What Is The Gospel?

Now, if you don't have a Bible, it's okay.

There is a Bible app you can get on your phone if you don't have that.

Otherwise, we'll have it on the screen so you can kind of read along, okay?

Last week we kicked off uh a new teaching series called Witness.

And uh and I'll explain a little bit more about that here in a second.

Uh, but we're gonna build upon where we're at last week.

If you weren't here last week, it's okay.

I do encourage you to go back and listen because there's a couple foundational things that we'll start to layer on top of each other that I think is gonna be helpful for this longer journey that we're on.

Okay, so Mark chapter 16, starting in verse 15.

Mark 16 · chapter mention

And this is talking about some of the final words of Jesus in the Gospel of Mark.

It says this.

And he said to them, Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.

Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.

And these signs will accompany those who believe.

In my name they will cast out demons, they will speak in new tongues, they will pick up serpents with their hands, and if they drink any d any deadly poison, it will not hurt them.

They will lay their hands on the sick and they will recover.

So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God.

And they went out and preached everywhere.

While the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs.

Amen.

Jesus, we just pray this morning, let your word enter into our hearts.

I pray in this room, God, that as we open up these scriptures and speak, talk through them, that you would speak to us.

That these are more than dead words that existed 2,000 years ago.

I thank you that you are the word of life and you want to reveal yourself to us today.

So we honor your spirit and it's in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

So there's a lot happening in this passage, all right?

But one of the things that really stands out is that when Jesus was kind of going down the final rundown with his disciples before he would ascend into heaven, he commanded them.

He said, I want you to go preach.

I want you to take everything that you've learned from me, every good thing that has happened in this, you know, everything that I've explained to you, and I want you to go everywhere and preach to all of creation.

That's not a small task.

And uh, and as you do, there's gonna be things that happen as you do.

There's gonna be signs, there's gonna be a demonstration of power that goes with you.

And these were some of the final instructions that Jesus gave, and it's important that we take those seriously and we enter back into them.

So that's what we talked about last week.

When we talked about this, another phrase that Jesus used with his disciples, and he said, You will be my what?

Witnesses.

You will be my witnesses in all of the world, and you will be the ones who the everything that you've seen and heard from me, it's gonna be by your testimony.

You're gonna go everywhere and tell everybody about it.

And so, and so part of being witnesses is in Jesus' language is preaching the gospel or proclaiming the gospel.

Now, that kind of language might feel a little bit old school, it might feel antiquated.

Um, and and even like we talked about last week, the whole idea of evangelism just brings up all kinds of feelings uh in our culture, sometimes emotional baggage.

Nevertheless, to be faithful followers of Jesus, so are you guys with me?

To be faithful followers of Jesus, we must reclaim and recover the joy of preaching the gospel in 2025.

Come on.

This is this is a massive invitation, I think, that we have in front of us.

And so the key question for this morning is this.

What do you talk about when you talk about God?

What do you talk about when you talk about God?

If you were given a microphone and we asked you, come talk about God, come share the gospel, what would you talk about when you talk about God?

Some of you would talk about the love of God, some of you would talk about the power of God, or eternity in heaven, or being saved from hell.

You might you might talk about the justice of God and how he's making all things right in society, right?

You might talk about the personal level of being seen and known and cared for.

If I asked 10 different people in this room, what is the gospel, I'd probably get 10 different responses depending on your the books that you read, your life experience, where you grew up, your socioeconomical class, what part of the country you are from, right?

You probably get a different shade or flavor or texture around this question, what is the gospel, okay?

Which isn't necessarily bad, but it's true.

And but I think the invitation for us today is how can we continue to come back to Jesus to remind ourselves of what is the simple gospel?

And what is the gospel that Jesus preached?

See, stats would show that even the majority of Christians don't really understand the gospel.

A majority of Christian adults in America believe that acceptance by God is through doing good things and being a good person.

This is from Christians, okay?

And certainly, you know, uh many others believe the same thing.

If I just if I can be a good person and do good things, that's really the ticket.

But is that what Jesus came and preached, right?

Is that the gospel that Jesus came to preach?

And so we have to kind of cross-section that and compare and compare contrast what would we say versus what does Jesus say?

Are you guys with me this morning?

So here's just one little snapshot, okay?

We're just gonna put, we're just gonna dissect one little thing here just to get us going.

