Surrounded Yet Restored

Written by: Katie Nowak

This week at Encounter Garrett began the semester with a new series titled “It’s Not Supposed to Be This Way.” I think the title of this sermon series speaks for itself. In our world today and in our own lives daily we can look around and see many instances that fit this mold. We are surrounded by brokenness, hurt, and pain. We are engulfed with sin.

To truly know where sin comes from, we need to look back to Genesis 3 where we see the initial fall of man. In the previous chapter, chapter two, we see Adam and Eve, the first human beings created by God. Up to this point, everything God created was “good” but when man entered the picture, it became “very good.” God and every living thing were living in perfect harmony, the way it was intended to be. Can you imagine what that must have been like?!

Now, I want to note something that has been incredibly intriguing to me. The Bible is 66 books long with several chapters within each book. This book is incredible and allows us to understand and know who God is and His plan for the world. Every word is God breathed (2 Timothy 3:16-17) and in the book for a divine purpose. However, only two chapters of one book within the Bible display God’s design for the world. We get two chapters worth of God’s intentions for the world and the creations within. Intentions for harmony, perfection, and goodness.

God said in the beginning of Genesis that His creation was “good” or “very good”. This all changed in the third chapter of the Bible. Adam and Eve were deceived by the enemy, also known as Satan, and were convinced that it was okay to eat of the fruit forbidden by God to be eaten. Sin entered the world and things were never the same. Therefore, the hundreds of chapters to follow are engulfed with sin.

So, there we have it. Sin is in the picture, brokenness is in the picture, hurt is in the picture, and pain is in the picture. Sometimes a tendency we have as broken, sinful people is to blame God for the bad happening in our world and in our lives. We cannot do this though because even though the window was short, we still have two chapters that embody what God had planned for the world. When we push blame for the evil and sinful nature and hurt of the world onto God then we are disregarding the good that He created it to be. God is holy which means He is set apart; He cannot be intertwined with sin.

When we look at the bible as a whole and understand that each word is breathed by God, we know that He works for the good (Romans 8:28). If we take a look at the hundreds of chapters in the bible engulfed with sin, would we deem those “bad chapters”? NO!! And this is because we know that God works for the good and good endings. We know that the Bible has a good ending and that good ending is Jesus. Jesus wants to restore our lives and our broken world. Let me say it again, in the midst of a broken world, He came to restore. Second Corinthians 5:21 says, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Jesus hung on the cross and bore our sin to restore us.

Because of the first two chapters of the Bible, we know that the world now is not supposed to be this way. It’s not supposed to be engulfed with sin and it’s not supposed to be full of hurt, but no matter how many “bad chapters” we may have or may have to walk through, God is working for a good outcome. Let your life be to God’s glory as He builds His good story.