The Gospel Truth
As a member of a vocal music ministry, I’ve had the opportunity to sing for the underserved in prison and in homeless shelters. Here’s the copy from the presentations of the Gospel message I’ve had the privilege to share with the men and women who attend chapel services at those places.
Introduction:
God thought you were worth saving. My question for you tonight is, “Do you know who is this God that thought you were worth saving?” Some of us have heard about Him. Some of us know about Him. But how many know there’s a difference between knowing about someone, hearing about someone and really knowing someone. Ladies, God wants us to really know Him. As I was preparing to speak to you tonight, the one word that came to mind was “personal.” God wants to get personal with us. He wants to get all up in our business! He wants to have a personal relationship with us. That’s why He created us.
Creation:
The very first thing that we can learn about God from reading the word is that He is the creator. Genesis chapter 1 verse 1 says “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” And He created man in His own image. Someone might ask why? God is an all powerful, all sufficient being. Why would He create human beings? The answer is: love. The bible says in I John 4 that “God is love.” He created human beings in a special way to be able to receive His love and love Him back. That’s the nature of love. It wants to give love away. Some of us have been in relationships where we thought someone loved us, but they just ended up using us. That’s not love. Love gives everything. And at the very beginning with Adam and Eve in the garden, they had a perfect love relationship first with God and second with each other. Everything was perfect. Someone might ask, what changed? Well, what “had happened” was, despite being in this perfect face to face relationship with God, Adam and Eve chose to disobey God. Adam and Eve made the wrong choice. What we have to understand is that love always involves a choice, a decision. Love is a decision, not an emotion. Let’s say that together. Love is a decision, not an emotion. God is a gentleman. He doesn’t force Himself on anyone. He made us in a way where we can chose to love Him or we can chose not to. If we didn’t have a choice, we’d be like robots. And as a result of Adam’s wrong choice, sin entered into our life experience.
Problem of Sin:
Someone might ask, what is sin? The bible says in I John 3 that “Sin is transgression of the law.” That just means stepping over the law or moral standard, going past what is acceptable and right. Whose law? God’s moral law. It means we step over God’s moral code of right and wrong. If God is the creator of everything, then He get’s the say over right and wrong, that makes sense right?
And His laws make sense: don’t murder, lie, steal, honor and respect your parents. Makes sense. But there’s a problem. Someone might ask, what’s the problem? The problem is that no matter how much we try to keep up God’s standard, we can not do it. That’s the ultimate consequence of Adam’s choice. Because of what he did, every human being is born with a nature that breaks God’s law. It’s in us. It’s what we do naturally. Like King David said in Psalm 51, we are sinners from the time we are in our mother’s womb. You can see it in a child. You don’t have to teach a little toddler to want to sneak a cookie and lie about it, even when they have chocolate chips all over their face! And because sin is our very nature, we cannot be in a relationship with God. Sin has broken our personal relationship with God. That’s why Adam and Eve had to leave. Someone might ask, why? Because God is love, and God is also holy, which means He can’t be around sin. Can’t be in the same room with sin. So we have a huge problem. It’s the biggest problem in the entire universe. Not global warming, world hunger, pollution. It’s we can’t ever get back into personal relationship with our Creator because of our sin. This is bad news because if we can’t be in a relationship with God, we’re lost, we’re hopeless and ultimately death becomes final. Before we can get to good news, we got to understand the bad news. Someone might ask: what’s the good news?
The Gospel:
Here’s the good news: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believes in Him will not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16. Someone might ask why? Why did God send His son to die? The answer again is because of love: love chooses to sacrifice. We have to understand just like when we break a law on earth, there are consequences. Like when you get a ticket, you have to pay a fine. And depending on how serious the crime, you may even serve time in jail, or depending on the state you live in, face the death penalty. It’s the same with God’s law. If we break His law, we must suffer the consequences. And Romans 6 says that the wages or consequences of sin is death. And the only way out is if someone takes on the consequence for us. Then our sins are paid for. The bible says without the shedding of blood, there can be no forgiveness of sins. That’s what happened 2000 years ago. Instead of you dying, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, suffered more than any other person has ever suffered, was nailed to a cross at Calvary. His blood was shed to pay for the sins of the entire world. But not just the entire world: for you personally. He had you on His mind. What we could not do for ourselves, He chose to do for us out of love. The good news gets better. Not only did He die but He rose again on the third day, proving that He is God in the flesh! That’s amazing!!! It’s the single most important event in all of history.