Mark chapter 1, um, verse 14 and 15.

Mark 1 · chapter mention

Says this Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God and saying, the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand.

Repent and believe in the gospel.

Okay?

This is Jesus.

And when he had a chance, he came, he comes out of the wilderness, and it's time for him to start talking about what God is doing, and to start talking about his mission on earth.

And what does he start talking about?

He starts talking about something called the kingdom of God.

And he says, repent and believe in the gospel.

The word repent just really means like change your mind and and and and see this new kingdom from God's perspective.

So the gospel of the kingdom was the main message that Jesus came to preach.

Now, what does the word kingdom mean?

It means the domain of the king.

Dallas Willard says it like this.

He says, He said, Now God's own kingdom or rule is the range of his effective will where what he wants done is done.

So, what is the kingdom of God?

It's anywhere where what God wants done is done.

And so what Jesus is saying here is there is a new kingdom in town with a new king, and you can be a part of it if you change the way you think, you trust in me, and you can be a part of it because of me.

And if you follow me, I'll show you how to live into that kingdom, not just for yourself, but for the flourishing of the whole world.

And so Jesus is really dialed into this whole idea of kingdom of God.

Now, when I say kingdom of God, that means almost nothing to Coloradans in 2025.

All right?

We have very little reference point for kingdom, but that wasn't the case back then when Jesus used the word kingdom.

They had a direct reference point, namely the kingdom of Caesar, the Empire of Rome.

So when Jesus comes on the scene and says, hey, we have a new king and a new kingdom, it wouldn't be much different to say, hey, there's a new president, and it's different than the president that you think.

There is a president of uh that is new into time.

There is a country, there is a nation that God is making if you will come and be a part of it.

And so when he uses the word kingdom, they had an immediate kind of reference point on a lot of different levels.

Now, from a historical point of view, just imagine this along a Middle Eastern road within ancient towns, they could hear the panting breath of a young man running.

From some distance, they saw the faint cloud of dust kicked up from behind him arriving.

He puts his hand on his knees to recompose himself while a crowd gathers, knowing he's an evangelist.

Once he's ready, everyone who is present listens to the gospel.

And here's what he says: The king is won and defeated the enemy.

The war is over, and we can enter peace.

All is well.

See, an evangelist in the first century was somebody that went and would announce the exploits of Caesar's.

And as Caesar would be in battle and become victorious in battle or advance the kingdom of Rome, what would happen is an evangelist was the one who would go on horseback, town to town, and say, Hey everybody, here's what's happened, here's the victory that's happened, here's what that means for you now.

Now you can rest in peace, or you can now live into this kingdom with this new news.

And so an evangelist would proclaim the gospel, which was the good news of a victory that had happened.

All right?

Now, this image and vocabulary that Jesus used to describe his message is the same word.

Gospel.

The word is important because it means heralded news.

And it had to do with messengers coming in from the battle to the battlefield to update villages and towns within the kingdom.

This word gospel is a Greek word that is actually eungelion, uh, which is translated, yeah, which is translated gospel, good news, or even evangelist, all right?

In old English, it's God's spell.

That's where we get the word gospel.

It's God's spell in Old English.

So it means evangelist, it means good news, and it's a way to announce the victory of the king.

So a gospel is a newsworthy event that must be shared.

It's news that changes lives of those who the news is intended for.

Whether they hear it or not, if you miss the announcement in a city square, the reality of the announcement still affects you.

What has happened affects everybody.

And it's the same thing in God's kingdom.

When we announce the good news of what has happened in Christ, we're announcing a victory, of defeat of the enemy once and for all, that affects the entire world and everyone who is willing to believe in it and trust in it, their lives can change and the entire world can change.

This is the good news.

So, because of these things, if we were to say, Well, evangelism really isn't my thing, basically what you'd be saying is, good news really isn't my thing.

Gospel speaking isn't really something I do.

That's not really my cup of tea, is talking about good news.

All right?

So that's where we have to kind of level that out, right?

Evangelism should wake us up.

Evangelism should startle us awake, that there is something that has happened in Christ that affects everybody who is willing to listen.

Are there any Christians in the room here today?

It's good news.

The good news is not just about us trying to work harder, but it's also not about response.

The good news is about first who God is, what he has done, who we are because of that, and how we now live in the world.

Who God is, what he has done, that changes who we are and how we live in the world.

