Shownotes
Trying to share your faith can f overwhelming. Pastor Ronnie points out what many secretly feel: confusion around what really matters and whether we measure up to share Jesus with anyone.
Instead of spinning up another list of “spiritual qualifications,” Pastor Ronnie returns to the raw, liberating simplicity at the heart of Christianity: Jesus, crucified and risen, is enough. It’s not about adding religious hoops or chasing influence, but about letting God’s love transform your story from the inside out. Even if questions come your way, the good news endures—God loves you, sent His Son for you, and calls you to share that same grace.
Bible References
Samual 16:7; Isaiah 55:8; Luke 2:10-12; John 3:16, 18:36; Acts 15:28-29; 1 Corinthians 15:3-4; Galatians 1:1-12, 2:6; Revelation 3:14-22
Key Insights
- Feeling unprepared to share your faith is common, but the core message is simple and accessible.
- The gospel doesn’t need extras; faith in Christ alone brings transformation.
- Loving people well reveals the reality of Jesus more than religious arguments or politics.
https://springhousemidweek.captivate.fm/episode/foundations-galatians-1
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Gathering Times
- Sundays, 9:00 AM
- Sundays, 11:00 AM
- Wednesdays, 6:00 PM
Contact Info
Springhouse Church
14119 Old Nashville Highway
Smyrna TN 37167
CCLI License 2070006
Transcripts
Well, I can probably think
Speaker:of some better people to start this off,
Speaker:but, but I'll take that. Thank you, Pastor Jonathan.
Speaker:I was brought up in a, in a house Where
Speaker:if you weren't 15 minutes early, you were late.
Speaker:And I, I promise you, most
Speaker:of you don't know that I just walked in like 4
Speaker:minutes ago.
Speaker:The people running the microphone and all
Speaker:this stuff, they know about it. And Jonathan kind of knew, but I'm
Speaker:sure he was prepared. Should I not get here?
Speaker:We live about 15 minutes from here and we left 40
Speaker:minutes ago. I won't go through the story, but
Speaker:anyway. And if you're
Speaker:wondering why I'm wearing a Bob Dylan t-shirt,
Speaker:it's because it is for Wayne Berry.
Speaker:That is why I wanted to wear that. This was
Speaker:the first album Dylan did after he got after he got saved. It's got
Speaker:some good, good stuff on it, including a song called
Speaker:God— Man Gave Names to All the
Speaker:Animals. And I think my favorite version I ever heard of it
Speaker:was by Ryan Montgomery, who— how old were you when you, when you
Speaker:sang that? Maybe 8.
Speaker:What? Maybe 8? Oh man, you missed your
Speaker:calling.
Speaker:Somebody needs to talk to him about doing it again at some
Speaker:point in time. Somebody just has. Yeah.
Speaker:Do you feel qualified, prepared
Speaker:to share the Gospel with people?
Speaker:It's kind of a rhetorical question, but it's also a real question
Speaker:because I know it's easy to
Speaker:They get intimidated sometimes with the thought of
Speaker:sharing the gospel. And it's probably not
Speaker:really a fair yes or no question.
Speaker:It's really more of a continuum on a scale of 1 to 10.
Speaker:You know, how qualified and prepared do you feel to
Speaker:share the gospel? My hope is
Speaker:that tonight before we leave,
Speaker:Everyone's going to be at 10. So let's
Speaker:see if we can get there. Galatians. I'm going to—
Speaker:I'm going to read— I didn't put it up here, so you'll
Speaker:have to actually use a Bible.
Speaker:All right. Galatians chapter 1.
Speaker:And you can follow along
Speaker:with me. I'm going to read the first 12
Speaker:verses, and then the last 12 verses I'll just
Speaker:summarize. Okay? Here we go. I'm reading out of the
Speaker:New International Version. Paul, an apostle
Speaker:sent not from men nor by a man, but by
Speaker:Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised Him from the
Speaker:dead, and all the brothers and sisters with me,
Speaker:to the churches in Galatia, Grace and peace to you
Speaker:from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave
Speaker:himself for our sins to rescue us from the present
Speaker:evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,
Speaker:to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
Speaker:I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting
Speaker:the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ,
Speaker:and are turning to a different gospel, which is really no gospel at all.
