The gospel is the final answer to every issue and it is the solution to every problem.

The Gospel is the Great Exchange.  The gospel in short – Christ died in my place

Being able to define the gospel is one thing – having it captivate your soul and saturate your life is entirely different.

Christianity is not about receiving the gospel and then moving on from there. We receive the gospel and then we go deeper in the gospel.

The gospel is not the diving board we jump off of into the pool of Christianity – it is the pool itself.

The gospel is mine both in belief and experience because of the death and resurrection of Christ!

God’s only gospel is a gospel of grace.

I believe the responsibility of the church includes both the proclamation of the Gospel and its demonstration.

The people who really believe the gospel become like the gospel.

Obedience not motivated by the gospel is unsustainable. No matter how hard you try, how “radical” you get, any strength smaller than the gospel it will eventually lose its might.

The gospel can do in your heart what religion could never do.

Why produce a counterfeit – because the original holds such value. The devil recognizes the incredible value of the gospel and therefore produced a counterfeit.

The law says, “WOW! You need to be saved!” The cross says, “WOW, you can be saved!!”

How about some good news?  That is what the gospel is – good news. It is the good news story of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The gospel is God’s redemptive narrative

The Gospel is not just about God coming to live in us. The gospel should be about God coming to live through us.

The gospel should be our pattern of behavior in every area of life.

It is impossible to really experience the gospel of grace and not be transformed into a person of love.

This past weekend I spoke very candidly about sex and alcohol. I believe in the sermon I probably said some things that surprised some people. When it came to alcohol I shared my experience on Saturday night. I failed to remember at the time the experience I had just a few months ago. So Sunday’s sermon included my most recent episode. Unfortunately, I believe the sermon we videoed was Saturday night so you had to be there Sunday morning to hear about my most recent experience of requesting alcohol. (you can listen to the message here video will be up soon) If this intrigues you and you want to know more, just ask me and I will share. In light of the weekend sermon I thought I would post a few videos/articles that extend the discussion and may cause you to think -  which by the way is what each of us needs to do! Enjoy:

Click here

And here

A short article here

Any comments or questions??

Below is a post written by my wife, Denise. It was a must share! Enjoy:

Sunday, after one of our services, I was talking to a mom and her 11 year-old daughter and the mom asked the daughter to share with me the question she had been asking her.  I felt honored to be included in what sounded like a special mother and daughter moment.  I quickly began thinking what the question might be about.  Makeup, boys, school, friends, so many thing ran through my head.  Then she said “I don’t get “The Great I AM?”  What does it mean?”  I have to say…that wasn’t what I was expecting!

Mom told me how earlier in the week they had heard the song on the radio and she had asked her mom the same question.  Mom took the time to explain her thoughts about the song.  Then, only as God would have it, we sang the song in our worship service.  Mom glowed as she shared with me how her daughter looked up at her and said “Its that Great I am thing again!”

Now, posed with the question, I began thinking about our worship service and all that was said and sung.  I realized, we had sung several songs, ALL about “The Great I AM!”   Asking even myself, why does that very song bring tears to my eyes and give me chills?  So, what did it mean and how do I explain it to an 11 year-old.  I realized I had an opportunity in my hand.  An opportunity to tell an11 year-old about who God is and what He does!   My heart started beating faster as I talked about that many names scripture gives to God and how they all tell about Him, who He is and what He does!  I told her how amazed I was at how she was asking the right questions and that by asking “Who” He is and “What” He does, she comes into a deeper understanding of and relationship with ”The Great I AM.”   That her very question was the stuff of “life change!”  It was an amazing conversation….hopefully I didn’t overwhelm her with my excitement.

But I haven’t stopped thinking about  “The Great I AM.”   Did you know that even the best scholars disagree over the actual meaning of these words?  But the best I’ve found says that God meant, “I am whatever you need me to be!”  How’s that for an explanation!  In Exodus 3:14 we know that God declared himself to be  “I AM” to Moses and in the NT Jesus, in the flesh, declares the same to us.

John 6:41  – I am the bread that came down from heaven

John 6:51 – I am the living bread

John 8:12 –  I am the light of the world – light of life

John 10:7 – I am the door of the sheep

John 10:9 – I am the door

John 10:11-14 – I am the Good Shepherd

John 10:36 – I am the son of God

John 14:6 – I am the Way, the Truth and the Life

John 15:1 – I am the true vine

John 18:37 – I am a King

Revelation 1:18 – I am the first and last

Matthew 16:15-17 – I am the Christ, the Son the Living God

He is “The Great I AM” and that about sums it up!  And you want to know the part that makes the hair stand up on my arms…”the mountains “know” and the devil and his demons “run and flea at the mention of His name!”  We can’t even stand before the power and the presence of the Great I am! “ If that doesn’t give you chills, I don’t know what will!