Say it with me about who God is, what he has done, who we are, and what we do.

Alright, so every culture, good news sounds a little bit different, okay?

So if you if you are an enslaved people or an oppressed people, good news is gonna sound like a message of liberation and justice.

If you are an isolated, lonely people, good news is gonna sound a lot like family and belonging and presence and inclusion.

If you are suffering, it sounds like wholeness and the promise of restoration.

If you are powerful and rich, it's gonna sound a lot different too.

The good news is the same in essence, but the way it's preached often changes.

So we get this in Matthew 19, and it's a story what we know is called the rich young ruler.

I'm gonna read this.

This is Matthew 19.

Here's what it says And behold, a man came up to him saying, Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?

And he said to him, Why do you ask me about what is good?

There is only one who is good.

If you would enter life, keep the commandments.

And he said to him, Which ones?

And Jesus said, You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness.

Honor your father and mother, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

The young man said to him, All these I have kept, what do I still lack?

And Jesus said to him, If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.

And then come and follow me.

And when the young man heard this, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

Okay now, if we were in Jesus' shoes and somebody came up to you and they said, What must I do to inherit eternal life?

Now that come on, let's be honest.

That's like the golden ticket question.

It's like the question everybody's waiting for somebody to ask them.

Right?

You're waiting for Aunt Sally to come up to you.

What must I do to inherit eternal life?

It's like, oh my gosh, this is perfect.

I've been waiting for somebody to ask the question just like that.

And based on your upbringing in the church, you know what you're supposed to say.

And in fact, we think that Jesus should have said something else here.

Um uh and so his response is a little bit different if we're gonna be honest, because if somebody came up to you and said, What must I do to inherit eternal life?

What would be for a lot of us, what would be your knee-jerk response?

It would be something like this do.

You don't have to do anything.

Doing, that's this striving and earning, that's like works-based righteousness, right?

Eternal life is a free gift.

All you have to do is just believe in it and just sit back and let God do all the work.

Except Jesus doesn't actually say, if Jesus was a good Christian, he would have said that, right?

That's a joke.

What he says is quasi-heretical because he doesn't recorrect him, he doesn't say, no, you don't have to do anything.

He he actually gives him something to do.

And he he he he leads him through a way into what what you know what they're calling in this passage eternal life.

Now, what Jesus leads him to do is first of all, keep the commandments.

If you want to inherit eternal life, keep the commandments, but it's more than just morality.

He he invites him to step out of a perceived idolatry of wealth and to give away what he has to the poor.

And there's probably different reasons for that.

Some of it is about freeing his internal being, delivering him from the grips and the snares of the wealth of the world, because he knows, like, you can believe in me, but if you don't give that up, like if you don't come and follow me and give if you're willing to give that up, then you're gonna still be enslaved, right?

But also, it may have something to do with solidarity with the poor, of giving your possessions to those who don't have, right?

And so, one thing that's important to look at here is this word eternal life.

That one kind of trips us up.

It's hard to know what we're talking about.

In in this particular passage, and in a lot of the gospels, where we hear hear this word eternal life, we immediately start thinking, life after death, right?

Where do we go after we die?

And it doesn't not mean that, but it also means more than that.

The rich young ruler wasn't just asking where he goes when he dies, but he wanted, he was asking, how do we be a part of the life of God's kingdom here and now?

And what a lot of scholars translate this to, eternal life, is it can be more accurately the life of the age to come.

How can I enter into the life of the age to come?

So it had to do with uh a qualitative kind of life that isn't just for later, but it's here and now.

And and even Jesus talks about eternal life in John 17 3.

He here's how Jesus defines eternal life.

He says talking about what happens after you die.

He says in John 17, 3, this is eternal life, that they know you, the one and only true, uh, the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

So even according to Jesus, eternal life wasn't just a transaction of something that would happen later.

It was it was something that could be entered into even now.

It was life of the kingdom, knowing him, participating in the life of the Father and the Son and the Spirit.

And in Jesus' invitation to this young man, it was both to know him, but it required a response as well.

It wasn't just belief, it was it was doing something about it as well.

Are you guys with me?

So the reason I bring that passage up is it's so important that all of us from time to time we contrast what we believe about the gospel to what Jesus actually preached about the gospel.

Because almost nowhere does he say you don't need to do anything.

