Why we Share Together

Victories: 1. VBS Decoration Team 2. Rachel and her team

Prayer: Grace Community Church Tom Mansbarger

Missionary Prayer: Rick and Mary Glover / AWANA - Pray for the upcoming Awana Conference in Kokomo August 29

Intro

Church Covenant

Having been brought by God’s sovereign grace to repent and believe in the Good News of Jesus Christ and His saving work, having been baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and having accepted the Bible as our sole authority of faith and practice, we do now, relying on His grace, solemnly and joyfully affirm our covenant with each other.

We are members of New Hope Baptist Church, individually and corporately, to see the church's purpose accomplished in worship and in deed. As a member, we worship, we love, we grow spiritually, and we evangelize.

We worship to build up God’s church that God’s name may be praised and made great among us, in our community, and around the world. We will not forsake the assembling together of ourselves for worship to further the cause of the Gospel in us and others. We pledge to give cheerfully and regularly to the support of the ministry, the expenses of the church, the relief of the poor, and the spread of the gospel through all nations.

We love the fellowship of the church, and we will stir one another up to love and good works. We will seek to serve each other through prayer, discipleship, reproof, and aid. We will seek to be a source of unity in this church, knowing that no one, besides Christ, is perfect and that our unity as a church will further the Gospel's example in the world.

We grow spiritually, seeking to maintain family and personal devotions; to religiously educate our children; to seek the salvation of our family and acquaintances; progressively growing to be more Christlike, so that God’s reputation is not put down by our failures. To do this, we avoid all gossip, backbiting, and excessive anger. We use our influence to combat the abuse of drugs and alcohol, the spread of pornography, and other practices that lead to moral and spiritual decay. We are to be slow to take offense, but always ready for reconciliation and mindful of the truths of our Savior to live them out daily.

We evangelize by spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ before our family, friends, and neighbors, and faithfully teach this great commission of the gospel to future generations.

We will, as soon as possible after we move from this place, unite with some other church where we can carry out the spirit of this covenant and the principles of God’s Word.

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all. Amen.

The Act of Salvation

God

In order to understand Salvation we first need to understand God. Why? You might ask. Well, scripture tells us that it all starts with God. Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” There God is right from the beginning. If this is true that God was the there in the beginning as He claims then we have 1 of 2 options to do with this information. You can believe it or you can deny it. If you choose to deny it then OK that is yours to do. However, I choose to believe in God and therefore I believe that God gave you the right to be able to deny Him just as He gave me the right to believe in Him. However, I am going to come at this from the perspective that God actually does exist and that He created everything and that we need Him in order to continue existing ourselves.

Here is what we know. He created the world around us for His good pleasure because at the end of each day we know that God looked at what He had made and called it good. Then He did something different on the 6th day. Genesis 1:26–27 “Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” Inside of this community that is God He desired to make something that was like Him in image and likeness, and why would he do such a thing? Because He wanted a creation that would willing worship Him.

Andrew told us a couple of weeks ago worship is defined as “the act of showing profound love, adoration, and reverence to a deity, or object of extreme value.” The act of worshipping a person is wrong because they are not worthy of that worship but when we choose to worship God we are worshipping His perfection. Perfection is what we believe is God’s alone, He alone is perfect and nothing in Him is anything but perfect. In God there is no imperfection. In God there is no corruption. In God there is no untruth or lack of anything that makes Him perfectly good. We start with God because God is Perfect. We start with God because He made us. His greatest desire was to be worshipped and therefore He created a creature like Him who could freely choose to worship Him and what did we go and do?

Humanity

We failed! We spectacularly failed and we chose to worship ourselves instead of God. Ok, so we have to move into the unpleasant topic of discussing failure. We tend to avoid the topic of failure. So, why do we need to discuss our great failure, because if we don’t we won’t grasp just how awesome the victory really is.

What happened. Sin. Sin is what happened and we are left with the aftermath. Sin is anything that we do, say or think that goes against God and what started the in the Garden, when Adam and Eve took a bite of that fruit that they were not suppose to eat, has continued and today mars every aspect of our lives. Romans 3:10–11 “As it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God.” There is not a part of your life today that is not completely ruined and corrupted by the taint of sin on this world. Try as you might you cannot deny that your life is broken. You are a sinner. Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

We fall short of the mark. What is the mark?The corruption of sin means that we miss out on the purpose for which we were created. We miss out on God. We miss out on heaven, and just in case you are thinking, “Oh, well I didn’t really want to go there anyway.” What you are missing out on is perfection. A place where there is no more sin, nor more death, no more hurt, no more pain, no more consequences, no more weakness, no more loneliness, no more, no more, no more. Our sin is far worse than we could ever imagine. We miss the mark of perfection and we aren’t just wiped out of existence we are told that to not be with God is to experience the opposite of perfection it is to experience God’s Justice and God’s wrath on the scale of eternity. The Bible in multiple places describes Hell as a place of torment, a place of eternal fire and eternal pain. A place where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. To fall short of the mark means we don’t receive perfection and we do receive what we deserve, God’s Justice.

