Shaped by the Gospel
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Intro
Intro
Our church mission statement is:
To glorify God by making and growing fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ.
This is not a novel statement. And it shouldn’t be. As a church we don’t get to decide what our mission will be. Christ is the head of the Church and we get our marching orders directly from Jesus. So it is right and good that our mission statement is really a summary of the Great Commission in Mathew 28:18-20.
A mission statement articulates the “WHAT” but the “HOW” is clarified in our vision statement which says this:
Fishkill Baptist will be a gospel-shaped church that embodies a passion for God and compassion for people.
We will become a discipling church that cultivates a heart for evangelism, developing leaders who equip the congregation to be a witness in the community—and to the ends of the earth.
We will prioritize healthy, loving relationships and emphasize ministries oriented toward children, students, and families.
This morning I want to draw our attention to the term “gospel-shaped” in our vision statement. This term is used at the very beginning on purpose because it influences and permeates everything else that follows.
What does this mean?
Do we need to renovate our building into the shape of a cross? NO!
If not, then what does it look like?
Why does it matter?
Two weeks ago we saw in Ezekiel 37 how revitalization comes to a church...
By the Power of God
Through the Spirit of God
Through the Word of God
By Faithful Servants of God
This morning we are going to look at a letter Paul wrote to Titus, a fellow servant of God.
In his letter Paul gives Titus instructions for how to bring order to a number of young house churches on the island of Crete.
Crete was an immoral society known for being disorderly and dishonest.
Paul’s letter to Titus is a snapshot of how the gospel empowers a healthy church to live lives of gospel influence in their troubled community.
Paul’s words to this first century pastor are just as relevant today for Fishkill Baptist Church in 2021 as we seek to grow in health, vitality, and influence here in the Hudson Valley.
Read
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.
PRAY
I don’t know a whole lot about cars but I can tell you that it doesn’t matter what a car looks like on the outside because if the engine is shot, that thing isn’t going anywhere.
This morning I want to show you why and how the Gospel must be the engine of Fishkill Baptist Church if we want to grow in greater health and influence.
I will use 3 points this morning that will show us how it is the same Gospel of Grace that
Saves us
Forms us
Propels us on mission
Saving Grace
Saving Grace
Verse 11 says. The grace of God has appeared bringing salvation for all people.
This is the work of Jesus Christ...
It is He who appeared...
The timeless and eternal creator and sustainer of all things.
Stepped into time and space. - He stepped into His creation!
The fully divine 2nd person of the triune God,
He took on a fully human nature so that he could be our substitute - taking our place on the cross… to bear the wrath of God against our sin instead of us.
Salvation comes to us by grace Paul says - meaning that there is nothing that we contribute.
Just look down a few more verses to Titus 3:4-5
4 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,
This means that it doesn’t matter how bad or good you think you are - The gospel is not exclusive!
The forgiveness of sins is available to ALL people Paul says.
It doesn’t matter what is or is not on your criminal record.
It doesn’t matter what damage you may have caused in your relationships.
It doesn’t matter how smart you are or think you are.
It doesn’t matter what your income is or how your voted.
This is how salvation comes to us - ACCORDING TO HIS OWN MERCY!
I grew up going to church and for a long time I believed that I could be good enough for God to accept me.
I don’t fault my church for not preaching the gospel because I believe they did.
The real problem was that I was spiritually deaf, blind, and dead!
It was at the age of 16 while on a retreat with my youth group that I heard the gospel preached, and
the goodness and loving kindness of God my Savior appeared, and saved me,
not because of works done by me in righteousness, but according to his own mercy,
by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.
My blind eyes and deaf ears were opened!
The Holy Spirit moved in me and replaced my dead heart of stone with a living heart of flesh and I saw for the first time the beauty of the treasure of Jesus and the forgiveness of my sin.
I was overwhelmed and undone by the grace of God!
This treasure cost me nothing, I only had to have the faith to believe it!
Isaiah 55:1 says:
1 “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
Notice how I was saved. It was by...
The power of God
Through the Spirit of God
Through the Word of God
Preached by a faithful servant of God!
These are the means by which God brings life to dead sinners like me…like you.
As we seek revitalization as a church what does this look like?
It will not be primarily seen in the size of our programs or in the sum of our organizational parts.
We hope for this kind of growth too because it will be the result of more people encountering the grace of God and being made alive!