Every time he his invitation is come and follow me, leave everything you have and come and follow me.

Which is, I'm just gonna say, that's doing something, right?

Can we just be clear there?

So that being said, here's what I want to do in the rest of our time here.

I want to look at three variations of the gospel that are often preached, specifically in our culture, okay?

Now, this isn't a takedown, okay?

This isn't like uh, you know, this isn't me just going on a rant and a rampage, but I really sincerely want to examine a few different ways that we preach a gospel or a version of the gospel.

Some and some of these have positive elements, some of them are have dramatically missing elements, okay?

And it's not necessarily that they're heresy, it's it's not like we can go that completely with all these, but as uh as uh was said on the the old school SNL skit, some of them just put the wrong emphasis on the wrong syllable, all right?

It's about like listen, like that's part of it, but that's not the fullness of what Jesus is inviting us into.

Now, every generation has to do this work, and every generation, your nation or your culture were at some at some point try to coerce or co-opt the gospel into its own, its own language.

And so we have to do the work of saying, here's the common things that are preached, but here's the kind of thing that, you know, what does Jesus invite us into?

Are you guys with me?

Now, uh again, doing this isn't saying that we've nailed anything as a church or I've got, I've got it, I know the real answer.

That's not what I'm saying.

I I feel like I'm starting over every day, I'm learning something new about the mysteries of God and the beauty and expansiveness of what it means to follow Jesus.

All right.

So, in so many ways, I feel like I'm a beginner, but I think this is helpful for us as we think about when we talk about God, what are the types of things that we talk about, and how do we compare and contrast that with what Jesus talked about?

Okay, so you guys ready?

We're gonna talk about three variations.

These are the evangelical gospel, the prosperity gospel, and the social gospel.

Okay, nobody got up and left.

All right.

Let's just give you a second.

Just wanted to give you a second.

Um, okay, first first up.

And some of this, uh, just to quote my sources, some of the some of this work was done by author and pastor John Mark Comer, um, who had pastor of Bridgetown Church in Portland.

He just did a fantastic.

Job outlining a lot of this.

Some of this is a variation of his word.

So the evangelical gospel might sound something like this: You are a sinner, Jesus died for you, and all you have to do is believe, and when you believe, you can go to heaven when you die.

Okay?

Now let me just unpack this a little bit.

In America post-World War II, there was an attempt to really simplify the gospel and deliver it to the masses.

And to be fair, uh this actually came out of an impulse, a motivation, I believe.

Um, and some of you just remember this time period very well.

Um it came from a motivation to actually preach the gospel, much more so than our generation is motivated to do.

And so in order to do that, they wanted to kind of boil it down into a simplicity of what does it sound like?

And so uh and so uh a kind of a message of what the gospel sounds like really came down to what happens as a kind of a transaction that results of what happens after death.

Now, let me just back up for a second.

I use the word evangelical.

Can I just can I just diffuse this for a second here?

Um, I know that that kind of word in our culture uh means a lot of different things to a lot of different people.

Um, particularly, I think in its best case scenario, it means churches who came from a tradition of uh taking the mission of God very seriously and believing that the message of God isn't just for us, it's for people all around the world.

So that's kind of best case.

Worst case, it's kind of been co-opted by more right-wing politics.

It means nothing more than just a political voting block, I think, in our culture.

And so that's kind of where it's like it doesn't, we don't have really a need to defend it as much as understanding that we come from this stream, a long tradition of what we call evangelicalism, okay?

Um, and and oftentimes within evangelicalism, we we can quantify, we use language of those people are saved, those people are not saved, saved and not saved.

That's kind of a category that we that we do.

And and and a lot of the language in the culture is about speaking what happens after uh it doesn't speak about what happens after you're saved, it only speaks about what happens after you die.

So a lot of times within evangelicalism, there's not a lot of great answers.

What happens between now and the time I die?

It doesn't matter, you're going to heaven or you're saved from hell.

That's kind of the that's kind of a a common or maybe popular understanding of that this this version of the gospel.

Now, the pros of this gospel, the evangelical gospel, is an emphasis on personal conversion and the love of God.

So evangelicalism did this really well of like as an individual, God loves you and he wants you to know him.

And that eternity does matter, right?

One of the pros is that it's very it's become very accessible and clear.

It's kind of simple to understand.

And it was, like I said, motivated by a desire to actually evangelize, to speak good news.

