I was honored to preach this sermon at Living Hope Community Church on July 27, 2025.

What was the message Jesus preached?

Now after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’

-Mark 1:14-15

Jesus was going throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people.

-Matthew 4:23

Everywhere Jesus went, he preached the gospel of the kingdom of God.

I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, for I was sent for this purpose.

-Luke 4:43

Likewise, Jesus also sent out his disciples to preach the kingdom message.

Soon afterwards, He began going around from one city and village to another, proclaiming and preaching the kingdom of God. The twelve were with Him.

-Luke 8:1

And He sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to perform healing.

-Luke 9:2

The Kingdom of God was the central theme of Jesus’ preaching and ministry, and the central theme of his disciples’ preaching and ministry.

So important was this message of the Kingdom of God, that Jesus said:

This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.

-Matthew 24:14

The word “gospel” literally means “good news.”

What is the good news of the kingdom of God?

It’s actually bigger than just something Jesus preached. It’s even bigger than just something the early church preached.

I believe the kingdom of God is the central theme of the entire Bible, from beginning to end.

So important is this theme of the kingdom of God, that every prophet in the Bible – literally every prophet in the Bible – spoke about the kingdom of God in some way.

What is the Kingdom of God?

To understand this central theme of the Bible, you need to understand the story of the Bible and how that story unfolds throughout history, from the creation of the universe, all the way up to the present day, and what will happen in the future.

It’s a story that’s bigger than you, it’s bigger than me, it’s bigger than going to heaven when you die, it’s bigger than anything we can imagine. It’s about the creation of a perfect world, the fall of that world into sin, and God’s perfect plan for redemption and restoration, not only of you as an individual, but of all of creation.

So we’re gonna look at the entire Bible today from cover to cover. Obviously, this is going to be in broad strokes, with many details that we won’t have time to get into. But we’re going back to basics here. The goal today is not to understand every detail of the biblical story, but simply to understand the big picture of scripture – a bird’s eye view, so to speak – so we can grasp the central theme, the main point that scripture is making.

We start at the beginning. Genesis 1:1. And for many of you who are believers, this may be a familiar passage. Every January when you say, “I’m gonna do that ‘read the Bible in one year reading plan’ you open to Genesis 1:1 and you get started,” so many of you have probably read this passage many times. But don’t let the familiarity of it detact from the magnitude of what we are reading. Okay? I want you to read this with open eyes, open minds, viewing this passage in light of the good news of the Kingdom of God, I believe we’re gonna get a deeper understanding.

¹ In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. ² The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. ³ Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. ⁴ God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. ⁵ God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.

⁶ Then God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” ⁷ God made the expanse, and separated the waters which were below the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so. ⁸ God called the expanse heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.

⁹ Then God said, “Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so. ¹⁰ God called the dry land earth, and the gathering of the waters He called seas; and God saw that it was good. ¹¹ Then God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them”; and it was so. ¹² The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit with seed in them, after their kind; and God saw that it was good. ¹³ There was evening and there was morning, a third day.

¹⁴ Then God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years; ¹⁵ and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so. ¹⁶ God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also.

-Genesis 1:1-16

“He made the stars also”. I love how this is just casually mentioned here, almost like an after thought, as if God is so powerful, and making the stars is so insignificant to God, it’s just, “oh yeah he also made the stars… no biggie.”

We’re talking about 100 billion stars – most of them much larger than the sun – just in our galaxy alone. And then our galaxy is just one of upwards of 2 trillion galaxies… so, wait a minute… 100 billion multiplied by 2 trillion. Can anyone do that math? Anyone know what that is?

That’s how many stars God created in just half a verse “yeah, and he made the stars also.” No biggie.

How great, how powerful, how awesome is our God?

How good is our God? Notice what is said after everything God creates: “he saw that it was good.” Over and over again. Good. Good. Good.

God is good. A good God created a good world.

¹⁷ God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, ¹⁸ and to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good. ¹⁹ There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.

²⁰ Then God said, “Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens.” ²¹ God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind; and God saw that it was good. ²² God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” ²³ There was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.

