The Gospel at The Center - Fundamentals

Main idea:
The center of the christian life and the christian church is the glorious message of the gospel - Jesus finished work, and God's work of renewal and salvation. This message is supposed to be the anchor and drive of our daily lives and the main way we check the success and health of our churches, ministries and families.

1. What is the gospel?
◦ Broadly - the unified message of the Bible which tells the story of creation, fall, redemption and restoration.
◦ Narrowly - the life, death and resurrection of Jesus and the hope he gives today.
2. What do we do with the gospel?
◦ Knowledge, belief and trust
◦ Repentance and faith
◦ Rest and labor
◦ Make disciples
◦ Tell the world
3. What is a gospel centered church?
◦ A church who's mission is defined by the gospel.
◦ A church that is clear on the message of what is means to be a christian.
◦ A church that focuses its resources and energy on gospel work.
◦ A church that is not performance oriented.
◦ A church that is focused on internal maturity and outward growth.

Application:
• What is your relationship to the gospel today?
◦ Are you resting in Jesus and his victory?
◦ Are you laboring for his kingdom out of the joy and freedom that Jesus gives?
• Does the gospel unify your whole life? Or does it have a side role?
◦ "I do all things for the sake of the gospel...."
• Do you get bored with the gospel?
◦ The only way that you can become bored with the gospel is that you have become blind to your own in desperate need for its restorative power in your life every day.
• Are you learning a rhythm of life that is constantly turning to the good news as the truth that restores and fuels your transformation?
• How do you measure a healthy church? Do you seek for the church to be more and more centered on the gospel?

Scripture References:
• 1 Corinthians 2:1-2
• 1 Corinthians 15:1-5
• Mark 1:14-15
• Galatians 1:6-8
• Acts 2:37-38
• Matthew 11:28-30

Key Concepts:
• gospel
• the finished work of Christ
• faith
• sanctification/spiritual growth
• church ministry

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Reminder - all the sermon content is on our app. You can always review it. Also, I want to encourage you to relisten to the sermons when you can. The recording of the live service is available right away on our youtube channel. and the edited recored version of the sermon is up on the app usually by monday.

Beat Bobby Flay - different cooks try to challenge the top chef - and he wins not by doing crazy new recipes - but by sticking to the basic, time tested ways.

This is how it works in our spiritual lives.

The strength and success of a Christian life, the strength and success of a church - does not depend on new and unique things and techniques - it depends on the depth to which you are rooted in the basics, the fundamentals of the faith.

Today we start a new series of sermons that will hit at the core values that we hold as a church.

This year has been a blessing and a year of God working in new ways.

This is a year when we come to reevaluate our core convictions and values as a church.

What is Living Word Bible Church?

The answer to this question is seen in our core values. What are the things that we want to cultivate and emphasize in our life as a church?

This series will cover six core fundamentals to our church - and it will give us a renewed vision of our mission and focus as a church.

Gospel, Scripture, Community, Discipleship, Historic Confessionalism and Mission.

If we are not careful to define exactly what we believe and what we stand for - we will be easily sidetracked and loose our direction.

Over the next 6 weeks, we want to look back on 7 years of God's provision and leadership among us, and we want to clearly define 6 core emphases that we see emerging for us.

Today - The Gospel at the Center.

the most important thing about your life - is not your daily habits, its not your power of self control, its not your priorities and goals.

The most important thing about you is the mental story that you inhabit. It is what you percieve to be the story of the world.

The most important thing about you is how you answer the question: what is this world? where did it come from and where is it all going? How do I fit in?

Most of us do not spend a lot of time in deep study and reflection on these questions. We just live our lives.

And we absorb the answers that we hold through our daily lives: through the media, through entertainment, through our family lives and expereinces, through our pains and our suffering - we are always crafting a story of life.

And this is what determines what we do, how we act.

You are always walking in obedience to some creed, to some message. even if you dont realize what that message is.

At the heart of christianity - is not a set of dos and donts, its not a social club, its not a system of how to be a better you and have a successful life - it is a MESSAGE about a person.

And that message, about that person, transforms how you see EVERYTHING else.

It is crazy to see how common it is for people to spend their lives in the church and still have a distorted or confused understanding about what the main message of Christianity is, and how exactly do we live that out.

The most important thing to the faith is also the thing that Satan will work hardest to confuse and substitute.

At the center of the christian faith is a single message.

This message defines who we are and what we do.

This message defines what the church is all about.

It defines our priorities and our goals.

A church that is not clear on the gospel, is a church that has lost its way.



1. What is the gospel?
Gospel - greek - euongelion - good news. A proclamation of victory, often after a war or battle between nations.

The story of the NT church is the story of the proclamation of a message. A message that turned the world upside down.