Speaker:Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying
Speaker:to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we
Speaker:or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than
Speaker:the one we preached to you, let them be under God's curse.
Speaker:As we have already said, so now I say again, if anybody is preaching to
Speaker:you a gospel other than what You accepted,
Speaker:let them be under God's curse. Am I now
Speaker:trying to win the approval of human beings or of God?
Speaker:Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people,
Speaker:I would not be a servant of Christ. I want you to know,
Speaker:brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not of
Speaker:human origin. I did not receive it from any man,
Speaker:Nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by
Speaker:revelation from Jesus Christ. And then he goes on to
Speaker:talk about how he used to persecute the church, and he
Speaker:even put them in prison and stuff. But, but God
Speaker:reached out and got him. I think most of you are familiar with
Speaker:the story of Paul on the road to Damascus and, and Jesus
Speaker:appearing to him. And it was
Speaker:really— it's also kind of interesting, you know, when Jesus appeared to
Speaker:him, you know what he said? He said, why are you
Speaker:persecuting me? Whatever
Speaker:you've done unto the least of these, you're doing it to me.
Speaker:And God called him and changed him. And he talks about how
Speaker:he didn't really receive the gospel for many months, but Jesus
Speaker:Himself gave him revelation of the gospel. So
Speaker:that's, that's what he says through the rest of
Speaker:the chapter. Let's see, do I
Speaker:know how to work this? Oh, I do. Okay, Galatians. Now
Speaker:there is a sheet that's handed out, or the one
Speaker:that Pastor Jonathan said you could get as you leave. And
Speaker:it's got some really good information in it. Yeah.
Speaker:It's, it's deep. It's, it's thick.
Speaker:There's a lot of information in it. So I just want to, I just want
Speaker:to say, don't be discouraged if you get lost in the handout.
Speaker:If you do, understand that the
Speaker:handout, you know, it's
Speaker:important. Sometimes it's very important, but it's important to maybe
Speaker:know some background and where things are coming from. But the real important thing is
Speaker:what is the book saying? Yes. What is it
Speaker:saying to me? What is it saying right now? And if
Speaker:you do understand the handout, then hallelujah for you. Just don't get lost
Speaker:from the path because you're paying attention to the weeds. Okay.
Speaker:Paul in Galatia. Galatia, it's to the, to the churches of
Speaker:Galatia. And it's in— this is Turkey, in case
Speaker:some of you don't recognize it. And all that stuff in green
Speaker:right there, that's Galatia. Okay. And we know of
Speaker:at least 4 of the churches in Galatia
Speaker:because Paul visited them on his missionary journeys,
Speaker:Antioch and Pisidia. And the reason why it's—
Speaker:they say it's Pisidia is to distinguish it from
Speaker:this Antioch in Syria, which is where Paul was sent out from,
Speaker:and to also distinguish it from the Antioch in Tennessee.
Speaker:And then Iconium and Lystra and Derbe, those, those were
Speaker:churches that we know of in that area. I suspect that there were,
Speaker:that there were probably other others. And his main reason for
Speaker:writing was to combat the teaching that Christian
Speaker:believers—
Speaker:oh, I actually have this. Yeah. Yeah, his main reason
Speaker:for writing was to combat the teaching that Christian believers had to be physically
Speaker:circumcised and follow the Law of Moses in order to be
Speaker:saved. Now, this was— this teaching
Speaker:was a challenge in the early years of the church. And, you
Speaker:know, forms of it are still kind of with us today. But
Speaker:it was a challenge. And it was such a challenge that the
Speaker:church leaders got together at Jerusalem
Speaker:in Acts chapter 15 to discuss whether or not
Speaker:they wanted to endorse this or not endorse it. And they
Speaker:decided to not endorse it.
