Gospel Fluency
Transcript
How we doing? We are in our second week of our Anchor Series, and so what we're doing, we are a church plant, and I think you kind of stay a church plant for like the first five years. I think that's kind of the rule. At least some organizations will say that, and after that you've kind of existed long enough to think you probably won't die. And so that's kind of how that works. And so we're a church plant, and what that means is as we continue to grow and as we continue to see more people hop in and be church family with us, we have to consistently re-remind ourselves, re-launch into who we are, what we're shooting for, what it means for us to be church family, and so that's kind of what this is.
That's what the Anchor Series is. And so what we're going to do is for the next six weeks, we're going to just be walking through what we mean when we say we're a gospel-centered community on mission, what we're talking about. So we put it on banners. We put it on t-shirts. And we're just going to kind of take some time to say this is what we mean. This is what we're talking about.
This is what we're shooting for as we follow Jesus. And so what we did last week was we just talked about the gospel. And so we just said, here's what the gospel is. We went from Romans 1, 2, 3, skipped 4, and went to 5 and 6. And so we just skipped 4 in case you had OCD just to make it where you can no longer pay attention. And we just kind of went through the first six chapters of Romans and said, here's what the gospel is.
Here's what the gospel story is. And so what we said was we were created to exist in a relationship with God, designed by Him to exist as creation in a relationship with Him as our Creator, and that we fell. And that fundamentally sin is not us breaking rules, but it is us swapping out what it is that is primary for us, that we swap our Creator for something else. And we begin to say, this is the goal. This is the hope. This is the dream.
This is what will fill me up. This is what will satisfy me. And that in doing that, we dishonor God. We run from Him. And so we were created. We fell.
But that Jesus redeems us. That He steps in and becomes for us our salvation. That He lived perfectly for us, died in our place for our sin. So that in Him, we do have that. He remakes that relationship back right with God. And then after that, we get to live in light of that, that we're restored.
We have a restored relationship with God. And then ultimately when we die, we'll spend eternity with God back in the perfect relationship we should have had had we not fallen. And that's the storyline we find ourselves on. Whether you're a Christian or not a Christian, that is the storyline of the Bible. And that is the storyline of the world. And so what we've said as Christians is that that is our story.
That is fundamentally where we are in the world, how we exist. And so since that is the gospel, since it's the gospel is that Jesus died on our behalf and we're saved by His work, not ours, and then everything else comes out of that. Everything else plays out of that. And so what we're going to do today is just talk a little bit about what do we mean when we say we're gospel-centered? Like that sounds cute or nice or it's some good Bible word goal thing that you put on that banner. That's nice.
What are we talking about? What does that look like? How do I do that on a daily basis? And so we're just going to try to be real practical for the rest of this series and just say if that's the gospel, then this is what we mean by gospel-centered. This is what we mean by community. This is what we're talking about when we say mission and try to help us all grow in, oh, okay, some tangible.
That's how we'll do that. And that's what that'll look like. So let's pray and then we're going to talk about some stuff this morning. God, I thank you that we are saved by Jesus's work, not ours. That we've been made right with you, not through our efforts, not through our work, but through Jesus's work on our behalf. Praise you that the Bible is not fundamentally about our behavior and it's not about our ability to fix the situation.
I pray that you would, through your Holy Spirit, lead us today, speak to us and teach us today and help us all to grow in what we mean of being gospel-centered. We love you. Praise you in Jesus's name. Amen. So we fundamentally all fall short and we all need Jesus to step in and save us.
And it's about his work, not ours, not our behavior, but his. And so Paul, the whole New Testament is about the gospel. And Paul even says that the, we read last week in Romans that the law and the prophets testify to this. And so what he said is the Old Testament, which is kind of the law and the prophets, that means that all of the Old Testament is pointing to Jesus and what he was going to do, that that is the story. And so Paul in 2 Corinthians, I'm just going to read this to you. He says, for I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
He said, that's it. That is all we talked about is Jesus Christ and him crucified. I decided to know nothing among you. And every time I read that verse, it reminds me of a scene in the office where one of the guys is getting fussed at and his boss looks at him and goes, do you understand me? And he stares him back in the face and goes, I understand nothing. Like real defiantly, but makes himself seem like a complete.
And that's us. That's us as church family. Do we understand anything other than gospel? We understand nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified. That's us. That's, that is what the New Testament is about.
That is center for us. And so everything comes out of that. And so one of the ways that we talk about this, one of the ways that we describe this is the term gospel fluency. And so gospel is the story. It is that Jesus died for us, that he saved us. And fluency just means that we speak that language naturally, normally.
So I took Spanish in high school and in college and am nowhere near fluent. I passed and that's about it. That's all I got. And so like if I'm speaking Spanish with someone, I've got to translate the whole time. So if I'm talking to, I actually was over, we were in the North Brown area of West Columbia about a week ago.
And I was talking to, I heard somebody, we were talking with a guy who spoke Spanish. He was speaking English with us, but then he answered the phone. And so he was talking to his son in Spanish. And I'm just like, listen, and I'm trying to hear things. And I'm like, I think that means mama. I don't know what that is.
I think he said dog. This is a weird conversation. And like, I'm just trying to pick up on what he was talking about because I have to take the word he says to put it in my brain and I have to translate it. I have to say, okay, what's the English equivalent of that? So if I was in Mexico, I could walk over to someone and I'd say, all right, I need to know how to find the library.