Is He your “Great I AM?”

I wanna to be close close to your side, So heaven is real and death is a lie

I wanna hear voices of angels above,Singing as one

Hallelujah Holy Holy

God almighty Great I am

Who is worthy, None beside Thee

God Almighty, Great I Am

I wanna be near near to your heart, Loving the word hating the dark

I want to see dry bones living again, Singing as one

Hallelujah,Holy Holy

God almighty Great I am

Who is worthy, None beside Thee

God Almighty, Great I Am

He’s the Great I Am Great I Am

The mountains shake before Him, The demons run and flee

At the mention of the name, King of Majesty

There is no power in hell, Or any who can stand

Before the power and the presence of the Great I am

The Great I am The Great I am

The Great I am The Great I am The Great I am

Great I am

The Great I am The Great I am

The Great I am The Great I am The Great I am

The mountains shake before Him, The demons run and flee

At the mention of the name, King of Majesty

There is no power in hell, Or any who can stand

Before the power and the presence of the Great I am

The Great I am The Great I am

The Great I am The Great I am The Great I am

The Great I am

The Great I am The Great I am

The Great I am The Great I am The Great I am

]]> http://gregpeterslive.com/the-great-i-am/feed/ 1 http://gregpeterslive.com/gospel-notes/ http://gregpeterslive.com/gospel-notes/#comments Wed, 22 Feb 2012 04:07:50 +0000 greg http://gregpeterslive.com/?p=1375 Below is most of my introduction from this past weekend. I share it primarily for the purpose of putting before us the definition of the gospel that we are using for this series. I think it is important to familiarize ourselves with the definition in order to further expand our understanding:

The gospel is the final answer to every issue and it is the solution to every problem.

The Gospel: Understanding that God is more holy than we can imagine and we are more sinful than we care to admit. Yet, God loved us so much that He sent Jesus to reconcile us to Himself. Christ’s love is beyond all comprehension and as a result He took our place on the cross and satisfied the wrath of God. Through the resurrection of Christ and by the grace of God, when we repent of our sin and make Jesus Lord and leader of our life, we inherit eternal life. As a result of our faith, we become ambassadors for Christ who proclaim and live out this gospel.

The Gospel is the Great Exchange

The gospel in short – Christ died in my place

Being able to define the gospel is one thing – having it captivate your soul and saturate your life is entirely different.

Christianity is not about receiving the gospel and then moving on from there. We receive the gospel and then we go deeper in the gospel.

The gospel is not the diving board we jump off of into the pool of Christianity – it is the pool itself.

Grasping the gospel and living by the gospel is not about saying the sinner’s prayer and learning some new principles and keeping some new rules – when we live gospel saturated lives we are allowing the gospel to become the filter of our mind, the lens of our eyes, the gate of our heart and the attitude of our actions.

This past weekend launched our new series, Soul Life and we began the series by talking about the seasons of our soul. Philosophers, poets and theologians have all compared the seasons of nature to the seasons of our soul. In the weekend sermon we broke it out as follows:

• Fall is a season of transition.
• Winter is a season of loss
• Spring is a season of new beginnings
• Summer is a season of abundance

As the week has progressed and I have had a couple conversations around the sermon, one thing has come up a couple times and it is not something I hit on in the weekend. What I have discussed with some people is how at times we might be experiencing multiple seasons at the same time. I believe that one season will always be predominant but others may be sharing their ripples. For example, you might be in Winter at work and in Spring in a relationship; you might me in Summer spiritually and in Fall economically. Life is way to real and way to messy to only and always be in one season at a time. That is where choosing to trust God and His sovereignty once again becomes a key factor.

True spirituality does not escape reality but rather embraces reality.

Discover that He is a God of all seasons.

Baptism does not save an individual but it is a big step in publicly declaring your faith. It lets everyone know that you are not ashamed of Christ and you have been buried with him in life and raised to walk in newness of life. Your old man has been laid to rest and you now declare the resurrection power of Christ.