Speaker:In Acts chapter 15, verses 28
Speaker:and 29, they wrote a letter to the Gentile believers and they said
this:Seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to not burden you with
this:anything beyond the following requirements. You are to
this:abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood,
this:from the meat of strangled animals, and from sexual immorality. You will do
this:well to avoid these things. Now, there's a
this:lot of theology you can kind of dive into there and go,
this:well, what does that mean? And let's go here. But I'm not going to do
this:that tonight because I'm not interested in that.
this:I'm interested in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Amen.
this:Yeah. And I mean, I'm not saying it doesn't matter, but I'm just saying
this:it doesn't matter. Now,
this:while this was his specific purpose in writing
this:this letter, these are truths that can be applied
this:to other teachings that pervert the gospel
this:as well. Apostle, the
this:word apostle, he mentions the fact that he's an apostle. And, you
this:know, that sounds very important, and we've kind of
this:exalted that title, but it literally just means
this:one who is sent out. That's really what it means. And, you know, and
this:there are debates. Some say the
this:term should apply only to those who were eyewitnesses of
this:Jesus' ministry, plus Paul, while
this:others take a more broad view and say apostles still
this:exist today. And some say, well, no, there's just the age of the apostles.
this:I take the latter. I do believe that
this:that everything that happened in Acts can happen here and
this:should happen today. And I believe that there are apostles today, but
this:it's, it's not really a big deal to necessarily— titles.
this:I mean, I understand showing respect, but titles—
this:God's no respecter of persons. You know, he's not a
this:respecter of your nationality. He's not a respecter of
this:your ethnicity. He's not a respecter of your position. People
this:are people. Amen. And people who seem to be
this:special people, get to know
this:them. Just ask Michelle.
this:For those of you who don't know, Michelle knew me as Pastor Ronnie
this:before she knew me as Ronnie.
this:I just made that up.
this:When I was, when I was growing up in the Assemblies of God,
this:our youth group was called the Christ Ambassadors, the
this:CAs. Yeah. And we had a theme song
this:and a marching song and everything to go with it.
this:And it was pretty good, except for the fact that the age
this:range in the Assemblies of God Christ
this:ambassadors, you had to be at least 13. Yeah. And
this:not older than 35. And, you know, people who are
this:35 and people who are 13 don't necessarily have a whole—
this:anyway,
this:Paul says when he— over later, he's talking about going to
this:Jerusalem and sharing the gospel that Christ gave to
this:him, revealed to him with those who were leaders in the church.
this:And he says this, as for those who were held in high esteem
this:whatever they were, makes no difference to me. God doesn't show favoritism.
this:They added nothing to my gospel.
this:He also makes a big deal here at the beginning of
this:pointing out that these are things not of human
this:origin.
this:Paul goes out of the way to emphasize that his calling and the gospel he
this:preached are not of human origin. What man sees
this:and what God sees is very different. It's very
this:different. You know, I don't care how long you've been walking with the Lord,
this:you still don't see things the way God sees them. Now, maybe,
this:maybe he's led you a little bit to where you see them a little
this:bit more the way he sees them. And we hear these
this:stories and we know these things,
this:but I don't think any of us
this:really come close to seeing how God sees.
this:It was a— it was the same in the Old Testament. You know, when Samuel
this:went to anoint David and he first saw David's brother,
this:it was Eliab, right? He was, he was the eldest.
this:Anyway, the guy was very impressive looking. And God said,
this:don't consider his appearance. Hmm. Don't,
this:don't consider his height. I've rejected him. The Lord doesn't
this:look at things as people look at things. People, people look
this:at outward appearance. God, God looks at the heart. God looks at the
this:heart. And one of the things that I've had to learn over the years,
this:especially the years in ministry, is it's so, it's so easy
this:to judge somebody's heart. It's so easy to go, well, that's why they did that.
this:You don't know. You don't have any
this:idea what's in their heart. Only God
this:can see into somebody's heart. And even if you could,
this:Isaiah tells us, my thoughts aren't your thoughts.
this:My ways aren't your ways. Maybe you do know why they did that,
this:but you don't know why I— what I know
this:about what's coming down. Man sees things through an outward
this:metric. It considers size and
this:appearance. worldly influence.
this:This is a big church, and this is a small
this:church, and this is a medium-sized church. So this one is
this:really blowing and going for God, and
this:there may not be any God in it, or the wrong God.
this:Yeah. And this one— I grew up in
this:a church that If we had
this:120 people, it was, it was celebration Sunday.
this:Yeah. You know, it was something special. I think one Easter we may have run
this:150. I don't know. It was something
this:special. But I learned to really appreciate the heart.
