Pastor Dave

Gospel Centered Life

Last Updated (Thursday, 16 October 2008 22:20) Thursday, 16 October 2008 22:19

Greetings in Christ,
What is the Gospel? What does a Gospel-centered life look like? What does a Gospel-centered marriage look like? In this sermon, I will attempt to answer these questions. If you were to ask five people what the Gospel is you would get five different answers. The first answer you would get is the Gospel is repentance and belief upon Jesus name (Romans 10:10-14). The second answer you would get is that the Gospel is all of your life committed to God (Matthew 28:18-20). The third answer you would be some aspect of the Gospel they prefer. None of these definitions are bad, but without joining them together the definition misses out. A Gospel centered life begins by believing/trusting Jesus, for only by this can anyone live a life committed to God.
Is the Gospel just a thing that we believe on and do, or is it a living relationship? In my experience people fall into an attitude where they feel they are indebted to Jesus instead of motivated to live by His grace. Quite naturally we are inclined to feel we have to serve Him. This inclination will lead us to attempt to pay Him back for what He did for us on the Cross. Our motivation for living Him does not come from what we can do for Him; it ought to come from our knowing Him. How can we know Him? We can know Him by spending time with Him in prayer, study, solitude reflection, meditation on Jesus, and His Word. By doing this, we can grow to know Him, and out of our knowing Him; we can then serve Him. Jesus offers us the gift of eternal life freely because He loves us. His holiness was motivated by His love which caused Him to be pinned to the Cross where His blood dripped down that Cross.
What role does the Cross play in our lives? At the Cross the Father placed the sins of you and I upon the person of Christ and it is only through Him that we can die to sin and live a life empowered by His resurrection power. It is only through what He did for us that we can be motivated to know Him and serve Him. Any other way that we may think we can live for Him by is wrong and provides a wrong motivation. Our motivation comes from our love for Him not a debt that we can pay back to Him.
What is the Gospel to you? If the Gospel is anything less than freedom for your heart, and living by His enabling power to live the life He has called you to then it’s not worth it. There are plenty of lies going around and sad news in our culture, but if the Truth of God’s Word stands as an everlasting fortress to our souls then we ought to stand upon it. As believers we ought to be convicted to the core that all around us are lost and broken people who need Jesus Christ now more than ever.
Does the Gospel energize your life? The Gospel is not a to-do list. A Gospel centered life centers upon Christ and is empowered by Christ. Our motivation for service to Christ ought not to come from a desire to pay Him but from knowing Him. Our service rendered in Christ’s name must come from our knowing Him. Our knowing Him means having our inward life changed. It means allowing Christ to change our attitudes, emotions and the entire interior of our lives.
If our motivation comes from our desire to pay Him back then we are enslaved to the law and do not understand grace. Galatians 5:1, “ 1For(A) freedom Christ has(B) set us free;(C) stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to(D) a yoke of(E) slavery.” We cannot measure up to the standards of the beatitudes apart from Christ. The point of Jesus teaching in the Sermon of the Mount is that only He could live a perfect life and this leads us to see that we need to know Him in order to serve Him. The Sermon on the Mount teaches us that our inward life must change before our outward behavior will show genuine change. The Gospel is not just some performance that we can flaunt before others. People can spot a fake because we are hardwired as humans for authentic relationships. God wired this way for one reason; He created us to know Him and to be in relationship with others. Our motivation for knowing God must be to enjoy Him not to impose upon Him our agenda. God is God He knows what we are capable of and He also knows what is best for us since He created us in His image.
Ephesians 2:8-10, “8For(A) by grace you have been saved(B) through faith. And this is(C) not your own doing;(D) it is the gift of God, 9(E) not a result of works,(F) so that no one may boast. 10For(G) we are his workmanship,(H) created in Christ Jesus(I) for good works,(J) which God prepared beforehand,(K)that we should walk in them.” Salvation is not about you or I; God saved us for a purpose and that purpose is to know Him and serve Him. This is the point of James 2 which has at its central point that a faith that is real is a faith that works. James believes that a faith that is real is a faith that is motivated by knowing God and energized by that knowing to serve God. Our faith is based upon the central role of knowing God and serving God.
