The Gospel Story

Chapter 1
In the beginning there was no life. Everything was dark, formless, and void. Then, one day God spoke and creation took shape. Light broke through the darkness, order out of chaos, and something came out of nothing. He took humanity and breathed life into us.  Giving us all we needed to survive – food, space, community, and purpose. But, it wouldn’t be long before we started to doubt His goodness and stop trusting in His sovereignty. We wanted more – He wasn’t good enough anymore. We fell for an alternative story, a lesser story, a lie.  What story are you living by today?

Chapter 2
The lesser story led to pain, suffering, guilt, shame, broken relationships, and death. We died relationally, spiritually, and physically. When we chose to live without God we learned quickly that life without Him is painful. In fact, there is no life apart from the one who breathed life into us. We tried to hide from Him, in our guilt and shame, but we failed. He quickly found us. We could see the hurt in His eyes and hear the compassion in His voice. He wanted us back. We started to wonder – how can we ever get back? Who will ever be able to save us?

Chapter 3
God didn’t leave us in this death for long before He started working on His plan to redeem us and bring us back to the good He originally created us for. We failed and continued to turn from Him, over and over and over. But, He is persistent and continued to pursue us. Even saving us from our own sin and chaos time and time again. Eventually He sent Jesus, His only Son, to die for us and put an end to the death. Jesus was the One we have been waiting for. He is the one to save us. God isn’t just our creator, now we know Him as our redeemer.

Chapter 4
This redemption wasn’t just from death but it was also to life. All along the way we can see where His redemptive plan was breaking through and His grace was at work. That time our enemy became our friend. That mountain that got moved. The wall that got knocked down. The chains that fell off. The freedom we found. The countless victories He won for us. All this gives us hope that one day we will be in His good presence fully and be back with Him walking in that good and perfect garden. One day, we will be back in chapter 1. We just need to trust Him again. We need to hold on to His story.

Pastor Matt