this:Oh, my goodness. Barbie's mom,
this:the church that she pastored, a little small church.
this:A lot of sacrifice. I mean, let me just tell
this:you, small churches have as many problems as big churches. That's right.
this:They really do. And you know why? People attend them.
this:And if you get real close, which you tend to
this:do at small churches, and everybody gets into everybody's business,
this:you know, but the pastors,
this:Who sacrifice, almost all of them, bivocationally.
this:They have to actually work to make a living.
this:Lord, we'll keep him humble for you. We'll
this:see to it that, you know, he stays faithful because he's going to pray
this:for his daily bread if he's going to pastor here.
this:If the pastors who pastor those small
this:churches, oh Lord, I have such
this:respect, such regard
this:for them. I got a feeling that when we get to heaven, if
this:there is a pantheon of great pastors,
this:I'm not going to know any of their names. And you aren't either
this:till we get to the other side. Yeah.
this:Size, appearance, worldly influence,
this:One of the troubling aspects for me in the
this:church today is,
this:is our striving, our desire for worldly influence.
this:We've got to make a difference in the culture.
this:We've got to make a difference. You know, our voice needs to be
this:heard at the Capitol. Our voice needs to
this:be heard at the throne. Yes. That's where it
this:needs to be heard. And if our focus is
this:elsewhere, then that's where it's going to be heard
this:rather than, rather than at the throne. Jesus,
this:Jesus was watching people
this:put money in the offering one day. And you know
this:this, this story. You know, he said to his disciples,
this:this widow puts in 2 coins. And he says, she's put in more
this:than everybody else. That's not a lesson about giving.
this:That's a lesson about how God sees things.
this:That's, that's a lesson about the way he looks at things.
this:What we think is small, he doesn't necessarily think
this:is small. Okay,
this:so let's look for a minute at the results
this:of any other gospel. Because my,
this:my purpose tonight is to try and have everyone leave here as
this:a 10 when it comes to thinking, I can share the gospel
this:with people.
this:What now? We've been here every week. You hadn't been here then.
this:Back up too far, you're going to go down. I'm going to go down?
this:How? Wayne just said to me, you're going down.
this:I appreciate— I appreciate your concern, brother. You sound like my
this:wife. Well,
this:Ronnie.
this:All right, let's look at this verse again.
this:But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a
this:gospel other than the one we preached to you, Let them be under
this:God's curse. What is he saying there?
this:What is it to be under God's curse?
this:Okay, I hope to not offend anyone,
this:but I might. If I do— is Justin still in
this:here? Yes, he is. I feel you,
this:brother.
this:Hope to not offend anyone.
this:But what does it mean to say, I hope you're under God's
this:curse?
this:There's a phrase that none of us decent people
this:use, but that's what it means.
this:We all have triggers. We have things that trigger us.
this:Some of the things are worth getting triggered over, and some
this:of the things, it's just our stuff. Paul
this:got triggered about the gospel of
this:Jesus Christ. If we're going
this:to— if you're going to bump
this:your bucket against the side of the
this:well and mess up the water for
this:everybody, Yeah. Paul, that
this:triggered Paul when it came to the gospel of Jesus.
this:This is— the gospel is important.
this:It is extremely important. And how it's shared and
this:what is shared with it is intensely
this:important.
this:I— there was a man, some of you who've been at the church for a
this:long time have heard me share— I better stay up here, shouldn't I? Heard me
this:share about a
this:guy named Kenneth Ware, missionary to the French gypsies
this:back in the 20th century.
this:Back in the 1900s.
this:And before he came to our church to
this:hold a meeting, the pastor shared about Kenneth Ware several
this:times and shared some incredible, miraculous
this:stories about, about Brother Ware.
this:And Brother Ware came and he shared at the church and he was—
this:I was deeply influenced by him.
this:Man couldn't sing at all.
this:Every— and if he didn't have— he was, he was such an unusual
this:preacher, such an unusual presenter of the gospel. Justin, you need to hear this.
this:If he didn't have anything to say, he didn't say
this:it. We all need to hear it, not
this:just Justin. And there
this:would be periods— I think he just said something.
this:There would be periods where he would just—
this:And that blew me away. I went, that's— wow.