Because this is one of the only sentences I know how to say in Spanish. So bear with me. Donde esta means like where is. So, okay, donde esta es la biblioteca. Yeah, because if I ever visit a Spanish speaking country, I really want to know how their libraries are. So I've memorized this phrase.
I will be able to get permission to go to the bathroom. I will not know where it is, but I will know that I'm allowed to go there if I ever find one, stumble upon it. But what I've got to do is I'm not fluent. So what I have to do is I've got to take the English word and I've got to pair it up with the Spanish word and I've got to figure out. So you say something to me in Spanish.
I've got to figure out what that means in English. I've got to take my English words, what I want to say, pair it up with Spanish words and speak back. But once you become fluent, so a native Mexican Spanish speaker is going to hear Spanish words, think Spanish words, speak Spanish words. That's fluency. So if you moved to Spain after a while, you wouldn't have to translate.
You would just know what was being said. You'd respond. You'd dream in Spanish, think in Spanish. You'd become fluent. And that's what we do with the gospel. It actually becomes our language because it is our story.
So I'm a Southern American. So I speak American, which is a form of English. I speak Southern American. And so I know what a crawdad is. I know what the term all y'all means. It is the most inclusive form of y'all, often followed by something derogatory, like all y'all can kiss my foot.
Like I just wanted to make sure everyone knew they were included. But that's my heart language. And that's what happens with the gospel is that it becomes our language and it actually begins to affect how we think, how we see the world. So our language shapes our worldview. I heard this and I don't know if it's true, but it was told to me like it was true that somebody was an English speaker was in a country in Africa and was going to be teaching them this group about self-sufficiency. And he was talking with his translator, but he wanted to talk about self-sufficiency or self-reliance.
And he was trying to get the translator. He was like, what's the, he explained the concept of the translator. And the translator said, okay, the closest word that we have for that concept is a mental disorder. That means that you don't believe you need your tribe, that you, you believe you exist outside of community because our language shapes around what we believe and our language shapes what we believe. And so for us as Christians, we become fluent in the gospel because that is our story, which what that means is when we sit with somebody and they begin to tell us, we begin to plot their story out, their life out.
When we're talking to them about creation, fall, redemption, restoration, we begin to look for where they're saying they fit in that story. We begin to hear through the lens of the gospel. And when we, when we talk back to them, we point them to the gospel. We speak as if the gospel is true. So I no longer hear as a happiness seeking American.
I listen in here as a gospel filled Christian, a gospel changed Christian. And when I talk back to someone, I speak back to them. I'm not just going to give them. Here's the advice. Here's what the world says. Here's what I've been taught as an American.
No, we're going to speak back in light of what the gospel is. And so that's what we're shooting for today is we're just going to talk about that concept and we're going to try to grow because the gospel is our story. And because it is the story, we're going to try to grow and what it means to be gospel centered. So if you'll flip to Colossians one, um, this is, this is a passage that kind of points this out to us, that shows this to us. And then we're going to just talk through some, uh, uh, how we see this in the Bible, because the new Testament is gospel centered. It is about Jesus and what he has done.
And so it's not going to be so much when you look through it, you're not going to see, oh, this is where they explained this concept. It's like, no, this is where they do this. This is where this shows up. So we're in Colossians one, uh, go to verse 27. So Paul's been talking about Jesus in the beginning of Colossians, how big he is, how massive he is, what he's done for us, that he, through his sacrifice has made us right with God and made us holy, blameless and above reproach.
And he's explaining all this. And we get into this text, he's going to say the mystery. Uh, and what he means by the mystery is this, this massive God, what he said in Colossians one is this massive God became a human. Lived perfectly on our behalf and swapped places with us that, that he gives us his goodness, his righteousness, his holiness, and he takes our sin on himself. And so that's the mystery he's talking about, that that is absolutely baffling. If you've been in the church for a while, you've been around Christianity for a while, you've heard that a lot.
And sometimes we can forget how absolutely mysterious and baffling that is. And the mystery of it is also that how is God going to handle sin? How is he going to make people pay for their rebellion against him? And, and the mystery that is revealed is that he's actually going to pay for it for them. And so that's what we're looking at. And that's what he's talking about when he says the mystery, he's really just talking about the gospel to 27 to them.
God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles, Gentiles are people who are non-Jewish are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. And so it's the gospel and the fact that Jesus melds his life with ours, mixes his life with ours so that he's in us. And he is our hope of glory because of his work, not ours. And then 28, him, we proclaim Jesus, him, we proclaim warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this, I toil struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me. Okay.
So what he says is it's Jesus that we proclaim. It's Jesus that we're talking about. It's Jesus that we're pointing to. It's Jesus that we're going to push towards, that we're going to point people towards, that we're going to focus on. And his reason is so that we can present everyone mature in Christ. If you are a Christian, maturity is not really an option for you.
It is your trajectory. It's where you're headed. Romans says that we're predestined, which means that he sealed it beforehand to be conformed to the image of Christ, to the image of his son, which means that all of us over time are going to slowly look more and more and more like Jesus who've placed our faith in Jesus. So if you feel like, oh, I'm not really growing, I'm not really, it's happening. It's going to continue to happen. It's slow and messy and painful, but growth is going to continue.
