Gospel Above All
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Gospel Above All
Gospel Above All
Hello, I’m Ben Powell. Many of you all may know me as the recharge guy. I’m hear to talk to you about the Engage ministry, what I’m doing here in Ontario the rest of the year, and the heartbeat behind it.
It may help to first answer the question, how did we end up here in Owen Sound? I’ll make a long story short. My family was finishing a missionary internship with word of life in Poland. In our time there Megan and grew to understand that God wanted us to have a ministry that worked directly local churches. Encouraging them, helping them, connecting them. We asked God to open a door and show us where he wanted us. Then a bunch of incredible circumstances, we got connected with the Verkiaks, were invited to be an Engage missionary in Ontario Canada , and several months later we arrive here!
Some of you who know me, like my wife, are probably cringing over how much i just skipped, but I’m not up here to talk about me. I’m up here to talk about what God is doing through his Gospel.
So what is Engage that I believed that this is where God my family? It’s not really that complicated. I get to be the one who builds the relationships with the churches that Word of Life exists to serve. I get to sit down with Youth Pastors, drink some Tim’s, and ask: How are you doing? How’s your ministry? What can I do to help? How can I serve you as a fellow minister of the Gospel? Right now more than ever, Pastors are feeling burnt out and lonely in their ministry. The goal is to come alongside these pastors and youth leaders and help them pursue the cause of the Gospel.
But what the point? Are we just helping Pastors feel good and promoting Word of Life? What is this ministry all about?
Look at that poster back there. That is Jack Wartzen’s most famous quote, and it is something that Word of Life is taking seriously. The vision is this:
Every Student in Canada hearing the Gospel from a friend and growing in their walk with Christ.
We want teens to hear the gospel at church, at camp, but most importantly from a friend. The most influential person in a any young persons life in today’culture are their friends. The most effective missionary we can send into a school is a student bearing the light of the Gospel. We believe that the biblical prescription for fulfilling the great commission is discipleship multiplication. If you have a student come to Christ, they then can be equipped to share their new faith. they share with friend, that friend believes AND is discipled by that friend to share their new faith as well. Then they BOTH go out and share the Gospel two new friends. You go from two, to four, to eight to 16 ect.
When we say every student in Canada hearing the Gospel from a friend, that is not just a nice saying to make us feel good about ministry. We have a big God who does Big things. I genuinely believe that by the Power of the Holy Spirit, discipleship multiplication can have have major cultural impact on this nation in the next two decades.
This is something that starts with you and me championing the gospel ourselves.
Now when I say that, I anticipate at least some of you sink down in your chair. You’re thinking that evangelism week was HARD. Maybe it was one of the hardest things you’ve done in that week of sharing the gospel with someone who knows you very well. You don’t feel like your a good enough christian to go be the neighborhood evangelist. Life is way to complicated and I have way to many problems to go be a “champion.”
Well you can calm down, that is not what i’m asking of you this morning. There is no verse in the Bible that says “go therefore and try really hard to be a good Christian and share the good news if it’s not too inconvenient”
No, what Jesus said was:
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 everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
I am not asking you to try and be a better Christian because
you can’t. That not not how sanctification works.
what I am asking you to do is much more personal.
What I am asking you to do is to value the Gospel above all.
I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
I want you to ask yourself this morning, who are you? What defines you? What is it that gets you out of bed in the morning? What is your motivating force for why you do what you do?
Ah man Ben, these are great things to think about. But I really have some big stuff going on in my life now. Maybe after I...
I believe that wherever it is that you want to go in life, the Gospel is sufficient to get you there.
Ben, what are you talking about? Christ died for my sins and rose form the grave. I already know that, I’ve known it for a long time.
How does embracing something we already know bring us to places we’ve never been?
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek.
“The Gospel is the one thing in the New testament , other than Jesus himself, that is referred to directly as the power of God. Not contains the power of God. Not Channels the power of God. The gospel is itself the raw, unstoppable, death-defying power of God.”
One one hand, the Gospel is so simple that a child can understand it. My daughter first prayed to trust Christ as her savior when she was 4 years old. On the other had, the truth of the Gospel is so deep, profound, and far reaching that two millennia of Christianity has not even begin to exhaust the unpacking of its implications.
J.D. Greer has this great summation:
we were dead in our trespasses and sin,
Religion couldn’t help us
New resolutions to change couldn’t help us.
