Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro:

Intro:

KBC: On behalf of our interim co-executive director/treasurers, Dr. Curtis Woods and Jim Donnell, I want to thank you for your faithful giving toward the Cooperative Program, and for being a Kingdom minded congregation.

(KBC Church Planting Graphic) I serve the KBC as a church planting and development associate for the western half of the state, which includes everything in the green.

I call it Paducah to Pineville.

The team I serve on is headed by Dr. Carlos De la Barra and I serve along side Job Juarez, who serves the eastern half of the state, and Eddie Torres who serves the entire state as the ethnic planting associate.

One of the funded plants you help each month through your giving and KBC partnerships is Gospel Community Church in Owensboro.

GCC is pastored by Danny Hinton and reaches out to the fourth largest unreached people group in the world, the deaf.

GCC not only effectively reaches the deaf, but is seeing people of many different disabilities worship Christ together; such as the blind autistic, and people with other disabilities.

Danny is hearing, but is a licensed ASL interpreter.

He is currently leading his church to not only reach those with disabilities with the gospel, but is making an impact on the community that God has placed them.

They are working on rehabing an old building for worship that will double as a resource office throughout the week for the disabled.

One thing that Danny and our 43 other funded planters need is prayer.

We’ve developed a tool that helps you pray for one of our church planters every week.

Once you sign up, you can get the planter’s email address and can send them a short email of encouragement, letting them know that you prayed for them.

Let me encourage you to either write this web address down, or better yet, put it right in your smart phone so you’ll have it for later.

www.kybaptist.org/pray4

Intro to sermon: Gospel Essentials (SEED, SPIRIT, SOWER, SOIL)

This letter to the Thessalonians is structured in two parts:

Paul looks back at his time with the Thessalonians with fondness, and;

Paul addresses the concerns in the church: namely sexual conduct, brotherly love, answering questions about those who have died, and issues regarding Christ’s return.

One of the major themes of this book is that the gospel message that Paul preached is authentic.

The Good News came from God, they can trust it, and it will sustain them to the end.

Paul commends them on how they endured persecution, turned from idols, and encourages them to continue to faithfully follow Christ.

So with that in mind, I’d like to camp out on today and give you an exhortation for the start of the New Year.

Who is my target audience?

Where will we initially meet?

What type of leadership structure will we adopt?

How will my relationship with my sponsoring church affect the plant?

Will there be enough funds to not only help develop the church, but to sustain my family?

Am I networking enough?

Am I tech savvy?

Who have I made mad this week?

Is it something I can fix for the future, or do I need to just go on?

One question I ask the planters is this: what is the main point of planting a new church?

The answer is a simple one: To reach people with the Good News of the gospel.

Planters and pastors often get caught up in the trappings of what it takes to led a church, but forget that one of their main goals is to not only reach people with the gospel, but to teach believers to do so as well.

Church members often do the same with the busyness of life often crowding out the

So today, in using verse 5 as our main text, I want to encourage you to remember that there are four basic components to sharing the gospel that not only applies to church planters, but to all those who have been called according to His purpose.

SEED, SPIRIT, SOWER, and SOIL.

Seed

(SEED, SPIRIT, SOWER, SOIL)

The gospel came to you not only in word, but in power…

The word for gospel also means, “Good News, or great tidings.”

Many believers might think “Good News” when thinking about their own salvation, when thinking about sharing it, they think “fear and trepidation.”

Friends, when sharing the gospel, we need to remember that the gospel is only Good News because there is bad news.

The good news is received through Christ alone; by grace, through faith.

But, we need to be reminded that people are inherently bad rather than good.

You see, the lost believe that people are basically good (so do many professing Christians), but may need a little “nudge” from God to get them over the hump.

When I’m at WKU witnessing, one of my favorite questions when talking to students is this: “on a scale of 1-10 ,1 being completely evil and 10 being perfect, how good are you?”

90% of people fall between 6-8.

People believe they are basically good.

The gospel message turns that on its head.

Listen to these verses for a moment:

The gospel message gives awareness to the judgment that is to come in order that the lost may recognize that they have a problem.

Once someone sees that they have a problem and are convicted of their sin, the gospel will be sweet to them and they will gladly receive it.

Notice what Jesus says in

“out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” Friends, when someone understands that they’ve sinned and stand guilty before God, but receive forgiveness through the gospel, there is a change in them.

The seed of the pure gospel is the only thing that saves.

We have a similar problem today as Paul had with the seed in his day: people think the seed isn’t enough on its own, so they’ve engineered a hybrid seed.

A hybrid seed occurs when one mixes law and grace as seen in Galatians.

Salvation comes through Christ alone, but something else is added.

There’s the spiritually enhanced seed where you automatically get a supernatural gift: Christ + a gift = salvation.

There’s the works enhanced seed where Jesus and you prove your salvation by all the good things you are doing.

There’s the “set-free salvation.”

You’ve seen this one.

This is where Jesus saved someone and gave them the knowledge that organized religion is tainted and not needed.

This is where you don’t need to follow His commands in order to be a follower of His.

Spirit

(SEED, SPIRIT, SOWER, SOIL)

The gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit.

The power for the gospel comes directly from the Spirit.

Paul was called by the Spirit to preach the gospel in Thessalonica

records Paul preaching the gospel in Thessalonica.

Back in the context of our focal passage, Paul reminded the believers that they’d received the gospel with the joy of the Holy Spirit.

Paul calls them “imitators of us and of the Lord” in verse 6-7

The Holy Spirit opens doors to gospel conversations.

He directs the believer to fertile fields where witnessing encounters are well-received.

He uses circumstances, things, and people to accomplish His purposes.

Friends, witnessing without the power and guidance of the Holy Spirit is very difficult; mostly because without the Spirit we won’t do it.

My friend printed me up some evangelistic prayer cards to give away.

I use mine often.

Listen to this 3-point prayer.

Lord, help me to love you more than life itself.

Help me to understand and love more than life that which you are doing through Christ Jesus.

Help me to have Kingdom expansion eyes every day, everywhere I go.

My friend says this about the Holy Spirit’s role in witnessing: “Seed sown without the energizing agent of life, the Holy Spirit, lies dormant.

He is the one to open the hearts of unbelievers.

He is the one to bring conviction of sin.

He is the one to bring about conversion and a birth from above.”

CB Principles and Practice of Church Planting.

p22.

Sower

(SEED, SPIRIT, SOWER, SOIL)

Our gospel…(For we…)

The third essential in gospel sharing is the Sower.

Paul loves to use the phrase “our gospel.”

Rom

is perhaps the most clear passage regarding the Sower.

God is seen working when the Sower is being obedient to his or her call as a disciple and shares the life-giving message with the lost.