Every summer, for as long as God allows, we want to tell the family story by tracing the Gospel through the Old Testament in a new series called “The Gospel According to…”
This summer we start at the beginning with Genesis 1–11 as we study “The Gospel According to Creation and the Fall.”
To help you follow the series, we have created this page and a journal for you to use on Sundays and throughout the week. These resources includes a weekly rhythm to guide you through a spiritual discipline, and verses from the Gospel of John that we will memorize together as a church family.
Journals will be available after services across from the Next Steps area starting Sunday, June 7 for a suggested donation amount of $5. We strongly encourage you to pick one up and use it as a companion throughout the series.
Scripture Memorization | John 1:1-5, 9-13
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
Week 1 | In the Beginning
Spiritual Practice: Sabbath
Our first passage opens with God’s work of Creation. It is beautiful. Life is overflowing. Then at the end of God’s work, we read that God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all His work that He had done in creation. (Genesis 2:3)
This week, prepare to practice rest. Choose a day and plan to get everything done you need to get done before that day. Run your errands. Buy your groceries. Mow your lawn. Do whatever you need to do so you can rest and enjoy the day. Then, enjoy the day. Take a nap and thank God for sleep. Hang out with friends and thank God for community. Eat an incredible meal and thank God for provision. Enjoy the good gifts God has given you and remember the God who gave them to you. He is a good father who loves to give good gifts to His kids, especially the gift of His rest.
Week 2 | Formed and Filled
Spiritual Practice: Generosity
What comes to mind when you hear the word steward? It’s not a word we use often, but the Bible uses the concept of stewardship 10 to clarify for us that we are not owners. Everything we have comes from God. Furthermore, what we have is not only meant to sustain us, but to sustain others through us.
This week, practice generosity. Perhaps you want to try out a spontaneous act of generosity. Or maybe you want to make a meal for someone who needs it. What if you looked around your house to identify things you don’t actually need and you gave them to someone who did or sold them and gave the money to someone in need? What if you made a plan to give regularly? In that plan, consider how you might be generous within your church family and your neighborhood. Think through everything you “own” and reorient to being a steward.
Week 3 | The Fall: From Glory to Shame
Spiritual Practice: Confession
Everything was perfect, until it wasn’t. This is the Fall that Genesis 3 describes. There we also witness the first act of confession. Confession is an act of truth-telling. We confess and tell the truth about ourself and our heart. We confess our sin, revealing the rebellion that our hearts cultivate act by act, thought by thought, word for word.
This week, practice confession. Pray and ask God to show you your sin. Then, humbly ask Him for forgiveness. After you’ve done that, meet with a trusted brother in Christ (if you are a man) or sister in Christ (if you are a woman) and confess your sin. Pray together for repentance and renewal. Ask this friend to remind you of the Gospel, specifically applying it to the sin you’ve confessed.
Week 4 | Sin's Spread
Spiritual Practice: Community
This week the situation goes from bad to worse. Sin’s consequences reverberate from the epicenter of the garden out into all of creation. As Adam and Eve experience life outside the garden, the spread of sin reaches past them to their kids. And to their kids’ kids. And down the family line we go.
This week, practice community. Eat a meal with your Life Group or members of your Adult Community (even if you’ve taken a break for the summer!). Invite someone new over for Sunday lunch. Send an encouraging message to someone you haven’t spoken to in a while and ask how you can pray for them. God Himself is a community of loving relationship (Father, Son, and Spirit). We are made in His image and, therefore, we are made for community. Practice what you were made for this week.
Week 5 | God's Sorrow and Rescue Plan
Spiritual Practice: Witness
As sin spreads, the situation goes from horrifying to hopeless:
«The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.» (Genesis. 5:5)
Thus, the just judge of all the earth prepares to render His verdict. But not before He prepares to rescue His people. Noah receives instructions to build an Ark to face the flood of God’s wrath. However, something happens between preparation and judgment that we don’t find out about until the New Testament, where Noah is called: a herald of righteousness. (2 Peter 2:5)
Week 6 | Judgement and Mercy
Spiritual Practice: Service
The ark is built. Now Noah and his family and pairs of every animal on earth makes their way onto God’s life raft. Then the door closes and the lightning cracks, the thunder booms, and judgment has arrived. One hundred and fifty days of judgment. One hundred and fifty days of mercy. God preserved the life of Noah and his family and those animals because He wasn’t done with His creation. He wasn’t done with humanity. But they needed to be rescued.
This week, practice serving others. We follow a Savior who served and who calls us to be servants of all. Why? The Prince of Preachers, C.H. Spurgeon, explains:
«The heir of heaven serves his Lord simply out of gratitude; he has no salvation to gain, no heaven to lose; . . . The child of God works not for life, but from life; he does not work to be saved,
he works because he is saved.» («Serving the Lord with Gladness,» in The Metropolitan Tabernacle)
Who can you serve this week? How can you sacrifice to love someone by serving them? Can you figure out a way to serve anonymously? Serve and don’t expect any reward. In fact, find someone who couldn’t pay you back. Serve because Jesus served you first. Love because He loved you first.
Week 7 | The God Who Remembers
Spiritual Practice: Solitude + Silence
This week we experience the end of God’s judgment as He calls Noah and his family and all the animals out from the ark. The text says that God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. When Noah steps out of the ark, he builds an altar and offers a sacrifice to God—not to stop God’s judgment, which already happened, but to remember God.
This week, practice solitude and in that solitude practice silence. Take time to silence your phone, be alone with God, and remember His promises. Do it in small ways. Take what Donald Whitney calls “minute retreats” and spend that minute at a stoplight or over lunch to intentionally pause, breathe, and refocus your attention on Christ and how much He loves you. Do it in big ways too. Whenever you spend time with God, purposefully plan time to be quiet in His presence.
Week 8 | The God of Covenants
Spiritual Practice: Fasting
In our text this week we encounter God’s covenant with Noah and his descendants. God reiterates His command from Eden, blessing Noah and his family. But this time God adds to it and warns against the shedding of blood, doubling down on the dignity of each human because each human is made in His image. Then He establishes the covenant promises: Never again will He destroy the earth with a flood. He marks His promise with the sign of the rainbow and the scene is beautiful. Until it isn’t.
This week, practice fasting. Pick a day to fast from food in order to cultivate dependence on God. Begin with one meal or even one day. Take that time when you would normally eat and use it for
prayer and reading Scripture. Journal about what fasting reveals to you about your heart. Make sure to check with your doctor before attempting any kind of food or water fast.
Week 9 | The Sovereign God
Spiritual Practice: Meditation
Our final text in this series traces a story of promise down a family line and out to an abandoned tower. Sin continues to weave its way through the story of history, but it is always counter woven with a promise. The map is getting filled in, and many of the names we read in this text will show up throughout the story of God and His people. And this is just the beginning.
This week, practice meditating on the Scripture. Take time to read, then re-read, then pray through the Bible passage every day. Think about what you read. Ask God what He means by what He wrote. As one author explains, “meditation is an orienting of one’s thoughts.” Orient your thoughts to God this week.