Jesus, the baby born of a virgin in Bethlehem, was the Son of God
He did what we couldn't do. He lived a righteous life that pleased God.
Still He got crucified on a cross under the curse of sin.
He did that for us
he died in our place.
But Jesus was raised from the grave to offer new life in His Spirit.
Jesus gives this life to all who call upon him in faith.
The beauty of the gospel is that those who trust in Jesus need never fear alienation from God. In Christ you are secure, In Christ you are loved. In Christ you are whole. In Christ you are chosen. In Christ, you are pure.
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus,
Simply believing this, Paul Says, Releases into us the power of God to make it so.
Believing the Gospel is not only how you get released from the penalty of sin, it’s how you get released form the Power of sin.
Wait a minute, I don’t feel secure, loved, whole, chosen or pure. I believe in Jesus, trust Him for my salvation. If simply believing is God’s power to make it so, why doesn’t my believing make this more real for me?
Answer: Gospel Above all.
Quick theology refresher. Justification is the one time event where God declares you righteous based off of Jesus’ sinlessness. Sanctification is the lifelong process in which God makes you more like Jesus.
True belief in the Gospel is enough for you to be Justified. This one time event is irreversible, you are forever written in God’s book as having eternal life in Jesus Christ. However just because you own something doesn’t mean that you posses it.
If I call you up, and say that you have inherited 1 million dollars form a distant relative. That would be great! You are the owner of that million dollars, but it will have no impact on your daily life until you actually posses the money in a way you can spend it.
In the same way, in Christ we are owners of new eternal life, but unless we posses that new life in Christ in a meaningful way, it will have no impact on your daily life.
But everything that was a gain to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ. More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them as dung, so that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ—the righteousness from God based on faith. My goal is to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death,
In order to for this new life in Christ to have impact on your daily life, in order to posses it, you must value it more than anything else. Christ had a parable about this very thing:
“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure, buried in a field, that a man found and reburied. Then in his joy he goes and sells everything he has and buys that field.
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls. When he found one priceless pearl, he went and sold everything he had and bought it.
In order to experience the sanctifying power of the Gospel, you must value the Gospel above all.
But what does that mean? Let’s get personal:
who are you? What defines you? What is it that gets you out of bed in the morning? What is your motivating force for why you do what you do?
What person is siting on the throne of your life, the pilot seat of your plans, the CEO of your calendar and bank account? Who do you work hard every day to please and hake happy. Is that person you, an Idol of some kind?
Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship.
Jesus wants to be on the throne of your heart, your motivating force in your life decisions, the person you strive to please. We were designed to have Jesus in that place, and we will continually be unsatisfied until we do. When Jesus is on the throne, we will value the Gospel above all else because that is Jesus’ heartbeat.
The last thing our Lord and creator told us before He went up to heaven was GO! Go and tell everyone about me! Make Disciples! teach them! Because there is nothing more valuable, nothing that matters more in this world than what I have done.
It is more important that our desires
it it more important that our dreams, or plans
It is more important than our comfort, culture, or preferences
It is more important that our pain, struggles, or feelings.
The Gospel is above all.
But as for me, I will never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. The world has been crucified to me through the cross, and I to the world.
Let me tell you about one of the most impactful things that anyone ever told me.
I have made 3 really important spiritual decisions in my life.
First was my choice to trust Christ as my savior. This happened when I was so young, my parents remember better than I do. I was saved, but it didn’t have much of an impact for most of my childhood.
When I was 18, I was sitting in my room, 2 am in the morning, I told God that I was tired of trying to live life my way, I was was surrendering myself to his will. I’d do anything he wanted me to do, go anywhere he wanted me to go. That brought me to the Bible Institute, where at the end of my first year i reaffirmed that commitment to go into vocational ministry if that was what he wanted.
Fast forward 6 years, I am a missionary in Poland, working hard running myself dry. I was working hard for the Gospel, I mean I was working really hard. I worked so hard that I made myself sick and laid in bed for 2 weeks, not fully recovering for months.
I was what the Bible calls a fool:
Are you so foolish? After beginning by the Spirit, are you now finishing by the flesh?
Here is the important lesson I had to still learn: Doing things for God is not the same as walking with God,
I’ll say that again: Doing things for God is not the same as walking with God!
