THE GOSPEL THAT GIVES HOPE PART 3

Introduction

-God has put many women in our paths throughout our lives that have made an impact and have shaped us into becoming who we are. We always want to recognize them in humble gratitude for giving of themselves to us. But today we mark specifically the love and sacrifice of mothers. HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY TO ALL THE MOMS OUT THERE.

-However, we also recognize that different people are in different places in their relationship with mothers or as mothers. And we love and want to minister to you all. Before we have a special prayer time for mothers, I want to read something that I hope will let you know that God loves you, I love you, the church loves you, and you are not alone.

-This is in no way original to me. I received this from a pastor friend who shares this at his church, and I believe he originally took it from a letter that Amy Thomas wrote to her pastor, and I hope it is a blessing to you:

Today we celebrate Motherhood…and the wide continuum of mothering

*To those who gave birth this year to their first child—we celebrate with you.

*To those who lost a child this year – we mourn with you.

*To those who are in the trenches with little ones every day and wear the badge of food stains – we appreciate you.

*To those who experienced loss through miscarriage, failed adoptions, or running away—we mourn with you.

*To those who walk the hard path of infertility, fraught with pokes, prods, tears, and disappointment – we walk with you. Forgive us when we say foolish things. We don’t mean to make this harder than it is.

*To those who are foster moms, mentor moms, & spiritual moms – we need you

*To those who have warm and close relationships with your children – we celebrate with you.

*To those who have disappointment, heartache, and distance with your children – we sit with you.

*To those who lost their mothers this year – we grieve with you.

*To those who experienced abuse at the hands of your own mother – we acknowledge your experience.

*To those who lived through driving tests, medical tests, and the overall testing of motherhood – we are better for having you in our midst.

*To those who are single and long to be married and mothering your own children – we mourn that life has not yet turned out the way you longed for it to be.

*To those who step-parent – we walk with you on these complex paths.

*To those who envisioned lavishing love on grandchildren -yet that dream is not to be, we pray patiently with you.

*To those who will have emptier nests in the upcoming year – we grieve and rejoice with you.

*To those who placed children up for adoption — we commend you for your selflessness and remember how you hold that child in your heart.

*And to those who are pregnant with new life, both expected and surprising –we anticipate with you.

This Mother’s Day, we walk with you because God designed the role and commands us to honor it. Mothering reflects the Imago Dei (Image of God) by bringing forth new life, nurturing those on her path, and living with the tension of providing both freedom and a safety net.

-Now, I want all of you to stand up at home, and if you have a mother-figure of some sort in your household, I want you to gather around her and place your hands on her.

~If you are home alone and are a mother, please stand and know that we are mentally and spiritually reaching out to you.

~If you do not have a mother figure in your home, stand in honor of the mother-figures God has placed in your life

-Mothers (as well as fathers) have been given the task of discipleship to their children (as well as others in their care). Deuteronomy 6 tells parents to teach their kids the Word of God in every circumstance that they find themselves in.

-And an important part of that discipleship is ensuring they understand the true gospel message. When the kids grow up and go out, they will be confronted with a lot of contrary belief systems, and so it is important for them to know what they believe and why they believe it.

-And I have been doing this study over the past several weeks about the true gospel message because it is the only message that can give hope in uncertain times.

~Faced with viruses and murderous hornets and whatever else 2020 throws our way, we need to have our feet on the solid ground of the gospel.

Romans 1:1–7 ESV

1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, 2 which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, 3 concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh 4 and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, 5 through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, 6 including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ, 7 To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

-To see the previous parts of this study you can go to our YouTube channel, but what we have looked at so far is that the biblical gospel is unique, there is only one true gospel message that was founded in eternity and revealed through the prophets. This message has God as its author, good news as its substance, and Jesus Christ as its subject….

6) The provision of the gospel (v. 5)

-According to v. 5 we have received grace through our Lord Jesus Christ. Grace is the provision given to us.

-You see, the message of the gospel is that we cannot earn any favor from God whatsoever. But God provides favor and salvation based on the merits of His Son. We cannot earn merit with God. We cannot do enough good to gain merit with God. And so, God has to give that merit to us based on His love and goodness. That is grace.