And maturity is the goal for us as Christians, that we want to grow in maturity. We want to repent of sin faster. We want to sin less. We want to see our sin more. That's one of the marks of maturity is not so much that you sin less, that happens, but it's actually that you just begin to see your sin more. Things you didn't know were sin start showing up and you're like, I've been doing that forever.
I didn't even realize I was off there. My whole thought process was broken here, but we grow in maturity. And the way to do that most of the time has been answered by the church as learn the rules. It's been, we want to grow in maturity, read the Bible and learn what it looks like to be a Christian. And it comes across as learn the rules. So you get told Jesus died for your sin and his work replaces yours and you're saved by his work, not yours, that he took your sin.
He died for it and he gives you his righteousness. And that's the gospel. And then somebody said, do you want to be a Christian? Raise your hand. And you said, that sounds like a sweet deal. You raised your hand.
Y'all talked or you had a conversation with somebody. You said, I've placed my faith in Jesus. And then they said, cool, now here are the rules. And you were like, what? I thought this wasn't about my behavior. I thought this wasn't.
And it feels a little bit like, I feel like we've changed the story here because we feel like most of us feel like the way to grow as a Christian is to figure out how to behave better, figure out what the rules are and follow them. But Paul says it's Jesus we proclaim. That we're going to consistently point back towards the gospel. So it's not that we grow out of the gospel. We grow into the gospel. Does our behavior change?
Yes. Is that what it's about? No. Is Jesus going to consistently make us more mature and grow us? Absolutely. Are we consistently going to see our sin, repent of it, change, grow?
Yes. But it's the way to grow, learning all the rules and trying to white knuckle them and trying to follow them. No, we grow in Jesus. It's him that is proclaimed. Growth comes through Jesus. And so just to help you with this, and I'm going to give you the references.
So if you disagree with me right now, I feel like this isn't true. I want you to just write these down. If you just like taking notes and writing things down, you want to look this up later. I'm going to give you the references. And I'm just going to explain quickly what Paul says. So we're going to see where Paul does this, where Paul sees the world through the gospel.
So 1 Corinthians 6, 9 through 11. 1 Corinthians 6, 9 through 11. Paul's talking about behavior and living correctly, what it looks like to behave, what it looks like to have a right life. And he goes through and lists this sin, this sin, this sin, this sin, this sin, this sin. Step away from it. Don't have it in your life.
And then he lands with, because Jesus has saved you, because you've been called out of this, because you used to be a part of this, but you've been rescued by the cross, because you've been rescued by Jesus. And so the reason that we behave is because Jesus has already saved us, already rescued us. In 1 Corinthians 6, 18 through 20. So later in that chapter, he specifically talks about sexual sin. He says that sexual sin is a big deal, that you should flee from sexual sin, because it's not, it's one of the only sins that's not outside of the body, but it actually is a part of your body. And the reason he gives is that you've been bought with a price, that Jesus shed his blood for you.
Your body doesn't belong to you anymore. It belongs to Jesus. He owns it. He paid for it. You've already been made right. So act like it.
Live that way. But the reason is the gospel. The motivation is the gospel. Not you're falling short. Not God's mad at you. Not live up to the rules.
Not you're a bad person. No, it's that Jesus already made you right. Live that way. When he's talking about giving and generosity to Corinthians again, but it's 2 Corinthians 8, 9, 8, 8, and 9. What he says is that they should be generous because Jesus, who was rich, became poor on their behalf. And so the reason for generosity, the reason we open our wallets, the reason we give to the church, the reason we help people pay light bills is not because it's good, not because it makes us right with God.
It's because Jesus has already given up everything and given us everything. We already have all the wealth that we could ever want. When he's talking to husbands and wives in Ephesians 5, 22 through 25, he says, here's how to be a wife. Here's what that looks like. Here are the rules for being a good wife. Here's how to be a husband.
Here's what that looks like. And the whole time, the reasoning behind it is because marriage is a picture of Christ's love for the church. And what Jesus has already done on behalf impacts how we live as a married couple. But it's always the gospel is the reasoning. The gospel is the motivation. And it's the gospel that empowers us to actually live that way.
That's what we're talking about when we say we're gospel centered. It's not, hey, come, let's all work to behave together. It's no, our behavior is going to change as we focus on Jesus, as we grow in Jesus. So this is how we talk to ourselves. This is how we think. Husbands, wives.
We'll pick on husbands. I'm a husband. We'll pick on them. Wives, this applies to you, but I'm going to fuss at your husband. So you're welcome.
Why do you serve your spouse? Why are you gracious to your spouse? Why do you go out of your way for your spouse? Now, if we're honest, a lot of husbands will say things like, well, if you just had this conversation with somebody, because it's good. Okay. Because you're supposed to.
Right. Because life's better when you do. Yeah. She fusses less. Mm-hmm. Bible says we should.
That's okay. That's a good reason. But we could rattle this stuff off. But eventually, there's a reason. That all runs out. The motivation for that runs out.
It makes me a good husband. Okay. But there's some days I could care less about being a good husband, if I'm honest with you. I just, I just, yeah, what would a good husband do? Probably get up and help. What do I want to do?
Sit on the couch. I'll just take a loss today. Perhaps a track record's probably good enough to be at least above 500. Like, I'm above 50% right now, probably. I'll justify. I did something last week that really probably counted double.