Sure I was a missionary working for the Gospel, but I wasn’t working with Jesus as my motivation. I was trying to do it myself and show how well I could do my job. The truth is that God doesn’t need me to do anything, there is nothing i have to offer that God does’t already have. God wanted my heart much more than my hands, He wanted an obedience that grew from the soil of desire, not duty.
What does that mean? Imagine that obedience is represented by an apple. Your motivation for why you obey is the kind of soil you plat the tree in. If you were to grow an apple tree in my home town in NC, you would have to plat it in what we call red mud. It is a hard, clay like dirt that will stain your cloths if get it on you. If you were to grow an apple tree is that soil, you would get small, bitter, bad tasting apples. Contrast that with the soil down the road in Meaford. If I planted the same tree there, I would get big, juicy, sweet apples. If your obedience is grown form the soil of duty, it’s like handing Jesus an apple grown NC red mud. But if you obedience is grown from the soil of desire, as in you desire to obey out of love, then that is like handing Jesus an apple grown in the rich fertile soil in Meaford. The point is that our obedience is’t really obedience if we are doing it for the wrong reasons.
You see, despite my life situation and spiritual growth, I still had myself on the throne, I was working to please self rather than God. At some point I had basically told God, Hey thanks for getting me here! Thanks for showing me where you want me to be a missionary. Now please get out of my way and let me do my job.
There was so much pride in my heart that I was blind to. To help cure it, God let me break. then, I crawl back to Him and ask, God, what happened? Why didn’t you help me?
He responds: Why? because you were doing all the right things for the wrongs reasons,
you were trying to fuel your own satisfaction in your work instead of letting me fill you.
You spent time pleasing other people instead of pleasing me.
You were working for your own glory, not mine.
You actions were starting down the path of self-destruction, of course I didn’t help you!
Until you learn that you learn that your heart is what I want above all else, you are going to just continue this downward spiral. Let me sit upon the throne of your heart, value me above all else and I will give you the desires of you heart!
Seek first my kingdom, My Gospel, and then all these things will be added unto you.
Let me read to you from the work: Handbook to happiness by Dr. Charles Solomon. These words are what finally made my stubborn head get it:
“If we are to struggle to live for him, then he cannot live through us. Until we deal with self, we continue the self struggle, perhaps even asking him to help us. We may spend effort and money for him. But this isn’t the Christ-centered life. It is simply trying to harness the self life to work for God.”
“Are you ready to stop spinning your wheel so that Christ can become your center? Has God convicted you of the utter corruptness and sinfulness of the flesh? Unless and until we have seen this picture stand out in bold relief, we will not see the absolute necessity of denying ourselves and taking up the cross (Luke 9:23). If you are ready, just close your eyes, bow your head, and pray a selfer’s prayer. Tell God that you surrender and that he can take over and do whatever he wants with you. Admit or confess that you have been attempting to live the Christian life in your own strength. Then claim by faith your death, burial, resurrection, and ascension with Christ. Thank God for saving you from yourself, and trust him to live his life through you.”
This was the third important spiritual decision I have made in my life. I had to admit my natural corruption of the flesh and weakness in spirit, and in humility admit that I cannot, and never will be able to live for God. Instead, I choose to let Christ live through me so that I, like Paul can say:
I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
This is the Core of what it means to Value the Gospel above all. This transforming power is why I wholeheartedly believe that it is the power of God unto the salvation of the nations.
All we need to do is:
1. let Christ live through us,
2. champion the gospel from the soil of desire,
3. watch the Holy Spirit do amazing things for the nation and this world.
This power of the Gospel is the fuel that drives Word of Life, and personally, the Engage ministry. This is why I can focus my attention on making connections and building relationships, and the power of the Gospel does the rest.
Remember the vision of every student hearing the Gospel from a friend and growing in their walk with Christ? This is also why I believe this is more than a cool motto to print on flyers and posters.
Let’s bring it home: what am I asking from you all?
if you have never made a conscientious decision to humble yourself and have Christ as center of your life, take some time to understand this decision so Christ can live through you.
If you know a church or pastor that could really use some encouragement, talk to me later as I’d love to connect with them.
Lastly, maybe this has really connected with you and God has given you a passion for the gospel. Maybe you could be a future Engage missionary.
If you have any questions about any of these, please don’t hesitate to ask. You will likely forget if you wait until later.
Lets end in prayer.