²⁴ Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind”; and it was so.²⁵ God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind; and God saw that it was good.

-Genesis 1:17-25

Now look carefully here at verse 26 and notice how the language changes. Up until now it’s just been God on his own, speaking, and boom, it happens. Pretty simple.

But then, all of a sudden, there’s this moment here where God turns to his angelic court – and we know from the Book of Job chapter 38 verse 7 that the angels were there when God laid the foundations of the earth – God chooses to involve his angels in this next phase of creation. There’s something special about what God is going to create next.

²⁶ Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” ²⁷ God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. ²⁸ God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule(God is giving man dominion here!) over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” ²⁹ Then God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you; ³⁰ and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to every thing that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food”; and it was so. ³¹ God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

-Genesis 1:26-31

Turn to the next chapter. Here in chapter 2 we have another version of the creation story that goes into more detail about the creation of human beings.

See, both chapter 1 and chapter 2 are telling a similar story about the creation of the world. But they do it through different lenses.

The point of chapter 1 is that God is all powerful. He speaks, and it’s done. Not only that, but he’s good. And because God is good, he created the world to also be good. No evil. No sin. No pain. No death. God did not intend for there to be any evil in this world. God is good. A good God creates a good world.

Here in chapter 2, we learn another important truth about God. Take a look at verse 7.

It says Then the LORD God…

Now, hold up a second.

Every time that God was referenced in chapter one, it just said “God”. Right?

In the Hebrew, that’s the word Elohim.

But here, it says “the LORD God.” What’s that mean? Why not just say “God”? Why the sudden change?

Notice that it’s a capital L, capital O, capital R, and capital D.

Anytime in the Bible that you see the word LORD in all capital letters, that means that in the Hebrew, it says Yahweh. 

See, Genesis chapter 2 is making a different point than Genesis chapter 1.

While Genesis 1 focuses on God as an omnipotent, unstoppable force that speaks and it is done… Genesis 2 makes the point that this God is not just an impersonal force, but a person… a person who desires a personal, intimate relationship with his connection. This God is relational. This God isn’t just “God”… this God has a personal name.

You don’t need to flip there, but I’ll just put these verses up on the screen… see, thousands of years after Genesis, God revealed more information about his name to Moses.

God spoke further to Moses and said to him, ‘I am the LORD; and I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name, LORD, I did not make Myself known to them.’

-Exodus 6:2-3

Abraham is the father of faith. And from him came Isaac, Jacob, and, after many generations, Moses, right? So God is saying to Moses here, “Hey, I appeared to your forefathers. But they just knew me as God. I’m giving you a deeper understanding of myself. I’m revealing to you my personal name.”

Another time when God appeared to Moses, this is at the burning bush when Moses first encountered God… God revealed to Moses more information about his name.

God, furthermore, said to Moses, ‘Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is My name forever, and this is My memorial-name to all generations.

-Exodus 3:15

God says that his name, Yahweh, is his name forever, for all generations.

It’s thought that the name Yahweh is related to a Hebrew word meaning “I AM.”

So many things could be said about God. God is love. God is merciful. God is just. God is omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent.

But the number one most important attribute of God is that he is. He exists. God is. From eternity past to eternity future, God is. He is the existing one. See, everything else in the universe came into existence at a certain time. God is the only one who alwaysis from eternity past to eternity future, no beginning and no end. Everything else in the universe has a beginning and depends on God for its existence. God is the only one who eternally is.

I believe that’s part of what God wants us to understand about himself, as communicated to us through his name.

Now that we have a little bit more understanding about God’s name, let’s turn back to Genesis 2 and see what Genesis 2 is telling us about God:

Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

-Genesis 2:7

How intimate is this moment. Even though God is all powerful, the one who speaks and trillions of stars suddenly explode into existence – one who is infinitely beyond anything we could ever grasp or imagine – nevertheless God wants a relationship with us.

Despite how small and lowly and limited we are, this great and awesome God wants a relationship with us. He stoops down to our level, he meets us in the dust, he gets his hands dirty so to speak – that’s metaphorical, of course, God doesn’t literally have hands – but you understand the point that scripture is making here, is that there’s this intimate connection between God and man right from the beginning.