This past weekend was another great witness to the work that Christ is doing in hearts and lives. In all 3 of our weekend services we were able to see people baptized. We saw a young man in his 20′s who was saved at Parkview get baptized. We had a young mom who Pastor Jack led to the Lord get baptized. We had a little girl who came to Christ because of her older sister get baptized. We had a young boy who was saved at camp a few weeks ago get baptized. I could go on… the stories are unique and they all were a testimony to life change. What excited me is that when it came to the first step after salvation, baptism, each individual boldly decided to follow and obey. They passed the dunk test!

One of my desires has always been to help Parkview be externally focused. I want to see us fulfill the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20) and the Great Commandment (Matthew 22:35-40). I want to see us follow the example of our Savior (John 13:1-17). Being externally focused is not the challenge – staying externally focused is!

I am so thankful for a faith family that embraces serving and caring for others. Last week we had a wonderful response to a last minute ask when it came to bringing water bottles for our firefighters. The week before that we stuffed a pickup truck load full of food for our food pantry – just yesterday a family from our church was served out of the pantry. Three weeks ago on a Saturday morning over 100 people from our church blitzed the city with Random Acts of Kindness. This past weekend we had another guest that was a result of the RAK event! The RAK event was a “beta run” for opportunities that we will be engaging in this Fall. Beginning in the Fall of 2011, one Saturday a month, we will engage in ImpACT Saturday.  On each ImpACT Saturday we will have multiple opportunities to be the hands and feet of Jesus to our community in a way that leverages the person God created us to be.

For several months my desire has been to raise the Evangelism temperature of Parkview. I am so thankful for a staff, elder team, leaders and a church family that have a desire to share Christ in loving and meaningful ways. Our mentality is not if you want us come visit – we will take Christ to the streets.

Click here to read an article that resonates with the topic above.

Parkview, our greatest days lie ahead – not as we think about ourselves, but as we live to bring life to others!

It was through Adam that sin and death gripped our race. We don’t die for our own sins. Normally, we would die for our own sins; but, as Paul goes on to argue, there are even some — babies, for instance — who haven’t sinned at all, and yet they still die. Vs.14 …even over those who had not sinned…

If babies have not sinned and yet have a sin nature, does that mean that they go to hell? Not necessarily. First, we know that the children of believers are sanctified by the presence of a believing parent (1 Corinthians 7:14). Secondly, David had the assurance that his baby would meet him in heaven (2 Samuel 12:23). Finally, we know that at the end of it all, God, the judge of the entire world, will do right.

If there are the children of unbelieving parents in heaven, it is important to understand that it is not because they are innocent, but because the rich mercy of God has been extended to them as well.

If you would like my entire sermon notes just click here.

Caution: there is one thing you can’t mistake here because it will cause problems in your theology. You cannot join together the peace with God and the peace of God.

Some people are confused there. The peace of God is what we enjoy when we continue to walk by faith with Him day by day. It is subjective. It is relative to each individual. We are told in Philippians that we are not to be anxious over anything.We are not to worry but to trust God and to pray. Philippians 4:7 says, “And the peace of God which surpasses all comprehension shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

I may have peace with God. It can never be interrupted. It is through JesusChrist. He keeps it and maintains it. However, I may be very distraught in my spirit because I have made a choice that wasn’t very smart. I chose not to believe His Word and I chose to look at my circumstances and try to go the route of my flesh.

• Everybody looks to take their next step spiritually. The reason for this statement is because none of us will arrive into spiritual utopia or elitism until heaven. Therefore, all of us have a step to take.
• Community is the greatest catalyst to taking a next step and experiencing Life Change. Nobody will ever be all they can be spiritually apart from being in biblically functioning community. God did not create us to be loners. Strong relationships will never be built in a weekend worship experience. There are not many of them, but our church has a few people who have been coming to Parkview for several years and have refused to get in community. I don’t know their name, neither does anybody else. I guess I will learn it when their family calls and asks me to do their funeral. I do not say that with a tinge of sarcasm but with a weight of sadness. Life Change happens in community – soul to soul connection.
• We all must seek a healthy, vibrant relationship with the risen Christ. We must not rely on eating once a week at a weekend service but rather we must be self-feeders. We will seek Him in His Word and seek His plan in prayer.
• Life Change is not just about me, it is also about others. As a result, I will not seek to be served but I will seek to serve others. I will not be an oxygen thief but I will breathe life into the lungs of others. I will follow the model of my Savior and I will pick up my towel and serve others. I recognize that in the process of helping others grow, I will also experience growth in my own life.

My desire, and I believe the desire of many others, is to experience Life Change and the above thoughts are just a launching point for how we can begin/continue experiencing Life Change.