My friends there is no way for you to hit the mark. Each and everyone of you has sinned and therefore your life is already forfeit. You deserve the punishment of your sins, you deserve hell, you deserve eternal punishment in hell where you will spend eternity where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

This needs to be our first and foremost understanding because without Hell and the torment of eternity spent in agony the wrath of God holds no sway over our hearts. Just as the fear of death holds no sway over us if we only experience it from afar. If we see our sin as being only a small mar on our otherwise spotless life, or if we see our sin as being a minor offense that can be easily forgiven, or if we feel as though our the debt of our sin is easily paid by the good actions that we often do then we will not see and feel the true weight of it. Your sin is killing you! Your sin is killing you! Your sin is Killing you! Say it to yourself, and keep saying it. Say it till it sinks in. Say it till you believe it. For once you know your need for forgiveness that is where you will find your savior.

Jesus

Dear friend, there is hope. The Hope that is found in Jesus. God the perfect creator looks down at His rebellious creation and He chooses to love us despite our sin. We still miss the mark, we still sin so we are still deserving of death and torment and hell. What was God to do? God didn’t lower the bar He hit the mark for us and then gave us His result. Jesus is God with skin on and He lived the perfect life that we were supposed to live. He willingly choose to worship God fully without sin and then He willingly gave up His life in sacrifice for ours. Jesus took all of the wrath that God was justified to have toward us and our sin upon Himself, and then in defeating death He rose again so that He could give us His record. We call this Justification.

This act of Justification is defined like this: The judicial act of God to declare sins forgiven through the act of Christ’s death on the cross and resurrection, therefore crediting to our account Christ's righteousness that covers all of our debt to sin. Galatians 2:20 says it this way, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

Justification is not some cheap knock-off of righteousness. Justification seems like a hand out or pity. I don’t like to accept charity, and I have a hard time with handouts, but here’s the thing, God doesn’t call this a handout out He calls it a Gift. Romans 6:23 tell us just that, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” The sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross is a gift to us. It is a gift for all of humanity to take if only we will believe.

My friends, it is all completely covered. The blood of Christ Jesus can completely cover your life of sin; all you have to do is accept it. 1 Corinthians 6:19–20 “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.” It is all completely covered. Live Free! This is the Good News of Jesus, this is the Gospel. Simply put God, Man, Christ, Response.

The Act of Sharing

I gave you all of that so that once again you would be aware of all that was accomplished in Christ Jesus. You need to be aware of what God willingly gave for you. Now for those of you who are believers it is time to do something with your new life. You are to share this message; God, Man, Christ, Response, with the world, and it starts with the people closest to you. Telling others the Gospel is not a task for those who are better at it than you. Spreading the Gospel is not the reason why you pay a pastor. Telling of the Good News of Jesus is not for those who have been trained to do so. No! Telling the Gospel is your responsibility and your privilege.

Sharing the Gospel can seem way to daunting of a task. It is hard to effectively share the Gospel. But that doesn’t mean you can’t. You don’t necessarily need to screw up the courage to go door to door and tell strangers about Jesus. Nor do you need to stand out at a local festival and give talks about the Lord. Those are ways of evangelism yes, but for most of us they are the exception and not the rule. The best way to share the Gospel is to do an even harder task, tell the people you know around you about Jesus and what He has done for your life.

You have a unique opportunity to reach the people of this community for Christ. 1st you know them. 2nd you love them. 3rd you are living life with them. 4th you are loved by God and given the express call to share your faith with those around you.

Gospel

‌If you are here today and you know that you are not a believer, you have never asked Jesus into your heart, or maybe you did but haven’t ever allowed God to change you, then let me tell you how you can change that today. Your sin and your brokenness are there to point you to Jesus because only He can provide you with a real solution. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is that solution. Here is the Gospel: Jesus died on the cross for our sins, and because He did, we can ask for our sins to be forgiven, and the Bible says He will forgive them. Jesus is the Lamb of God who died for your sins. God sent Jesus so that Jesus might take the punishment we deserve so that we might return to God and be called His own. Romans 10:9 says, “that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” ‌It is just that easy. You can confess Him as your savior. If that is your desire today, you can say this prayer with me. Bow your heads. God holds out His outstretched hand for you. Are you going to continue in your sin, or are you going to take His Hand? He is calling, and all you have to do is believe.

‌It is just that easy. You can confess Him as your savior. If that is your desire today, you can say this prayer with me. Bow your heads.

‌Dear Lord, ‌I know that I’m a sinner. I’m sorry for my sin, and I ask you to forgive me. I believe you died for my sins and rose from the dead. I repent of my sins, and I ask you to come into my life and take control. I make a commitment to follow you, and I trust you as my Lord and Savior.

‌Friend, if you prayed that prayer today, I ask that you come and speak to me after the service.

‌Benediction: Romans 15:5–6 “Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus, that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”