Covers this day. That your wife is happier. People will say, like, happy wife, happy life. If mom ain't happy, ain't nobody happy. Okay. Eventually, that runs out, too, though.
The only reason I'm doing good stuff is because it makes my wife not fuss at me. At some point, I just don't care anymore. This ain't worth the effort. Because I get fussed at all the time. Like, eventually, husbands, you're just like, ah, ah, ah, ah. Truth is, though, the reason that you serve your spouse is that Jesus served us.
That Jesus gave himself up for us. That we have been so absolutely served. So absolutely taken care of. So absolutely had someone sacrifice on our behalf. That it fundamentally changes how we behave. And then the reason I behave is no longer about me.
Because all of those were about me. All of those were about you. Makes me feel good. Makes me look good. Makes me happier. Makes life better.
She fusses less. All of that eventually turns in on itself and is just about you. That's why it breaks down. Because at some point, you've decided something else is more important. But all of those get to be about Jesus.
And they get to be about Jesus and not about your spouse. Not about making her happy. Not about she responding appropriately. It's only always about Jesus. And that never runs out. That motivation doesn't quit.
Yes, I've been served. Yes, I've sacrificed. She doesn't notice. So Jesus does that for me. And I take it for granted. And I don't notice.
And I don't appreciate it. And I get to grow. When I serve and do something I don't want to do. When you're doing something you fundamentally hate, you get to remind yourself, I bet the cross was terrible. Thank you, Jesus, that you sacrificed on my behalf. And that doesn't run out.
And it continues to change us. And it actually brings joy in that situation. Why do you work hard at your job? You can rattle off the list. Makes me feel good. People see me doing it.
Boss will notice. I'll get a promotion. Eventually, all that just runs out. But if it's that I worked fundamentally for God, that he sees me, that Jesus has already come and worked hard on our behalf, that he's already come and sacrificed on my behalf, that doesn't run out. Motivating yourself with the gospel and remembering that this is my story, this is who I am, that doesn't run dry. Why are you generous?
Jesus was generous. Why do you avoid temptation and sin? Because Jesus died for it. Because I've been made new. Because I'm holy and blameless and above reproach because of him. And then what happens is we get to turn this out towards other people.
There's not even just behavior. It's circumstances. You get fired from your job. Is that bad? Yeah. Do you wish that hadn't happened?
Probably. Although my dad had a friend one time who got fired during hunting season and they were going to be, he got to be on like unemployment for a little while and he was so happy. And his twin brother didn't from the same place. And so he went hunting every day while his brother was getting ready to go to work. And that was like the best thing. He's like putting on his camo and laughing or whatever.
But most of the time though, getting fired is bad. And you have to remind yourself that, yeah, this is bad. But God's trustworthy. He's proven that in the cross. And my worth doesn't come from my ability to work, my ability to provide, my ability to earn. That all of my worth and approval has already been sealed in Jesus.
Jesus. So it changes how we see the world. It changes how we react. And it changes how we talk to people. So this becomes our primary story.
It becomes our language that we're fluent in. And it becomes how we respond for the most part. Christians. If you're in here and you're not a Christian, you're off the hook on this one because you probably don't do this. Although you probably do give advice. But Christians.
A lot of times we memorize Bible verses. And then we use them like bullets to shoot people. All we do is we remove the verse, wipe the gospel off of it, which was the context in which it came. And then we just give the verse to someone and we think we're being helpful and we are not. Is that verse true? Yes.
Is the context the gospel? Yes. And a lot of times the way we apply it is not the gospel. So you're having a conversation with someone and they're like, I just feel like a bad wife. I feel like a bad mother. And you're like, well, Proverbs 31.
Boom! Feel good? Feel like a better mom now? Better wife? Let's read those verses together.
I just wanted to help you see how woefully you fall short. Happy Mother's Day. The gospel doesn't show up. It's out of context. You're not telling the whole story. I've really been struggling with lust.
I've really been struggling with, well, Job 31.1, Ephesians 5.3. Boom! You're welcome. I'm enjoying our confession time. Like, we just lay weight on people and we haven't told them the whole story. And so we actually get to respond out of the gospel.
Instead of just saying, yeah, you are a terrible husband. Yeah, you are. Yeah, you do fall short. We only give that half of it. The Bible's very clear. Yeah, you are a selfish roommate.
You are a jerk. Good point. I've been meaning to tell you you were a jerk. Here's how the Bible says you're a jerk. Like, we just end up shooting people repeatedly with Bible verses that don't help people love Jesus, don't help people grow, and don't help people see the gospel. And so what we do as a church family is we give good news before we give good advice.
And I'm going to explain what that means. Good news is the gospel, that Jesus died for us, that he rescued us. And it's an event that happened on our behalf. So, king goes to battle. I heard this story before. It helps me see this picture so clearly.
A king goes to battle, leaves his castle behind. He gets his archers together. He gets his chariots together. He gets all of his horsemen, all his foot soldiers. And they go to battle and they leave. And everybody, he leaves a couple of people in the castle.
And all the civilians in the castle. And they're waiting to find out what's going to happen. One of two things happens. The king goes to battle. And he wins. And what he sends back is good newsers.
All they're doing is riding back on a horse, laughing to themselves, feeling real happy and light inside, to go tell everybody, we won. King won. Victory's been won on your behalf. Throw open the gates. Get the band out. Bring out your finest meats and cheeses.
