We have been saved…

  • Romans 3:23
  • Sin= any way we fall short of God in our thoughts, motives, behaviors
  • Romans 6:23

 

  • We went from being an enemy to a co-heir, friend.

 

  • Every one of us is hard-wired to find atonement for sin. We know someone has to pay. None of us can pay for our sin. When we don’t find atonement/sacrifice for our sin we either hate the other person or ourselves.

 

  • Evidence you are not living the Gospel- you blame or feel shame or feel a need to perform. Some enter ministry with a need to seek God’s approval.

 

We are being saved…

  • For some it’s a past event and a future hope not a present reality.

 

  • In failure and success Jesus is good news. In failure we are reminded of the need for the cross. In success we are reminded that He is working in us. It’s not our behaviors that save us.

 

We will be saved…

  • You live without fear of tomorrow.
  • Justification, sanctification, glorification
  • Transferrable, reproducible, scalable, sustainable
  • The World’s Paradigm
  • Our doing is greater than our being
  • If you base your being on your doing who are you when you can’t do anymore.
  • Don’t base your identity on something that can be taken away.
  • God’s being, expressed in His doing, (his doing reveals His being), our being, our doing (an expression of our being)

 

  • Indicatives (what is true),
  • Imperatives, (what we do)
    • The commands come out of the indicatives

 

  • Every time you hear a command in Scripture ground that into who God is and what he does

 

In the beginning…

  • Who is God? God is creator,
  • What has he done? he created,
  • Who are we? We are created by God in His image, likeness, righteous, very good, co-creators,
  • What do we do? Co-create image bearers

 

Fruit to root

 

  • Anxiety- what do we do?
  • Who you are? In control
  • Who has God done? Abandoned, stopped loving.
  • Who is God? Distant, unloving, impotent.

 

We don’t do well at helping people express their unbelief and then repentance.

We tell them the truth of God but don’t ground it in Jesus Christ.

 

God loves you? But how do you know God loves you? Jesus…

 

You can’t know a truth about God apart from Jesus Christ. You know God’s love by Jesus Christ dying on the cross for the sins of the world.

 

You know when someone has come to true repentance because they will begin to bear the fruit of the Spirit.

 

A Gospel Framework for Ministry

 

  • Who is God- Theology
  • What Has He Done- Christology
  • Who are we- Ecclesiology
  • What do we do- Missiology
  • How do we do it? Contextualization

 

Most churches spend all their time on contextualization because it is rooted in what we do only.

 

We don’t have a view of God as a missionary God and therefore do not believe we are the missionary people.

 

A lot of discipleship is Gospel counseling. Pray that God will do the work. Keep asking the questions.