#Values - Proclaiming the Gospel @imagechurch Dumfries, VA

The transforming work of Jesus Christ is the greatest single moment we can experience and finally be able to turn from sin and the ability to walk for and with Jesus every day of our lives.

Why do we value proclaiming the Gospel? Because the Gospel is the only thing that can transform lives.

Jesus was speaking to a crowd of sinners and tax collectors, tax collectors were people that had their own division of sinning. Jesus spoke out to call sinners to repent and to call the religious to repent of their traditions.

Jesus does not call us to stop doing bad things and start doing good things. We are called to repent of our sin and turn to God.

When it comes to the truth found in the Gospel, it doesn't matter if we have heard it before, we ALWAYS need to hear it again.

The prodigal son, after telling his father he wishes he was dead, moving as far away from his home as possible, sins so much he creates new ones.

We, in America, cannot directly relate with a physical famine, but we can and do experience emotional and spiritual famines. Often times that is God simply trying to show us that our dependence needs to be on Him, and He will provide.

We have got to develop healthy, deep spiritual disciplines. Things we remind ourselves of and do daily! The solution to spiritual famines. Dusty Bibles lead to dirty lives.

When we are not sure what to do next, how to move, we need to open the Bible and to pray. Gospel = Hope

EVERYWHERE we live, work, and play there are people living in the pigpens of sin. The only Hope is the Gospel. Good works alone do not save us, in fact, good works have a tendency to hide our true, sinful hearts.

We are not sinners because we sin, we sin because we are sinners.

1. The Gospel leads us to face our true nature.

The desire to provide for our families is healthy, to earn our way in the world. But we can NEVER earn our way to God, only Jesus can get us there.

If the church is not about the Gospel, it is ONLY a social club.

2. The Gospel transforms our hearts.

The biggest thing to notice about the "speech" that the returning prodigal son practices on his way back to his father, is that it is not a justification or weighing of his life against someone else's, he recognizes that he "sinned against heaven and before You. I am no longer worthy to be called your son." That is TRUE repentance.

The biggest thing we have to face and understand in our lives is that we are sinners, and have sinned against a Holy God.

The attitude of the prodigal son, as he returned home, was a recognition of who he was and who his father was.

We are going to be slaves to one of two things, and thus serving that master: self or God.

3. The Gospel brings an undeserved reward, GRACE

The Gospel=Hope=Jesus

Grace is not about being fair, we are entitled to nothing but death and torment. But while we were still sinner, Christ died on the cross for us. The cross is the biggest symbol of unfairness in history. Jesus did not deserve the cross, we did.

What the Father did for prodigal son, for us, was to run after us, covering us from proclamations of the world of our unworthiness with His body & blood

We can never do anything to reestablish our place among the family of God, that is a decision that God makes about us. If God makes the decision, nothing can separate us from it.

Theologians argue that the older son would have been so angry with the Father that he would have murdered him, or perhaps nailed him to a cross.

Imagine this... if we, who will never die, will be faithful to proclaim the Gospel to those who may never live.

Created 10 months ago