Reach (2)

intro:

Everyone good to be here with you tonight!

My name is Zach Honnen. I am the student young adult Director here at The River Church (Grand Blanc).

We are super excited to have you here. I’m super excited to be here with you tonight.

Is their first night of student growth community and we will be talking about reach

Now at The River Church we go through a series a couple times a year called to reach gather grow

This idea is that we As Christians reach other People for the gospel and when we reach each other other people, we then gather together on Sundays and then as we gather, we grow together in our relationship with Christ

But tonight we will be talking about reach… And I want to cover three things

What is the gospel?

What does it mean to reach?

And why does it matter?

But before we get into anything, let’s go ahead and pray

Amen…

Before we jump into it, I want to ask you a question… How many of us like big words?

How many of us like to use big words because it makes us feel smart

Well, I might be alone, but I like to use big words that I hear on podcasts or TV or that I read in books

And lately I’ve noticed that when I use big words, people will often ask me what does that word mean?

Was on the phone with my girlfriend the other day and I used a big and she said what does that mean

And I said well, I’m not sure. I’ve just heard it before. Let me look it up.

And in moments like that, I realize just because I know the right place for the word to go. I know the vibe or the understanding of it doesn’t mean I actually know what it means.

And I believe that many of us are in this place when it comes to the gospel

If you’ve grown up in church, you’ve heard the word gospel many times

But you might not understand what it really means and how it applies to our lives

So Starting at square one

Point 1:What is the gospel?

The word gospel means good news…

But for us to understand the good news, we need to understand the bad news

Romans 3:23 ESV

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

And once again, that word sin is a churchy word

But it means to fall short it means to miss the Mark

The standard of God is perfection and anything below that is sin

Romans 6:23 ESV

23 For the wages of sin is death…

What sin has earned is death… When you and I and everyone else on earth, fall short of God standard, we have earned for ourselves destruction…

Separation from God, which is death, which is hell…

So if this is the bad news, what is the good news?

Well, the good news Is the rest of Romans 6:23

Romans 6:23 ESV

23…but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The good news is that Jesus lived the perfect life that we could not

And died the death that we deserved taking on hell and the grave

And Rose again on the third day so that we could be saved and have new life with him

So the good news is that we are more sinful than we can ever imagine, but God is more gracious and good than we could ever imagine..

It’s all we have to do to be saved is except Christ as our Lord and Savior

The Bible says to repent and believe

It is to turn away from our sin and turn towards Christ. It’s a change of mind.

Romans 10:9 ESV

9 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.

So if you’re in this room and you don’t know Christ, this is your opportunity to know him

To repent and believe and put your trust in him and take the gospel from a Church phrase you’ve heard before to something you cling to in love

But that is what the gospel is the good news of Jesus and now that we grasp, what does it mean to reach Each others for the gospel???

Point 2: What does it mean to reach?

To reach to build relationships with friends and family, who don’t know Jesus

And step into the uncomfortable circumstance of sharing about Jesus

In John chapter 4, Jesus speaks to this woman who doesn’t have a relationship with God

She thinks she does. She believes that she’s good enough and tries to argue about theology with Jesus.

But then he points out her sin. He pointed out her knee and tells her of the hope there is in him.

And in that moment, when she realized that he was the savior, she left her jar and ran to her town to bring people to Jesus

John 4:28–30 ESV

28 So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” 30 They went out of the town and were coming to him.

What it means to reach is that you have been transformed by Jesus you have been transformed by the gospel and you have this new Hope

And you go out with excitement, passion, and boldness, and share this hope with other people

Reach comes out of a response to the love of God reach comes out of a response to the gospel

The woman left her jar. The woman left everything and ran to the town, forgetting her shame, forgetting her sin in pointing to the one who can save them.

When it comes to reach, we are called to lay down. Our pride lay down our insecurities and reach out to others and tell them about Jesus because he has given us so much and we want them to receive the same thing.

Now you may be wondering,

Point 3: And why does it matter?