How does the church function in today’s world? A world in which, I think we can all agree, the moral landscape is changing at a rapid rate.

What does the church say?

What does the church do?

In previous posts (here and here and here) we looked at preaching the gospel and living the gospel. Today, we look at the Gospel among other gospels. Or more accurately, we look at the Gospel among false gospels.

Disciples are to be on mission. The mission (See Matthew 5:16): Seek to influence others so that more and more may glorify our Father in Heaven. We must preach the gospel with our words and our disciple deeds.

Let’s review one more time …

My definition of the gospel:

The gospel is the story of God reconciling and redeeming through the life, death, burial, resurrection, and future return of Jesus Christ as fulfillment of Old Testament promises. The gospel is a witness to God’s grace.

• Reconciling: healing a relationship broken by sin.
• Redeeming: giving purpose and power.
• Grace: We don’t work for it. Earn it. Or deserve it.
• It all centers upon Jesus

Yet, today we are talking about the gospel among false gospels. I believe that the moral landscape is changing at a rapid rate – but the gospel has been attacked from the very beginning [Take a look at Galatians 1:6-9].  Messing with the gospel is serious business!

I once preached Galatians 1 by offering the congregation a cup of coffee but before I handed over the cup of coffee I put a bunch of good stuff in it – creamer, sugar. But I didn’t stop there. I added ketchup, mustard, hot sauce, soy sauce, sprinkles. All kinds of stuff. You can ruin a cup of coffee. Likewise, when you distort the gospel – you ruin the gospel. It becomes no gospel at all.

 When people distort the gospel they tend to do it in two ways:

Watered Down Gospel

• No Sin
• No Repentance
• No Commitment
• No Obedience
• No Discipleship

OR

Burden Added Gospel

• Added Rules
• Added Regulations
• Added Hoops
• Added Guilt
• Added Shame

How does the church function in today’s world?

How do you preach the gospel among false gospels?

I want to talk about hot button issues – not to be controversial – but to show the long ranging impact of the gospel. We all need to continually meditate on the long ranging impact of the gospel.

Here are a few hot button issues:

Abortion

Pornography

Racism

Same-sex “marriage”

Immigration

Poverty

Gun violence

Terrorism 

How are your views on these issues formed? I hope they are not formed by a political platform. I hope they are not formed by a newspaper or news anchor. I hope they are not formed by your own personal opinion. As followers of Jesus Christ, I pray that your views on these issues are formed by the gospel. I’m all for education and research. I’m all for being well-informed. But it starts with the gospel.