The celebration will begin. The battle has been won. And all you can do with that, because it is news, is live in light of it. So you feel better. You celebrate. You dance.
There's like freedom in that. Or he loses. And he grabs somebody on the horse and he says, ride back as fast as you can and tell them they're coming. They've broken our ranks. His army is scattered. He says, tell them to put the archers on the walls.
Tell them to seal up the gate. Tell them to bring in as much as they can. Close everything up. Seal everything up. Put all the women and children in the inner chamber. And here's the game plan.
Best way to probably defend yourself and good luck. That's advice. He sends good advisors who just show back up and say, here's what we have to do to hopefully survive. And that is not the gospel. The gospel is, here's what Jesus has done to give us life and to give us victory. And we live in light of that.
It changes our behavior. But it's not about our behavior. Our behavior isn't to fix the problem. It isn't to beat off the enemy. It isn't to win. It isn't to defeat those who are charging against us.
It isn't to have the victory. The victory has already been won. The king has already won. The good news is already proclaimed. And so as a church family, we give good news before we give good advice. And we like good advice.
Good advice is good. But we give good news first. We're going to talk about Jesus before we talk about you. Before we talk about your situation. We're going to talk about Jesus first because we have good news. So we give good news before we give good advice.
And we talk about Jesus before we talk about you. And it changes how we interact with each other. It changes how we speak to each other. And here's why it matters. If you sit down with someone for coffee and they say, I feel like I'm a terrible mother. I feel like I'm a terrible wife.
I just feel like I'm falling short. And all you say is, yeah. Here are the things I did to be less of a terrible mother. Super encouraging. Let me tell you my three tricks to being awesome. Here's what I did to be a better wife.
Here's what I read that Beth Moore says about being a good wife. Here's what all you're fundamentally saying. You're giving good advice. But all you're fundamentally saying is, This is about your behavior. And that is the opposite of the gospel. When I just give you good advice, When you sit down with coffee for someone, And you say things that you're hoping to be encouraging, Hoping to be helpful, And you leave Jesus out of it.
What you're saying is, This is about your behavior. The problem is your behavior. And the way to fix it is your behavior. That's what we're telling people. And here's why that matters. Parents.
You got kids. You got kids in, You grew up. So younger people, Maybe you came up through a youth group. Parents, Maybe you've got kids in a youth group. Well, not if you're here. We don't have one of those.
But maybe you've had one. Your kids were in a youth group. And here's the thing. With your children, You want them to behave. You want them to grow. You want them to have morals.
You want them to have standards. But here's the thing. If your child, Doesn't say any swear words. Doesn't drink. Doesn't smoke. Doesn't chew.
Doesn't date people that do. Only listens to family friendly radio. Like they're tearing up WMHK, Which is now K-Love. Like they're rocking on the way to school, To a Sandy Patty thing. If y'all know who that is. They iron their blue jean shorts, And tuck their shirt in.
They only wear, Or they only watch VeggieTales movies. If they do that successfully, Do they not need Jesus? If you successfully beat, These behaviors into them. Do they not need Jesus? No. They do.
They're just a goofy lost person. They're just an awkward sinner. That's all it is. Should their behavior change? Yes. Should you teach morality as a parent?
Yes. Should you pay attention to the messages, That your children are learning through music and movies? Yes. Should we all? Yes. Everything is preaching to us.
Everything is declaring a false gospel. Does that save us? No. In your community group, If you could just get everybody to behave. If confession time was, I only prayed for seven hours this week. I really wanted to hit 14.
And then y'all just hugged each other. Would you not need Jesus? No, you'd need Jesus. You'd need him to save you, To redeem you, To change you. You need his work, Not yours. And so when we look at someone, And you just say, Here's how to change your behavior.
What I have just declared to you is, It's about your behavior. And if you fix that, You'd be okay. And that is the farthest thing from the truth. So it makes a difference. It's a big deal. So we're going to, Give good news before we give good advice.
And we're going to talk about Jesus, Before we talk about you. That's how we as a church family respond. That's what it looks like, To be gospel centered for us. So when we talk to somebody, We're going to talk about good news, Before we give good advice. And we're going to talk about Jesus, Before we talk about you. Martin Luther says this, And this was, He said it in German, Way back in the day.
He's one of the guys that like, Had a fit and started the reformation. He's a pretty angry person. It's kind of cool. He also helped clarify some things, About the gospel and some of the stuff in scripture. But he said this in German, So it was translated into like, Old English.
So some of the words will be weird, And I'll try to skip. Where it says teacheth, I'll just say teaches. Martin Luther said this, Here I must take counsel of the gospel. I must hearken to the gospel, Which teaches me, Not what I ought to do, For that is the proper office of the law, But what Jesus Christ, The son of God, Has done for me. To wit that he suffered and died, To deliver me from sin and death. The gospel wills me to receive this, And to believe it.
And this is the truth of the gospel. It is also the principal article of all Christian doctrine, Wherein the knowledge of all godliness consists. Most necessary is it, therefore, That we should know this article well, Teach it to others, And beat it into their heads continually. And that's what we're shooting for as a church family. To beat the gospel into each other's heads continually. And a lot of times we think, I know the gospel.
