Over the next three weeks, I want to lay out. A three pronged ministry strategy. To help us implement the gospel mission given to us by Christ. As you know, at least most of you, we've stated that mission. In the words that appear on the front of your bulletin. God's reason for tomorrow, our mission for today. This statement is based on an understanding of 2 Peter 3, verse 9 and verse 15, where the apostle Peter says, the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient for you, not wishing that any perish, that all should reach repentance. And then verse 15 says, and consider or count the patience of our Lord as salvation. As I understand that, then a central reason why God demonstrates his patience towards sinners is for their salvation. In other words, the central reason why tomorrow comes, Not the only reason, but a central reason from God's vantage point as to why tomorrow comes, why we're here this morning, is because God still has redeeming work to do in the world. You know that, it's unquestionable. That's why tomorrow's here. And if God still has redeeming work to do, guess what? That means that you do. Because the church is the agency that God uses in order to advance the gospel and the mission that God has for fallen human beings. What can we do strategically to be more faithful in carrying out this mission in our community, in our context? I've been thinking about that. I always seem to come back to that. And you have to because it's easy to sort of go off center. Well, this summer, earlier this summer, I went to visit Mike Jones. He was new to his office and I didn't know him. So I said, yeah, let me go introduce myself to him and talk with him a bit and to talk to him about this thing, this question. And so we talked. And in fact, Mike was here three weeks ago. So we started talking and he went on to present a strategy, a very simple strategy that they've developed to help churches do exactly what I'm talking about this morning. And they've entitled it E3. And when he presented it to me, And it's online and everything, where you could actually see it presented. As he presented it to me, I immediately said, well, that's very simple. And I like things that are simple. And I said, it's not only simple, but it holds biblical weight, it's sound, and it's doable. It's not some, you know, grandiose strategy that, you know, as soon as you look at it, you go, how in the world are we going to do that? So it was doable as well as simple and biblical. The three E's are the following. Embrace the gospel, equip in walk, and engage in mission. That's what I want to talk about, and I'll explain what each of those mean over the next three weeks. And I've prepared sermons based upon each of those, and actually based upon three particular texts. You could go many places, but these are the ones that I'm going to use to present this simple strategy to help us take the mission that we have forward as individuals and as a corporate body of believers. And the first text is the one that was read earlier. Every one of you could stand, I believe, and recite it. It's well-known. A well-known verse about the gospel of Jesus Christ. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. I want to present that text and the other two over the next two weeks in the context of a story, a story about Jim and Jim's journey from faith to faithfulness. Jim grew up here in the upstate. His dad, a while back, worked in textiles. His mom stayed home with Jim and his two siblings. Jim's family were pagans. They were non-Christian. You wouldn't see them getting in their cars on Sunday morning and driving to church. They didn't go. They'd been invited a couple times, but they declined. And like too many other families, Jim's parents divorced when he was 12 years old. And he hated that. He hated the fact that and struggled with the fact that his parents couldn't keep it together, that the family had to come apart. Well, during his high school years, he did pretty well. He stayed out of trouble. But then he went off to college and things began to change. And he started hanging around the wrong crowd and started to cross the line with drugs and alcohol and women. He wasn't very happy with his life, very dissatisfied, struggling. What's the use? What's the meaning of this thing? Well, in his junior year, he had a roommate that was pretty good, very respectful and considerate of Jim. In fact, midway through the junior year, Jim was really struggling with a particular class. He just couldn't get it. And his roommate happened to be very good at that subject matter. And so his roommate offered to help him and he did, and he passed. Well, summer goes by and he enters his senior year. And during that senior year, his roommate invited him to a Bible study. And Jim said, after a little thinking, he said, sure, I'll go. And so he went to this Bible study. And that first night, the Bible study leader spent about an hour talking about John 3.16. And there were four simple truths that Jim learned that night that changed his life forever. He learned about man's biggest problem, about God's loving remedy, about man's necessary response, and God's gracious gift. Those are the points of my sermon this morning. I hope you wrote them all down. But those are the points. Points that at some point, if you're a Christian here today, you had to understand in order to be a Christian. And there are four simple points that you presently need to be clear about and have a conviction about