The Circles of Life!

Mark A Green

Loving' Our Neighbor • Sermon • Submitted 5 years ago

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God’s Glorious Design ()

Genesis 1–2 ESV

1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. 3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. 6 And God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” 7 And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so. 8 And God called the expanse Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day. 9 And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. 11 And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so. 12 The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening and there was morning, the third day. 14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. 16 And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. 17 And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, 18 to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day. 20 And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.” 21 So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” 23 And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day. 24 And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. 25 And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. 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. 1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 2 And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. 3 So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. 4 These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. 5 When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, 6 and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground— 7 then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. 8 And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9 And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 10 A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. 11 The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. 13 The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. 14 And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. 15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” 18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” 19 Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. 20 The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. 21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22 And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 23 Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” 24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

Jesus taught us many valuable lessons. He gave us a lot of really great principles by which to live. Everything Jesus did and said is important and we should make it our goal to be as familiar as possible with Him and His teaching. However, if last words are important, then certainly Jesus’ final instructions to His disciples must weigh heavily on our hearts and minds. Matthew records His last words as, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and

of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (). Jesus has given us a mission. How are we doing?

[Give statistics on the religious landscape of your community, town or city. Good resources include: North American Mission Board (namb.net), Barna (cities.barna.org), Pew Research Center (pewforum.org) and U.S. Census data on your town/city (census.gov).]

All believers are called to be faithful gospel witnesses to the places we live, work and play. We can’t leave it to the “professionals.” There aren’t enough of us. [Do some math for them, as in you are one pastor in a town of 50,000—how is one person going to reach 50,000 people or you are 10 pastors in a city of 1 million. How are 10 pastors going to reach 1 million people—that’s one person reaching 100,000 people. We need everyone in the game. We need 10,000 believers reaching five people each or 100,000 believers reaching 10 people each.] The Bible says God used “uneducated, common men” () like the disciples to launch His mission of taking the gospel to the ends of the earth.

God placed each of us in this place for this time to be His outposts. The version of Jesus’ final words has Jesus telling His followers that they will be His “witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” We have to see ourselves as outposts of God’s kingdom. We are God’s representatives living in enemy territory. The statistics prove that we are living in enemy territory. There are more who don’t believe than those of us who do believe. So our homes have to be gospel outposts in our neighborhoods. Our desks have to be gospel outposts in our schools or offices. We have to be gospel outposts when we’re out and about in the community—at the grocery store, the ballpark or the gym.

Prayer focus: Introduce “Praying for ...” cards asking people to write down names of people they know who are far from God and commit to praying for opportunities to turn everyday conversations into gospel conversations. It is God who draws people to His Son, Jesus. Display the cards as a reminder of the importance of prayer each week.

We have the news people need to hear about God making a way for them to be right with Him. We also have a conversational, relational way to tell them about it. It all starts with God’s design.

Draw first circle “God’s design” and leave it there.

We see this from the very beginning. and 2 tell us about life as our Designer meant it to be. It’s a life we long for because God has set eternity in the heart of every man (). God has a design for our lives—for every life He ever created.

God created us and He loves us.

God designed the world and everything in it. He created everything as it was meant to be and it was good ().

» God designed the world and everything in it. He created everything as it was meant to be and it was good ().

He created humans in His image—the pinnacle of His creation. He called us very good ()

» He created humans in His image—the pinnacle of His creation. He called us very good ()

God has a design for every aspect of our lives.

2. God has a design for every aspect of our lives.

Our gender identity ( - created us male and female)

» Our gender identity ( - created us male and female)

Our families ( - be fruitful and multiply)

» Our families ( - be fruitful and multiply)

Our work life (; - dominion over the earth and work the garden)

» Our work life (; - dominion over the earth and work the garden)

Our rest life ( - He rested on the seventh day)

» Our rest life ( - He rested on the seventh day)

Our marriages ( - leave and cleave)

» Our marriages ( - leave and cleave)

God designed us for relationship with Him.

3. God designed us for relationship with Him.

He created us to have unbroken communion with Him ( walking in the garden looking for Adam and Eve). He “walked with us and talked with us.”

» He created us to have unbroken communion with Him ( walking in the garden looking for Adam and Eve). He “walked with us and talked with us.”

This unbroken communion can be restored through the gospel.

» This unbroken communion can be restored through the gospel.

Use the last 5-10 minutes to draw out the rest of the 3 Circles diagram bringing it back to the gospel.

