Power of the Gospel
Graphic Images Right
War, Famine, Death
What right do they have being associated with a sermon on the Power of the Gospel?
I’ll get back to that later.
Romans 1:16-17:
16For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
How many of you believe that verse?
Let me ask again.
Why isn’t this church full then?
Why haven’t we told everyone we know?
If we truly believe that the gospel is the power of God for Salvation, why aren’t we bursting at the seams with this knowledge?
It is either because we don’t believe it, or we believe that we are incapable somehow.
We think that we don’t know enough
That God could never use us
Etc.
But hear this-
Jesus Rose from the Dead!!!
And the Spirit who Rose Him lives in Us!!!
If this is True ten we are more than empowered, more than self actualized, we are more than capable.
See the verse tells us that the Gospel is Power for Salvation- but whose power? Ours? No, it is the Power if God.
Another thing we need to know is what the Gospel is.
Created, Fallen, Redeemed
Jesus Defeated Death.
Addiction
Anger
Pain
Depression
Lust
Inadequacy
Abuse
Gambling
List Goes On
If this is true why haven’t we told everyone? If God has truly rescued us all, and most of all those in this room, why are we silent?
Family
Friends
Co-Workers
Strangers
The Reality is we don’t believe it. Or we do but we are ashamed.
We are afraid of what the world may think.
We are afraid of what our friends and family may think.
We would much rather just come to church, get our 2 hours of spirituality in, and go about our life like we are no different than anyone else.
We are told not to be ashamed in 2Tim 2:15 –
Don’t be ashamed of me or of the gospel for which I am in chains
Paul over and over warns us not to be ashamed of this Jesus.
Because we don’t believe the gospel whole heartedly or because we are ashamed, we have 2 problems
1. We don’t tell people
a. 2 Problems
i. No One hears
1. We all heard through someone
ii. We are not obeying Jesus
1. Told to make disciples
2. Must be faithful in all the commands
2. We don’t live like Christians
a. Don’t have risen lives
i. We don’t believe we can conquer sin
ii. We don’t have Joy
b. Sin still rules us
i. We feel trapped by it
ii. We feel Powerless
iii. Self Mutilation
c. Unbelieving world sees our hypocrisy
i. Don’t spread any seed
ii. We have nothing to offer them
iii. Just another Church
1. Youth events
2. Luncheons
3. Getaways
iv. We look like any other club
1. We want your money and time
We need to know that the Gospel is the Power of God for Salvation.
Not an old philosophy
Not about making us better people
Not about morality
Not a feel good solution to our problems
It is a living God
The Power if the Gospel is Jesus Christ
It is a relationship with the Creator- with our Creator
This is what we have
This what we have to offer
This is the answer to the slide show we just saw
Want to end war?
Famine?
Greed?
It is all in the Gospel
Like the song said it ill make a weak man mighty and make a mighty man fall.
When we truly believe the Gospel and carry it with us, it ill change the world
Martin Luther King Jr
Abolitionists
Let us believe this and then go and tell others.
There is one more thing I think we need to realize when we read this verse in our programs.
God has no partiality.
The Power of the Gospel is for Both the Jew and the Greek.
It is for everyone
Far too often I believe we discount a person or sub culture as too far gone
I was that too far gone person
Hardcore Shows
Hard Sub Culture very hard to break into
Distrusting
Anti-Religious
I was burned Out
They need to hear too
Reality is that they are anti religious because they have seen only the Hypocrisy. They have seen our unbelief and shame
Let us bring them the Power of God
Why do I mention all this today?
We are starting a church plant in 1 week, and if we don’t have this down, then we will never get off the ground.
What are we offering people if not the power of Salvation?
No One too far to experience change
Northampton is like the hardcore scene
I was one who was too far gone
So were most of you
We need to know that the Gospel is the Power of God for Salvation
That it is Power
That it is Gods
That it is for everyone.
If we truly believe that the Gospel is the Power of God, how selfish of us to keep it to ourselves. How selfish of us to be ashamed.
There is a person in your life right now who needs to hear this.
Maybe they are struggling with
Addiction
Anger
Abuse
Maybe it is pride
Maybe they are quietly wasting away in their depression
And we haven’t told them because we are ashamed, or we don’t want to offend them, or it is just plain hard.
How selfish of us.
See this is an eternal thing. We are called to co labor with God somehow in His creation, and part of that is making disciples of the nations, so let us go and do just that.
If we can’t do this, if we are too ashamed, or we don’t believe this then we have no business planting a church in Northampton.
What would we be offering but another club.
But we are not offering them that, we are offering them Salvation
We have 600,000 people in this Valley, 40,000 in Amherst alone, about 50,000 in NoHo
Less that 2 percent know Jesus Christ
There is a greater percentage of Alcoholics in the area than Christians. And what are we doing about it?
DO we believe that the Gospel is the Power of Salvation? Let us then go and make disciples of the Nations.
In just a second we are going to watch another slide show. I would encourage you to meditate on what was said today.
If you don’t know Jesus, this is a time to get to know him.
If you are a follower of Christ, I invite you to use this time to pray for a person in your life who needs to know the Power of the Gospel or just use this time to ask God to make His Power more real
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