The Personal Choice:
Now someone might ask: What’s next? What do I do? We must all make a personal decision, a personal choice about who Jesus Christ is. Mama can’t make it for you. Daddy can’t make it for you. Only you can make the decision. Am I going to believe that Jesus Christ is who He says He is and that He did what He did for me? He said Himself, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father, but by Me.” You have this promise in Romans 10:9-10 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved.” And then all your sins, past, present and future, are forgiven and you can come back into a personal, one on one relationship with God. And then one day soon, when He comes back to fix this mess that sin made on the earth, He’ll be looking for you. So you can see Him face to face, and you can be with Him forever. For some of you, the Holy Spirit has been pulling at your heart all night, and you are ready to make that personal decision right now. Some of you have made that decision before, but you’ve walked away and now you want to come back. If that’s you, we’re going to pray.
But understand this prayer is the beginning. It’s the start of a day-by-day relationship with God. But it starts with a personal decision.
So let’s pray together. You can pray these words after me.
Heavenly Father: I come to you right now as a sinner in need of your help. There’s nothing that I can do to come back into a relationship with you. But I believe that you sent your Son Jesus to die on the cross for all my sins. And I believe that He rose again on the third day. I confess with my mouth that He is my Lord and my savior. Father, send your Holy Spirit to change me and help me be more like Jesus everyday. Thank you for creating me, thank you for loving me. Thank you for saving me. In Jesus’ name, amen!
He thought we were worth saving. The God of the universe thought we were worth saving. He doesn’t think we are throwaways. He thinks we are keepers and that’s why He came.
INTRODUCTION:
That is the message that we want to bring to each of you here tonight. It’s the message of the gospel. The gospel just means the good news. It’s all about Jesus Christ and what he has done for us. Each one of us standing up here tonight have had our different journeys in life. What unites us is that we have been all changed by the power of the gospel. We only can sing about what we know. And we want you to know that what God has done for us, he can do and he will do for you. Because God is still in the saving business! Now people may have asked you questions like “Are you saved?” “Do you know where you will go when you die?” You’ve heard us talking about God and how He saved us, but maybe you’re not sure exactly what that means. God wants you understand what He has done for you, so we before we leave here tonight, we want to make sure we make it clear.
QUESTION 1: SO IF GOD SAVED US WHAT DID HE SAVE US FROM?
He saved us from our “sin”. Romans 3:23 says, “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. That just means that there is not a person on this earth that has not messed up. There’s no body perfect. There’s no one righteous. So we all need someone to save us from ourselves.
QUESTION 2: IF WE NEED TO SAVED FROM SIN, WHAT IS SIN?
I John 3:4 says “Sin is the transgression of the law.” Transgression just means to step over something or to break the law. So we sin when we break the law.
QUESTION 3: WHAT IS THE LAW?
What law are we talking about? Are we talking about the laws of our state? No, we’re talking about God’s law. The law is simply God’s moral code. It’s God’s standard for how we should live life on this earth. You can find it summarized in the Ten Commandments, but it means how we treat God and we treat each other. Again how we treat God and how we treat each other.
QUESTION 4: WHAT IS THE PROBLEM?
The problem is that no matter how hard we try, we as sinful people can not keep God’s law, we can’t live up to that standard in our own power, in our own strength.
We just can’t will ourselves to do good. Even if sometimes we feel like we’ve have a good day and we made the right choices, just wait. Tomorrow, that thing will come up again – whatever it is and before we know it, we are right back to where we started. Even if we don’t do anything “bad” on the outside, God can see our thoughts. There’s nothing hidden from Him.
QUESTION 5: SO WHAT HAS OUR SIN DONE?
Sin separates us from God. See, God wants to be close to us. That’s why He created us. But God is 100% is holy. That means He cannot be in the presence of sin. He and sin can’t be in the same room. So that means we can never be connected to God if we stay in our sins, if we keep living a life that goes against God’s standards. That’s why Adam and Eve had to leave the garden of Eden when they chose to disobey God. They had to leave God’s presence.
QUESTION 6: WHAT IS THE CONSEQUENCE OF SIN?
Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages (or the consequences) of sin is death.” That means if we keep living a life against God, we will die and we will be forever separated from God. See death is not just a physical death, it’s a spiritual separation from God, and that’s not what He wants. That is not what He wants for His children. But God is a problem solver, and He has as solution.
QUESTION 7: WHAT IS THE SOLUTION?
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but shall have everlasting life.” That means that God loved us, His sinful creation, so much that He couldn’t bear to be separated from us. So He made a way for each of us to come back into His presence.
QUESTION 8: WHY DID JESUS HAVE TO DIE FOR THIS TO HAPPEN?
God is 100% holy, and He’s 100% just and fair. That means if we break His law, we have to pay the consequences. We see that in our court system all the time. If you do the crime you have to what? Do the time. We just learned that the wages or the consequences of sin is death. The bible teaches “without the shedding of blood, there can be no forgiveness of sins.” So when Jesus came, He lived the life we could not live and died on the cross. He shed his blood. He paid the penalty of not just my sins, not just your sins, but the sins of any and everybody that believes in Him.
QUESTION 9: WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?