I don't need to know the gospel right now. I need to know how to change my behavior. The problem is, Your behavior won't change, Unless the gospel becomes more real to you, More clear to you, More, You feel it more. That's what changes our behavior. And the truth is, You don't know the gospel. We function outside of the gospel all the time.
There are times Matt and I, We're getting this up, I'll need to repent, Or I'll be upset about something, And Matt will go, Let me tell you, Your approval doesn't come from that, That you completely whiffed on, And it was terrible. Your approval comes from Jesus, And his work for you. And the whole time he's doing that, I'm like, I know that Matt. Thanks. And when he gets done, I'm like, I feel better, That was really helpful. Because we need to be reminded, Of the gospel.
Flip over to Hebrews 3, So if you're in one of these bibles, It's going to be like, 11 pages to the right, On 649. And the author of Hebrews, Is kind of laying this out for us, What this looks like. And so I just, We're going to walk through this, And then we're going to talk a little bit about, Just practically, How do we share the gospel with each other, On a regular basis. Hebrews 3 verse 12, Take care brothers, So brothers and sisters, Church family, Take care brothers, Lest there be in any of you, An evil, Unbelieving heart, Leading you to fall away, From the living God, But exhort, And I'll explain what that means in a second, Exhort one another every day, Every day, As long as it is called, Today, See what he did there?
That none of you may be hardened, By the deceitfulness of sin, Sin lies to us, For we have come to share in Christ, If indeed we hold our original confidence, Firm to the end, Okay, Exhort one another today, As long as it's called today, Every day, As long as it's called today, Exhort just means special Bible encouragement, It really just means special gospel encouragement, That's what it is, That's what exhortation is, It's reminding each other of the gospel, Because that's our original hope, What was your original hope? That you were awesome? If that was your original hope, I have news for you, You are not a Christian, And you are not awesome, Your original hope is that Jesus, Was awesome for you, That he was good for you, That his work saves you, That's the original hope, And that's what we exhort one another in, That's what we remind each other of, Jesus is great, You aren't, You are going to fall short, That's the gospel, That's why a feel good, Ism, Feels so empty, You ever mess something up terribly, And someone trying to be nice is like, Oh it's okay, You'll be okay, It'll be alright, It'll all work out, That'll, Oh you'll be fine, It's great, You're great, You didn't mean that, You're a good person, Some of you, Maybe, You believe that, If you say that to me, I'm like, I'm not a good person, Like that's not, This isn't helping me at all, I don't think it'll all work out, I don't think, Like, It just feels so empty, Some of you who aren't Christians, You've been told that repeatedly, And you've really, Really tried to believe it, But you just can't, Something in you just won't let you, Fall in love with the idea, That it'll all be okay, And everything will work out, You know what warms my soul, Is when someone stares me in the face, And says, Yeah you messed that up, And that was terrible, And you failed, And Jesus steps in, And rescues, And redeems, And works, And it's because of your failure, And because of your sin, And because you fall short, That he gets to be your savior, It's your sin, That made his salvation possible, Then it's like, Yes, Thank you, So we can't do, Just you fall short, And we can't do, Just you'll be okay, We've got to connect them, With the understanding of the gospel, Which is, Yeah you fall short, But you'll be okay, Because of Jesus, Because he works on your behalf, Because he's saved you, Okay, Here's what we're going to do, Take just a second, To talk about, How we actually do this, What this actually looks like, As church family, When we talk to each other, So we've already said, We're going to give good news, Before we give good advice, And we're going to talk about Jesus, Before we talk about you, So, You're sitting down with somebody, And they confess, That they've been, Really struggling with lust, Really struggling with, They've been looking at pornography, It's just tearing them up, They don't want to, It's a Christian friend, I don't want to, I just, And every time, I feel so terrible, I just feel worthless, And I know that God's mad at me, And at some point, I just can't keep repenting, Of the same thing, At some point, He just doesn't listen anymore, I'm sure, At some point, It just doesn't mean anything anymore, When I confess this again, Normal response, Would usually follow, And fall in the advice category, Yeah man, That's a big deal, And it hurts you, And you think it doesn't hurt anybody else, But it does, It hurts all the people, That are involved in that industry, It's very similar to sex slavery, It can hurt your future relationships, It can damage those, The Bible says it's sin, Job 31.1, Ephesians 5.3, Maybe you should memorize those, And quote them out loud, When you feel tempted, Let's get a blocker thing, On your computer, Let's set it up, To where it will email people, If you fall, Let's meet once a week, And I'll ask you how this is going, Boom, Is that good advice? Yeah, Memorizing verses, Putting a blocker thing on your computer, Will it help change the behavior?