But that’s the point - The church is primarily the sum of its people who’ve been made alive by the power of God!
So, when we talk about church revitalization we're really talking about our hearts, my heart, and your hearts.
So it is the grace of God that saves us. But the gospel does not stop after conversion.
It’s the same gospel of grace that saves us that also grows us into greater holiness and makes us more like Jesus!
Transforming Grace
Transforming Grace
This is our 2nd point.
Look at verses Titus 2:11-12 again...
11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, 12 training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age,
Notice that verse 12 is a continuation of the sentence that began in verse 11. And it is so clear that the gospel is not only the means by which we are saved but is also the means and the tool by which we are trained for godly living.
Tn other words, the gospel is not Christianity 101 that is left behind for deeper things after conversion.
NO! the gospel is the entire masters degree program!
But what does the gospel train us to do and HOW does it work - what does it look like?
First, the gospel trains us to do 2 things:
To renounce ungodly living and worldly passions.
But it doesn’t stop there. We are not just saved in order to stop doing bad things. We are saved FOR something.
The gospel trains us to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age.
The gospel is not just our ticket into heaven but is the very engine by which we are to grow in godly living!
If you need more convincing that the gospel is not just for conversion look at verse 14.
It is Jesus Christ who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness
and to purify for himself a people [who are] eager to do what is good.
Here’s one more. Look down to chapter 3 verse 8. After just expounding on the gospel Paul writes this...
Titus 3:8
8 The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people.
Do you see it?!
Titus is to insist on the gospel!!!...
SO THAT those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works.
This is so clear! I hope the coin is dropping for you here.
But what might not be so clear is how this works.
How is it that the gospel trains us for godly living and good works?
Jesus says in Luke 6:45 that
45 The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.
You see, our actions whether for good or evil are always downstream from our hearts.
What our hearts treasure most is what forms our motivation for doing all we do.
It’s what motivates us that makes us disciples.
Now let’s put this together a bit.
When a person is made alive by the grace of God, they’re given a new heart with a new treasure.
And it’s the joy and delight of our hearts that motivate our godly living.
Has anyone ever been to Chic-fil-A? Of course you have!
You’ve probably picked up on something if you’ve spent any amount of time there.
If you tell an employee “thank you” for something, every single one of them will give you the same reply...IT’S MY PLEASURE
They don’t say IT’S MY JOB even though it is their job and we don’t go to Chic-fil-A to make their employees happy.
But the reason they are trained to say this is because IT’S MY PLEASURE communicates that you are worthy of serving.
I read John Piper’s book Desiring God in college and it changed my life because he helped me understand this relationship.
He says that God’s pursuit of praise from us and our pursuit of pleasure in Him are the same pursuit.
He summarizes this concept by saying that
GOD IS MOST GLORIFIED IN US WHEN WE ARE MOST SATISFIED IN HIM
Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:14 that it is the Love of Christ that compels us.
And Jesus says in John 14:15 that if you love me, you will keep my commands.
It is gospel generated delight that compels us to follow Jesus!
NOT because we have to but because we get too!
We need to be aware of competing motives though. Let me illustrate it this way.
Suppose someone announces they are coming to visit and your house is a mess.
They kind of sprung this on you on short notice. They tell you they will be there in a half hour.
The only problem is the house is a mess!
Everyone springs into action in a frenzy of picking up, straightening, and cleaning. But why?
It could be that you’re afraid - maybe the person coming home is mom and the kids are like, “mom is going to kill us if she sees the house like this! This is fear motivated obedience.
It could be that you want this guest to think that your not a slob but instead a well put together person whose home could be in a magazine. This is a prideful or self-righteous motivation.
Or it could be that you want this person to think your a good person. This is an approval seeking motivation.
So, why should you clean your house? Well, you should clean your house because
you want to show love and respect to this person.
We want them to know that they are worthy.
You might say, well what if I don’t like this person - remember Jesus said to love your enemies :-)
We shouldn’t serve Jesus
Because we’re afraid He’ll be angry.
Or to earn His approval
Or to pat ourselves on the back and feel good that we’ve somehow measured up.
NO! We serve Jesus because on the cross our sins are forgiven
And his anger is turned to favor
His condemnation is turned to acceptance
And He’s adopted us into his family and we don’t need to justify our position in his family by feeling like we are pulling our own weight.
