We are hounded by bad news all the time and its effects are obvious: anger, anxiety, and fear dominate many lives on a steady diet of bad news.
While a diet of bad news is a problem, perhaps a more insidious problem facing the church is the undermining of our proclamation of good news. We have been charged to spread the greatest of all news—the salvation brought through the works of Jesus, yet in many of our minds this news has been twisted into something that’s not really gospel at all. It’s almost good news and produces almost Christians.
In this series, we are going to explore subtle mistruths about the gospel that seem so close to the truth but set us on a trajectory away from God.
Series Playlist
-
Not Quite Good Enough
Apr 19, 2020 • 38:52
As people, we are seriously flawed. In many ways we reject truth, do evil, and worship wrongly. While this is bad news, it also reassures us that if God will save, it won’t be on the basis of our moral merit. The lowest of sinners and greatest of saints all…
-
Having an Advantage but Not Better Off
Apr 26, 2020 • 40:46
God has a solution to the problem of sin.
-
On Thin Ice
May 3, 2020 • 25:52
We often believe that while we may be forgiven by grace through faith, we enter the Kingdom on thin ice. When we behave well, we think God must like us, but when we blow it, we feel God must dislike us. We are encouraged then to allow our sin to…
-
Invictus
May 10, 2020 • 31:14
Since we are made right in God’s sight by faith, we may wonder if the gospel changes us at all. As we read in Romans, we see the nature of faith going beyond mental assent to facts to identification and allegiance to Jesus. This changes our core selves so we…
-
Life in the Spirit
May 17, 2020 • 32:26
The Gospel of grace does not leave us under the power of sin but ushers God’s people into a life in the Spirit, marked by power and victory over sin. We are then encouraged to pursue holiness and hate sin, through the Spirit’s power. Speaker: Aaron Meservey Series: Almost Good News…
-
How the Gospel Transforms Community
May 24, 2020 • 31:26
We are not meant to live an exaggerated form of Christian individualism – a “Jesus-and-me” mentality. God did not call us into salvation in isolation but in community. Romans 12:3-18 shows us that as Christians, we are called to live out our faith in a Gospel community of service and…
“The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God.” — I Corinthians 1:18
In the beginning, God had a plan—a plan to create what did not already exist and fill it with his glory. Central to the divine enterprise were people created to look and act like God. They were to be managers of his property, administrators of his purposes, and inheritors of his portion. As such, their lives would only be fruitful and fulfilling when ordered rightly.
Israel and Judah had been enjoying a time of peace and prosperity they had not known since the time of Solomon. What appeared to be God’s approval and blessing, however, concealed a dark truth about the way things really were, a truth that would soon be revealed by the invading Assyrian empire.
The gospel is the good news of what Jesus Christ has done to save us and restore us into right relationship with God. For many Christians, however, the assumption is that the gospel is for the unbeliever, a set of “ABC” basics that enable people to enter into the kingdom of God.