But on the other hand, as far as some of the weaknesses of the evangelical gospel, um it minim it minimizes, there's just a minimal emphasis on discipleship, the lives that we actually live right now with our lives, and living into the kingdom is not something later, but something we can enter into here and now.

Oftentimes it reduces salvation to a ticket punch to heaven.

What's the minimal entrance requirements to heaven, right?

Some people call it fire insurance, all right?

And the minimal entrance requirements, this is why a lot of Christians think, okay, what do I need to do to make sure that I'm good later?

All right?

That's the question that that evangelical try evangelicalism tries to answer.

But it doesn't quite work like that, right?

So minimal entrance requirements, that's how like uh that's how uh um your airline points work.

What's the minimum amount of legs I need to fly this year in order to keep my status where it's at?

What do I need to do just to kind of stay in a good standing this year?

All right, that's the way this thing.

But but but how many of you guys know salvation and entering into life of kingdom is not necessarily about transaction, it's about a life lived in covenant.

So oftentimes Paul will use language that's more about like a marriage covenant.

I just want you to think about like if I went to my wife and say, hey, Megan, just by the way, what are like the minimal requirements it's gonna take to stay married to you?

Okay, at that point, she's gonna punch me.

I'm not sleeping, I'm sleeping on the couch that night, all right?

Like, what's the minimal I have to do to kind of stay, keep legal here?

No, marriage is legal.

It's a it's it's legal on one hand, but it's much more than that.

It's about a life, it's not about what's the least I can do and still get the benefits of this.

It's what you know, what is the invitation to love and to know and to grow together and for love to flourish and expand for all of time, right?

And so that's where oftentimes within an evangelical message, we kind of exchange discipleship for a transaction.

And I'm just telling you, if that's what you've done, there is so much more.

The kingdom of God isn't later, it's at hand.

It's now if you enter into and follow Jesus.

But kind of the third thing that's that evangelicalism lacks is a vision for a communal or societal transformation.

It really focuses on individual transformation, but doesn't have much of a vision for societal.

So it's about what do I need to do?

What is God doing in my life?

It's kind of a personal relationship with God, which it is personal, but it's much more than that.

Could you imagine in 1955 if Rosa Parks, and if if if somebody came up to her and she was, you know, she was refusing to sit in the back of the bus.

Uh and somebody came up to her and said, Hey, why don't you just be grateful that you're saved right now?

Like, why don't you just be grateful that your eternity is safe with God?

And she's like, No.

She's like, she's like, Yeah, I'm following God, but because I'm following God, his will is not being done here yet.

So I'm sitting at the front of this bus, right?

There was something in her that knew that that justice had to happen.

Something had to happen that was more than just a personal thing, something needs to change all around us.

Are you guys with me?

So we have to wrestle that one down.

It's not just personal, it's about participating with God in the restoration and renewal of all things.

Come on, come on.

That hey, come on, amen.

All right, all right, second, prosperity gospel.

Um, maybe it there's probably different ways that this sounds, but I just want to walk you through.

This is a very kind of sketch.

It might sound something like this God loves you, you are royalty, and if you believe and sow seed, you will receive health, wealth, and success.

Okay.

Take a breath.

So this popular movement really originated in the 1950s in America and since has been exported all around the world.

It's an offshoot of Pentecostalism and the Word of Faith movement.

And this message really doubles down on the role and possibilities of faith in the life of Christians and how, if it's done right, it will only result in positive outcomes in your life.

Now, at its worst, it's you turning on the TV and seeing a televangelist pointing to you from the TV and saying, if you write in this check and give this amount of money, then God is going to give you back tenfold exactly what you gave, and you will receive the exact same amount, but only uh in multiples into your life.

And if you sow the seed right now, you're going to do it, okay?

Which is just just con artistry, is what that is.

Um, so that's at its worst.

On a softer level, it can just be it a lot of us can live in in you know with more of a belief of this.

If that if I'm not healed or achieving success, it's success, it's because I don't have enough faith or I've done something wrong.

And the only way God is going to get glory is if all of my problems go away.

Okay, so Jim Wallace notes in his book, The Call to Conversion.

Here's what he says.

He says the gospel message is being molded to suit an increasingly narcissistic culture.

Conversion is proclaimed as the road to self-realization, religion as a way to help us uncover our human potential, our potential for personal, societal, or social and business success, that is.