The good news of the gospel is this: through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, God has done for us what we could never do for ourselves. He has made a way for all our mess ups (past, present and future) to be forgiven, to be paid for in full, so we can have relationship with Him again. That’s why when Jesus says, “I am the way the truth and the life, no man comes to the father except through Me,” He’s telling the truth. He is the only way because He’s the only one who has dealt with the problem of sin. He’s removed all the barriers. And he’s waiting. He’s waiting for us to respond. He’s put everything out on the table. He’s given His all, and He’s waiting for us to respond.
QUESTION 10: HOW DO WE RESPOND / WHAT MUST WE DO TO BE SAVED?
- Recognize that we are sinners and we need a savior.
- Desire to repent or turn away from our old of life of sin to a new life for God.
- Trust the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross is enough for us.
Romans 10:9-10 “If you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”
See Jesus died but He also rose! So not only did He pay for ours sins, but He promised that if we believe in Him, the same power that raised Him from the dead can raise us up too. That power can change us. It can free us so that we no longer live as slaves of sin. We can have the power to live life God’s way.
So is there anybody tonight who knows that you need help? Do you want to do things God’s way? And are you ready to fully surrender your life to Him? If that is you, we are going to give you an opportunity to pray to God for yourself and ask Him to take control.
And if you are someone who wants to re-commit your life to God and get back on track, we want you to pray as well.
So we’re going to take these first steps together. Let’s pray and you can repeat after me.
Heavenly Father – I come to you now as a sinner in need of your help. There’s nothing I can do to come back into a relationship with you. But I believe that you sent your Son Jesus to die on the cross for all my sins. And I believe that He rose again on the third day. I confess with my mouth that He is my Lord and my savior. Please send your Holy Spirit to change me and help me to be more like Jesus everyday. Thank you for creating me, thank you for loving me. Thank you for saving me. In Jesus’ name, amen!
INTRODUCTION
God thought you were worth saving. The words to that song are so powerful. There are simple but so powerful because they really sum up the message that we want to leave with you all tonight. And that’s the message of the gospel. The gospel simply means “good news”. Every body say “good news!” Frankly the world that we live in is full of bad news. To be honest, it’s just going to get worse and worse. But we have good news to share if you willing to hear it. And really you can hear the good news all throughout the whole bible, but we’re going to look at one verse in particular tonight and that verse is John chapter 3 verse 16. And it reads…
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. That whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Many of us have heard that verse before, and maybe you’ve memorized it from Sunday school, but do we know really what it means? We’re going to break it down.
IT STARTS THIS WAY – “For God”
The first words are for God. You see everything starts and ends with God. And that’s where we have to start: with God. The bible says in Hebrews 11:6 that he who comes to God must first believe that He is, that He exists. That He is real. And not only is He real, but He created everything. He’s the one who spoke and the universe had no choice but to obey and to come into existence. The bible says in Hebrews 11:3 through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. He is the one who made everything from nothing. And whether we believe that ultimately comes down to a matter of faith. It’s a faith that’s based on evidence. It all starts with God.
SO WE’VE GOT “For God” … so loved.
God loves. The bible says in I john 4:8 that God is love. He is the very essence of what love is. So everything that He has done for us and in our lives He has done because He loves us. Our very faith in Him actually works through love.
WHO DOES GOD LOVE? FOR GOD SO LOVED…THE WORLD
“The world” – all of His creation. We see in Genesis chapter 1 that everything God made was good, but we as human beings are special. We are the crowning jewel of His creation. We are the cherry on top. Why? Because the bible says in Genesis 1:27 that He made us male and female in His own image. That means He made us in a way so that we can, first, have a relationship with Him and, second, we are accountable to Him. Dogs, cats, fleas & tickets cannot have a relationship with God. But we can. That makes us special to him.
FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD – THAT HE GAVE
“That He gave” – What has God done out of His great love? He gave. I Corinthians 13 gives us a picture of love. We see that real love gives. Real love doesn’t look to be served but to serve. Real love is not selfish, but selfless. And God is the most loving being in the universe because He is the most selfless being in the universe. And He has shown us the ultimate example of love by giving.
BY GIVING WHO? HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON.
“His only begotten Son” – Jesus Christ. We could spend eternity talking about who He is, but let’s name a few. He’s the only begotten Son of God, He is the very word of God made alive, He is the Messiah, the Anointed One, He is Emmanuel, God with us, the Prince of Peace, the Wonderful Counselor, the Resurrection and the Life, the Way, the Truth and the Life, the Stone which the builders rejected who has become the Chief Cornerstone, the Good Shepherd, the Author and Finisher of our faith, the Anchor of our hope, the One who was and is and is to come! The Savior, Deliverer and soon coming King. The Lion of the tribe of Judah! But in this verse, He is the spotless Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
AND WHOSEVER BELIEVES IN HIM – IN THE SON OF GOD – SHOULD NOT PERISH….
