck and killed
it. Your servant has killed both lion and bear; and this
uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, seeing he
has defied the armies of the living God.” Moreover David
said, “The Lord, who delivered me from the paw of the lion
and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the
hand of this Philistine.”

I don’t know where you are in your life tonight, what giant
you’re facing, what role you feel you are playing...

When you are faced with impossible odds do you shy away
or do you remember your story?

Oh, things may look impossible now, but I serve a God who
has done it before and will do it again OVER and OVER if
He has to...

Master’s Commission may you be the kind of men and

women of God that refuse to live off of other people’s
stories. May you continue to make you own stories, long
after you leave this place. May you remember what an
honor it was to be chosen for this program over the last
nine-months.

And to each one of you I want to say, thank you, and I am

so proud of you. While others only dared to dream about a
year like this you had the guts to do, to put yourselves out
there, leaving behind everything for nine-months to say,
“God here I am, do with me what you will.”

I got you a little something... Brian Spessard has been

working long and hard trying to put this together in secret.
We made only 20 of them.

Earlier this year we had a Chapel service where we talked

about Psalms.

The Psalms are stories of the faithfulness of God. And we

encouraged each student to write their own Psalm. And
what we did is we collected them and we put them into this
book that is my gift to you.

When you face impossible odds, may you remember your

story.

How many Christians do we have in the house tonight??

Do you know that you have a target on your back?

Do you know that there is a very real enemy who wants to
steal, kill, and destroy you?

Revelation 12:11 [NKJV]

And they overcame him by the blood of the lamb and the
word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to
the death.

[Everyone quietly stand to your feet.]

Some of you are facing some seemingly impossible

situations...
We are going to pray for each other’s needs again, but
here’s the deal...

I WANT YOU TO THINK OF THESE, NOT AS NEEDS BUT

TESTIMONIES IN THE MAKING!!!

If you say, I’ve got a testimony in the making, and I want

to remember my story, where you’re at right now I want
you to just slip up both hands.

Believers, I want you to look around and find someone

close to you that has their hand up and I want you to pray
for their testimony in the making.