1 Cor. 2:1-2
"When I came to you, brothers and sisters, announcing the mystery of God to you, I did not come with brilliance of speech or wisdom. 2 I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified."

1 Cor. 15:1-5
"Now I want to make clear for you, brothers and sisters, the gospel I preached to you, which you received, on which you have taken your stand 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold to the message I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I passed on to you as most important what I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve."


Gospel: Jesus' life on earth, his death for our sins, and his victory over death in the resurrection and ascension.

Some careful listener may ask the following question:

Mark 1:14-15
"...Jesus went to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God: 15 “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”

Here many other translations say "gospel" instead of "good news" - the greek work here is the same one - euongelion.

How can Jesus be proclaiming the gospel here if he is just getting started? He hasn't gone to the cross yet?

Well here Jesus is pointing to the bigger message of the whole Bible
• Creation - Fall - Redemption - Restoration

This is the passage where you realize you can't understand the message of the NT without understanding the tension and the story of the OT.

Jesus begins his ministry, bursting onto the scene with a message of good news - after all the pain and suffering, after all the darkness, after all the waiting - God has not forgotten the world he created, God has not forgotten his promises.

Even though man has sinned and rebelled in his heart against his Creator - God has been working through all history to make a way to redeem sinners and restore his creation.

This is why I love how Mark starts the story of Jesus - from the very beginning of his story he is here for one reason - proclamation of good news - God's plan of salvation and restoration is here in JESUS.

The bible uses the term gospel in two senses - a broad one and a narrow one.

Broad - includes the whole message of the Bible, the promises of God to restore the world, and Jesus as the fuliflment of those promises.

The narrow focuses on Jesus himself and what he accomplishes.

But the two are never separable.

At the center of the true story of the world is Jesus - who he is and what he has done.

"this is of first importance..."

"I decided to know NOTHING among you, except Christ and him crucified..."

the true story of the world has Jesus at the center. Is Jesus at the center of your story?
Also - please take the really awesome evangelism class that Victor has put together and we will probably be offering in the fall again.


2. What do we do with this message?

Another massive blind spot. So many ppl don't realize they are not living in the power of the gospel.

The message of Jesus is at the center of the christian life and the life of the church. But to many people who claim to follow Jesus, and to many churches sadly - the gospel takes a side role.

We see this trend even in the earliest days of christianity. The apostle Paul rebukes some of the early churches for so quickly loosing site of the central message.

Galatians 1:6-8
6 I am amazed that you are so quickly turning away from him who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7 not that there is another gospel, but there are some who are troubling you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, a curse be on him!

• Knowledge, belief, and trust

IF the gospel is true, it demands our attention...
Knowledge

This is foundational - do you understand the message? Many people skip this step, assuming they do, and get stuck in a loop trying to live a false narrative of christianity.

If you find yourself stuck spiritually - you gotta just come back to the Word, asking the basic question - what is the core message here? What is the story? Why is it so important?

Belief

Do you believe this really happened in THIS WORLD? Do you look at this world as the continuation of the story of Scripture? Or does the biblical story exist in some spiritual detached reality.

The message is that Jesus was a real man. He lived and died in the middle east 2000 years ago and the historical evidence supports these facts.

He is the Creator of the world, he made you and he came to save you. It all really happened and it matters today.

Trust

Its not enough to say Jesus really happened. Do you trust in him?

I want to zoom in on this.

The message of Jesus demands a response. Its not just something you can agree with. It is something that you have a specific kind of relationship with. You respond to his message one way or another, and how you respond to his message determines who you are today.


• Repentance and faith

Acts 2:37-38
"37 When they heard this, they were pierced to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?”
38 Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized all of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit..."

IF the gospel is true - it exposes our sin.
Jesus demands a response because his message catches us ALL in the act of rebellion.

You will do one of two things: you will continue on your own way of rebelling against God, or you turn away from your sin and turn to Jesus - you repent, you confess your sins, you acknowledge your false ways - and you will run to Jesus for forgiveness and salvation.

But not only this, if the gospel is true, if Jesus is the King of Kings who has died for us, who works in us by his Spirit today, then we understand the repentance and faith is a way of life.

Every day we are going to war with sin - another way to say that is that we are going to war with unbelief - we are tempted to follow after false saviors.

Everyday we are turning away from sin and following the Savior. As we stumble and fail - we are welcomed back through the gospel.

Repentance and faith is a daily practice for christians who have rooted their life in the gospel.

• Rest and labor

Matthew 11:28-30
28 “Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take up my yoke and learn from me, because I am lowly and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

If the gospel is true it transforms our identity.