when presenting the good news of Jesus Christ to someone who doesn't know him. Well, let's look at each of those truths. that Jim learned that night. The first being that perishing, perishing is man's biggest problem. Now human beings have all sorts of problems, right? We have all sorts of problems that we experience in this world. I'm going to keep control of the reins, but I could turn it over to you and you could rattle off oodles and oodles of problems that we as human beings face as a result of living in a fallen world. Probably number one, the top number one would be relational problems. You know, Jim experienced that. He identified with that. His parents split up when he was 12. That goes on all the time. Husbands and wives argue and grow to hate each other's guts, and they split up. There are other kinds of relational problems. There are personal problems that people have. You know, Jim developed a personal problem dealing with the fact that his parents split up. He was pretty down about that. Then there are financial problems, physical problems, people getting sick. And not just sick, but actually dying. Very close friend of the family, of the Adams family, not doctor, but Mr. David Crawley passed away this past week. He was like 75 years old. But that's where everyone's headed. I mean, everyone's gonna die, right? It's a big problem. Not the biggest, but it's the doorway into the biggest problem that human beings have. And then, let's just throw in work. Do you have any work problems? Sometimes, obviously, it's the actual work that you do. I mean, it's just a grind every day. But a lot of times, it's the people. It's that boss, or it's the guy or the gal that works next to you. You just have a hard time dealing with them. So there are problems everywhere. They are a part of the fabric of human life. And they will find you. They find every human being and not just necessarily one at a time, but sometimes one, two and three, bam, all together. But the truth is, according to the scripture, human perish, humans perishing in the end is man's biggest problem. Hands down. Now, at times, we can tend to forget that. You know, we're really slammed with a problem that's legit, that's real, that hurts, that consumes a lot of our time. Maybe it goes on for a while. And so over time, we can lose perspective. That's why we need to go back to the Word on a regular basis so that we keep in perspective. And as you do peer into the Scripture, you realize that though all these human struggles are real, There is a problem that looms even larger in its human perishing. I remember in the first years of the church, me and the intern that I had at the very beginning were asked to visit this elderly lady. Her son asked us to go and she was she was very sick. And so we went and. And we went over a period of time, and we showed some respect to her, and we listened to the human struggle that she was having with her physical situation. She was ill, really in bad shape. But after a while, and I don't remember if it was two or three weeks, we had to get the courage to let her know that, yeah, we hear you. And we sympathize with you and we pray for you physically. But you know, there is a much bigger problem that's facing you. Perishing. Someday you will have to meet God. And then we went through the process of explaining what all that meant. What is perishing? Well, it means to be under God's wrath. John three thirty six says whoever believes in the sun has eternal life. Whoever does not obey the sun shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. The wrath of God is his deep seated, settled anger, which will be his disposition towards the unbeliever and his unrepentant sin and moral evil when Christ returns as judge. And at that juncture, God's wrath will manifest itself in a couple of ways, according to the Bible. The unbeliever will experience fiery torment. Revelation chapter 14 says he will drink the wine of God's wrath. poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. In addition to that, coupled with that, the unbeliever will be separated from enjoying the glory of God. Second Thessalonians chapter one says they will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints and to be marveled at among all who have believed because our testimony to you was believed. So there is torment. And there is separation. from the glory of God. You and I were created to reflect that glory in our own lives and to enjoy God's glory. And when the day comes, when he returns and parts the sky, we will enjoy God. We will marvel at his greatness and his glory and there will be an enjoyment that is ultimately satisfying to your soul. But for the unbeliever, that won't happen. One other thing that characterizes both the fiery torment and the separation from the glory of God is the fact that both are everlasting and unchangeable. Just like eternal life is Unending? So is death. So is perishing. It goes on forever and ever. Jesus said, and these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. And there's no changing that. There's not going to be a second opportunity. Upon the return of Jesus Christ, the door is closed. It's unchangeable. So perishing involves the unbeliever experiencing God's wrath, his fiery torment and separation from God's glorious presence for eternity. Why is that? Why would God do that? Why does your sin and mine deserve eternal perishing away from the presence of God forever? Well, simply put, God determined that this was