WHY PREACH THROUGH GENESIS?

WHY PREACH THROUGH GENESIS?

This Sunday we are starting our series through the book of Genesis. Why are we choosing to spend time doing this? I want to give you a few reasons why we’re so excited to walk through this book.

1. To learn to trust God as our Creator.
   Genesis is going to help us learn to trust God as our good Creator. Genesis teaches us that God is the creator of everything, that he loves his creation, and that he rules over it in wisdom and goodness. God creates a good world for us, but then we bring death and corruption into the world when we sin in Genesis 3. We are going to learn to trust the promise God gives in Genesis 3:15 that someone is going to come who will redeem us from the curse of sin and restore all of creation, and so we will learn to trust God to keep his promises and do what he said he will do. The whole bible is about how God is going to fulfill this promise he gives in Genesis 3:15.

2. To learn what it looks like to walk by faith, live in grace, and rest in hope.
   As we look at the lives of Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph, we will see what it looks like to walk by faith in this life when the fulfillment of God’s promises don’t seem to come quickly. In Jacob’s life, we will see what it looks like to live in God’s grace, as God shows us how he pursues sinners and rebels and wins them back to himself. In Joseph’s life, we will learn what it means to rest in hope because God is in control and working out all things in our lives for our good and his glory.

3. To see how the whole bible fits together in Jesus.
   As the first book of the bible, Genesis is absolutely foundational to knowing who God is, who we are, why we’re here, and what our lives are all about. Genesis is the foundation of the whole bible’s story, and so understanding it will go a long way in helping us put our Bibles back together. We will see, week after week, how the whole Bible is about Jesus and what God is going to do to save sinners and restore his world through Jesus! Over and over in Genesis, we will see God give us hints and foreshadows of how he is going to keep the promise he makes in Genesis 3:15 to send a redeemer to save us. The book of Genesis is not primarily about things we are supposed to do or people we are supposed to emulate, but about someone we are supposed to see. Genesis was written to show us more of Jesus.

4. To see how the gospel is for all of life.
   Throughout our journey in Genesis, we will see how “practical” the book of Genesis is and how it speaks into every aspect of our lives. Dysfunctional family dynamics, frustrated ambitions, work, relationships, suffering, sin, decision-making, trusting in God when he seems absent, and so much more is addressed in the book of Genesis. We will see how the good news of Jesus speaks into all of it and transforms all of it, how the good news is not just about us “getting saved,” but about transforming all of our lives.

Can’t wait to get started this week! See you Sunday!
Ryan Ross | Pastor of Discipleship
Ryan@veritasfayetteville.com

WHY HAVE A BLOG?

A few reasons! There are things that we would love to nerd out about with you, but Sunday morning isn't really the place to do it. Have you ever wondered the difference between Christocentric and a Christotelic hermeneutic? Yeah. Us too. Let's talk about it!

In addition, we want a space that we can share your stories about what God is doing in and through your lives. We believe that part of being a faithful worshipper of Christ means remembering what He has done for us. Deuteronomy 8 paints a beautiful picture of the importance of remembering. To give you some background context, the Israelites have spent the last 40 years in the desert awaiting the entering of their promised land, and they are now mere moments away from this claim on the land of milk and honey. Moses knows that the time of his death will soon arrive, and that he will not be permitted to enter the promised land. A short time before Moses’s death, what does he encourage his people to do in chapter 8? Remember. I encourage you to read the entire chapter, but here is a small excerpt:

Take care lest you forget the LORD your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock, who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, to do good in the end. (Deuteronomy 8:11-16 ESV)

Moses calls the Israelites to not only intellectually remember what God has done, but to act on their remembrance by practicing faithfulness.

There seems to be a clear connection between the ability to remember what the Lord has done for His people and their faithfulness to obey Him. A blog is a great place to publish the stories and celebrations so that we may spur us forward to trust and obedience.

Additionally, we want to have the space to share Veritas-specific theological clarifications, guided prayers through current events, or equipping resources. It is our prayer that this blog becomes one of many resources that lead you to deeper affections for Jesus and His church!

If you are a Partner of Veritas Church and interested in contributing to the blog, do not hesitate to email us with your ideas at samantha@veritasfayetteville.com! We want this to be a space for a shared voice of the local saints at Veritas.

Sincerely,
Samantha Metheny
Executive Administrator

FROM DEATH TO LIFE - TRAVIS FULP

My story isn’t uncommon to many of yours. I grew up in the local church. We were active in attending and my mother was a faithful servant in the kids ministry, and in time, so was I. I vaguely remember “asking Jesus into my heart” as a preschooler and would say that I believed Jesus had died for my sins. I was baptized at ten and when I entered youth group I became an active participant in small group, mission trips, and Sunday night youth service.

Growing up, I always felt the clash of flesh and Spirit. I can look back and see sin patterns and behaviors that, though I knew what I was doing or how I was acting was sin, I had no power to stop or change it. My false gospel was limited to “Jesus gets you on the team but once on it you’re on your own to keep your spot.” My sense of right standing before God ebbed and flowed with whether I did or didn’t sin compared to the things I did for God. As a result, I wandered away from the church for the better part of seven years during and after college.

My wandering wasn’t the result of unbelief in Christian things but rather God handing me over to sin. I spent years trying to “live according to the flesh,” as Paul would say (Romans 8:5), only to find myself unsatisfied. I knew the way I was choosing to live was contrary to how God created me to live, but I had no power to stop sinning and thought I had to clean myself up before coming to God.

But God.

Through the colliding of worlds with my wife (Spring), moving to Fayetteville and being invited to Veritas by a coworker, God was working to bring me and Spring to Himself. At Veritas we heard the Gospel preached and, for the first time, understood and believed that Jesus not only gets you on the team through his life, death, and resurrection, but keeps you on it, too. The eyes of my heart were opened to receive Jesus’s grace and forgiveness through faith in what he had done for me. God’s love and grace are endless. Jesus’s finished work is enough. The Spirit gives life to all those who come.

For Jesus,
Travis Fulp
Director of Family Life