But what happens when as a follower of Christ we sin? Don’t we just need better tips or some advice on some steps to make better decisions?
NO! We need good news more than we need good advice!
In 2 Peter 1:9 Peter tells us that if we are lacking in self-control, love, and godliness then we have actually forgotten that we have been forgiven of our sins! We’ve forgotten the grace of God.
When we forget grace we lack joy
And when we lack joy we look for it in worldly living.
So, how do we get off that crazy train? - We repent and believe the gospel.
We repent by saying no to ungodliness and worldly passions
And we believe what we had forgotten about the gospel.
That Jesus died and rose again to redeem us, purify us, and make us his own.
Forgiven, loved, adopted, accepted.
And we find joy that motivates self-controlled, upright, and godly lives.
You see, the purpose of repentance is not to beat our selves up as a form of penance.
NO! The purpose of repentance is to restore our joy!
Repentance is for rejoicing!
Tim Keller says this about repentance.
All of life repentance is the best sign that we are growing deeply and rapidly into the character of Jesus.
When we sin, we are really looking to something else to meet a need or desire that Jesus has already infinitely satisfied for us. We forget the gospel.
The best way to fight our sin is to love something else more.
This why the gospel is our greatest weapon against sin because it reminds of how much we are loved and fuels our joy which leads to godly living.
So, it is the same gospel of grace that saves us and grows us.
And it is the same gospel that propels us outward on mission
Missional Grace
Missional Grace
Look at verse 11 again. This is God’s plan to advance his kingdom through His church even in the darkest places on earth.
As these churches in Crete attend the school of grace and become more self-controlled, upright, and godly, they will begin to look different from those who live among them who live by the values of this ungodly present age.
The gospel makes God’s people blessing to their community as they day by day look that much more like Jesus!
It’s easy in ministry circles to think about what makes a church attractive to its community and only think about paint colors and better coffee.
There’s nothing wrong with good coffee and a fresh coat of paint but remember the church is the sum of it’s people who’ve been made alive by the grace of God!
What an unbelieving world will find attractive is a joy motivated people who love like Jesus and are a blessing...
because of the power of God
Working through the Spirit of God
Through the faithful proclamation of the Gospel of God.
It’s the Gospel that forms the church
The Gospel that matures the church
And it’s the Gospel that makes the church
A powerful
missional
Unique and attractive.
People can get good coffee and a trendy atmosphere at Starbucks but they can’t get the gospel there!
Again nothing wrong with good coffee and a welcoming atmosphere
But we must work hard to ensure that our methods and techniques adorn the gospel and not replace it.
Conclusion
Conclusion
A friend of mine has a great way of describing 3 main ways churches relate to the gospel.
Gospel Absent
Gospel Present
Gospel Centered
A church can be gospel absent in two ways:
The first way is that a church primarily promotes Jesus as a motivational figure who inspires us to live better lives. In these churches Jesus is a means to an end - to improving your self and living your best life now.
The second way a church can be gospel absent is by reducing the message of the bible to bunch of moral imperatives - that teach people how God wants them to live. How to be a good, moral, and loving person.
But this is a far cry from the gospel the apostles preached to dead sinners who were incapable of saving themselves and proclaimed the one true God who came to save them anyway.
A church is Gospel Present -
When it is assumed that if they preach the gospel and do evangelism that they are gospel-centered.
The gospel is viewed as the entrance into the family of God in conversion...
But the gospel is something that is moved on from thinking that something more practical is needed to learn how to live for Jesus.
While the gospel is rightly preached for salvation, in these churches the gospel has very little to do with actually following Jesus in discipleship.
The gospel has not shaped or influenced the entire ministry - it’s not at the center.
A gospel-centered church is one where the gospel of Jesus Christ is at the center and is the engine that informs, influences, and drives everything we do.
The gospel is not in the background
It’s not a feature of the church
One thing on a check list
It’s not buried in a statement of faith
It’s not only useful for evangelistic purposes.
It’s the hallmark and centerpiece of all the church does.
Harry Reeder, author of the book from Embers to a Flame said it well, and I’ll end with this.
The gospel of salvation by grace is the foundation, formation, and motivation for a “first love” church. We must build on it, allow it to determine the shape of all we do for the Lord and make sure it is the reason why we serve Him. If the gospel is not central in the life of your church, you will never be effective in the eyes of the Lord.