You see, God created us in His image, but that image was tainted by sin. So now each one of us has a nature that sins against God, a nature that can only break God’s standard or law. That’s what sin is: breaking God’s moral standard. And Romans 6:23 says “For the wages (or the consequences) of sin is death.” Sin = death = ultimate separation from God. And the only way out is through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. You see the bible says without the shedding of blood there can be no forgiveness of sin. But if we accept the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for us, that His blood was shed on our behalf, our sins can be forgiven.
AND WE CAN GET TO THE LAST PART OF THE JOHN 3:16 – WE CAN HAVE THE EVERLASTING LIFE THAT GOD PLANNED FOR US ALL ALONG
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ. This is what a loving God has chosen to do for us. Before He created us, He counted the cost, He thought we were worth saving and was willing to do what ever it took to get back to him. He chose us. And now each one of us has a choice. Romans 10:9-10 says, “If you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
What will you choose?
Choose today whom you will serve: either sin or the Savior. Seek the Lord while He may be found. Tomorrow is not promised. Today is the day of salvation.
We each have to count the cost. It costs us a death too: our old sinful nature in exchange for His nature. Our will in exchange for His will. Our plans in exchange for His. And His plan ends in eternal life. Chose. Decide.
INTRODUCTION
He thought we were worth saving, so He came. Jesus Christ, the Son of God came. And that is good news. Before we leave tonight, we want you remember three things:
- Jesus Christ came to fulfill a purpose.
- He fulfilled that purpose.
- Now He invites us to come to Him.
FIRST HE CAME TO FULFILL A PURPOSE
The bible says in the book of Luke chapter 19 verse 10 “The Son of Man (which is another name for Jesus Christ) came to seek and to save that which was lost.” He came to seek and save all who were lost. Who was lost? I know I was lost before I met Jesus. The truth is we are all lost without Him. But why are we lost? Because of sin. To sin means to simply break God’s moral law. It means to not live up to the standard that God has set for how we should live life. And each and everyone has fallen short of that standard. We have all sinned.
But Jesus Christ came.
Let’s look at I john 3:18 – It says, “He that commits sin (which is all of us) is of the devil; for the devil sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.
So He came to seek and save all who are lost. He came to destroy the works of the devil.
You see, the devil was the first of God’s creation to sin. Before he was the devil or Satan, he was an exalted angel named Lucifer. He was in the very presence of God in heaven. But he decided within himself that he no longer wanted to submit to God’s standard. He thought why should God get all the glory and praise and worship? I want it for myself. I will be like God. I will decide for myself what is good and what is evil. And so Lucifer rebelled against the God of heaven and because of this rebellion, because of his sin, he and the angels that followed him were cast out of heaven to earth. They had to leave the presence of God.
We must understand God is holy, which means He can’t be in the presence of sin. So sin causes separation from God.
If we fast forward to the garden of Eden, we see the devil again. It was the devil that deceived Eve into what? Into sin. He is the one who caused her to question God’s nature. He caused her to question God’s word. He convinced her that she should be like God. She should decide for herself what is good and what is evil. What is right and what is wrong. He said, why don’t you just forget what God says, do what you want to do. Have it your way (like Burger King)!
So what happened? Once again, we see that sin separates. Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s simple instruction and they had to leave the garden, the presence of God. And now the whole world is left with the consequences of sin.
The whole world has separation anxiety.
Sin separates, but Jesus saves.
HE FULFILLED THAT PURPOSE
Jesus Christ came to undo the mess that sin has caused in this world. How has He done that? By paying the penalty of our sins with His own life. You see, the bible says that the wages or consequences of sin is death. So sin means the death penalty. That is ultimate separation from God. And the only way for sin to be forgiven is for someone to pay that penalty. And Jesus did that for us by allowing His blood to be shed. He did it on the cross at Calvary over 2,000 years ago.
He said, I will leave my seat next to the Father in glory. I will come to the world that I created, and I will offer my life as a sacrifice for the people who I love. So their sins can be forgiven and they no longer have to be separated from Me and from the Father.
So He came for a purpose: to destroy the works of sin, to seek and to save all that were lost. He thought we were to die for, so He sacrificed His life. But the grave couldn’t hold Him because He’s God, so He rose after three days! Amen.
HE WANTS US TO COME
He came to us, and now He invites us to come to Him. He says, let’s end this separation. He says, “Come to Me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me. For I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” You don’t have to be burdened with your sins any more. He’s saying let me carry it. Stop trying to work your way back into My presence. Stop trying to be good enough and accept this gift that I have given you.
Salvation is a gift of grace that we can only receive when we believe it by faith.
Because for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believes in Him, should not perish, but have everlasting life.
If you believe that tonight – if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, the bible says you will be saved. And then all that was lost will be found again. And the separation will be over.