The Five Fundamentals of the Faith (Part 4: Salvation)
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Announcements:
Esteban
One of the coolest things that you get to be a part of as this youth ministry is that you get to help an underprivelaged kid in need
We do this by supporting Esteban, who lives in Guatemala, through Compassion International
We try to raise $45.00 each month
This month, we have raised… (count what we have so far)
I will give you an opportunity to give before we split into small groups
The Big Three:
Don’t forget that there are three really big events that you can sign up for right now: Meta 2024, Mission Serve, and Fuge Camps
Meta is going to be the weekend experience of a lifetime, Mission Serve will be an awesome opportunity for you to GO and impact your world, and Fuge Camps will be an awesome opportunity to focus on Jesus and have fun all at the same time.
The deadline on these are approaching, so you want to go ahead and get registered ASAP
The due dates and amounts are on this screen, so feel free to pull out your phone and take a picture if you need to.
The Main Event
The Main Event is returning to Crosslink Community Church on Saturday, February 10!
Join us as we go and hang out with other youth groups to have a big youth group night
It starts at 7:00PM (we’ll meet in the church parking lot at 6:30PM)
Winter Jam
And two weekends after that, we are headed to Winter Jam!
For only $15 bucks, we get to experience one of the coolest concert experiences out there, with tons of different artists this year, including David Crowder and Lecrae
Don’t miss out!
Attention:
If you’re really into something, there are certain aspects about that thing that you will want to share with people
For me, I like music a lot, and I really like to talk to people about my favorite albums (the year they came out, what I like about them, etc.)
If you’re into sports, you likely like to talk about your favorite team, player, etc.
And within the world of Christianity, something that we really love to talk about is this idea of Salvation
Many of us have heard the message of salvation preached for our entire lives
You can’t get away from it; in the Bible, at church, at camp, etc.
This is always going to come up
That’s because salvation is one of the most important parts of the Christian faith
In fact, it is the fourth of the five fundamentals of the faith that we have been looking at.
Remember; the fundamentals of Christianity are the most important parts.
Christians can disagree about some things, but not these
Without these five things, the entire faith falls apart
As one of these fundamentals, there are a few different things about Salvation that are important to understand
What are they?
That’s what we’re gonna chat about
Need:
Salvation is important
After all, it is something that every person is in need of
Whether or not you are truly a Christian depends upon whether or not this is something that you have experienced
This is also something that Christians long for other people who are not yet saved to experience
Think of all of the people that you know who are not saved right now.
When you pray for them to be saved, what is it exactly that you are praying for to happen?
We all could benefit from taking a deep dive into this!
So buckle-up; let’s get ready!
Body
Explanation:
The Big Idea: A correct understanding of salvation is fundamental to the Christian faith
What Are the Essential Components of Salvation?
1. Image of God (Genesis 1:26-28)
27 So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
Mankind is God’s favorite creation.
Q. How do we know this?
Well, look at verse 31; at the end of the other creation days, it always says “God saw that it was good,”
But here, it adds the word “very”
God created people and saw that it was very good
Q. Why does God call his creation of mankind “very good?”
He makes them in His image
This was God’s way of setting people apart from the rest of God’s creation
God loves all of His creation, but mankind was His favorite
We are God’s representatives, showing people what He is like
Are we God? No; of course not
But we show the world what God is like by our ability to rule, work, have relationships, etc.
He created us with purpose, dignity, and value
You know what this means?
We should treat everyone with dignity, as one who has been made in God’s image
This includes the people that get on your nerves (including yourself)
And its important for us to say this, because sometimes when we start to talk about mankind’s sinfulness, we make it sounds like God hates people or something like that, but this simply isn’t true
We’ll see in a minute that sin comes in and distorts the image of God, but even then people are STILL made in the image of God, and He still loves them
Illustration:
So there was this coffee shop in Lynchburg that I basically lived in called Third Wave, right?
All of their coffee was absolutely incredible… when you drink it black
People often don’t understand this, but good coffee is good black.
If its not good black and it needs cream, its bad coffee
Anyways, sometimes these people would come into the shop and ask for coffee, but then they’d put creamer in it
And sometimes what happens with good coffee is that if you put a milk creamer in it, the milk will actually kinda spoil and do weird stuff, which makes it taste bad!
This happens because good coffee is usually extra acidic
Does that mean that the coffee is bad?
Of course not; if they would just drink it black, they would experience something incredible
This is kinda the way that it is with people and sin.
God’s design of man in His image is good and perfect.
But its sin that comes in and messes with things
People still all have the fingerprints of God on them even if they haven’t been saved and don’t have the Holy Spirit living inside of them.
Application:
What things do you tend to find your identity in?
Friends
Dating
Grades
Sports
This is a moment to remember that you don’t need to find your identity in any of those things; your identity is found in the fact that you were made in the Image of God
He loves you.
He sees you.
He desires relationship with you.
And the same is true for your friends who don’t know the Lord!
He loves them and wants them to accept Him
This also applies to the people you don’t like
We should love everyone because everyone is made n His image
So, next time someone is getting on your nerves, try to see them the way that God does.
With dignity, purpose, and value
Live as one who has been made in the image of God and sees others as being made in the image of God
Transition statement: Even though God loved humans and especially created them in this way, something would come between God and His image bearers.
What Are the Essential Components of Salvation?
1. Image of God (Genesis 1:26-28)
2. Human Sinfulness (Ephesians 2:1-3)
1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
Ephesians 2 has one of the clearest explanations of Salvation that is found in the New Testament, so we will spend the rest of our time tonight hanging out in that chapter.
Q. what is the status of humanity based on our disobedience and many sins?
That’s right; DEAD.
