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.

Many churches teach that The Gospel is where you find faith and then you move on from there. I don’t believe that! I will challenge our thinking and I will call many to perhaps a new understanding of The Gospel. The Gospel is not as simple as A-B-C; we will see that it is A to Z. It is The Gospel that should change our life, our relationships, our habits, our perspective and every single way we live our lives – and the beauty of all this is that it is grace based!! The Gospel is not about what you are doing but it is actually based on what has already been done.

This series has the potential to revolutionize our church and every single person in our church!

In honor of gracefully aging I post this link for all my prime time friends. If you are planning on living past 65 this is a great read for you also! Please click here for a really good article and brief video clip.

Attached are some pics from the first gathering of the NFD (non-facility driven) church plant sponsored by Parkview. The lead pastor is a man named Rev. Francis Velasco (whose wife is expecting their first child in March) and they minister in Phnom Pehn.

Working in an area in the city they have sought to gain momentum for this gathering; forming a core team, discipleship and small groups is the primary focus here. A “gathering” is planned in this process every 4-5 weeks to facilitate vision casting for the new church and for the new team to make contacts and/or converts of the people.

The first few gatherings are about vision; while the small groups meet and grow on a weekly basis.

The goal of this first gathering was 50 new people – they had 77 attend on Saturday, January 21 – 63 adults and 14 children. PRAISE THE LORD!!!!!

Please pray for Pastor Francis, the team of Community Baptist Church, and the outreach to lost people Phnom Pehn.

More pics after the jump.

The people overflowed right out of the building!

Question – how many would like to be part of small group.

They knew of Parkview’s heart for Cambodia and they shared their desire to plant a church in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. In Roger’s email he sent me an update and a few photos. Praise the Lord for the work He is doing in Cambodia!!

• I don’t remember preaching a series I have enjoyed more than Soul Life
• I don’t remember preaching a series that I think will help us more in our personal relationship with God.
• I continue to give the series much thought, study and prayer. I feel like I am giving everything I know on the subject and yet I think there is so much more to learn.
• I love how immense and yet personal our awesome God is!!!
• I love every weekend at Parkview
• 11 am service was packed and 9:30 was real strong!!
• I will give you a hug if you can attend Sat night at 6
• If you don’t want a hug please attend Sat night anyway!!
• Group Life is going strong
• Had a brand new family visit and sign up for a group
• Feel like stream lining our group life has encouraged people to only be a part of one group – I don’t want people to overdose on group life.
• I encourage you to attend 1 worship service – serve in 1 ministry – attend 1 group
• Thankful for our worship team
• Choir hit a grand slam in exalting the Great I Am!!!
• I mentioned a few books that have helped me in my study: Sacred Rhythms by Mark Buchnanon, Sacred Pathways by Gary Thomas and The Me I Want To Be by John Ortberg. All are great books!
• Walk in the path that God has given you to best connect with Him!

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.

Life change does not happen in our lives apart from the Gospel.  The Gospel is what changes us.  Our salvation has been accomplished by what God alone has done, not by what we have done.  From cover to cover, the Bible is all about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  It is the Gospel that shapes everything about us, producing life change.  We cannot know God or His Gospel without knowing His Word.  As we understand and embrace God’s Word, we find it so dynamic that is begins to define us, sanctify us and motivate us.  This is why one of our values at Parkview is:

Fueled by God’s Word
We believe God’s Word has the answer to all of life’s questions, and therefore, we surrender willingly to its timeless truths.
2 Timothy 3:16 – All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. (NKJV)

In order for each of us to experience life change we must be people of God’s Word.  This means we need to know how to study it and do what it says. As James 1 tells us we must not only be a hearer of the Word but also a doer of the Word.

At Parkview, we have incredible pastors, teachers and leaders, and we desire to help you grow in your faith and in the knowledge of God’s Word.  But more importantly than that, our heart is for you to discover God’s Word for yourself.  We believe God’s Word holds the answers for all of life problems and we know that it brings purpose and meaning to our lives.  God created us for relationship with Him and in His Word is where you will find that relationship.  He made us to respond to Him and it is in the truth of His Word where we are able to respond in obedience by His Grace.

One of the things that have helped me to be able to study the Bible has been Inductive Bible Study.  This is simply a method of study that opens Scripture up to us so that we can discern what God is saying to us as individuals.  Because we believe that it is God’s Word that changes lives and that God longs to meet you in the pages of His love letter to you, on February 16-18 we are bringing a Precept Inductive Bible Study Training Workshop to Parkview.  My wife, Denise, and several of our women leaders have attended this training over the last several years and have grown from the principles and study habits they have learned.  I will be attending this workshop and am looking forward to growing in discovering God’s Word for myself as well.

Click here to find out more information about learning the Inductive Study Method.  I want to encourage you to take a look at the information and giving prayerful consideration to attending. You may attend only one day or all three, but to receive a 25% discount, you need to register before January 23! I know it will be life changing!  If you have any questions in regards to this great training opportunity, please contact Sylvia Shows at (386) 586-2291 she will be glad to help you in any way she can.

Join me as we learn how to effectively study God’s Word and experience life change together!