this:And I think the last night that he was there, he said,
this:many people have come to me and asked me to,
this:to tell about the miracles, the miracles
this:in my life. He said, I
this:will tell you about the greatest miracle.
this:God gave us
this:Jesus. And I went, whoa.
this:I mean, that, that started sinking in as well.
this:Yeah. And if Jesus is the most valuable
this:gift that has ever been given,
this:The most valuable message is the
this:good news about Jesus. It's more important than
this:all of the teachings about theology. It's more important than all
this:of the teachings about church growth. It's more important than all
this:the teachings about personal growth. Jesus
this:is the essence.
this:It's the gospel. And when the gospel of
this:Jesus and the good news of God fully comes,
this:it's received with great joy.
this:We spent 3 years in
this:Zimbabwe in the mid-'80s, and I was teaching in a Bible school. I
this:wasn't doing a lot of teaching in
this:individual churches, but I was teaching in the Bible school. But I would
this:go to these meetings, Sometimes I'd speak, sometimes
this:somebody else would speak, but inevitably
this:when the gospel was presented, people came. They
this:came forward and I thought, wow, that's a— you know, I
this:hear that a lot on the mission field. But think about it.
this:If you've got people who've never heard the gospel before,
this:here's the good news. Okay. There's a God. Oh,
this:we know that. We've been
this:serving, sacrificing for generations. We
this:know there's a God. He loves you.
this:Wait a minute. That's not necessarily what we've been told about Him.
this:In fact, He loves you so much that He gave His Son to
this:die for you. What? He sacrificed?
this:I thought we were sacrificing to Him. No, He sacrificed first.
this:And you don't have to die. Of
this:course people come. Of course
this:people who've never heard this message before go,
this:yes, I want some of that.
this:How do I— how do I get that? The first time that this gospel was
this:preached was by angels. I bring
this:you good news of great joy. That
this:will be for all the people. This day in the city of
this:David, a Savior is born unto you. He's
this:Christ the Lord. And they received it
this:with great joy.
this:There's a prayer that I've— that I came
this:across 2 or 3 years ago. that
this:I've come to basically
this:start my mornings with every day.
this:Blessed be God the Father forever and ever, Creator of
this:heaven and earth. As your dawn
this:renews the face of the earth,
this:may we rejoice in this day you have made as
this:we wake refreshed from the depths of sleep. Open our
this:eyes to behold your presence. Strengthen our hands to do
this:your will. And this is the kicker. This is what got me, that the
this:world may rejoice and give you praise.
this:Yet somehow this good news
this:has shifted in our presentation
this:from good news of great joy to sinners in the hands
this:of an angry God.
this:Don't catch many flies with that honey. Honey, you know, they—
this:Yes, there is
this:judgment coming. There is a hell to escape.
this:But that's not the good news. In fact,
this:I would say, I mean, whatever they say outwardly,
this:I would say, you know, to tell someone, you know, you're a sinner,
this:you're not telling them anything they don't know.
this:Every single one of us know that we've fallen
this:short of the glory of God.
this:It is a travesty of the highest order to pervert the gospel,
this:to muddy the waters, To
this:make it unclear. What was,
this:what was not the gospel that Paul preached?
this:Anything that adds to the faith in Christ.
this:Anything that adds to it. Now, the specific situation in
this:this case was you have to be circumcised and follow the Law of
this:Moses. You know, believe in Christ, but you got to be circumcised
this:and follow the Law of Moses and and do this, and then you can be
this:saved. And Paul was going, may you be under God's curse
this:for preaching that, for bringing it that way.
this:You know, the Jews added a lot to the Law of Moses.
this:Yeah. And I'm not
this:throwing them under the bus because so do Christians.
this:not necessarily to the Law of Moses, but to the faith.
this:We add a whole lot of, whole lot of
this:stuff. Believe and
this:be baptized. Well, it's important to be baptized. I think it's good to be baptized.
this:But Jesus, he said,
this:whoever believes in me will have eternal life.
this:Well, believe and and walk the
this:aisle. You know,
this:it's been a while since I've heard these phrases, but I was thinking about them
this:the other day and it kind of— how many of you ever been in a
this:church service and heard the, the
this:command, every head bowed and every eye closed,
this:no looking around? Amen.
