We began our new series last week exploring the mountainous heights from where we began in the garden as image bearers given life, identity and purpose to shine God’s glory as royal priests on the globe. This morning we look and see just how great our fall was by examining what took place at the center of the garden and a horrific exchange that took place.

This morning we are beginning our new series on the Gospel. Throughout this series we are going to be looking at the Gospel on two levels. One is the personal street view level. The other is the cosmic Google Earth view. My hope is that by weaving the two together we will see that the Gospel is even more than we hoped for. Today we begin where it all started, with God. Let’s look at three foundational truths that answer the question, where did we come from?

Through baptism we see the gospel rehearsed. Just as a person must be submerged into the water and then raised back up again, so also as believers we have been united with Christ and in that union we have died with Christ and been raised back up to newness of life in him. It is no longer you who live but Christ who lives through you.

Sometimes the Lord has to bring us to a point of absolute desperation before we give Him our undivided attention.  In today's scriptural text Christ's disciples had run out of human solutions and had only Jesus to lean upon for help.  God certainly delights in hearing a sinner's cry of desperation resulting from the realization of one's own inadequacy since it is the first step in turning to Him.  God also delights in hearing His own children desperately cry out to Him in their trying times because that is a sign that they remember to whom they belong.  Today you are invited to learn what the disciples did when Jesus calmed the fierce storm on the Sea of Galilee--the Lord can be trusted even in the most severe, threatening, and helpless situations.

This morning amidst all the noise of this last year we want to narrow in and consider Jesus. What does it mean for our fears, our hopes, and our salvation when we consider that the place where he lay in his tomb was empty? Let’s look at four considerations from our text.

Hebrews 11:8-12

This morning we look back on the life of Abraham as we consider his death. His was a life, much like ours, which consisted of a mixture of FAITH, FAILURE and the GRACE of God. This morning we want to look to Abraham, but then through him, even as he himself did, to the day when all the promises of the covenant would come to fruition in Abraham’s seed, Jesus Christ.

Nick Coleman | Stand Alone

This Sunday we look at one of the sweetest stories of God’s providence working in the lives of those he loves. We will walk through the story by looking at the faith of Abraham, his servant, and Rebekah, who all trusted in the Lord’s covenantal faithfulness and his kind provisions.

This Sunday we begin the transition to the end of the narrative arc for Abraham’s life with the death of Sarah. And while he mourns the death of the amazing woman of faith, he also looks past his own death to the future promises of God to be fulfilled even beyond the grave. And so should we because we are sojourners in life, but heirs in death.