Preaching
A Simple Gospel
By Pastor Don Swarthout
Sometimes it is necessary to Preach a
Simple Gospel. The fact is people today are just bombarded with
information. They just don't want to take the time to listen to
a long message even when they know they should. Therefore, we
must consider Preaching A Simple Gospel.
A Simple Gospel may consist of simple
scriptures like Ecclesiastes 12:13 which says, "Let us hear
the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep his commandments:
for this is the whole duty of man." We should all try to
keep his commandments. If people would live by the simple teachings
of this scripture they would be well on their way to showing obedience
to God.
In addition to this of course, we have
to teach about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This means we have
to teach both sides of this Gospel and we cannot teach just one
side of what Jesus taught. It is very important for you to develop
a relationship with Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit if you want
to receive everything God has available for you.
A large number of people today have gotten
the idea that Jesus loves them and He wants to do great things
for them. While this is true, God himself is a God of love, it
is also true he is a God of Justice and is therefore a God of
Judgment. If we accept him we will spend eternity in heaven, but
if we reject him we will not spend our eternity in heaven. It
is really so simple.
We love to quote scriptures that say he
is a God of love who wants us to be blessed, but we often seem
to forget that he is also a God of Justice and a God of Judgment.
Too often we quote only the parts of scriptures which sound good
to us and overlook the rest of the scripture which may put conditions
on receiving God's promises.
A simple example of that may be Psalms
37:4 which says, "Delight yourself in the Lord and he shall
give you the desires of your heart." We tend to remember
the good part which promises that the Lord will give us the desires
of our heart
while forgetting the conditions God put in the
same scripture which tells us to first "Delight yourself
in the Lord
"
I wonder how many of us have ever really
spent time "Delighting ourselves in the Lord?"
We must also remember that Jesus died
for our sins and we can all be forgiven for our sins no matter
how big these sins may have been. The Bible teaches us the God
will remove our transgressions as far as the East is from the
West; and he will forget our sins for his own sake. So he is a
God of love and mercy
if we accept him.
So we all have a choice and that choice
is so simple. We can either accept the teachings of Jesus Christ
and we will go to heaven or we can reject the teaching of Jesus
Christ and we will go to hell. We can either live a life filled
with good or we can live a life filled with evil. God leaves the
choice up to you.
We can decide to accept God's grace and
mercy, or we can decide to reject his grace and mercy. If we accept
him, he will accept us. If we reject him, he will also reject
us. The choice is yours.
If you would like to hear more about Jesus
Christ and his plan for your life, please call Pastor Don Swarthout
today at 859.219.1222. You may have to leave a message, but Pastor
Swarthout will return your call as soon as is possible.
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