Modern conversion brings Jesus into our lives rather than bringing us into his.

We are told that Jesus is here to help us do better at what we are already doing.

Jesus doesn't change our lives, he improves them.

Okay.

Now we have to careful, we have to be careful with this one because in the scriptures, when we follow Jesus, there is a vision for a flourishing life for those who follow God.

But that the way that works is a little bit more mysterious than we'd like to admit.

There is a flourishing life in the kingdom of God.

And I think in our stream, you know, a stream like this, we have such a high view of healing.

Um, and and there's there's sometimes even even us uh we're susceptible to parts of a prosperity gospel if not taken in a fullness of the counsel of scripture.

So we do believe, like we pray for healing.

Like at the end of the service, we're gonna invite you to come and we're gonna pray for healing.

We do that unashamed.

Why?

Because we believe that God is a healer.

So when we pray for healing, we're not just praying for a transaction, we're praying for an encounter with the healer.

And the belief that when we come into God's presence, we are made whole body, soul, and spirit.

You cannot spend time with Jesus without a measure of wholeness taking place in your life.

Okay?

So sometimes that healing is from sin, sometimes that healing is from relational wounds or emotional wounds.

But we believe that you cannot, that healing is not just an event, it's the actually the nature of God.

Okay.

We pray for breakthrough.

We believe in supernatural provision.

We believe that God wants to give us his wisdom and his mind as we traverse this earth.

That being said, there is so much disillusionment in the church with people that are under, that are living with the thoughts of uh I thought God would have healed me by now, I thought my business would have turned around by now, I thought my problems would have been fixed by now, because we're associating a specific outcome with uh with a promise of of everything going up into the rights.

And the problem is we when we read the scriptures, we read of both.

We read of both contentment in God and the supernatural power of God entering life, and then we read about how problems sometimes don't only go away, they actually get worse.

Okay.

So Paul is a great example.

So when you read through the New Testament, Paul in the early church, when he's after following Christ, it seems like Paul and a lot of these early church fathers, not only did things not get better for them, they got poorer, they got more in need, but somehow, even in their lack, they knew that their lives were hidden in Christ.

And so there was a permeation of joy and contentment in everything.

Okay, so so that's why Paul, the same guy, wrote these two different things.

In one passage, he says this.

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think according to the power at work within us.

To him be the glory in the church and in Jesus Christ throughout all generations, forever and ever.

Amen.

Far more abundantly than anything we could ever ask or imagine, so anything you can think of.

Just ask it of God.

He can do everything all the time, and it's all good.

And then 1 Corinthians chapter 11, he says this five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes, less one, three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I was adrift at sea, on frequent journeys and danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers.

1 Corinthians 11 · chapter mention

He actually wrote this in toil and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure, and apart from other things, there is the daily pressure of me, uh of my anxiety for all the churches.

How was your Tuesday?

But then he concludes, verse 30.

If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.

And so we're left with a little bit of a conundrum.

And I'm I can't unpack this as much as I want to, but what I what I what I'm trying to get at here is this there is it is possible to walk in faith, bold faith, pray for the sick, pray that God's will be done where it's not being done.

With confidence, knowing that you are a beloved son and daughter, and you can pray in bold faith and say and also say, God, I know you're good, but this is a mystery to me.

I don't know how you intend to work all things for good.

But I'm trusting you with the outcomes here.

And even if things sometimes go worse than I thought, it doesn't change the fact that you're good.

You guys with me?

And so with the prosperity gospel gets right, let me just be generous here for a second.

The prose is an emphasis on God's love and abundance.

God is loving and abundant.

It encourages faith and expectancy.

These are good things, guys.

It's a good thing.

The pendulum swing is to never ask God for anything.

That's not that doesn't bring God glory.

Oftentimes, uh, churches that are in really deep in the prosperity gospel, to be fair, they're actually really good at community engagement and missional expression.

They do a lot of stuff for the poor.

But the kind of the gaps, I think, with this way, this version of the gospel, it's based on a false transactional view of God.

It distorts the purpose of suffering and the cross, that God can get glory in your suffering just as much as your breakthrough.

And if you don't have a theology for that, I'm telling you, you will be disillusioned.

So we have to have a theology that allows for the glory of God in the midst of suffering.

That God, you can use all of it.

