The Gospel

ANNNOUNCEMENTS

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Game Night

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Lord, here we go again!

Pray.

Think myself empty.

Read myself full.

Write myself clear.

Pray myself haught.

Be myself.

Forget myself.

Lord, let this message be a beacon for you. Let me be forgotten and invisible. Let them see and know you, only you. “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.” Psalm 19:14

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The word Gospel means “good news”. It’s pretty important to understand that. The Bible is not a book that tells us what we have to do to earn salvation, it is a book that tells us what God did to earn our salvation. What he did was send Jesus. Jesus did for us what we could never do for ourselves and he paid for what we had done in his body on the cross. God created human beings and intended for them to be ruling creatures. We were supposed to be under God but over everything else. We were supposed to rule over creation under the guidance and authority of God’s Word and to function as conduits for all the blessings of heaven. That’s how it was supposed to be, but unfortunately, the Bible tells the story of how our first parents, Adam and Eve, fell into sin by choosing to rebel against God’s Word in order to become autonomous ruling creatures. Basically, they wanted to be gods unto themselves, deciding good and evil. From that point on, humanity has been on a downward spiral moving further and further away from God and our original design and glory. The heart of the Gospel is the Good News that Jesus has come as God in the flesh and has obeyed God perfectly and has therefore won the right to all the blessings God originally intended to give to men and women. Furthermore, through his sacrificial death on the cross, he has paid the debt that we owed to God for disobeying his commands. There is therefore no need anymore for us to hide from God. In Jesus, we can come home and we can be restored. The climax of the Gospel is the great news that he rose from the dead and ascended into heaven where he now intercedes on our behalf. He gives the Holy Spirit to all his people and he slowly but surely, changes our hearts, reforms our desires and teaches us how to be the children of God we were always intended to be. For now, Jesus remains in heaven, changing the world one person at a time, but one day he will return and judge the world in righteousness. He will remove from this world all sin and all causes of sin and he will restore the cosmos to a state of peace, prosperity and flourishing and all those who have received him as their Lord and Savior will participate in his rule and enjoy his goodness forever.

The gospel is the good news that God, the loving Creator, sovereign King, and holy Judge of all, has looked upon men and women wonderfully and uniquely made in His image who have rebelled against Him, are separated from Him, and deserve death before Him, and He has sent His Son, Jesus, God in the flesh, the long-awaited King, to live a perfect and powerful life, to die a sacrificial and substitutionary death, and to rise from the grave in victory over sin, Satan, and death. The gospel is a summons from God for all people in all nations to repent and believe in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins, turning from all idols to declare allegiance to Jesus alone as King and trust in Jesus alone as Lord. All who turn from Jesus will experience everlasting, horrifying suffering in hell, while all who trust in Jesus will experience everlasting, satisfying communion with God in heaven. (Secret Church 2020, David Platt, Radical.net)

For now, Jesus remains in heaven, changing the world one person at a time, but one day he will return and judge the world in righteousness. He will remove from this world all sin and all causes of sin and he will restore the cosmos to a state of peace, prosperity and flourishing and all those who have received him as their Lord and Savior will participate in his rule and enjoy his goodness forever.

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PRAY

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Story—The old man that we don’t want to disturb…but like his company from time to time

· John 3:16-18

As we look at the Gospel, we have the different facets. Can anyone remember what those are?

(2) What is the Gospel?

3) GOD

MAN

JESUS

RESPONSE

(4) WHO IS GOD?

Have you ever sat around and just pondered/thought about who God is? How would you explain God if someone asked you? Would you be able to?

If you were to draw a picture of God, what would he look like?

But, who is God really?

First and foremost, lets talk about who God isn’t:

· Genie to grant wishes

· Tyrant

· Janitor to just sweep your messes under the proverbial rug

· Puppet master

· Negotiator

Two things you absolutely need to know about God in light of the Gospel:

(5) God is the Creator.

· Genesis 1:1, 3, 6, 9, 11, 14, 20, 24, 26, 31

· Psalm 19:1

· Romans 1:20

Have you ever been in complete awe of God’s creation?

Plane-

Hike-

Backyard Storm (GoPro)

God makes no mistakes nor accidents, Everything God creates is on purpose for a purpose.

Meaning and responsibility to life

(6) WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?

(7) WE ARE ACCOUNTABLE TO GOD.