-We are saved by grace, meaning that God saves us from our sin not based on us and our worthiness. Salvation has to be a gift given by God based on what Christ accomplished because sinful humanity is enslaved to sin and entrapped in the kingdom of darkness, unable to help or save themselves out of their situation.

-Someone who is stuck in a pit but doesn’t know they are stuck in a pit, or even if they have some inkling that they are stuck in a pit, they don’t have the power or the tools or the know-how in order to get out of the pit. They are unable to work enough to get out of the pit. They have to completely rely on someone else’s power and provision to get out of that pit.

-That is us in sin. As the lyrics of an old hymn says:

I was sinking deep in sin, far from the peaceful shore,

Very deeply stained within, sinking to rise no more,

But the Master of the sea heard my despairing cry,

From the waters lifted me, now safe am I.

~And so, because of God’s love for a lost humanity He gives grace through Jesus—He saves us as a complete and utter gift.

-And it’s not even God giving a gift to someone worthy. In our sin we are His enemies, and yet He gave us the most eternally valuable gift imaginable.

-Imagine that you have an enemy that has done you great harm. They’ve hurt your family. They’ve hurt you physically. They’ve hurt you financially. They have done everything possible to ruin you.

~But instead of giving them what they deserve, you turn around and buy them a brand new Ford Mustang and gift it to them out of love that you shouldn’t have and they don’t deserve. You gift them because of grace.

-That is God’s provision toward us. But it doesn’t just stop with salvation. God provides grace for our sanctification=that is, our continued growth in holiness.

~We can’t by sheer effort become more like Christ. But God gifts us with grace through His Spirit to grow and mature and change. As we live out our identity in Christ, the Spirit changes us, but it is not something we earn or deserve—it is a gift of grace. Only by grace can you become more and more the Christian God intended you to become.

-And neither do we have the strength and ability and power to live through the trials of this world. Any strength we receive from God for our circumstances is a gift of grace. We can’t work for strength, but we receive the gift of strength.

-So, you see the common theme, that grace is provided by God, and our only recourse is to receive it as a gift. The salvation, the sanctification, and the strengthening are provisions of God’s grace. Will you receive from His hand this most important part of the gospel?

-If you are unsure of your eternal destiny—receive the gift of grace offered to you through Jesus’ sacrifice. Believe on Jesus, His death, His resurrection, His sovereign rulership of your life. What a great present to give your mom on mother’s day—the gift of your salvation.

-If you are a Christian who is struggling with sin, rely on the gift of grace to kill that sin and allow yourself to walk freely for Christ—letting all the weights and anything else that hinders fall away.

-If you are struggling through this crisis or life circumstances, instead of fretting receive His grace. Pray that God shows you how His grace will give you strength. Pray that God will allow you to understand the lesson that Paul learned through His trials—that God’s grace is sufficient and that His strength is actually made perfect in all our weaknesses.

-Moms who are out there struggling. God’s grace is what you need. When you are weak, He is strong in you through grace. When you are at your wit’s end, He is there to uphold and uplift you. When you are at your lowest, He is there to pick you up.

-Part of the good news is that God provides grace for our salvation, sanctification, and strength.

7) The service of the gospel (v. 5)

-Paul says in v. 5 that we not only receive grace but we also receive apostleship.

~In its most pure form, the word apostle refers to someone who is an emissary—someone empowered by another to go forth and speak on that person’s behalf.

~For the Christian church there was an office of the apostle that was given to only those who saw Christ’s ministry and His resurrection, upon whom the Scripture and the Church were founded. But Paul is making a distinction between work and office.

-You notice that Paul says that through Jesus Christ WE have received an apostleship. In context that WE refers to the Roman church members and Paul, but then extends to all Christians. Paul is saying this is something that everybody receives when the gospel is received. In fact, this is included as an important part of the gospel.

-But the Roman church members and Christians in our day do not hold the office of apostle. So, Paul is not saying that we become apostles. But he is saying that we receive an assignment from God to go forth and be His emissaries.