Maybe, Does it make him love Jesus more? Probably not, Because it's trusting himself, So let's rewind, Let's give good news, Before we give good advice, Let's talk about Jesus, Before we talk about him, Hey man, Yeah, That's sin, And Jesus died, For sin, And when he died for you, You were his enemy, You were weak, And he saved you, And he saved all your sin, Past, Present, And future, And if you fall again, It's already been paid for, You are covered forever, By grace, Let me tell you something, When you feel miserable for a few days, And you feel guilt, And you feel shame, And you're beating yourself up, You're not allowed to, Because once you've become a Christian, You don't get to atone for your sin, Jesus does, You don't get to beat yourself up, Your beating has already been poured out on Jesus, You don't get to be punished, Your punishment has already been met in Jesus, You don't get to feel bad, Your guilt and shame have already been taken by Jesus, You're free, And you get to praise him for his grace, That saves you when you're off, And when you're wrong, And when you're terrible, The gospel is more beautiful to you, Not on your days that you're good and you behave, But on the days that you fall so woefully short, And feel so much like you don't deserve it, That's actually what grace is, Undeserved favor, So when you feel like I don't deserve this, You've tapped into it, That's the gospel, You don't, And he gave it to you anyway, So maybe you should memorize some verses, And you and I can meet, And I'll ask about this, And we can talk about this, I know a guy who put a blocker thing on his computer, Which just helped him, Know that it was going to send out emails, And that can be helpful, But Jesus saves you, And you get to praise him for his forgiveness, And his grace, Now is that better? Does that feel better? Does that feel more real?
So maybe you should memorize some verses, And you and I can meet, And I'll ask about this, And we can talk about this, I know a guy who put a blocker thing on his computer, Which just helped him, Know that it was going to send out emails, And that can be helpful, But Jesus saves you, And you get to praise him for his forgiveness, And his grace, Now is that better? Does that feel better? Does that feel more real? More right? As a Christian, You start going, Yes, That's true, You're hanging out with one of your Christian friends, And they do this, They do the, I just, I just haven't been praying,
I haven't been reading the Bible, And I know I should be sharing the gospel with people, But, I just haven't been, I haven't been telling anybody, I haven't been intentional, I'm playing, You know, I'm spending more time, You know, Just doing other things, As opposed to sharing the gospel, As opposed to reading, What do we say? Ah, Man, Or lady, Friend, Sorry, Every once in a while, I call Anna man, And it turns into manna, I'm like, Hey man,
And Anna, So this could be a lady, I just may have called her man, Um, Hey, Set your alarm earlier, Get up 15 minutes earlier, And read the Bible then, Just do it first thing in the morning, That works for me, Um, Have someone else read through a book with you, So that you'll have someone ask, Hey, How's it going? Or, Did you read your chapter, And you'd say, No, I didn't know, Whatever, And yeah, We should share the gospel, Like,
We've been given the ministry of reconciliation, So we should do, If you don't tell them, Who will, So yeah, Normal responses, Heard that before, Said that before, I've said that before, It's one of my favorites, Set your alarm earlier, That's one of my go-tos, Just wake up earlier, Because I'm a morning person, So it just seems easy, Um, Now here's how we get to respond, Because we're going to give good news, Before we give good advice, We're going to point to Jesus, Before we point to you, Talk about Jesus, Before we talk about you, Hey yeah,
Let me tell you something, Your relationship with God, Is not based off of how much you pray, And read the Bible, Because you don't get to take that aspect, Of the gospel back from Jesus, Your relationship with God, Is that you've been adopted, Into the family, Because Jesus has given you, His position at the table, Because he reconciled us, And his relationship with God, The father has been given to us, Through the cross, So just read, You get to read, You get to study, Because it helps you grow, And helps you love God more, And helps you see the gospel more clearly, But it doesn't change, How God feels towards you, And we actually do have good news,
To share with people, Because it's not about, Our work or our effort, And guess what, Ultimately at the end of the day, You will save no one, So the pressure is off, Just tell people about Jesus, And if you mess it up, Talk to Jesus about it, Ask him to fix it, Go repent, Go tell him you're sorry, You said that wrong, Say I told you this the other day, And then I was reading in John, And man was I wrong, Here's what John says, And he said it better, So you get to share the gospel, But it's not, The pressure is not on you, To save or to rescue, Or to do any of this,
You're talking to a non-Christian friend, Works with you, Coworker, Friend of yours, Friend like you actually hang out with, Type friend, Who doesn't know Jesus, She comes in and says, Yeah I just found out my dad has cancer, We see the world through the gospel, That's terrible, I'm sorry to hear that, Pray with her, You hug her, She says, What am I going to do, How's this going to happen, And you get to say, I don't know what you're going to do, And I don't know how this is going to play out, But I'm a Christian, And I know this, I know that God is in control, I know that he's sovereign over everything,
And in these circumstances, One of the things that Christians know, Without a shadow of a doubt, Is that Jesus became a human, Suffered and died with us, And so when we face these kind of situations, We don't know how they're going to work out, But what Christians do know, Is that it's not that God doesn't love us, And it's not that he's not good, He's forever answered that half of things in the cross, He's good, He's for our good, And he loves us so much, That he would suffer and die alongside of us, How is this going to play out, I don't know, But we know he's good, And we know that he loves, And we know that he loves you more, Than you could ever understand, I'm going to pray with you, And I'm going to help any way I can, So we get to just respond,
Out of the gospel, And it's so much more life-giving, And it's so much more filling, And it's so much more true, That's why when we hear this, When we begin to talk like this as Christians, You begin to go, That's it, That's what we get to do, And then we give good advice, Here's how I quit being a jerk, It's helpful, But not until I know that me being a jerk, Isn't going to snatch me out of the hand of God, Because Jesus has already been not a jerk on my behalf, Which is beautiful, And here's what's cool about this church family, We're going to be terrible at this, And we're going to work to grow in it, So just so you know, You're sitting there going, That seems really hard to do, Yeah, And especially for those of us,