We are created, we are also accountable to God;

Example—Kids who misbehave or bossy/power trip

· Genesis 2:16-17

(8) GOD IS HOLY AND RIGHTEOUS

HOLY-SET APART AS CREATOR OF ALL REALITY

RIGHTEOUS- MORE THAN JUST DOING GOOD-SET APART AND ABOVE ALL

Not just being good and morally upstanding-Defining characteristic; so overwhelming and dangerous to approach.

· Exodus 34:6-7

Moses couldn’t even look on God and

But doesn’t God just sweep the ugly under the rug? No,

· Psalm 11:7

· Psalm 33:5

· Psalm 89:14

· Psalm 97:2

We “want a God who declines to deal with our sin” (Gilbert 44)

Most of us have no problems at all thinking of God as loving and compassionate. But until we “learn that God is also holy & righteous and that He is determined never to overlook, ignore, or tolerate sin.” (Gilbert 45)

· Habakkuk 1:13

(7) GOD IS THE RIGHTEOUS CREATOR

As we work through these each week, I pray that you’ll get a sense of just how big this is in your life. We want to celebrate God’s holiness because without Christ, we would still be lost in our mess.

MAN

Slide 1 What is the Gospel?

Story—Ticket

SHOW OF HANDS

-How many of you have been caught doing something that you shouldn’t have been doing?

-How many of you felt bad about doing it after you got caught?

-Would you have felt bad about it had you not been caught?

-Do you still feel bad about it?

We make light of sin, therefore make light of God.

“God created human beings, is intention was that they would live under his righteous rule in perfect joy, worshipping him, obeying him and thereby living in unbroken fellowship with him.”

The authority given to us is not ours but God’s. he gave it to us as his created beings. He created and therefore has the right to command.

Unfortunately, we (humans) disagreed.

Slide 4 The Human Condition

The Human Condition—the fallen mentality

We think we know better. We believed the lie and perpetuate it today.

Genesis 3:1-13

Have you ever had a friend talk you into doing something you shouldn’t have done? Let’s say you went along or did this thing and then got caught. Who gets in trouble? Why?

We can handle our challenges, but we really can’t. We have deceived ourselves into thinking that we can handle the crown.

In class, have you ever been put in a position where another student was in charge. Did they do things that they had no authority to do?

God gave all this authority to Adam-all these things he had placed under his feet-but he wanted God’s position also.

The conscious decision was to reject the King

Slide 5 SIN

Genesis 2:16-17

Sin-“ the Bible calls this disobedience of God’s command—whether in thought, word or deed—Sin—literally missing the mark.

“Deliberately violated God’s Command, broke their relationship with him, and rejected him as their rightful Lord.

This action continues today

Our understanding of God and his right rule is darkened and tainted by sin. The death was spiritual death, a separation from God.

--Romans 3:23; 3:10

And we look at sin but don’t quite grasp the understanding of what it means.

Man’s position in the Gospel is that We have disobeyed God’s Word. WE have ignored his commands. WE have sinned against him.

WE DID THIS and still do…

We want to make light of what sin is and make salvation easy to gain if we just do the right things. But it isn’t from a sense of meaningless or purposelessness. These are sypmptoms of sin, not SIN.

We want to cast our blame on the serpent for tempting adam and eve but we don’t want to take responsibility for our actions. We are the criminals, not the victims.

Our relationship with God is broken. Too often we want to reduce God to an equal with us but that’s not right. We are his subordinates, his created beings.

Imagine a King and his subjects. The right rule of the king is over his subjects.

We are treasonous, traitorous rebels of the good and righteous king.

Until we understand this, we can’t understand the sacrifice it took.

Sin is not negative thinking or something that we can overcome on our own. It’s not possible to have our best life now if we just will it to be…this is not something we can even remotely overcome on our own.

We are corrupted—sin rules us and lives in us.

--Romans 8:6

--Romans 3:19

Slide 6 What we deserve.

And hell awaits

Rev 16:1, 1:7, 6:16-17, 9:15, 20:10

--Mark 9:43

Romans 6:6, 7:15-16

Ephesians 2:1-3

Slide 7 But God…

BUT GOD…

Ephesians 2:4

JESUS

Penal substitution is a theory that argues that Christ, by his own sacrificial choice, was punished in the place of sinners, thus satisfying the demands of justice so God can justly forgive the sins.

EP 2:1-4

Lk 7:36-50

Response