The Gospel in Our Town
Notes
Transcript
As we prepare for the Christmas season, we are getting ready to celebrate the birth of Christ. As we do this, I think it is important we first look at why Christ came, and what we are called to do about it.
because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.”
For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him.
For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?
And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”
But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?”
So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
The Main Thing: The Gospel
The Main Thing: The Gospel
What the Gospel is:
Our Sin
We are all sinful and separated by God because of our sin.
Sinful actions produced from a sinful heart.
God’s Providence
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Because of God’s Love for us, he made a way that we could be saved.
Our Response
When confronted with this reality, we have a choice to make. To accept the free gift that is found in Christ, or reject it.
Justification
It is through our affirmative response to the Gospel that we are justified before God. We are made right with him because of what Christ has done for us.
Sanctification
The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.
-Steven Covey
Why the Gospel is the main thing.
Without it, we are hopeless.
If you had a terminal illness and you found the cure for it you would owe your life to that discovery, and everyone else had that same illness you would be supremely selfish to keep that to yourself.
The reason we exist is to glorify God. God’s glory is most evident to man in the Gospel work of Christ on the Cross.
Because of this we should celebrate the Gospel.
It should be the main thing to us personally.
It should motivate how we think, act, live our lives, and the choices we make.
It should be the main thing to us interpersonally.
As we live our lives and interact with others, because we love them, we should want to share the greatest thing that we have with them: The Gospel.
Our Responsibility
Our Responsibility
The main thing people need is the Gospel.
This passage points out where we come into play in this scenario:
Romans 10:14-15 (ESV)
How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?
There is a responsibility for people to respond to the Gospel.
In order for people to have the ability to respond to the Gospel, they must hear the Gospel.
For People to hear the Gospel, someone must preach it.
This does NOT mean a preacher on a Sunday morning.
This means all Christians are called to share the Gospel with others.
Our lives should be Gospel oriented.
We are a Gospel Focused Church in A Gospel Focused Denomination
10% of our budget goes toward the cooperative program.
1% to our association.
9% on to the state convention.
From there 36% of that giving goes to the SBC
Of all money given to the SBC 73% goes toward Mission work both here in the US through the NAMB and across the world through IMB.
On top of that are the Special Mission Offerings Annie Armstrong that goes to the NAMB which is mission work in the US. Lottie Moon which goes to the IMB and mission work around the World.
Despite this, we cannot excuse ourselves from participating in the Gospel work ourselves.
Everywhere that we go, in everything that we do, we are ambassadors for God and we should seek to reconcile people to Him.
All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;
that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
The last command that Christ gave was to go and make disciples.
This is a command that carries down to each and every one of us.
This does not mean that we will all become missionaries, evangelists, pastors, or fill in the blank. It doesn’t mean that you will be anything.
It demands that you do something. In whatever you do, however you serve God, you are called to share the wonderful truth of what Jesus has done with others.
This doesn’t mean it is easy.
It doesn’t mean that it is done as faithfully as it should be.
Too often we think that it is work for someone else.
This is why we must...
Evaluating Ourselves
Evaluating Ourselves
We need to evaluate ourselves when it comes to how well we are doing this.
Gospel Conversations: A conversation with the intention to share the Gospel. Doesn’t have to be successful.
The reason: If we share more often, the more likely we will be to lead someone to Christ.
One study showed that people have on average 27 conversations a day, lasting 10 minutes each.
You may think “I don’t have that many conversations.” I understand, but someone else is making it up for you.
For one person that means each year they have 9,855 Conversations per year.
If we took our average attendance and multiplied it by that, it means that within just our church there are 640,575 conversations per year.
The question we have to ask ourselves is this: Out of all of these conversations that we have in a year.... how many of them have then intention of sharing the Gospel with others?
I’m not talking about talking with church friends and building them up, that is good and we should do that.
I’m not talking about inviting people to church, though its good and we should do that.
I am talking about seeking to share with someone else the hope that you have in Jesus, successful or not.
You might get shot down, immediately
You might share with someone who’s already a Christian.
The thing is we talk about the things that we care about.
Children
Sports
Within a few minutes of meeting someone, you can identify a few things that matter to them.
If we care about the Gospel, if it really is the main thing in our lives, we should talk about it.
We should find ways to work it into the conversation.
We should genuinely care about what others believe, hear them, and share what we know.
This is done tactfully, and respectfully, but it should be done consistently.
Starting in the new year, we will have a way of tracking Gospel conversations. An anonymous and interactive display that lets us see, as a church how many of our conversations are with the intention of leading someone to Christ.
It is hard to set a goal for something like this, but I would like to see us have, in our church, one per day. Not one each, one conversation from our entire church per day. 365 in the next year. I hope this is a gross underrepresentation.
We aren’t tracking until the new year, so you have this entire month to start thinking about this, and hopefully having those conversations so we can start off with some momentum.