Many scholars believe that the central theme of the Scriptures is redemption. I don’t disagree with this thesis; however I believe the central theme of Scripture is far greater than redemption. Redemption focuses on our ability to know Him in order to have our sins forgiven and have a positional standing with Christ. This misses out on the aspect of our growing in Christ so I am advocating that the central theme of Scripture is our knowing Him so we can serve Him. Jesus does not want us to be religious; He wants us to know Him genuinely so serve Him.
Our motivation for service comes from our knowing Him so we can serve Him. Where does the role of our desire play in our knowing God? Is our life just a joke? How central is our knowing God to our faith? Psalm 46:10, “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!"
The Hebrew root yada is translated know/knowledge and appears almost 950 times in the Hebrew Bible. The definition of know/knowledge includes perceiving, learning, understanding, willing, performing, and experiencing. To know is not just to give intellectual assent to a principle but to experience its reality. Knowing is not about intellectually knowing the right answers but realizing its implication and applying its principles. Biblically to know God is not to know Him in an impersonal manner but rather to enter into His saving actions. Micah 6:5, “5O my people, remember(A) what Balak king of Moab devised, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him, and what happened from(B) Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know(C) the saving acts of the LORD."
To know God is not to struggle or have questions about Him but rather to recognize and accept what He has said as Truth. His Word is not just some mystic thought. He demands dutiful obedience. The New Testament teaches us that knowing God is not simply intellectual but a response of faith and acceptance of Christ. It is He who has made God known (John 1:18). To know Christ is to know God (John 14:7). Eternal life is to know the true God and Jesus Christ (John 17:3). Paul desired to know Christ in his death and resurrection (Phil 3:10). Failure to know Jesus as Lord and Messiah (Acts 2:36) resulted in his rejection and crucifixion (1 Cor 2:8). To know Christ is to know Truth (John 8:32). Knowledge of the Truth (1 Tim 2:4; 2 Tim 2:25; 3:7; Titus 1:1) brings illumination and acceptance of faith.
People crave authenticity. Biblical Christianity begins and ends with authenticity because at its core is the fundamental principle of knowing and serving the Lord. The only way we can give people authentic Christianity is to truly know and experience the Truth we believe. Sinners are not interested in our knowledge they are interested in seeing its truth played out in our lives. The only way we can do the Lord’s work is by doing it His way; in His power. To do the Lord’s work in your own effort and ability is to undermine the nature and role of the Gospel.
The implications of what I’ve laid out here today are enormous. If you think about what I’ve said here today it will change your entire outlook on your relationship with God, ministry, missions, relationships, church and culture. My prayer is that we would know Him and serve Him. In our knowing Him we can grow and in our growing our attitudes, and emotional life will change. The Christian life is a life of commitment. The Lord’s Word lays down clear guidelines for how we are to know Him and in doing so it also shows us how to serve Him.
My prayer today is that you would know Jesus truly. In your knowing Him, I pray that you would serve Him. By doing this you will bear fruit for God’s kingdom that will bring glory to the Father. You will not be doing ministry in your own effort but in the power of the Spirit and demonstrate the fruits of the Spirit (Gal 5). By doing life this way your marriage will be changed as you serve your spouse rather than yourself. By living life this way others around you will see the change in you and ask you for the reason for your faith. My only question is are you up to the challenged laid forth in this message? Will you personally allow Jesus to change you? Will you truly know Him and then go out and serve Him? My prayer is that the Lord would use this message to send out many workers for His harvest. The harvest is truly plentiful but the workers are few. May the Lord of the harvest use this message for His namesake and glory.
In Christ Alone, Pastor Dave