Sunday School May 15 2020

God’s Mission Sends us to All people

Play a Download Youth Ministry game making people decide between two choices.

Topics to debate:

Nike or Adidas

Cool ranch or Nacho Cheese doritos

Chicken or beef

Steak or burgers

Xbox or Playstation

It’s fun to debate topics of no consequence.

It doesn’t matter if you like nacho cheese Doritos over cool ranch.

Snacks, drinks, whatever, it’s fun to show partiality and debate which are better.

However, much like we talked about Wednesday night, God doesn’t do that with people.

Thankfully, God doesn’t choose people with the right background, culture, or ethnicity.

Jesus’ church is for all people.

BUT not all people belong to His church.

That’s an important distinction we shouldn’t gloss over.

His heart is for all nations.

But not all people in all those nations have a heart desiring God!

To repeat a verse from Wednesday.

2 Peter 3:9 “9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”

Jesus desires none to die without Him but for ALL to repent.

That includes btw, Adolf Hitler… serial killers… bullies and the bullied…

Here is the clarifying part though… Just because Jesus DESIRES all to repent, it doesn’t everyone will.

… We cannot gloss over the point that some people want nothing to do with God.

In Acts 11 this morning, Peter and the Apostles have taken the gospel to the gentiles.

What is the Gospel?

1 Corinthians 15:3-4 “3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,”

Who are Gentiles? - Not Jews.

Let’s read Acts 11:1-18

You might be shocked to hear this, but there isn’t actually alot going on here in this scripture.

However, the little that is happening does offer us alot to take away from it.

So in verses 1-3, Peter is being accused of violating the law of Moses.

In the law, men had to be circumcised.

Jesus didn’t come to remove the old Covenant, he established the New Covenant by FULFILLING the Old.

In other words, all of the requirements of the old covenant, nobody was able to follow those perfectly.

Jesus did!

So when he tells Peter, “It’s alright dude, you can eat bacon now!”

He’s not changing the rules, He’s establishing New rules only because he has fulfilled the old.

He satisfied the old covenant’s sacrificial demands.

So what does all that mean?

KNOW WHAT YOU BELIEVE!

It means, that when men came at Peter and said, HEY! Gentiles can be followers of Christ, but they have to adopt Jewish culture and customs.

Colossians 2:8 (ESV)

8 See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.

Peter was saying, if Jesus came for everyone, some people will accept Christ, but they still won’t be like us!

There are cultural differences that it’s ok to accept!

The important thing is that we are living according to what Jesus says.

Going back to Colossians 2:8 though,

Where are some places that you may be taken captive by philosophy, empty deceiipt, human traditions, and things the world says is ok but Christ doesn’t?

School, Social media, even at home sometimes, definitely from friends, the homes of your friends.

The point is, we can actually be taken captive ANYWHERE!

You’ll find if you don’t know what you believe, you’ll be more susceptible to believe anything.

Let’s read that again together this morning…

A few years ago someone called my grandma and scammed her out of about $1000.

Here’s how I found out, I showed up at my grandma’s house one day and she asked me “Benjamin, did everything work out with Allison?”

I said What?

She said Did she get out of jail?

I was like WHAT? What are you talking about.

She then proceeded to tell me a story about how a man called her and said Allison was in jail and he needed $1000 to get her out.

Now the worst part is, He didn’t want cash, he wanted gift cards, and my grandma bought them and mailed them to a P.O. box!

Now I know what happened, my grandma is pretty predictable.

The guy called and said “Hello, how are you?”

My grandma didn’t know who it was so she guessed me.

He said Yes, this is Benjamin.

Then my grandma no doubt asked, “Well how is Allison doing?”

Now the scammer had 2 names to work with and my Grandma was baited.

If my grandma had simply called me, she wouldn’t saved herself a lot of money and heartache.

But she was taken for a scam because she forgot what was true.

If we don’t know what we believe, we will be susceptible to believe anything.

This is how we get to living in a culture where “Men can get pregnant”

and we now have pregnant men emoji’s

That honestly ticks me off, because it’s disrespectful to women.

Dude trust me… Women are WAY MORE tough than men are.

I want no part of that pregnancy thing.

And I’m not about to belittle a woman and take something away from her and how great she is by saying a man can do it too…

The irony is that is the misogyny the feminist movement hates so much....

Ladies… You don’t need me to tell you this… but you are way cooler than that.

Way better…

Don’t believe that trash.

Men can’t be you.

But if we don’t know what we believe, we will be susceptible to believe anything…

Know what you believe.

When you know what to believe, you’ll know what’s worth standing up for and what’s worth letting go.

2. Don’t die on the wrong Hills.

You may have real strong opinions about which Dorito flavor is best… but I hope its not news to you… Dorito flavors aren’t hills to die on…

Let me give you another one…

What do you call a general name of a sugary drink like Coca cola or mountain dew or Dr. Pepper?

Allison’s family is from Kentucky which is a very unique place…

In Kentucky, I’ve experienced some of the most country folk and country living I’ve ever seen.

And yet, they say some things that sound alot like what you would hear in New York.

One of these things is “Pop”

If you want to drink one of those drinks you say “Give me a pop”

Now, I’ll admit, I’m weird too.

I say Coke…

Everything is coke.

Growing up if my parents had cokes in the house and it was dinner time.

One of my brothers might go grab one and our conversations would go like this.

“Hey, I’m going to get a coke, anybody want anything?”

I say, “yeah”

He says “What kind of coke you want?”

I’d say, “Give me a fanta orange.”

OK cool.

And that’s it.

Now, I now know I’m slightly weird.

You can’t go wrong just saying Soda.

But in either case, that’s not a hill to die on.

But what about someone saying, “Jesus died on the cross, but now you need to be sure you earn God’s favor.”

Now that’s a hill to die on.

Because it’s a lie!

The gospel is always a hill to die on because Jesus went up on a hill to die.

The Gospel is the ultimate display that God isn’t fair.

The most unfair act in all of history was for the Holy, Perfect God of the universe to sacrifice Himself to pay the debt of sin for his unholy, sinful image bearers.

Jesus + Nothing = Everything

We shouldn’t add to his gospel as the judaizers or circumcision party were trying to do to Peter.

3. Remember who the message is for.

The gospel is for everyone.

It’s for the bully and the bullied

It’s for the lost and the found

The sinner and the saved.

If the Gospel is for everyone, that means one of the hardest parts of sharing the gospel is sharing it with those who are not like us!

So how do we do that?

Preach the gospel to yourself every day.

There is never a day you don’t need reminding your need for Jesus.

2. Remember the Gospel is for everyone.

No one is too lost that they can’t be saved.

God wants to use you to reach someone.

Are you letting Him?

You see we all know the gospel is for our family members, and we want them to be saved.

But sometimes we forget God is sending us to everyone.

His Word is for everyone.

Am I open to God using me even when it’s uncomfortable?

Ask yourself today as we leave,

What is one way God can use me to reach someone who isn’t like me this week?

Maybe you could message them on social media, handwrite them a letter, get creative!

That’s all of our challenge, let’s make one gospel connection with someone not like us this week.

Preach the gospel to yourself everyday

remember the Gospel is for everyone.