Un-distorted (The Gospel)

Announcements:

The egg hunt is coming up and I need Student volunteer volunteers.

If you are interested, please raise your hand or come talk to me after growth community and if you don’t volunteer, I will come find you and ask you to volunteer so it’d be awesome if you let me know that you want to help out.

All we’re gonna do is hold up road signs for the students maybe make road signs and also reset the field after eggs are dropped. Super fun super easy. Hope you can help out.

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Icebreaker: But with all of that said…

When you walked in tonight, you were asked a question and the question was…

Would you rather eat only salad for the rest of your life or only steak for the rest of your life?

You can have any type of salad any type of steak you cannot have steak on your salad or salad on your steak

You can have any supplement or dietary health vitamin that you need in order to make this diet healthy but it’s either steak or salad as your main food for the rest of your life

Now, how many of us said salad? And how many of us said steak?

As you know, I believe there’s a right answer and the right answer is stake, but the winning answer was _____ %

Steak Story

Now outside of the icebreaker How many of us enjoy a good steak? See growing up I had a sister who didn’t like steak so if you don’t like steak, that’s fine

But I believe steak is one of the best meals you can ever have, especially if it’s cooked perfectly seasoned perfectly

I remember, I went over to a friends house for their birthday, and their mom Was making steaks…

And when she came to serve the steaks, she put one on my plate. It looked amazing

and she asked me. Would you like steak sauce with that?

And in that moment, I knew this was a trap so lecture in the said no thank you the steak looks perfect as it is

And she said that was the right answer and she wasn’t gonna give me steak sauce, even if I asked for it…

For those of you who are part of the salad community, Steak went perfectly cooked and perfectly seasoned does not need anything else

In fact, if you add anything else,Often times that can be an insult to the Cook, the chef or in this case my friend’s mom….

A steak that is cooked perfectly needs nothing else to add to it.

Anything you add would ruin it…

And the reason I share this story is because we’re gonna look at the gospel tonight

We’re gonna look at how the gospel is perfect on its own, but if we add anything to it, it ruins it…

But before we get into it, let’s pray…

Text:

Go ahead and open up your Bibles to Galatians chapter 1

If you don’t have a Bible, please download a Bible app right now. This is the only time I’ll ask you to have your phone out. We believe God’s word is important.

Once again, Galatians chapter 1, We will start in verse six

This letter is written by the apostle Paul from prison to the church in glacier which he loved, and once shared the gospel too.

He opens up with a short introduction and then jumps into the purpose of this letter in verse six..

Galatians 1:6–7 ESV

6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7 not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.

Paul is coming to the church in Galatia writing to them saying I am surprised I am astonished. I am blown away.

That you have so quickly deserted the gospel of Jesus deserted Christ

Paul has brought the gospel to these people and they have received the gospel but now they’re throwing aside for a “” different gospel…

And the gospel means good news they’re throwing away the good news of Jesus for a different good news…

Which Paul clarified that there isn’t another gospel that there isn’t a different gospel…

Jesus is the good news…

Paul is saying that there may be counterfeit out there, but it still is not the real thing

I can walk in here with Monopoly money and claim that my $100,000 bill is legitimate

but it doesn’t make it real. It doesn’t make it true.

The believers within Galatia have turned away from what is real to what is fake…. to what is false…

Leaving behind the good news for fake news…

And Paul uses this word Distort… This means To corrupt pervert or turn… To take something that is true and twist it

How many of us have ever been to a carnival or a fair? Have you ever seen those mirrors that are warped their wavy and when you walk in front of the mirror all of a sudden you are distorted…

The image you see in the mirror is no longer accurate to the truth of who you are and what you look like

These people are trying to show a mirror to the Galatians that distort the truth of the gospel

It’s like putting on someone else’s glasses… the world, beings to be fuzzy and unclear

When you add anything to the gospel IT becomes distorted, it becomes unclear and worthless…

There were people who came to the Galatians and said the gospel of Jesus is so good, but you need to add this in order to truly be saved…

They wanted to add obedience to the law reading the Old Testament, obeying the traditions… In order to complete their salvation…

They would take something that’s true and add something that’s false and then sell it as if it’s true…

Have you guys ever seen this?

Have you guys ever done this where you share a little bit of the truth so that someone will believe a lie

maybe it’s happened to you or you’ve done it to others…

Maybe your parents say hey who are you talking to?

And you say I’m not talking to anyone but the truth is you’ve been texting someone you’re not supposed to be for a couple hours…

It’s true you weren’t talking verbally to someone, but you were texting. This is using something that’s true to communicate a lie, which is manipulation…

And this is what’s happening to the Galatians

Often times the most dangerous lies aren’t completely false… they’re built on just enough truth to make them believable.

(say that again)

And talking about these lies Paul continues in verse eight and nine…

Galatians 1:8–9 ESV

8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. 9 As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.

To be accursed is to be cut off to be separated from God… in hell

What Paul is saying is that the truth matters and that the gospel is perfect…

If we add anything to the gospel, it is no longer the gospel…

If something is perfect, you cannot add anything to make it better. You can only make it worse.

And the gospel is that GOD sent his only son to live the life we could not live….

You and I are not perfect according to Romans three no one is good

No one is enough

Ephesians 2:4–5 ESV

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—

The good news is that Jesus lived the perfect life died the death that we deserved and Rose again to give us newness of life to give us his righteousness

And I want us to know there’s nothing we can add to this to make it better…

And I want to ask you, do you have the gospel or have you added to the gospel?

Is the gospel that you believe a false gospel that says Jesus died to give you a chance to give you the ability to try and earn his favor?

Is the The gospel you believe in that Jesus is angry and desires for you to figure it out on your own…

Or is the gospel Jesus loves you and you’re already good enough… And you don’t need to repent you don’t need anything. You’re good the way you are…

Each of these are false gospels they’re not true. They’re not good news

It is not the gospel and acts good words, the gospel and obedience it is the gospel alone

The Bible says we are saved by grace through faith. This is not of our undoing. This is a gift of God so that no one can boast.

The gospel is enough

And you need to know that in your own life in order to share it with someone else

On Sundays, we’ve been going through Jonah and I’m gonna tie this into Jonah as that’s what our lesson is tonight

Jonah needed to experience the gospel in his own life in order to share it with others…

And when he shared the gospel, he didn’t do it with this huge speech full of amazing words he said eight words in English, five words in Hebrew…

Jonah 3:4 ESV

4 Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”

And this short sermon, save the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, Not because Jonah added his own spin to it not because Jonah preached this amazing sermon, but because God is good

And when we are transformed by the gospel and choose to step out in obedience, whether we fully want to or not, God can use us

Jonah was obedient, and Jonas’s heart was not in it, but God was able to use his obedience for his kingdom…

So if the Lord has transformed your life, if you have the gospel the true gospel

You are called to share that gospel with your friends with your family with your classmates…

Because the gospel is enough… “You need Jesus, And he wants you.” That’s the message…

Now you must be able to answer who is Jesus and why do I need him?

Who is Jesus and how do I get to know him?

But it all starts with a basic gospel message to open up the conversation and trusting God to do the rest with you or without you through you or through someone else

If God can use Jonah, even though he was unwilling, even though he had a grudge, even though he didn’t want people to repent, God still used him….

Imagine how he could use you if you were fully surrendered and you fully wanted God to use you

I want us to walk away knowing that the gospel is enough we can’t add anything to it because it’s already perfect..

And if you’re here and you don’t know, Jesus, I want to ask you to know him tonight to repent and believe talk to you later talk to me we would love to help you know who Jesus is

let’s pray….