this:You know, if you, if you need Christ, if you're, if
this:you know that you're falling short, can I, can I see your hand?
this:I see that hand. Sometimes I wonder, I bet there's not even a hand
this:up. You know, they're just saying
this:it to prime the pump, you know.
this:And, and after a while you learn, don't raise your hand.
this:You know, because the next thing is going to be, if you raised your hand,
this:will you stand up? Just, just come on,
this:take that step right now. Stand up.
this:You know, and then yes, make your way down front. Just
this:come on now. And maybe you got to sign a commitment card,
this:or maybe you got to, got to do something else.
this:C.S. Lewis, I had a quote one time, and I can't remember it
this:exactly, but I remember the essence of it. And it
this:basically said, we know that everyone who
this:gets saved does so through the Lord Jesus Christ.
this:But the Bible doesn't tell us how.
this:Doesn't give us the formula that has to be followed.
this:Doesn't tell this is the way that it works.
this:I don't know how it works. I just know you believe
this:in Christ and God does something miraculous
this:that happens.
this:Believe in Christ and straighten up and fly right.
this:Mm-hmm. We are called to fish
this:for men, but it's not our job to clean them.
this:Come
this:on. That's the job of the Holy Ghost.
this:We can't clean them. We can make them like us. Oh, God help them.
this:That's all we know how to do. The Holy Spirit is the
this:one who can make them like Christ,
this:transform them into Christ. Yeah, I mean, there's a place for,
this:you know, teaching. This is, This is, this is wrong
this:and this is right. But I've discovered over the years that I can
this:tell people what's wrong and right till I'm blue in the face. But
this:nothing changes until the Holy Ghost tells them what's right
this:and what's wrong and convicts them of
this:it.
this:Our job is to bring the gospel And then our job is to
this:love them. And the Holy Ghost will
this:do his work. Kind of stay in our lane.
this:Yeah. Well, anything that adds to faith in Christ,
this:anything that focuses on something other than
this:Christ— you're going to enjoy this—
this:money, It was probably
this:about— well, no, I think money's probably always been a thing. But it
this:was really in the '70s when,
this:at least in my lifetime, it began to be revealed to us
this:that come to Jesus and God will give you money.
this:If you just have faith, you'll get stuff.
this:And the first time I heard that message, I thought, this doesn't feel right.
this:Something feels wrong about this. And when we, and when we
this:left the service later that night, it hit me.
this:I left the church thinking about a new car.
this:I should have left thinking about Jesus.
this:That should have been what I was pointed towards. Politics.
this:Please let me go there for a minute.
this:Okay, I'm gonna come back now.
this:Jesus said, and I don't know why we have such a hard time
this:understanding this, but Jesus said, my
this:kingdom is not of this world.
this:Not of this world. It's from another place.
this:It's a whole different thing than anything you can
this:actually imagine. And yet
this:the church gets so involved. It started
this:in the '70s. I'll tell you when it started. Yeah, I can even tell you
this:who started it, but I'm not going to say any names.
this:And since then, oh yeah, we've got, we
this:got influence. We're electing people. We're getting, we're getting stuff
this:done. And fewer and fewer and fewer
this:people are coming to Christ.
this:There's an inverse
this:relationship there, I believe.
this:In the letter to the churches in Revelation,
this:the church at Laodicea. You
this:say that I'm— that you're wealthy. I have need of nothing. I have
this:everything. You do not realize you are wretched and pitiful
this:and poor.
this:Issues, issues. Oh, this issue is so important.
this:Don't we realize that to get people's
this:focus away from Christ—
this:I can't snap my fingers very well. I used to when I was young.
this:But to get people away from Christ takes that long. Yeah.
this:Just takes that long. Everybody is squirrel.
this:Soon as something comes up that we can look at and focus on,
this:that's not Christ. That's, that's, that's just the way— I
this:heard a, I heard a phrase used, um,
this:by a pastor recently. Uh, he was talking about
this:kingdom culture. Yeah. how important it is to have
this:kingdom culture. And that
this:just got all over me because I went,
this:I don't know anybody who actually knows what kingdom
this:culture is.
this:I really don't. We all have our pet issues
this:and we call that kingdom culture. But this set of issues over
this:here, yeah, that's not kingdom culture.