And notice how beautifully God cares for man:

⁸ The LORD God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed. 9 Out of the ground the LORD God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

-Genesis 2:8-9

Skip to verse 15:

¹⁵ Then the LORD God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. ¹⁶ The LORD  God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; ¹⁷ but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”

¹⁸ Then the LORD  God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.” ¹⁹ Out of the ground the LORD  God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. ²⁰ The man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him. ²¹ So the LORD  God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. ²² The LORD  God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. ²³ The man said,

“This is now bone of my bones,
And flesh of my flesh;
She shall be called Woman,
Because she was taken out of Man.”

²⁴ For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. ²⁵ And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

-Genesis 2:15-25

Yahweh is a good God. A good God created a good world. God places the first man and the first woman in a lush, beautiful garden in a very good world – a perfect world – in which all their needs are met, and they experience a perfect relationship with God and each other.

But, God also places in this garden “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” Now, they already knew good, so all they could gain from eating from this tree would be evil.

Why is this tree here?

The short answer is, God wants a love relationship with humanity.

1 Corinthians 13:5 says, “love does not insist on its own way.” Another translation says, “love does not demand its own way.”

See, love that is forced is not true love. If I force someone at gunpoint to do something nice for me, they may be doing something nice for me, but it’s not love.

But when love is freely given – when it’s freely chosen, that’s the genuine love that God wants from humanity.

God wants a love relationship with humanity. Therefore, God gave humanity the opportunity to freely choose to love him, or not.

God didn’t force humanity. He made a perfect world – good, good, good, very good. He put them in a perfect garden and supplied every need.

And then, in his great love, God basically said to them, “the choice is yours – you can choose to stay in this loving relationship with me, or you can walk away.”

So this tree is here because God is giving humanity the opportunity to respond to all of the good that he has just done for them. They can now freely choose to respond with love by trusting God, or, to go another way.

Now the serpent was more cunning than any animal of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God really said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” ² The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; ³ but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’” ⁴ The serpent said to the woman, “You certainly will not die! ⁵ For God knows that on the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will become like God, knowing good and evil.” ⁶ When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took some of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband with her, and he ate. ⁷ Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves waist coverings.

-Genesis 3:1-7

Revelation 12:9 identifies this serpent as “the devil”, “Satan”, and “the one who deceives the whole world.”

Notice the deception of the serpent. “God knows that on the day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened, and you will become like God.”

He made them think that God was keeping something from them, that they were missing out on something.

But the truth is… they were already like God! Entrusted with dominion over the whole world. There was no good thing that God ever withheld from them.

What a lie that Adam and Eve bought into here.

⁸ They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. ⁹ Then the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” ¹⁰ He said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.” ¹¹ And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” ¹² The man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.” ¹³ Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” ¹⁴ The Lord God said to the serpent,

“Because you have done this,
Cursed are you more than all cattle,
And more than every beast of the field;
On your belly you will go,
And dust you will eat
All the days of your life;
¹⁵ And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her seed;
He shall bruise you on the head,
And you shall bruise him on the heel.”
¹⁶ To the woman He said,
“I will greatly multiply
Your pain in childbirth,
In pain you will bring forth children;
Yet your desire will be for your husband,
And he will rule over you.”

¹⁷ Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’;

Cursed is the ground because of you;
In toil you will eat of it
All the days of your life.
¹⁸ “Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you;
And you will eat the plants of the field;
¹⁹ By the sweat of your face
You will eat bread,
Till you return to the ground,
Because from it you were taken;
For you are dust,
And to dust you shall return.”

²⁰ Now the man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all the living. ²¹ The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.

²² Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”— ²³ therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken.

-Genesis 3:8-23

The world was good, good, good, very good.

But Adam and Eve surrendered all of that, for a lie.

Immediately, the effects of sin are present. What are the effects of sin here?