3 Circles Script: God has a design for every area of our lives—our families, marriages, money, sex life, work life and just plain life. God designed us to be in relationship with Him, but we have all departed from that design. The Bible calls this sin. We’re born with a sinful nature so sin comes naturally to us. There is no one who gets it right all of the time. We all sin and fall short of God’s perfect design (). This sin leaves us in brokenness. Brokenness is easy for most of us to understand. It feels like broken relationships, addiction, depression, discouragement, guilt and shame. We all want out of brokenness, so we try to fix it (squiggly lines out of brokenness). We medicate it with drugs or numb it with alcohol. We strive to be better people, hoping that somehow, someway, our good will outweigh our bad. We look for ways to alleviate our pain. When we do that, we just get more and more broken. This feels like a bad thing, but in many ways brokenness is a good thing because it’s the way God gets our attention. When we feel broken on the inside and everything’s all messed up, we know something needs to change. The Bible word for change is repent. Brokenness is what gets us ready to try God’s solution, which is to repent and believe the gospel. The change we really need comes from Jesus. God sent Jesus to live a perfect life, die the death we deserve, and be raised to life again, proving He is who He says He is and can do what He says He can do. Jesus came to forgive our sins. When we repent and believe in Him, He gives us His Spirit who helps us recover and pursue God’s design. Then Jesus sends us right back out into a broken world to tell others how to find their way out of brokenness.

Application: Where do you see yourself in this diagram? If you’re in brokenness is there anything that would keep you from repenting and believing the gospel right now? Lead in a salvation prayer.

For those who believe, what would prevent you from being trained to share the good news with others who are still in brokenness? But what about you who are still living in brokennesses? Is there any hope for you? Let’s take a look at the next point...

2. Our Broken Situation ()

Genesis 3:1–19 ESV

1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. 8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” 11 He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” 13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” 14 The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. 15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” 16 To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.” 17 And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; 18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

Genesis 3:1-

God has a design for our lives, but we depart from His design and end up in brokenness. Spend 25 minutes vision and unpacking brokenness.

We saw how God has left us with a mission make disciples of all nations. We are to tell them the good news that God made a way for them to live the way they were designed to live. We are learning a relational, conversational way to bring them the help they need through the gospel of Jesus.

Prayer focus: Reintroduce “Praying for ...” cards asking people to write names of people they know who are far from God and commit to praying for opportunities to turn everyday conversations into gospel conversations. It is God who draws people to His Son, Jesus. Display the cards as a reminder of the importance of prayer each week.

Now we are going to look at a place we all know all too well—a place we’re calling brokenness. We live in a broken world. You don’t have to look far to realize it.

In the United States today: » Forty percent of children live in single-parent homes. » One half of 1 million children have been removed from their homes due to abuse and neglect and placed in foster care. » An estimated 20 million people are ensnared in some kind of addiction

» Police report over 3,000 violent crimes a day.

in foster care. » An estimated 20 million people are ensnared in some kind of addiction. » Police report over 3,000 violent crimes a day.

» Police report over 3,000 violent crimes a day.

We’re a Humpty Dumpty nation. We’ve fallen, we’re broken and we can’t figure out how to put all the pieces back together again. And it’s not for a lack of trying. We all recognize what’s wrong in our world today. We all have a sense of the brokenness, and we try our best to fix it. We teach values in the public schools. We attempt to provide health care for every individual. We study prison recidivism rates and implement behavior- modification programs to reduce them. There are all kinds of people trying all kinds of things to put our nation back together again. Fortunately for us, God has given us the solution.

We know that God has a design for each of our lives—draw the first circle “God’s design,” but the Bible tells us that we choose to depart from that design.

We choose to depart from God’s design.

» This has been true from the very beginning. » Adam and Eve thought they knew better than God ().

Genesis 3:1–7 ESV

» The Bible word for departing from God’s design and going our own way is sin.

» We all do it (, ).

Isaiah 53:6 ESV

6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Romans 3:23 ESV

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

When we depart from God’s design, it always leads to brokenness.

» We know when our communion with God is broken. It feels like fear, shame, guilt, loneliness... ().

Genesis 3:8–10 ESV

8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.”

» We try to hide from God ().

Genesis 3:8 ESV

8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

Gen 3 8

Brokenness disrupts God’s design.

» Disrupts our spiritual life ( - We have an enemy–the serpent, Satan.).

» Disrupts our family life ( - pain in childbearing–from birth on).

Sermon 2

» Disrupts our married life ( - desire husband and he will rule over).

» Disrupts our work life ( - toil to work the earth).

» Disrupts our physical life ( - death).

Brokenness helps us see our need for change.

» We try to cover our own sin, but it doesn’t work (). » We do what we can to fix our own brokenness (relationships, drugs, alcohol, strive for a “better me”), but it doesn’t work. » Brokenness seems like a bad thing, but in many ways it’s good because it’s how God gets our attention. » God has made way out of our brokenness: the gospel.

but it doesn’t work. » Brokenness seems like a bad thing, but in many ways it’s good because it’s how God gets our attention. » God has made way out of our brokenness: the gospel.