this:Kingdom culture is to do
this:what Jesus said, love one another.
this:That's kingdom culture. That's what it is. You know,
this:I don't care what your theology is.
this:Well, you know, beyond a couple of things that I'll talk about in a minute.
this:If you don't love people, If I don't see the fruit of
this:love in your life.
this:Paul says, if I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have
this:not love, I'm— I might as well
this:be ringing a bell somewhere.
this:And I grew up in a culture where speaking in tongues was
this:a very important theology.
this:And for a while I thought, this is a very important theology. People need to
this:know this. You can speak in tongues. Hey,
this:speaking in tongues is great. It really is. But
this:if you do it and you don't have love,
this:doesn't matter. I don't really care what your politics are.
this:I have opinions. You have opinions.
this:And none of those opinions are in the Bible. But we find verses in the
this:Bible to back up our opinions. and go,
this:well, there it is right there. Yeah, well, somebody else found another one and said,
this:well, there it is over here. I don't care what your politics are.
this:I don't care where you stand on issues. Do you love
this:people? When,
this:when, when people enter into relationship with you,
this:do they feel the presence of Jesus Christ? Do they feel the
this:love of Christ? Are they attracted to the beauty of Christ?
this:I don't bat 1,000 on this. Ask— don't ask my wife.
this:She's kind of helped me see a few things.
this:So what is the gospel that Paul preached? If we're going to be 10s, we
this:got to— we got to figure this out. What is the gospel
this:that Paul preached? Well, you can remember it
this:by the words—
this:the word KISS. Keep
this:it simple, saint.
this:Jesus Christ crucified,
this:buried, and risen. That's what he
this:preached. That's what he preached.
this:1 Corinthians 15:3-4, for what I received, I
this:passed on to you as of first importance,
this:that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he
this:was buried, that he was raised on the third day
this:according to the Scriptures.
this:He gave a lot of advice. In his other
this:letters. Yeah.
this:But they were never intended to be a substitute
this:for the DBR, as Rodney Boyd used to call it, death, burial, and
this:resurrection. They were never
this:intended to displace the
this:message of the gospel.
this:Many focus on Paul's advice as if that
this:was his gospel. But Paul himself didn't focus on that
this:stuff. Look,
this:Michelle and I were talking on the way here. She had lunch with a friend
this:today who enlightened
this:her to the fact that all churches have problems.
this:Yes. She didn't know that till she married me.
this:And, you know, and I said, well, of course. Yeah, of course they, they
this:do. And those problems have to be addressed at times.
this:And most of what Paul is writing in his letters is
this:addressing problems. But that's not the
this:gospel. That's, that's not what we're
this:charged with taking To the, to the
this:world.
this:Paul focused on Christ when it came to that.
this:What a concept. What, what an
this:idea. And Jesus
this:made it even more simple.
this:For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only
this:Son, That whoever believes in Him shall not perish,
this:but have eternal life. You know that verse.
this:If you know that verse, then you are fully
this:equipped to share the gospel.
this:You are fully equipped. Yeah, but what if they ask me a
this:question? That's the answer. Yeah,
this:but they might ask me a question about something else. That's the answer.
this:Amen. It— we get intimidated because we think, you know, who's,
this:who's going to believe all this? You know, I mean, God
this:sent Jesus and He was born and He lived a sinless life
this:and He died for my sins and, and we killed Him and God raised Him
this:from the dead so that none of us have to die anymore. Well,
this:you can add something to that, but you're starting to muddy the water
this:once you do. That's it. And yeah, it is kind of intimidating because
this:in the culture we live in and the age we live in, people know
this:better than that.
this:Yes. But do we have faith or not? Because
this:it's about faith. There's a reason why it's called the faith.
this:Whoever believes in him
this:doesn't have to die. God loves you.
this:And if you know that, you have the gospel.
this:And that is good news.
this:More good news? I'm done.
this:Raise your hand. Let me give you a blessing. May the God
this:and Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
this:cause the, the purity of the
this:gospel to burn in your heart.
this:And as you see the world and you see people hurting and
this:in need, have the courage to know
this:you have the answer, and the answer is him.
this:Through Jesus Christ our Lord, amen. Amen.
