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Change Without Compromise: The Gospel

Change Without Compromise

The Gospel

Romans 1:16

Concept: What does the church believe is the gospel message?

Hook: Jesus came to break the cycle.

Deep in the heart of every man is a desire to know God and to be known by Him. It's core to what makes us human. Since we are made in God's image it is perfectly natural to know who made us think this way, look this way, and act this way. If you think about it... our own desire to know ourselves points us this way.

Humans, by their very nature, crave knowing God. The Bible says, "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--- his eternal power and divine nature--- have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse." (Romans 1:20)

Yet while God's qualities may be plainly seen, and while each of us was created to know our Creator... to crave knowing whose image we are made in...

Many chose to not know God.
They learn to ignore the still, small voice that connects the craving to the crave-or
They chose to instead fill their craving to know God with things that ultimately don't fulfill the craving.
- Drowning the craving to know God:
  - In another faith system based on good works
  - In a self-destructive or self-centered lifestyle
  - Running, embracing blissful ignorance and ignore the screaming still small voice in our hearts

See, hard-wired in our DNA, human being are searching for God in something. And our searching leads us towards a path of destruction.

How many of you can identify with this picture?

Isaiah wrote this about us:

53:6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,

each of us has turned to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him

the iniquity of us all.

Here's what I want to share with you today. Together we are here to discover... "What do we believe is the Gospel message?"

And as we will see this morning, as we examine Scripture to discover what the Bible says is the Gospel message, it all starts here with this picture.

- We are all born craving to know God.

- But we are all like that sheep... we can't figure it out on our own.

Our searching to fulfill this craving in our lives ends up being a bad dream... no matter how hard we try to figure it out on our own... we always end up like this sheep.

Quick history lesson: Patterns of failure

It's this simple contradiction that drives us to need a Gospel message in the first place. "I want to know God, but I can't do it on my own." "I crave to have a relationship with God, but I always screw it up."

The Old Testament is full of this story.

Throughout the story of Israel we see again and again God's people caught in a pattern that they can't seem to break.

1. God lays out His expectation for His people--- The Law

2. God's people mess up--- Break the law = sin

3. God is forced to exile His people from the land He promised they could have--- Exile

4. God allows His people back into the land--- restoration

Examples:

1. Joseph's brothers mistreat Joseph, Israel exiled to Egypt for 400 years, God restores His people to the promised land

2. Israel makes a golden calf while Moses is on the mountain getting the 10 commandments, God exiles His people in the desert for 40 years, God allows Joshua to lead the people into the promised land.

3. Israel doesn't obey the Sabbath laws, God's people are captured and exiled by the Babylonians, 69 years later they are allowed back into the land.

The people of Israel are just like you and me!

Academics call this pattern of sin-exile-restoration "the deutoronomistic tradition."

- This pattern is so prevalent that we call it "a tradition."

I don't know about you, but I feel like I am prone to an "Adam tradition." It doesn't matter how hard I try, how much I want to do the right thing... I have a special "tradition" of getting it wrong.

But here is hope for you and I: Jesus Christ was sent to break the pattern.

- Let's see first how Jesus broke the deuteronomistic tradition for the Israelites, then we'll see how he can break our traditions as well.

Book: Elements of the Gospel message

Sin- The problem

Quick definition: Any action, attitude, or even a thought which is contrary to God's law. Literally, the word sin comes from a greek word, an archery term, which means "to miss the mark." Sin isn't just major things like blowing up your house, murdering someone, cheating on your spouse... it's anything that falls short of what God tells us to do.

We believe sin is broken down into two categories: Original sin & personal sin

1. Original sin

- We believe that each person is born imperfect. In the Garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve sinned, their action broke a perfect relationship with God. Through them sin entered the world.. (see Genesis 3) Just as we are all related to Adam, we are born with Adam's curse... no one teaches us to sin, it's in us from our first breath to our last.

Examples:

As soon as you have children, you witness original sin. No one has to teach a child to be naughty... they just are.
Illustrate total depravity: Oreo cookies... sinning is something we all do naturally. Left to ourselves with no controls we will destroy ourselves.
- Lord of the Flies: Piggy will get killed!
- The Awakening: (Kate Chopin) We will walk away from marriage and family into the ocean!