Who've been Christians for a while, That have been gotten used to, Just saying other things, Here's what's cool about this, And one of our group leaders pointed this out, He said it's like when you have a little kid, And it got me thinking about it, And it is like that, My brother has a little daughter, And she's like one now, And so I'm going to kind of make some jokes now, Because we're about to have a kid, And when we have a kid, My kid's going to be really special and smart, But, You ever been around parents, They're obnoxious about their children, They just are, Because their kid is the best, And he's the sweetest, And everything he does is the cutest, And so I'm hanging out with my brother, And they just, They love her,
And it's fun to hang out with little kids, And I like little kids, But every once in a while they'll do something, And the parents will get so excited, And it doesn't really make any sense, So they'll look at their little kid, And be like, She walked, Did you see her walk? She's walking, And it's like, She fell forward, Because her head is too big for her body, I don't know if that's walking, Or you ever see a parent, Like hold their kid's hand, And walk with them, And like, Look at them walking, It's like you're cheating bro, You're holding their hands the whole time, Or kids are learning how to talk, And they babble nonsense, All the time,
And then they say something, That sounds remotely close to airplane, And their parents lose their minds, She said airplane, Did she though? Is that real? Like, Get her to say it again, Get her to point one out in the picture, Like, That's what parents do, That's what we get to do as church family, That's what we get to do in our community groups, We're going to say stuff that doesn't make a lot of sense, We're going to mess up, We're going to just fall forward sometimes, And we're going to get to celebrate, Hey, That was kind of the gospel, Did you hear that? We talked about Jesus first, That wasn't just advice, Time out, Time out everyone,
I know you have a problem, But he just said the gospel, So we're high-fiving, And then we'll get back to your problem, Because we talked about Jesus first, Like that's what we get to do as church family, We get to celebrate the fact, That we're going to work, To beat this into each other's heads continually, Because we all need the gospel, We need Jesus, Over and over and over and over again, We need Jesus to fill us up, To remind us, To call us forward, To change us, So what we're going to do, Is Raz and we're all going to come back up, And we're going to sing, And we're going to praise Jesus, And as a church family, We are going to work and commit to, Giving good news before we give good advice, And talking about Jesus,
Before we talk about anything, Before we talk about your behavior, Before we point to, How you should change your situation, We're going to talk about, How Jesus has already stepped in, And fundamentally rescued us, Because that's the story we're a part of, Bow your heads, Let's pray, God I thank you, That we have the good news, And I pray, Through your holy spirit, That you would not let us, Let that get lost, And all the other stuff, That you would not allow us, To let that get, Just covered up, By all the other things, When we try to fix our behavior, And we want so badly, To change and to grow,
I pray that you would help us to remember, That we're going to change and grow, And we get to change and grow, But that that's, That we grow in the gospel, Not away from it, Not beyond it, Not above it, We grow deeper into it, Understanding grace, And understanding salvation, And being rescued by you, Help us to be gospel centered, Help us to be, Pointing each other to the gospel, In all things, Change our hearts to love you more, In Jesus, In Jesus, Daniel surgery Valentine's Day St. Seth
She's walking, And it's like, She fell forward, Because her head is too big for her body, I don't know if that's walking, Or you ever see a parent, Like hold their kid's hand, And walk with them, And like, Look at them walking, It's like you're cheating bro, You're holding their hands the whole time, Or kids are learning how to talk, And they babble nonsense, All the time, And then they say something, That sounds remotely close to airplane, And their parents lose their minds, She said airplane, Did she though? Is that real? Like, Get her to say it again, Get her to point one out in the picture, Like, That's what parents do, That's what we get to do as church family, That's what we get to do in our community groups, We're going to say stuff that doesn't make a lot of sense, We're going to mess up, We're going to just fall forward sometimes, And we're going to get to celebrate, Hey, That was kind of the gospel, Did you hear that? We talked about Jesus first, That wasn't just advice, Time out, Time out everyone, I know you have a problem, But he just said the gospel, So we're high-fiving, And then we'll get back to your problem, Because we talked about Jesus first, Like that's what we get to do as church family, We get to celebrate the fact, That we're going to work, To beat this into each other's heads continually, Because we all need the gospel, We need Jesus, Over and over and over and over again, We need Jesus to fill us up, To remind us, To call us forward, To change us, So what we're going to do, Is Raz and we're all going to come back up, And we're going to sing, And we're going to praise Jesus, And as a church family, We are going to work and commit to, Giving good news before we give good advice, And talking about Jesus, Before we talk about anything, Before we talk about your behavior, Before we point to, How you should change your situation, We're going to talk about, How Jesus has already stepped in, And fundamentally rescued us, Because that's the story we're a part of, Bow your heads, Let's pray, God I thank you, That we have the good news, And I pray, Through your holy spirit, That you would not let us, Let that get lost, And all the other stuff, That you would not allow us, To let that get, Just covered up, By all the other things, When we try to fix our behavior, And we want so badly, To change and to grow, I pray that you would help us to remember, That we're going to change and grow, And we get to change and grow, But that that's, That we grow in the gospel, Not away from it, Not beyond it, Not above it, We grow deeper into it, Understanding grace, And understanding salvation, And being rescued by you, Help us to be gospel centered, Help us to be, Pointing each other to the gospel, In all things, Change our hearts to love you more, In Jesus, In Jesus, Daniel surgery Valentine's Day St.
Seth