And you owe me nothing.

You owe me nothing, God.

The prosperity gospel can reduce God to a genie.

And it really what it does is it baptizes one of the worst parts of the American culture, which is materialism, which ruins lives.

It ruins our lives.

When everything becomes about material prosperity without knowing the prospering life of God from the inside out.

Alright.

Hey, one more.

We're almost done, guys.

We're almost done.

So evangelical gospel, prosperity gospel.

This third one, we'll call it the social gospel.

And here's what it can sound like.

There's probably different versions of this, just like anybody.

The social gospel.

Here's what it can sound like that Jesus came to liberate the oppressed.

And so that means the gospel is activism, uh, more specifically, mostly political activism, and the church must work for justice to this end.

Now, this whole movement really emerged in the late 19th century following the Civil War and as America was rebuilding.

Um, Walter Rauschenbusch in New York City, Hell's Kitchen, the late 1880s, he was a minister of an immigrant church in Hell's Kitchen of New York.

In 1907, his book Christianity and the Social Crisis asserted that religion's chief purpose was to create the highest quality of life for all citizens, and the goal is to help the vulnerable, the marginalized, which means that someone has to be, something else has to be set right systemically in order to see justice.

And so this movement started through really correcting a lot of child labor laws, specifically in New York, that would go into workers' rights, laborers' rights.

Later on, this became the you know, probably a huge foundational bed for the civil rights movement, women's rights, climate crisis, LGBTQ rights.

Um now within this paradigm, um, oftentimes the social gospel uh it's it's a correction of other other types of gospels.

Again, if you have a gospel that's primarily about the salvation of individuals, this social gospel came as a correction to that to say it's not just about individuals, it's about what God is doing for the writing and justice within all society.

Um but what happens sometimes it can become a soft Marxist paradigm that sees the world in terms of oppressed and oppressor, and that the primary means of social change is political activism.

Now, let me just talk about a few pros and a couple cons here.

No, the pros are a strong sense of justice, equality, and human dignity.

Okay?

Um, some of you just need to be reminded that the kingdom of heaven is diverse and equitable and inclusive.

Okay.

That's not a political statement, by the way.

I'm not talking about corporate programs.

I'm saying you will be shocked in heaven by the diversity of people, people you never expected to be there.

Um, and that actually should excite you, okay?

So, strong sense of justice.

Justice is part of the heart of God and the equality for human beings.

It integrates kingdom language and societal transformation.

This is all over the scriptures, it's all over the scriptures that the church exists for the good of the world, right?

Um, and it has the social gospel as a pro has a courageous critique of systemic sin.

Okay?

Now, again, I know where you can go with that and all the different ways of thinking around that, but there is such a thing, okay?

And it has to be addressed.

Now, on the flip side with the social gospel, there's a couple things that we have to talk about.

Number one, and this is very important, the social gospel, this movement often conflates, and what happens is it compromises theological orthodoxy.

Sometimes the social gospel comes hand in hand with liberal theology.

Okay?

Now, uh I'm not talking about liberal politics, that's just hear me, just for terms here, because I know I'm gonna ruffle some feathers, but it's I'm not talking about liberal politics, I'm talking about liberal theology.

So sometimes within this movement, and in an attempt to uh set things straight with the vulnerable and the marginalized, um, sometimes morality is minimized in order to fight for those who have been disenfranchised.

Okay?

Um and and we've seen this over time in an effort to protect one group, we can lose a clear sense of a sexual ethic or an ethic for marriage that is very clear in the scriptures.

And and and really from a big from a larger point of view, uh common sets, and this is not even deep Google here.

This is just like you just go Google this.

When a church in its orthodoxy and our actual belief system goes liberal uh uh over time, it just it's a kiss of death for the church.

Orthodox churches stand the test of time because without righteousness, you don't have a foundation to stand on.

Okay, so this guy, Roshenbush, who in New York City really uh gave a lot of movement to the social gospel in Manhattan, and his church later lost steam.

Later the church became a gay nightclub and they were doing orgies on the altar of the church.

And later on it became a performing art center, which is I think what it is today.

So here's here's the big here's the big thing here.

Um when it comes to when it comes to writing societal things, there is part of it that uh that taps into the heart of God, which is the heart of justice, which all of us can learn from.

I'm learning a lot about that right now.

But the scripture says that justice and righteousness are the foundation of his throne.