2. Personal sin

- We believe that each person makes imperfect choices. Some of them are big, some of them are small. But we believe that not only are you born a sinner... you make sinful decisions regularly. (Amen?) [Look at your neighbor and say it... "I sin."]

- More to the point, we believe sin is a big deal. We believe that God calls us to live a sin-free life, but as hard as we try we can never quite be perfect.

Results of sin:

- On the earth (our planet is falling apart, in physics... 2nd law of thermodynamics = entropy... things go from order to disorder)

- Death

- We will always toil through life... "work the land" "land has thorns" (Genesis 3)

- Interpersonal loss of fellowship... no such thing as the perfect relationship

- No ability to know God.... Hey, I thought we were born craving God?

That's why we call sin a "sin problem."

When it comes to understanding what we believe the gospel message... it really starts with understanding and accepting that we are not perfect. We are all sinners.

And while our souls crave to know God... our sin separates us from God.

Jesus - The solution

We believe that Jesus Christ breaks the cycle!

At the cross, Jesus took the weight of our sins... all of them... on himself.
- Why did Jesus do this?
- - God, by His nature is Holy... which means "completely separate from Sin"
  - Being Holy... God cannot have a relationship with a person who is sinful...
  - In the OT, God set up a sacrificial system where you could kill an animal as a symbol... a covering... of personal sin. It didn't wipe the sin away, but it covered it with a blood sacrifice that God was willing to accept.
  - Yet that was temporary... the blood of an animal was finite. Ultimately, since it didn't offer true forgiveness of sin, just a covering of the sin... it allowed the cycle of sin-exile-restoration to continue on, over and over.
  - Read Hebrews 1:1-10
He paid the penalty for sin once and for all.
- There would be no exile for the nation
- By Jesus' sacrifice of himself, "we have been made holy." (Hebrews 1:10)
God solved the "sin problem."
- He did all of it.
- We have no ability to get out of our patterns of sinfulness
- In fact, our patterns of sinfulness point us to the fact that we need someone to step in!
- Do I have to show you the sheep again? :)

Received - Take ownership of the gift 1 Cor 15:1-5

We believe that the message of the Gospel is worthless to you if you don't receive it.

- v. 1 Paul reminds them of the Gospel they believe

- v. 2 You are saved... not when you believe the Gospel... but when you "hold firmly" to it. You've got to own it!

- v. 3-5 Paul passes on the message of the Gospel... it's Good News

To break the cycle of sin in your life, you must take ownership of the Gospel message.

We believe, to the very core of our beings... that the message of the Gospel doesn't belong to us.

We take ownership of it in our lives
And as a result we share what God has done for us with others... and ask them to respond.

- We believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ is open to anyone!

John 1:12 "Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—"

- We believe that it your personal history doesn't matter. The Gospel is open and available to you.

- We believe that no matter what you've done, no matter how bad it is, the Gospel is open to you.

- We believe the message of salvation, forgiveness of sins, and a full life in Jesus is available to you... no matter what age.

- We believe that God, the creator of each of us, the one who made us to crave him, is calling each of us back to Him through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ.

The gospel message, can I get it?

- Isn't understandable in human terms

- Isn't comparable to anything else

- Isn't something you can resist

- Can't earn it

- Can't buy it

- Don't deserve it

- Don't own it

- Wouldn't want to decide who receives it

- Wouldn't want to be the one who rejects it

- Shouldn't take it for granted

- It's open to all

- It's yours for the taking

- The only question each one of us is asked is simply... will you accept it?

Look: Jesus made a way... it's up to you to respond.

Took: Jesus broke the cycle... will you break the cycle in others lives?

Are you ready to own this Gospel? Are you ready to call it your own?

Most of us think of our lives and we are ashamed of what we have done

- We know we are sinners

- We know we are stuck in patterns that we can't get out of

- We know we crave something better, but we just can't seem to find it

- Most of us want to rid ourselves of shame.

Are you ready to live a life free of shame?

Personalize: Romans 1:16

"I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for my salvation."

Are you ready to live a life unashamed?

A life that is meaningful beyond belief
A life with a craving consumed with true fulfillment
A life that gets up when knocked down?

Will you embrace the imperfect walk today?

Will you take the patterns of sin in your life and surrender them before the one who paid the ultimate price?

This is what we believe. This is who we are. If you are ready to walk with us today... will you pray to receive Christ today?

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