In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. (Genesis 1:1-2 NIV)

If you are a book lover like I am, you likely have opened up to the last page of the book before you even began reading. Sometimes we’re curious how many pages are in the book, but sometimes it just happens by accident. 

The worst, though, is when you are on that last page and you read some of the final sentences in the book. Then the entire book is basically spoiled because you know how it’s going to end. The same goes for movies - when someone tells you the plot or ending of a movie, you are now frustrated and have no desire to watch it. 

We definitely don’t want to do that same thing with the Bible. It is difficult not to get wrapped up in the New Testament, but in doing so, we often unintentionally leave much of the Old Testament behind.

The coming sermon series aims to draw our attention back to the Old Testament, so as to help us learn well about our beginning as a civilization. Just like we don’t want to spoil a book or a movie by skipping ahead, we shouldn’t want to spoil the Bible by reading only the New Testament and then becoming disinterested in the Old Testament.

Genesis 1 discusses the creation of the earth, Genesis 2 describes the creation of man, and Genesis 3 depicts the fall of man. These are all key parts of the story that we can’t forget. Our world did not simply just come into being - a magnificent Creator designed it perfectly. We are made in the image of God; we’re not some animal that became a human over time. It’s also important to know that we are fallen beings, but most of all, that we have a need for a Savior (some foreshadowing to later parts of the Bible, maybe??).

But a lot of times these books of the Old Testament get put on the backburner because we become so focused on the arrival of Christ in the New Testament. Don’t get me wrong… there is nothing bad about wanting to dive into the New Testament and the world at the time of Jesus. We just have to also remember to put it in the context of everything that came before it (prophecies, national conflict, kings, cultures of other people groups).

Otherwise, we’re basically spoiling the best part of the story!

This week, how can you go back to the beginning and remember the foundational parts of our world and our human nature, so as to begin to appreciate the later parts even more?