• Pain in childbirth (v. 16)
• What about, conflict between men and women? (v. 16) “Your desire will be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.” There’s debate here about what this verse means. This translation, NASB, says “your desire will be for your husband.” The ESV says “your desire will be contrary to your husband”. There’s also debate over whether the “he shall rule over you” is prescriptive or descriptive. In other words, whether God is placing man in a position of greater authority than the woman, or whether God is merely describing what will inevitably happen because of sin – that God didn’t intend for man to rule over woman, that in the beginning God created man and woman to be equals who work together shoulder to shoulder, but now, because of sin, man will rule over women, contrary to God’s original design, and we have certainly seen how that has played out throughout history. Regardless of how you interpret this verse, I think the point is clear that the relationship between man and woman is not the same after sin, as it was before sin. Before sin, perfect harmony between man and woman. But after sin, tension. Woman’s desire is for her man, but man’s desire is for his work. Sin has caused tension, competition, strife. Sin destroys relationships.
• The land is cursed (3:17-18), resulting in famine, drought, catastrophic weather.
• Death (Genesis 3:19)

By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground, because from it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.

-Genesis 3:19

…the wages of sin is death…

-Romans 6:23a

The soul that sins, it shall die.

-Ezekiel 18:20a

But did you know, there was still one more consequence of sin that was perhaps even worse than death.

Now I know what you’re thinking: “What could possibly be worse than death?”

Consider this: Man lost his relationship with God.

Prior to sin, Adam and Eve walked and talked with God face to face in the garden, in the cool of the day.

After sin, they experienced shame, made clothing to cover their nakedness, hid from God, and blamed God, each other, and the serpent.

What a contrast!

Before sin, a perfect intimate relationship with a loving God.

After sin, all that’s left is shame and blame.

Before sin, God and humanity dwell together on the earth.

After sin, God dwells in heaven, human beings dwell on the earth until they die.

Sin separates us from God.

But God did not give up on us.

God is not responsible for the evil, suffering, and death we experience in the world.

God is a good God. A good God who made a good world.

Man made a free will decision to bring evil into the world. Man did this by believing the serpent – who the Book of Revelation identifies as Satan, the deceiver of the whole world – rather than God. By following what Satan said instead of what God said, man disobeyed God, thus bringing evil into the world.

This is what theologians call the “Fall” of man. We live in a world that is filled with evil and suffering, resulting from the Fall – humankind’s decision to sin, to disobey God, to go another way rather than the perfect, good way that God intended for us.

But the good news is, from the very moment than humanity fell, God already had a plan in place to reconcile humanity back into a right relationship with himself, and to restore the world back to the perfection that God originally intended. We see this foreshadowed in Genesis 3:15, where God promises that a descendant of the woman would one day crush the head of the serpent.

Genesis 3:15 is the what theologians call the protoevangelium, or “first gospel.” It’s the first hint of the good news that God would one day redeem humanity back into a right relationship with himself, and restore the entire world back to the perfection God originally intended.

Thus, completing the four main phases of the biblical story: creation, fall, redemption, restoration.

So we’ve seen how the story begins in Genesis, the first book of the Bible.

Now let’s turn to Revelation, the last book of the Bible, and see how the story ends.

The Book of Revelation gives us a vision of a future day when God will make everything wrong with the world right:

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them,

-Revelation 21:1-3

Hold up a second. God will dwell among human beings again? Can we just pause for a moment and consider what that means?

This is literally heaven on earth, God dwelling face to face with humanity on a perfect earth… just like Eden!

Sin separated us from God, but in the end, God will restore us into a right relationship with himself.

and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.

-Revelation 21:4

Sin brought death into the world, but in the end, God will destroy death forever. No more mourning. No more crying. No more pain. That’s good news!

And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And He said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.” Then He said to me, “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost. He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son.

-Revelation 21:5-7

Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the tree of life…

-Revelation 22:1-2a

Wait. Hold up a second. The tree of life is back! This is a big deal!

Literally the only two times the tree of life ever appears in scripture are: at the very beginning of the Bible, and at the very end.

The tree of life is back, that means no more death. Whoever eats from this tree will live forever.

…bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. ³ There will no longer be any curse…

-Revelation 22:2b-3a

Wait. Hold up a second.