-Do you ever think about this as part of the gospel—that God gives to those who respond to the gospel message an assignment? Somehow, we have neutered the call of the gospel to merely becoming a card-carrying member of a local church body. We’ve watered it down to mean that all you need to do after responding to the gospel is to come and sit in a pew and endure a sermon every week—and that then you have somehow done your gospel service.

-But that is not at all the case. Paul says that in response to the gospel WE (that is, all Christians) receive an apostleship—we all become emissaries of Jesus Christ here on this earth. That means you, that means me, that means all of us. We are given an assignment by God, and we will continue to have assignments from God while we are on this earth.

~The apostleship is never revoked. What it looks like might change over time, but you will always be an emissary, you will always have an assignment.

-Paul recognized this apostleship in his life. In v. 1 he recognized that his assignment involved holding the office of an apostle and that it involved him being set apart for the gospel of God. This translated into him planting some of the first churches and discipling them.

-Yours and my apostleship will be different from Paul’s and will be different from one another, but it involves us going out into the world for gospel ministry. For some it will be vocational (and maybe God is calling you to missions or pastoring or some other vocation), but for most it will not involve vocational ministry, but serving God according to whatever calling and gifting He has given us.

-Right now, with the world situation as it is, it might be difficult to go out and be with people to fulfill our assignments, but let me ask you: Before all the self-isolation hit were you fulfilling your apostleship? If so, are you finding ways to fulfill it now in self-isolation?

~If you have not been fulfilling your apostleship, what can you do today to begin? And what will you do with your God-given assignment when all the self-isolation is over with?

-You know, motherhood and fatherhood are part of the apostleship. Mothers and fathers have a great assignment from God bringing their kids up in the knowledge and admonition of the Lord. You are an emissary of God to your kids.

~And I thank you mothers for doing it. It is not always easy, but God will reward your efforts.

-But let me talk to the kids and the youth. After you became a Christian, what changed? Did you have any sort of tug on your heart to fulfill an assignment from God for the sake of the gospel?

~Just because you are young doesn’t mean God doesn’t have an apostleship for you. He has a very important assignment for you. But that means you have to read your Bible and pray and ask God to reveal it to you.

~And I say this to adults and kids and youth alike: I guarantee your apostleship does not involve being on your phone all day, watching TV all day, or playing video games all day.

-What are you doing in service to the gospel? That is part of the gospel—you believe the gospel message, you trust in Christ, He provides you an assignment to be His emissary and He gives you the grace you need to fulfill it. The gospel message falls short without acknowledging this call to service.

-Moms, help your kids find their apostleship, and continue to be an encouragement to them to find their God-given assignment.

Conclusion

-Moms, this is your day, and we recognize you as a special gift from God. My prayer is that you will rely on the grace of God for your special assignment. And I have an assignment for all the family members out there to make mom feel special today. Pamper her.

-I want to make one final observation. Moms sacrifice a lot for their families. The unconditional love and the giving of themselves is a reflection of God’s love for us in Christ.

-One story gives a demonstration of how moms love and sacrifice are a picture of the gospel:

There’s a story back in the 1800’s when the California gold fever broke out, a man went there, leaving his wife in New England with his boy. As soon as he got on and was successful he was to send for them. It was a long time before he succeeded, but at last he got money enough to send for them. The wife’s heart leaped for joy. She took her boy to New York, got on board a Pacific steamer, and sailed away to San Francisco.

They had not been long at sea before the cry of “Fire! fire!” rang through the ship, and rapidly it gained on them. There was a powder magazine on board, and the captain knew the moment the fire reached the powder, every man, woman, and child would perish.

They got out the life-boats, but they were too small! In a minute they were overcrowded. The last one was just pushing away, when the mother pled with them to take her and her boy. “No,” they said, “we have got as many as we can hold.” She entreated them so earnestly, that at last they said they would take one more. Do you think she leaped into that boat and left her boy to die? No! She seized her boy, gave him one last hug, kissed him, and dropped him over into the boat. “My boy,” she said, “if you live to see your father, tell him that I died in your place.”

That is a faint picture of what Christ has done for us. He laid down his life for us. He died that we might live. Will you trust in Him today…