Because God is sovereign amp were responsible Talk with God about our friends before talking with friends about God 7 Principles of Evangelism Listening to Hear hospitality 5 Thresholds of Faith Trust Curiosity Open to Change Seeking Entering Kingdom ID: 536389
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A new identity: Ambassadors for Christ (all Christians)
Because God is sovereign & we’re responsible: Talk with God about our friends before talking with friends about God
7 Principles of
Evangelism / “Listening to Hear” / hospitality
5 Thresholds of Faith: Trust, Curiosity, Open to Change, Seeking, Entering KingdomThere’s 1 gospel, but many ways to explain it. An “Irreducibly Simple” Gospel could be described as…
REVIEW
8
weeks in 60 secondsSlide3
Invitation
Good News
Bad News
The Bad News
is the story of how God’s children were seduced (by the evil one)
The Good News (Gospel) is the story of the infinite degree to which God went to rescue his children
The Invitation is the offer extended by God to those he is calling into his family (through his ambassadors)Slide4Slide5
Why this is often missed or misunderstood:
It’s never communicated
Words are communicated, but meaning is not
People hear what they expect to hear (e.g. Moralism)
Undefined terms are filled with the listener’s understanding of the term (for better or worse)E.g. SINFUL = dark chocolate
GOSPEL BOOT CAMP
THE BAD NEWSSlide6
Questions people already asking:
Why do people hurt each other?
Why can’t we all get a long?
Why do we have the sense that this world is not the way things are supposed to be?
We all have a longing for an ideal world, for congenial relationships, for profound inner satisfaction. Why?Because we were made for just those things…
GOSPEL BOOT CAMP
The world as we know itSlide7
Genesis 2 – our first parents
Had a home, food, work, purpose, stability & community
No suffering, pain, or death
But also a choice in the form of a “decision tree” (2:17)
A. Look to God as source & sustainer of life for our deepest needs and right livingB. Look elsewhere for these things, trusting in ourselves and be our own judge of right & wrong
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The way things once wereSlide8
The Temptation – Genesis 3:4-5 – The Serpent
To be “like God” knowing good & evil
To not have to rely on God, but become our own god
To get what we need most in life from apart from God
Believing Serpent meant disbelieving God, who said, “For when you eat of it you will surely die” (2:17)They chose to believe the Serpent by disbelieving God, which led to disobeying God’s one command – the 1st sin
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What happenedSlide9
What is Sin?
Legal terms: “Crimes against God”
1 John 3:4 “Sin is lawlessness”
Psalm 51:4 “…against you and you only [God] have I sinned
”Relational terms: “Spiritual adultery”Ezekiel 16:32 “You adulterous wife!”
Thoughts/words/deeds contrary to God’s good design
In general: choosing self over God
GOSPEL BOOT CAMP
SINSlide10
2 Sources of Sin
Heredity
When A & E lost their innocence, so did their progeny
We inherit their sin nature like we inherit their genes
Rom. 5:12 – sin came through one man (Adam), because in Adam “all sinned”Since then don’t have to be taught to sin
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SINSlide11
2 Sources of Sin
Choice
Romans 3:23 – we all choose to sin (thought/word/deed)
Matthew 22:37-39 – Greatest commandment to love God with all heart, mind, soul & strength.
We don’t do that for 5 secondsSecond Greatest command: love neighbor as selfKnow how we want to be treated but don’t treat others that way
GOSPEL BOOT CAMP
SINSlide12
Common objection:
“Adam sinned, not me”
Adam was a perfect person in perfect setting, best human ever created, undamaged by other’s sins, and only 1 command to obey
He’s the best representative we could have in the best situation we could hope for – we would do no better
Result: we all have a sin problem, which leads to another problem…
GOSPEL BOOT CAMP
SINSlide13
Genesis 2:17 - consequence of breaking 1
st
command, “you will surely die”
What’s that really mean?
Romans 6:23 – “The wages of sin is death”But why?
The answers are rooted in the nature of sin and the nature of God
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DEATHSlide14
The Nature of Sin: crimes against God
Usurping his authority by acting as our own authority
An assault on the throne of God so we can occupy that place
In political terms: a spiritual coup – “cosmic treason”
In other words, sin is by nature a capital offense
GOSPEL BOOT CAMP
DEATHSlide15
The Nature of God: Righteous & Just
Righteous
Moral perfection
Intrinsic to God’s being (repels un-righteousness like oil & water)
God’s righteousness bars sinners from his presenceBeing cut off from the source of life (God) by nature leads to death
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DEATHSlide16
The Nature of God: Righteous & Just
Just
Justice evaluates actions using standards of law as a measurement
God must evaluate by the standard of his own law and righteousness
Cannot overlook a single infraction & still be justNahum 1:3 – God “will by no means clear the guilty”
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DEATHSlide17
The Nature of God: Righteous & Just
God’s
righteousness
+ our un-righteousness = separation from the source of life
deathGod’s justice + our guilt = punishment death
Because we all have a sin problem, we all have a death problemBut what all does that entail?
3 kinds of death…
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DEATHSlide18
Spiritual Death
Turning away from the ultimate source of life to find our life elsewhere has consequences
Sin cut the “spiritual umbilical cord” between us and God
Eph. 2:1 “You were
dead in your transgressions and sins” (in context, a spiritual reality)Spiritually dead people sin by nature (Romans 8:6-8; Ephesians 4:17-19)
Sin spiritual death (particular sins a symptom) …
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DEATHSlide19
Physical Death
P
rocess of degeneration began with first sin in Garden, which ultimately leads to physical death
Not part of original creation, but a consequence of sin (Romans 5:12)
10 out of 10 people sin … and die (Rom 3:23, 6:23)Sin spiritual death physical death …
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DEATHSlide20
Eternal Death
Eternal Life (John 17:3) = “Knowing God” (intimacy, relationship, closeness)
Eternal Death (2 Thessalonians 1:9) = “everlasting destruction and [being] shut out from the presence of the Lord”
Jesus will say, “Depart
from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and
his angels.” (Matthew 25:41)
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DEATHSlide21
As God said in Genesis 2:17, our 1
st
parents died…
Spiritually
, because connection with God was severed,They started the degenerative process that leads to physical
deathAnd on the path ultimately leading to
eternal deathBecause of heredity
and
choice
, we’re in the same boat
This is because God is both
righteous
(can’t be in the presence of sin) and
just
(must punish sin
)
GOSPEL BOOT CAMP
DEATHSlide22
It’s the nature of man to justify himself and to rationalize his actions so he can convince himself he’s a good person
Proverbs 16:2 “All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the spirit.”
Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can understand it?”
Why?
Pride
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WORKSSlide23
Good works don’t work. Why?
“A man is not justified by works of the law” (Galatians 2:16)
Our “good” works aren’t that good: “all our righteous deeds are filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6)
God’s standard: “Be
holy, because I am holy” (1 Peter 1:16)
Urban Chestnut, marriage and the holiness of God
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WORKSSlide24
Summary
All have “SIN” (heredity) and have sinned (choice), and thus have a sin problem
Because God is Righteous and Just, we also have a DEATH problem (Spiritual, Physical and Eternal)
Thus are greatest enemies are SIN and DEATH.
Despite what our pride tells us, our good WORKS don’t workApart from this understanding of the Bad News, the Good News will have little value or be misunderstood
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BAD NEWS