Use the last 5-10 minutes to draw out the rest of the 3 Circles diagram bringing in the hope of the gospel.

3 Circles Script: Brokenness is easy for most of us to understand. It feels like broken relationships, addiction, depression, discouragement, guilt and shame. We all want out of brokenness, so we try to fix it (squiggly lines out of brokenness). We medicate it with drugs or numb it with alcohol. We strive to be better people, hoping that somehow, someway, our good will outweigh our bad. We look for ways to alleviate our pain. When we do that, we just get more and more broken. This feels like a bad thing, but in many ways brokenness is a good thing because it’s the way God gets our attention. When we feel broken on the inside and everything’s all messed up, we know something needs to change. The Bible’s word for change is repent. Brokenness is what gets us ready to try God’s solution, which is to repent and believe the gospel. The change we really need comes from Jesus. God sent Jesus to live a perfect life, die the death we deserve and be raised to life again, proving He is who He says He is and can do what He says He can do. Jesus came to forgive our sins. When we repent and believe in Him, He gives us His Spirit who helps us recover and pursue God’s design. Then Jesus sends us right back out into a broken world to tell others how to find their way out of brokenness.

Application: Will we choose to take God’s way out of brokenness? Will we choose to help others find their way out of brokenness?

3. God’s Great News

The gospel allows us to recover and pursue God’s design for our lives and help others do the same.

Big idea: The gospel allows us to recover and pursue God’s design for our lives and help others do the same.

Prayer focus: Take time to invite people to get on their knees (if able) and pray for those they know who are far from God. Get on your knees (if able) and pray that God will draw these people to His Son, Jesus, and give your people boldness to turn everyday conversations into gospel conversations.

Spend 5-10 minutes drawing and explaining the first part of the 3 Circles diagram.

Review: We’re going through a conversational, relational way to carry out Jesus’ mission for us as we go about our daily lives. The first week we talked about God’s design for our lives, which is evident from the very beginning. We reviewed how God created everything and it was all good. Mankind is the pinnacle of His creation and we were made for relationship with God and each other. God’s design is for us to “walk and talk” with Him just like Adam and Eve once did. However, Adam and Eve departed from God’s design–they wanted to do it their way instead of God’s way. The Bible calls this sin and tells us that we have all sinned and fall short of God’s perfect design. Sin leads to brokenness. We all know how brokenness feels. It feels like broken relationships, addiction, depression, discouragement, fear, guilt and shame. We all want out of brokenness, so we try to fix it (squiggly lines out of brokenness). We medicate it with drugs or numb it with alcohol. We strive to be better people, hoping that somehow, someway, our good will outweigh our bad. We look for ways to alleviate our pain. When we do that, we just get more and more broken. This feels like a bad thing, but in many ways brokenness is a good thing because it’s the way God gets our attention. When we feel broken on the inside and everything’s all messed up, we know something needs to change. This is where we get some really good news. The good news is that God made a way out of our brokenness.

Spend 25 minutes unpacking the gospel and our gospel mission.

God made a way out of our brokenness.

» God promised that a man would “bruise” the enemy’s head (). » God sacrificed an animal—shed its blood—to make coverings for Adam and Eve (). This is the protoevangelium or “first gospel.” » God loves us and sent His one and only Son to shed His blood and cover sin once and for all

the protoevangelium or “first gospel.” » God loves us and sent His one and only Son to shed His blood and cover sin once and for all

(, ).

John 3:16 ESV

16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Hebrews 10:10–14 ESV

10 And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. 11 And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. 14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

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The gospel is simply: Jesus died for our sins, was buried and God raised Him from the dead ().

» Unpack the gospel and the importance of every aspect—death, burial and resurrection. » The gospel saves us from our sins ().

We just have to repent and believe the gospel ().

» Repent means to change—to turn from our sins and turn to Jesus. » God doesn’t condemn us—we’re already condemned because of .

» God wants to save us ().

John 3:17–21 ESV

17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. 21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

God helps us recover and pursue His design for our lives.

» He removes the heart of stone and gives us a heart of flesh (). » His Spirit indwells and empowers us.

Sermon 3

» He restores us to the way we were supposed to be—He reconciles us—repairs what was broken ().

» We are new creations.

» Now we are God’s ambassadors to a broken world.

Conclusion and application: We want every resident of our community, town or city to have repeated opportunities to hear and respond to the gospel. We want to train you to go and tell them. Give details of the six-week training and urge all to attend. God has given us a mission and we want to be faithful to carry it out. Let’s choose to help God repair those who are still spiritually broken.

Gospel Conversation Cards: Introduce “Gospel Conversations” cards encouraging people to write down the name or names of those with whom they have gospel conversations. Make these cards available to your six-week training groups and display them prominently so you can celebrate and encourage obedience.

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