Derwin Gray
2/27/10 10:30AM
Before we can ignite the fire for evangelism, we must go to the source of the fire
- Embrace the story of God
- Life within God (YHWH): a Trinity-shaped perspective of the Good News
Love demands relationships
- John 1:1, 18
- Intimacy = into me you see… (dancing, love, intimacy…)
If you start the story of God’s love at John 3:16, you miss so much that God designed from all eternity through the Old Testament, up until then.
Pray: for God to shape this view within your heart and in the hearts of your students.
We must start in the Garden of Eden to tell the story of Grace, because in 2010, many are very Biblical Illiterate
Grace is not new to the New Testament. It is a very old concept that started in the Garden
Adam and Eve were created to share in the life and love of God
- Tree of Life
- Great tragedy enters the story (Genesis 3). Also religion enters the world….Adam and Eve can see and react to what is good and bad…
- Consequences of the Fall (Sin, Death, and Evil) – What fig leaves to we use to cover ourselves and our issues? Broken relationships, stuffing down our issues….etc.
In the Hebraic mindset, nakedness=shame
- Adam and eve covered themselves; God Clothed them (Gal 3:27)
- God has always been present
Missio Dei – The God of Mission
- Noah’s Ark – people saved by boat made of wood. Jesus’ cross – Salvation brought on a cross made of wood. (Genesis 6) – Can Noah be a Type of Christ – Jesus is a better Noah!
- Abraham (Genesis 12:1-3; Galatians 3:8)
- Genesis 22
- Isaac – It was normative in the pagan culture of the day to sacrifice children to false gods. We still do it today two income homes, better house, better cars, better ______
- Isaac – carried wood up the hill to the sacrifice. God provided the sacrfice
- We see the tender heart of God, and His grace in this narrative, so much for the theory of God being different in the OT….
- The Passover/Exodus – Pharaoh’s heart became hard because God extended grace and mercy, but Pharaoh refused it..with each plague it became harder..
- The Gospel is not about you and your best life now, it’s God restoring a worshipping community
- The Day of atonement (Leviticus 16) – the scapegoat.
Symbolic of God forgetting our sins. Sometimes, the goat came back and it was a practice to push the goat over the cliff…..how many times do we climb back down and retrieve the sins that God dropped over the cliff…
mercy seat – in the Holy of Holies – God’s Glory sees the Blood of the sacrificial lamb, not the law (ten commandments), therefore, making things right with God.
we need to teach the students a reverence for God. We will be worshiping Him, not sitting up there asking questions. We need to teach students to show respect to others in worship.
John 1:14 – Glory of God full of Grace and Truth….
Justification (Romans 5:8-9) – being made just as if you never sinned, and declared righteous before God.
If we don’t live from God’s doctrine of justification, how can we teach it and instill it our students? It has to be an everyday thing!
The problem with using anger as a motivation is that the anger will consume you!
Israel – A light to the nations (Isaiah 49)
- Communal Evangelism
- The Church – A light to the Nations
- Ecclesia – A community of the sent (John 17:18)
- I Peter 2:9
- The Father sent the Son. The Father sent the Spirit. Now the Trinity sends the church, us
What is the Good News?
- To forgive our sins and reconcile us with God
- To destroy the power of Satan and deliver people from bondage
- Sin, Death, Evil – Christus Victor
Do our Students get excited over the resurrection of Christ? Do we make a bigger deal about Mother’s Day/Father’s Day?
- To authenticate Himself as the Son of God through the resurrection (Holy Spirit)
Romans 5:12-21 What Adam messes up, Jesus came to clean up….
- To display a foretaste of the Kingdom of God through us (compassion, justice, love)
- To invite followers to become the new people of God on mission
God is in the business of gathering a people. It started in the garden.
We are participating in God’s story. people miss out because they are following the wrong story.
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