Our sins make us dead; not on life support, but dead.
Without God, life is meaningless.
Thus, being separated from God is spiritual death.
This is an essential component of salvation for Christians to understand, as it shows us how bad sin really is
After the fall of mankind (Adam and Eve eating the fruit from the forbidden tree), the default position of mankind is being in obedience to Satan; yikes!
Satan is at work in the hearts of those who are unsaved.
And because of all of this, there is NOTHING that you could ever do to make yourself alive.
You can’t come to church enough times, read your Bible enough times, or pray enough times;
It’ll never be enough to make you alive, because we’re dead, separated from God, and are in need of a miracle
But are people still made in God’s image?
Yes, but it has been distorted, and now humankind has lost access to God
Illustration
A really good illustration for the fall of man that I use a lot is describing a bridge
In the beginning, humanity has perfect access to God.
But when sin enters the picture, it comes in and breaks that bridge
So now, humanity no longer has access to God
Now, we need someone to somehow come and reconstruct the bridge.
Application:
Do you have access to God?
Do you have a relationship with Him?
He loves us despite our sin and wants to have a relationship with us
Romans 10:9 says that, if you confess Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
You could do that tonight!
And I love talking with people about this sort of stuff, so feel free to talk to me if you have any doubts about your salvation of if you want to know more about what it looks like to truly give your life to Jesus
But many of you have truly accepted Christ.
Be humbled by how far God has brought you despite your sin
Don’t give into shame, but don’t be prideful either
Give God all of the credit in your life.
What Are the Essential Components of Salvation?
1. Image of God (Genesis 1:26-28)
2. Human Sinfulness (Ephesians 2:1-3)
3. By Grace, Through Faith (Ephesians 2:4-5, 8-9)
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
At the beginning of Ephesians 2, we see how bad things truly are
But in verse 4, we come face to face with the grace of God and how incredible it is
As humanity, we are dead in our sins, but because of God’s mercy, he has made us alive
But what is it that has brought us from death to life?
Someone look at the end of verse 5 and tell me how it is that these Christians have been saved
Right; it is only by God’s grace!
AKA, it’s a gift that we don’t deserve
And Paul elaborates on this when we get into verse 8;
He says that it is “by grace, through faith”
God’s grace is where it comes from and faith is how we get there.
And then we get to verse 9, and we see that, because IT IS by grace that we are saved, that means it IS NOT by works.
Works are stuff that we do, like...
Going to church
Reading our Bible
Praying
Living a “good life”
But we could never be good enough!
We’re not perfect, and we never will be
But God is perfect and always will be
So there is a disconnect there.
But Christ was good enough for us.
He died on the cross for our sins
That’s the gift of his grace
Illustration:
When salvation by grace through faith isn’t properly understood, it leads to chaotic thinking.
For example, my parents grew up in a legalistic church.
Can someone tell me what I mean by that?
That’s right; to be legalistic is to say that salvation is through works
That is definitely the way that the old country church that my parents grew up in was
And you know what happens with legalism like this?
It leads to the false idea that Christians can lose their salvation
When you sin, you’ve “backslid,” and now you have to go get saved all over again
These are the types of ridiculous things that you wind up believing if you don’t hold fast to salvation being by grace and through faith, so it is important to make sure that we get this!
Application:
Have you been serving God legalistically?
Or have you been resting in His grace?
Use tonight as an opportunity to remember that you don’t have to be good enough; Christ was good enough for you!
You don’t have to earn God’s favor
He already loves you!
And His love for you is not based on the stuff that you do
You could never earn your salvation, and that’s okay, because Christ did it for you
Allow the grace of God to form the foundation of the way that you think about salvation.
Explanation:
What Are the Essential Components of Salvation?
1. Image of God (Genesis 1:26-28)
2. Human Sinfulness (Ephesians 2:1-3)
3. By Grace, Through Faith (Ephesians 2:4-5, 8-9)
4. Transformation (Ephesians 2:10)
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
This shows us that we are saved for works, not by works.
Works aren’t they way that you get saved, but they are evidence of your salvation
Nobody ever gets saved and doesn’t want to honor God with their life and actions
This is all because there is a transformation that happens inside of someone who has gone from death to life.
We now are able to serve God in the ways that he wants us to and with the right heart posture
Illustration:
There’s a phrase that I am sure many of you have heard us use in Christian circles: ‘Once saved, always saved.”
This is a true statement:
Once you truthfully accept Christ into your life, there is nothing that you can do to lose your salvation.
However, I’ve also heard it said that a better statement would probably be, “once saved, always changed.”
When God saves a person, they don’t live the way that they use to anymore.
Jesus said that, “you will know them by their fruits” (Matt. 7:16).
Will they be perfect? Of course not; but there certainly will be a difference.
God doesn’t give us salvation because of the works that we do; he gives it so that we can go out and do them
Application:
Do you prove your salvation in the way that you live your life?
Are you doing good works as the result of the salvation that you have received?
God saved you so that you could go out and do good stuff for people, and ultimately for Him!
Go and shine a light in the world.
Conclusion:
Salvation is a really special thing that we get to experience and talk about as Christians
Let’s be thankful for that.
God loves y’all so much.
His love is real, and it is available for you.
Latch onto it all of the days of your life.
PRAY
Small Group Questions:
Which of the four aspects of salvation that Michael talked about do you think it is easiest to not think about as much as we should? Why?
What ends up happening if you leave out any of these four elements from the whole picture of salvation?
For the teenager that has already given their life to Christ, how should the doctrine of salvation continue to impact their life on a daily basis?
Why is it so hard for people to get out of the mindset of working for their salvation?
What is one good work that you can do this week as the result of your salvation?