Providence Church

We don’t move on from the gospel. We go deeper into it. Romans 1-4 is about the doctrine of justification by faith. In Romans 5, Paul takes us deeper into what it means for us now. We have peace with God. We stand in grace. We rejoice in hope. We know all of this is real because God has poured out his love into our hearts.

We live in a noisy, anxious, restless world. In spite of that, this psalm tells us that we can be quiet on the inside. But how? David shares the secret.

We have a way of seeing things, a story we are living in, but that story is largely shaped by cultural narratives. Genesis 1-11 introduces us to the true story of the world and invites us to see God, ourselves, and the world in new ways.

Babel is the prototypical city of man: rebellious, prideful, exalting itself against God, and pursuing autonomy and self-sufficiency apart from him. Instead of filling the earth as God commanded, the Babelites settle in one place and try to make a name for themselves. We have capacity to do the exact same thing.

Noah was an incredible man of faith, a true hero. If ever there was hope for things to go differently after the flood, it would be with Noah. This story in Genesis 9 shows us what happens when humanity gets a fresh start.

After the flood, God's purpose for humanity had not changed— He remained relentlessly committed to establishing His kingdom on earth through human beings made in His own image. God commissioned Noah to fill the earth and through Noah, established a covenant of grace with the new world and new humanity to come. Of course, this covenant points us to the greater covenant we have in Jesus.

The story of the flood is a hard story. We want to look away from it. Because it confronts us with the darkness of sin and the awfulness of God’s judgment against sin. But we have to look at this difficult story to help us see God as he really is. And surprisingly, when we look into the flood of God’s judgment, we discover his mercy and grace there too.

The conflict at the heart of the biblical plot is enmity between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman. The line of Cain represents the seed of the serpent: escalating sin and evil. The line of Seth represents the seed of the woman: hope in God’s promise of redemption. And we have the same choice that every generation has had: will we go the way of the serpent or the way of faith?

This story of Cain & Abel invites us to think about how anger and sin works at a personal level, especially in our relationships. However we interpret the events in our lives determines how we will respond, and what the consequences will be. Will we listen to God, or will we go the way of Cain?

Genesis 3 tells us why the world is so broken. It's broken because sin corrupts everything and ultimately leads to death. Genesis 3 is a bleak chapter. And it leaves us wondering if there’s any hope for redemption. Is there any good news in the midst of the brokenness? Are there any signs of grace amongst the devastation of the fall? And the answer is, “Yes!" We see glimmers of God’s redeeming grace all over this chapter.