June 30, 2008

  • PREACHING THE GOSPEL TO MYSELF

    I have shared this with a few of our youth group teens, and some people have heard me talk about "preaching the gospe to yourself" and they have wondered what I meant.  So here goes...

      One
    of the best pieces of advice I have ever received was that the believer
    needs to preach the gospel to THEMSELVES. We tend to think that once we
    are saved we don't need the gospel anymore and that only "lost people"
    need the gospel but that's not true. Rehearse the gospel to yourself...
    tell yourself everyday the story of how sinful and lost and undeserving
    you were... how high and holy and awesome God is... and that Jesus
    Christ, the righteous one, descended to an ungrateful, sinful, broken
    world so that He could redeem and rescue a lost and undeserving
    people... and that all that is required of me is that I respond to
    Jesus by turning from myself and trusting in Him as my Master and my
    Savior. WOW! that is awesomely awesome!!

      If you do that
    everyday, that will change your life... when I think about the gospel I
    can't help but praise Him... I can't help but be filled with joy... I
    can't help but to want to read His Word and Pray to Him and meet with
    His people and share His message with others.  I want to serve Christ not out of a grudging sense of duty but out of a heart overflowing with gratitude.  I can't help but forgive other people because when I preach the gospel to myself I am reminded of how much I am forgiven.  Every motivation for every good thing is rooted in the Good News that "Jesus Saves".  When I consider the Great God of the universe becoming a Man, stepping into our broken world, and rescuing a rebellious, wicked, lost people... How can I be selfish, who am I?  How can I be proud, of what?  How can I be bitter?  How can I indulge a sin Jesus died to pay?  How can I be apathetic toward spiritual growth, or the church, or the lost?

    Get it?

      Life
    WILL ebb and flow. It will go up and down. Its nothing to feel ashamed
    or guilty about. BUT rehearse the gospel to yourself and you might be
    surprised how it totally changes your point of view. Everyone has time
    of happiness and times of sadness... what separates the spiritually
    MATURE from the spiritually IMMATURE is how you RESPOND to it.
    Constantly, consistently reminding yourself of the good news of Jesus
    is a mature way respond and a mature way to improve your attitude.

      Some time ago I
    memorized a little acrostic that I could use to help me remember the
    key points of the gospel when witnessing to someone. The interesting
    thing though is that it has been invaluable to me to rehearse the
    points of the gospel to MYSELF. Maybe you will think its helpful to.
    The acrostic is based on the word "GRACE"...

    G od is our Holy Creator & Righteous Judge
    R ighteousness is required (only God is)
    A ll have sinned (thats us)
    C hrist died for sinners (the righteous for the unrighteous)
    E veryone must repent, trust Jesus as Lord & Savior

      To
    sum up the story... The good news is that God is our holy Creator and
    righteous Judge. He created us to worship Him and enjoy Him forever,
    BUT we have all sinned, both in Adam as our representative, and in our
    own individual actions. We therefore deserve the judgment of death
    (spiritual separation from God in hell). We are in fact, already
    spiritually dead, completely helpless in our sinful state and in need
    of God to impart spiritual life to us and rescue us from the penalty of
    sin. God sent His Son Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man, to be
    punished in our place. He died on the cross and rose from the dead to
    pay the penalty of our sins. God’s forgiveness and the gift of eternal
    life are neither earned nor deserved, but rather it is available to men
    by God's grace alone, through faith alone. If we would have Christ's
    perfect righteousness credited to us, and the penalty of our sins
    accounted to Him, then we must respond by turning from our sin and
    trusting in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

      Remember... In
    this life believers are promised trials, temptations, and persecution
    (2 Tim 3:12). Christians don’t come to Jesus for an easy life, we come
    to Him to be made right with God, for forgiveness, and eternal life. We
    know God loves us NOT because life becomes easier, BUT because He
    demonstrated that love for us on the cross.

Comments (4)

  • We are saved through God's grace.. God bless! :)

  • Good observation. I consider that knowledge of the gospel is fruitful for more than merely being used by the Holy Spirit to bring us to repentance in our justification. Inasmuch as Christ as the incarnation of God is the embodiment of the revelation of God, His work on the cross as the pinnacle of His activity on His first coming likewise reveals God's nature to us. We say we ought to be "Christ-like" and indeed the regenerate function as the Body of Christ, we ought likewise to embody His sacrifice as well as His resurrection. In a way this is what the ordinances are all about, but the way we behave toward others should likewise bear the mark of the gospel. In our sanctification, we need to rehearse the gospel so that we understand the sacrificial love and grace we are to have toward others for the sake of our Lord.

  • This is so true, we do have to preach the gospel to ourselves and remind us of the truths of God. The world tries so hard to blunt those truths.

    Heather

  • Eek thank you so much for this post i needed the reminder to preach the gospel to myself everyday!!  Hope all is well!!

    Kenny

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