I just love the way it’s stated here.

This could not be any more bluntly stated: THERE. WILL. NO. LONGER. BE. ANY. CURSE.

PERIOD!

That curse that we just read in Genesis 3? It’s GONE. That’s good news!

…and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond-servants will serve Him; ⁴ they will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads. ⁵ And there will no longer be any night; and they will not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them; and they will reign forever and ever.

-Revelation 22:3b-5

When we look at the beginning of the Bible, and at the end, we see this big picture:

What God originally intended in the beginning, he gets in the end.

We see how the story begins, and we see how the story ends. The parallels are incredible.

Tree of life in the beginning. Tree of life in the end.

River flowing out of Eden in the beginning. River of water of life in the end.

God dwelling face to face with man in the beginning. God dwelling face to face with man in the end.

No curse in the beginning. No curse in the end.

Man given dominion over the earth in the beginning. Man’s dominion over the earth restored in the end, “they will reign forever and ever” and man’s right relationship with God is restored.

Wow.

What God originally intended in the beginning, he gets in the end.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the good news of the kingdom of God.

So much could be said about the kingdom of God. Countless books could be written about it.

But if you had to sum it up in as few words as possible, you could sum it up this way:

“Everything wrong with the world made right.”

The good news of the kingdom of God is that God is a God of restoration. Man messed up the world through sin. But God didn’t give up on the earth. He will restore it!

A kingdom is the rule and reign of a king.

When God placed man on the earth, he entrusted man with dominion over it.

Unfortunately, by choosing to sin, to rebel against God, to disobey God and serve Satan rather than God, man chose to surrender his dominion over to Satan.

That’s why John 12:31 calls Satan “the ruler of this world.” And 2 Corinthians 4:4 calls Satan “the god of this world” and Revelation 12:9 says “he deceives the whole world.”

Right now, Satan is exercising his influence and his dominion over the world. No wonder the world is filled with so much injustice, oppression, war, suffering, and death. God didn’t want any of that! God isn’t responsible for that. We are responsible. Human beings – through our own sinful actions – have allowed Satan to take dominion.

The good news of the kingdom of God, is that a day is coming when God will retake his rightful place as ruler.

See, a “kingdom” is defined as the rule and reign of a king.

And when God rules the world, he will restore the world back to what he originally intended – a perfect paradise with no more death, crying, or pain, in which human beings live in peaceful harmony with God and each other.

That’s good news!

Hebrews 6:19 describes this hope as “the anchor of our souls.” It’s what steadies you, strengthens you, and empowers you to persevere when the storms of life assault you.

But a lot of Christians are weak because they don’t know what their hope is!

Their hope is unclear. It’s wishy washy. It’s ethereal.

They think “I guess I’m just gonna float around on clouds forever. Mabe they’ll be harps. Not sure?”

So when the storms of life assault them, they fall away because their hope isn’t real to them!

But church, we have a real hope that solves real problems in the real world!

It’s not a fairy tale. It’s not wishful thinking. It’s not 

It’s the real world, real people, on a real planet, living in right relationship with God and each other.

It’s real good news – news that’s 100% good, not just “kind of good.”

It’s not God evacuating people up to heaven for eternity because the earth is too far gone.

It’s God coming down and repairing the world – making everything wrong with the world right.

For too many Christians, the world doesn’t listen to our message because they think it’s boring and irrelevant. And the picture the church has often painted of eternal life – floating around in clouds and playing harps – it doesn’t resonate.

But our true hope – the biblical hope – could not be more relevant to the world we live in, even now in the 21^st century.

In a world filled with war and violence, we have the hope that a King is coming who will establish peace!

In a world filled with death and sorrow, we have the hope that a King is coming who will throw death into the lake of fire and destroy death and sorrow forever!

But church, we have the privilege of sharing this very real, very relevant, very tangible hope with the world. It’s not a fake hope. It’s not a dead hope. It’s a living hope.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

-1 Peter 1:3

This is God’s dream. Everything wrong with the world made right. Let’s go out and share this living hope with the world!