Rest in the finished work of Christ
When we turn to Jesus in repentance and faith and begin to follow him with our lives - there is an immediate transformation of our identity.

We are justified from our sin - forgiven completely!

We are adopted into his family - accepted by God!

We are regenerated in our hearts - we are made new!

When you rest in the finished work of Jesus - it means you have finished the chase of achieving something that makes you feel right, good and satisfied - because JESUS has achieved it for you.

When you are learning to rest in Jesus - you are no longer feeling the need to say things like "I'll show them..." "If only I get this achievement/job/status in life - THEN I will be good..." "If only ppl liked and accepted me..."

You no longer feel the need to chase after those things because you realize that in Jesus you are restored. You are washed clean and accepted to God - you are a member of his family. You don't need to prove anything - because Jesus has done it in your place!

Labor for the kingdom

When your soul is truly learning to rest in Jesus' FINISHED work - it transforms your relationship to your life purpose and everything you do.

You are no longer trying to prove yourself to anyone. You have a freedom and joy in your heart - a sense of peace. A sense of deep contentment about it.

And you discover a new motivation - you want to serve people and love God as an expression of gratitude and joy. You want others to have the freedom you have.

You want to pursue change and growth - not because you need to prove yourself, but because you are excited to know more and more of God and his power in your life.

Rest --> Labor

This gospel process is completely against our sinful tendencies that are hard wired into us through years of practice.

Sin and selfishness is always working to reverse that process - Labor --> Rest; our pride always tries to click us back into the mode of trying to justify ourselves by our works - we find it most natural to trust in the work of our hands.

This happens in two ways - the two enemies of the gospel - legalism and license.

Legalism says, "I will follow the rules and I will be good. I will show how good I can be."

License says, "Forget the rules, I will make my own way."

Both are ways for us to labor for our own rest.

Both are ways of self salvation.

Are you resting in Jesus' finished work on the cross? Or are you trying to labor for your own rest?

This is a process for all of us. Even after we are following Jesus for many years - we have a tendency to kick back into old patterns of thinking - we measure our worth, our joy, our success - based on what we can do rather than what Jesus has already done.

Learning to find rest in the victory of the cross and the empty tomb is a daily process - this is the essential process that keeps us laboring powerfully for God and his kingdom.

If you are not resting in Jesus - your job, your family, your friends - will all be poisoned by your fear and insecurity. As you rest in Jesus, your labor in all areas of life is transformed.

You come to work as one who seeks to honor God in your hard work - because your heart is already grateful and rooted in him.

You labor at home in your family with strength - because the gospel gives you joy and hope.


• Make disciples

If the gospel is true - our mission in life is the mission of building others up in him.

Our whole life is a process of helping others follow Jesus better - as we ourselves are learning.

• Tell the world

If the gospel is true - we will be telling the world. We will be praying for opportunity to make him known. To speak the message.

If the gospels through all of these become essentials.

3. What is a gospel-centered church?

• our mission is the mission of the gospel - to make Jesus known, to call people to repentance, and to build up believers in Jesus into maturity
• we are clear on the gospel -
◦ are you clear on the gospel?
◦ this is especially important for ministry leaders
◦ this is especially important in our homes - is the gospel the central story of your family life?
• we focus our money and our energy on the work of the gospel
◦ we sift our programs and plans based on this priority
• we are not performance oriented
◦ real spiritual growth is often messy
◦ we are not about preserving image - we are about honest, genuine spiritual growth and freedom in Jesus
◦ we are messy sometimes - not everything is always perfectly ironed out - thats ok. We are not here to put on a show. We are here to love each other and worship Jesus.
• we are outward and growth focused
◦ we don't live for comfort, we live for our mission to make disciples of Jesus.

Heres a rough draft of our mission statement - we are still working on editing it and we welcome your feedback -

"We seek to be a community that forms mature followers of Jesus who delight in the life - changing message that Jesus gives freedom from sin and death and new life in God, as they grow together in love and carry this message to our neighbors and nations.
We do this in the love of the Father, by the power of the Holy Spirit and in the glorious anticipation of the return of the Son who is making all things new."


Application:
• What is your relationship to the gospel today?
◦ Are you resting in Jesus and his victory?
◦ Are you laboring for his kingdom out of the joy and freedom that Jesus gives?
• Does the gospel unify your whole life? Or does it have a side role?
◦ "I do all things for the sake of the gospel...."
• Do you get bored with the gospel?
◦ this is NONSENSE!!
◦ The only way that you can become bored with the gospel is that you have become blind to your own in desperate need for its restorative power in your life every day.
• Are you learning a rhythm of life that is constantly turning to the good news as the truth that restores and fuels your transformation?
• How do you measure a healthy church? Do you seek for the church to be more and more centered on the gospel?