Justice and righteousness.

You can't have justice without righteousness.

And I think if there's gonna be one critique, it would be um that it's possible to fight for justice and still hold fast to the commands of God and living righteously before.

God and taking the holiness of God very seriously as well.

I don't think you should have to choose between the two.

And there's a lot of organizations that are doing fantastic with this.

Jonathan Tremaine Thomas, a brilliant black leader, he leads the civil righteousness fighting for racial equality and justice.

And it's built in the name civil righteousness.

Tyler Burns and the Witness Foundation, these guys are just doing incredible racial reconciliation work.

And it's not about choosing one or the other.

It's like we're gonna fight for what needs to be corrected, and we're gonna be just live lives before God that is pure hearts before God, not compromising parts of our faith in order to go after something else that matters to God.

Are you guys with me?

Justice and righteousness are the foundation of his throne.

So the social gospel also does this.

Sometimes it reduces discipleship to activism, just to good works, and it minimizes the role of individual sin.

And just as if we're gonna do anything, it's gonna be by good works.

Now, good works are important, but not to the minimization of our own sin before God.

The third thing that happens, though, and this happens a lot, and this is happening a lot even right now, when there's a ton of things that have to be addressed or corrected within an activist movement, it can lead to burnout and even political co-opting.

Um, it's it's just worth noting that even though Jesus himself fought for justice and for those who are far from God, um, he did hit for some reason he didn't choose to do that in a political way.

He, if he wanted to do the political way, he would go to Rome and pitch a fit in Rome with Caesar.

He never did that.

He he did it politically when he announced that I am Lord, that Jesus is Lord, that's a very political statement.

But he didn't do it in kind of what we would normally call, and I'm not saying I think political activism is a good thing, but I'm saying when it becomes the only thing and we we miss out on the life of God and trusting in the life of God, what it can do is it can lead to a workspace thing that actually exhausts us because we can't ever get to the outcome that we're praying for or that we need.

And so the life of the kingdom is one that comes from the inside out, and then it leads us into the lives that we live everywhere.

We need holistic discipleship, okay?

So the gospel it means a lot of things to a lot of different people.

And I think the thing that we, the invitation for this morning, and again, we haven't even talked about over the last two weeks, we haven't talked about what it means when you actually go and and speak and do things.

We're just kind of laying some foundation because the truth is the gospel you live in is the gospel you live out.

The gospel you live in is the gospel you live out.

So, which gospel are you living in?

When we began the teaching today, we read from the gospel of Mark, the gospel according to Mark, and it was Mark's version of the good news.

So I think the good the good question for you today in this room is this What is the gospel according to you?

What is the gospel according to you?

What would you say if someone were to ask you, tell me about the good news?

So we rejoice this morning because God has done something great, and because of it, he's given us his kingdom.

The gospel, so let's just remind us, the gospel is the good news that he has defeated sin and death and evil through his life and death and resurrection.

And he's making all things new, even us.

The gospel is personal because it changes who we are, and the gospel is reorienting, it changes what we believe, the gospel is holistic, and it changes our whole world.

It is the hope of the desperate, it's the joy of the suffering, it's the eternal life for every wandering heart, it's the good thing, the best thing for everyone you have ever met and will ever meet.

And the gospel can be responded to right here and now because of what Christ has done.

And I just want to invite us here this morning as you think about what do I believe?

Do I believe the gospel is good news?

Let's just close our eyes for a moment here this morning as we come into close.

And Jesus, I thank you that today there's a lot of words that have been said over the last 2,000 years about who you are and what you're doing and what you've done.

There's a lot of words in this room to describe the same thing.

But I thank you, Jesus, that all of our lives can be found summed up in you, that you're the one who holds all things together.

And this morning, God, I just pray that you would take us deeper into the gospel of the kingdom, the good news that changes everything, the good news that we are loved, the good news that you came to us and did something we could not do for ourselves.

And as we trust in you, Lord God, I thank you that you do give us eternal life, life here, now, and for eternity to come.

So I just bless us this morning, God, across the room, to reorient ourselves with the gospel that it would excite us, it would electrify us, that we can sharpen each other, even in this church, to come to a clear understanding of who you are and what you've done and how we now then live.

We thank you, God.

This is available here and now, and it's in Jesus' name we pray and we thank you.

Amen.

Amen.