The Fall | Ashley Anderson
Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
— Genesis 3:8-11
So God created this beautiful thing. He created the world and everything in it. He created two people to walk the earth and tend to it. He called it good—very good.
He walked in the garden with Adam and Eve. There was closeness and there was intimacy. God was with them. With us.
And yet a decision was made. Adam and Eve wanted knowledge without intimacy with God. They heard the serpent ask “did God really say?”. They ate from the tree they were commanded not to touch. And everything changed. Sin entered the world.
But the story really isn’t about a tree. It’s about a relationship. Human’s relationship with its creator.
At Jubilee 2024, Ashley Anderson shared some hard truth about sin: “sin is not just about breaking the law. It's about breaking God's heart … We tend to talk about sin like just slipping up or messing up but what we're actually talking about is intentionally violating the love of God.”
Sin entering the world disrupted everything. The goodness and wholeness of what God created was broken, fractured, and in need of repair. We can see this brokenness so clearly in the history of the world, and it deeply affects us today.
Famine, poverty, war, racism, abuse, pain, murder, slavery.
It’s so painful and so far from God’s design for us. It breaks His heart.
So what do we do about this? Well, we can’t really do anything. We are in need of a savior, of serious intervention beyond what we could possibly do or imagine.
Thankfully, there is a plan. The story does not end with our brokenness.
Ashley reminds us, “The Narrative Arc of human history is about a good God on a relentless pursuit of the people he loves. A God who longs to walk once again in the garden with his people.”
The story is not over yet.
Fall | We said, "We want more."
At Jubilee 2024, Pastor Ashley Anderson declared that we have a problem. After sharing her own experience battling deep brokenness in her heart, she took us on a journey through scripture to explore just how gravely a decision made by two people so long ago affects us now.
Note: due to camera recording difficulties, this talk is available in audio format.
The story is not over yet. Stay tuned for more videos, resources, and encouragement from Jubilee 2024.
— The Jubilee Team