the just penalty for man's sin against him. So it's his determination, he's the reason, but let me explain a bit more. You and I were created to reflect God's glory. That's why we were created in his image, so that we would reflect that image back to him and to those around us in the world as we lived our lives. And we did we do that by knowing him, by loving him, by thanking him, by trusting him and by obeying his commandments. All that goes into you and I reflecting what God is like. When man lives counter to that, when he lives a sinful lifestyle, none of that's done. There's no love. There's no trust, there's no gratitude. There's no obedience and thus no glory to God, no pleasing, no honoring of his great name. Thus, man and his sins. amount to an infinite insult to an infinite glorious God, and he therefore deemed it appropriate and just and necessary. To bring his wrath to bear upon unrepentant sinners. Far and away, this is the human being's greatest problem. That's true of the guy that works next to you or the boss who leads the organization that you're a part of. That's true of your neighbor down the street. It's true of every human being. This is man's biggest problem. It's not, as I was indicating earlier, that the human problems that people encounter are of no, that they're no big deal. They are, okay? I mean, the problems that we have in our country, you know, with the redefinition of human sexuality. And, you know, I spoke last week about, you know, blue lives mattering. The fact that our cops are being killed. That's a big deal. That's a really big problem. So is what's going on in the Middle East. All those are huge problems. But biblically, though that is true, the biggest problem that is far and away bigger than any of those that I've mentioned, or all of them together, is the reality of humans perishing away from God forever and ever and ever. That blew Jim away. That sort of woke him up and added a perspective to his life that he never even thought about. But God was working that night, and it all came home. And he wanted to learn more. And the Bible study leader went on to talk about the good news, the solution, the remedy to the perishing problem. He spoke to him about God's loving remedy in the person of Jesus Christ. In these words that you all know that for God so loved the world that he gave his only son. That night, Jim learned that God's love involves both his self-giving affection and his unselfish action for the happiness and well-being of his sinful creatures who make up the world and are poised to perish. People like Jim, like you and me, people from all over the globe, from every tongue, tribe, kindred, and nation who choose to live in rebellion against God, their creator. And the unselfish action born of God's self giving affection to remedy the plight of perishing sinners was God deciding to send his son into the world of sinful humanity to rescue his sinful people. And to accomplish that. God's eternal son became a human being. like you and like me. To do that, he was conceived by the Holy Spirit. He was born of the Virgin Mary. And quite appropriately, he was given the name Jesus, which identified his mission to save his people from their sins. Savior. And as a savior and as a sinless man, Jesus represented his sinful people on the cross. And when he represented you, that means that God assigned your sinned your sins to Jesus, as if Jesus were guilty. Of every last one of them. And because he was considered guilty of your sin and mine as well as the sins of all of his people, what did he have to do? Though willingly, he had to pay for it. And he suffered and he died on the cross and he paid for the sins of his perishing sinful people. And then three days later, he rose again from the grave by the power of God. And that resurrection was God's, the Father's indication that he had accepted the payment, that he accepted what his son did on behalf of his sinful people. Salvation was now available for all of his people, all who would come to him and turn from their sin and trust him. And that's what was told to Jim. Jim heard the good news, and I mean, he heard the bad news first, but then he heard what what Jesus Christ, God's son, came to do to remedy the perishing situation. And he was told, as you have been told. Jim, what you need to do now is believe in Jesus. What does that mean, to believe in Jesus? Simply, it means wholehearted reliance upon Jesus and what he accomplished for guilty sinners. It doesn't merely mean intellectual assent, though it means that, in part, you've got to understand some stuff. You need to understand what I've just said about what Jesus did. But beyond that, you've got to act. You've got to wholeheartedly then depend on Jesus. Just like every one of you, and Jim was given this illustration, every one of you, when you came in here this morning, I doubt any of you sat there, or not sat there, but stood there debating whether the chair that you're sitting in right now is going to hold you up. You assumed that it would. And you then just sat down, believing that it was going to support you. You are right now depending on that chair to continue to hold you up. Well, in a sense, that's what we're talking about. When a person becomes a Christian in order to become a Christian, in order to be rescued and for the remedy to apply to you so that you're no longer perishing, you've got to wholeheartedly throw yourself on Jesus and depend on him as the single remedy for your problem. