{"id":32599,"date":"2022-09-10T16:15:51","date_gmt":"2022-09-10T21:15:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/why-church-members-need-the-gospel-too\/"},"modified":"2022-09-10T16:15:51","modified_gmt":"2022-09-10T21:15:51","slug":"why-church-members-need-the-gospel-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/why-church-members-need-the-gospel-too\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Church Members Need the Gospel, Too"},"content":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 <\/p>\n

By Bob Smietana<\/p>\n

Evangelism isn\u2019t just for the unchurched. Even folks inside the church need to hear the gospel, says Matt Chandler, pastor of the Village Church in Highland, Texas.<\/p>\n

Otherwise they risk taking the gospel for granted.<\/p>\n

Chandler, author of The Explicit Gospel, says it\u2019s easy for preachers to think everyone in their church already understands the gospel.<\/p>\n

So they move on to preaching about Christian living and forget to preach about Christ\u2019s death and resurrection. He calls that the \u201cassumed gospel.\u201d
It\u2019s as if the gospel is a doorway you pass through and forget about.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou believe it\u2014you pass through it\u2014and then you don\u2019t need it anymore,\u201d Chandler says.<\/p>\n

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At the Village Church, Chandler says every sermon revolves around telling the story of Jesus\u2019s life, death and resurrection.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy do you preach the gospel to people who have already accepted the gospel?\u201d he asks. \u201cBecause we are prone to forget it, and we are prone to replace it with something else.\u201d<\/p>\n

That can lead to pews filled with people who are faking it when it comes to faith.<\/p>\n

They try to be good people but don\u2019t have the power of the gospel to help them follow Christ, says Chandler.<\/p>\n

So they end up \u201cpretending to be Christians, but having no real relationship with the Lord,\u201d says Chandler. <\/p>\n

The gospel for those who never knew<\/h4>\n

Chandler says he first noticed the assumed gospel early in his ministry at the Village Church. Most in the congregation were in their 20s and 30s. Many had grown up in church and been regulars in youth groups.<\/p>\n

But a surprising number of them asked to be baptized at the Village Church.
Their stories were almost always the same, says Chandler.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir testimonies were they\u2019d never heard the gospel,\u201d he says. \u201cI would just sit there and say, \u2018surely that cannot be true.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

He suspected they\u2019d heard the gospel but just hadn\u2019t understood or accepted it. He started quizzing them about their experiences growing up in church.<\/p>\n

If they\u2019d kept old copies of their study Bibles or journals from youth group, Chandler asked them dig them out and read through them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told them, \u2018I want you to go back and tell me whether or not the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ were really not preached to you while you grew up at church.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

What he found was that most of their notes were mostly about being good kids\u2014avoiding sex, alcohol and R-rated movies. Very little was about Jesus, he says.<\/p>\n

Chandler says young people in his church were pretending to be Christians but had no real relationship with God. He began convincing them the gospel doesn\u2019t mean being nice and going to church.<\/p>\n

\u201cGoing to Sunday school, not cussing or not watching R-rated movies isn\u2019t saving anyone,\u201d he says. \u201cIn everything we do, the gospel must be explicit.\u201d<\/p>\n

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That\u2019s a lesson he learned from reading the Apostle Paul\u2019s letters in the New Testament. Most of them, he says, start with the story of the gospel and of what Christ has done in His death and resurrection.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn fact, Paul preaches the gospel primarily to Christians in the New Testament,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that idea has been lost\u2026. You don\u2019t ever move on from the gospel.\u201d <\/p>\n

Equipping others to share the gospel<\/h4>\n

Chandler offers four practical suggestions for teaching Christians how to share their faith. <\/p>\n

1. Get the gospel right.
Strategy doesn\u2019t matter if churches don\u2019t get their message right. And people can\u2019t share the gospel if they don\u2019t know it.<\/p>\n

\u201cGet the gospel message right,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd then be confident in that message. Not in your delivery but in the message. Here\u2019s what we do\u2014we love well and we share the gospel.\u201d <\/p>\n

2. Admit your faults.<\/p>\n

Self-righteousness is one of the biggest turnoffs for nonbelievers, says Chandler. Don\u2019t pretend being a Christian makes you superior to other people.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you really understand grace, it\u2019s not us and them,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s us. The ground at the cross is flat. The gospel of Jesus Christ has set me free to not pretend that I am perfect in front of you.\u201d <\/p>\n

3. Don\u2019t try to scare people into following Jesus. <\/p>\n

Chandler\u2019s not afraid to talk about hell. He says it\u2019s an \u201cawful reality\u201d that can\u2019t be avoided. But avoiding hell isn\u2019t the main message of the gospel.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf hell is how you are trying to motivate people toward heaven, then you have missed a key component of what God has done for us in Jesus Christ,\u201d he says. \u201cNamely He has justified us, sanctified us, and is adopting us as sons and daughters. You have missed the entire delight piece\u2014where God delights in those He has rescued.\u201d <\/p>\n

4. Focus on the gospel instead of arguments about non-essentials. <\/p>\n

Chandler tries to steer clear of arguments over issues like creation, evolution or the age of earth, where he\u2019s not an expert.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you think you don\u2019t have all the answers,\u201d says Chandler, \u201cJust say \u2018I don\u2019t know. But here\u2019s what I do know\u2014Jesus changed my life.\u2019 A passionate belief in Jesus Christ that has changed your life is still the best apologetic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Remind people their job isn\u2019t to save non-believers. Instead, they need to share the gospel and let God do the work.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have tried repeatedly to lay out the reality that it is God who saves,\u201d he says. \u201cGod saves. That takes the pressure off of people.\u201d<\/p>\n

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What Do Pastors Believe About the End Times? What Do Pastors Believe About the Book of Revelation? 3 Ways to Reach Non-Religious People in Your Community <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 By Bob Smietana Evangelism isn\u2019t just for the unchurched. Even folks inside the church need to hear the gospel, says Matt Chandler, pastor of the Village Church in Highland, Texas. Otherwise they risk taking the gospel for granted. Chandler, author of The Explicit Gospel, says it\u2019s easy for preachers to think everyone in their … Continue reading “Why Church Members Need the Gospel, Too”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32599\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}