Three Circles - God's Design
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Jesus taught us many valuable lessons.
Countless miracles, principles and standards for our life.
Everything Jesus did, everything Jesus said is important and we should make it our goal to be as familiar as possible with Him and His teaching.
However, if last words are important, then certainly Jesus’ final instructions to His disciples must weigh heavily on our hearts and minds.
Would you stand with me for the reading of reading of today's text.
Matthew records His last words as,
19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
Jesus has given us a mission.
All believers are called to be faithful gospel witnesses to the places we live, work and play.
We can’t leave it to the “professionals.”
There aren’t enough professionals around.
Statistically in order to reach the whole world with the gospel we need 10,000 believers reaching five people each.
That’s a lot of people
But all of these cannot be preachers.
In fact the Bible says this....
13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.
God didn’t use preachers he used everyday people.
He didn’t only use those with seminary educations or deep theological background.
God placed each of us in this place for this time to be His outposts.
I want you to think of an outpost this morning.
An outpost could be considered a temporary home or camp.
But for us in sharing the gospel an outpost is going to be considered a place in which we share the gospel.
The Acts 1:8 version of Jesus’ final words Jesus tells his followers that they will be His “witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
So what does that mean exactly.
We have to see ourselves as outposts of God’s kingdom. We are God’s representatives living in enemy territory.
All around us their is evil, yet our God is looking to transform the people around us through the Gospel.
The devil seeks to destroy, but as God’s people we are called to more.
There are more who don’t believe than those of us who do believe.
There are many who say they believe but they don’t really understand it.
in fact, Did you know that even though 69% of Virginians say they believe in God only around 30% of them say they read the scripture.
So our homes have to be gospel outposts in our neighborhoods.
Our desks have to be gospel outposts in our schools or offices.
We have to be gospel outposts when we’re out and about in the community—at the grocery store, the ballpark or the gym.
So let’s begin the process of understanding how it is that we can become those outposts.
We can begin with this.
I want to start our first point with a question.
Why do you think God created us?
I mean really think about it.
What would be the purpose in us as a creation
Why does God need us anyway?
We can begin that with this thought...
God created us and He loves us.
God created us and He loves us.
I want to think back to the very beginning.
You know, the reality is that we mean a great deal to God.
We find that God created us because he wanted us to have a relationship with him.
He found us important enough that he wanted us to walk alongside him
in fact, he spent all of this time creating all of this beautiful earth.
The trees and the animals, the seas, and all of the other wonderful things we see.
What we know is that...
God designed the world and everything in it. He created everything as it was meant to be and it was good (Genesis 1:1-25).
However, in that creation there was pinnacle if you will.
He created something that was so important to him that all of the beauty he had previously creates was second to this one creation.
That creation was us.
You see when God created us he created us so uniquely and different than the rest of creation.
He had made a creation that would come into the world and rule over his creation.
But you see, whats crazy is that God went even farther.
With us as his creation he saw us as something special.
In fact scripture says that He....
He created humans in His image—the pinnacle of His creation. He called us very good (Genesis 1:26-2:24)
Think of the love of our God.
Not only did he create us but he created us in his image.
He loves us so much that we are made in the image of God Himself.
But the amazing thing about all of this is he still kept going.
After creating us in his image to subdue the earth he went farther....
God Created a Design for Every Aspect of Our Lives.
God Created a Design for Every Aspect of Our Lives.
See what’s crazy about this truth is that God didn’t just care about the big aspects of our life.
He could have only paid attention to the aspects of our life that was big
The reality is not that God segregates our life and determines what he has a design for and what He hasn’t
For example, He could have designed us a human and then placed us on the earth and said
“have it it guys, do whatever you want”
‘I made you now go”
But he didn’t
He cared about every aspect and every detail of our life.
We can go down the list.
» Our gender identity (Genesis 1:27 - created us male and female)
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
» Our families (Gen. 1:28 - be fruitful and multiply)
28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
» Our rest life (Gen. 2:1-3 - He rested on the seventh day)
1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. 3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.
» Our marriages (Gen. 2:24 - leave and cleave)
24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
Why would he care about these individualized aspects of my life and so much more?
He desired to be a part of our life to to most intimate of details
The real reason he desires for the inner most aspects of our life is because he simply want’s to be a part of our lfie.
In that same desire he opes that we will want him to be a part of us.
And friends, why shouldn’t we want him to be a part of us?
Look at all of the aspects of you that he has cared for.
And he did it all just so that he may have a relationship with us....
God designed us for relationship with Him.
In fact not only did he create us with the thought of a relationship with him.
Our relationship isn’t as simple as a working relationship, or a family relationship.
It is so so much deeper.
He created us to have unbroken communion with Him
He actually said when he created the world in Genesis 3:8
8 And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.
When God created us He “walked with us and talked with us.”
He had a desire to be a part of our life and to have deep communion with us
The issue came when we had sin enter the world.
You see, Adam and Eve were given one commandment.
“do not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil”
That is it.
Don’t do this one thing and you can live in paradise with God.
But as many of you know when it comes to sin, temptation has a way of drawing us into a false promise.
As the devil tempted them it became more and more appealing.
until they finally did the unthinkable.
They ate of the tree and sinned against God.
Now there is only one hope.
The Gospel.
This Unbroken Communion Can be Restored Through the Gospel.
In fact I want to take a minute to direct your attention to the screens and let’s look at exactly what the three circles is and how it is that this beautiful story of redemption works....
Use the last 5-10 minutes to draw out the rest of the 3 Circles diagram bringing it back to the gospel.
Prayer focus: Introduce “Praying for …” cards asking people to write down names of people they know who are far from God and commit to praying for opportunities to turn everyday conversations into gospel conversations. It is God who draws people to His Son, Jesus. Display the cards as a reminder of the importance of prayer each week. We have the news people need to hear about God making a way for them to be right with Him. We also have a conversational, relational way to tell them about it. It all starts with God’s design.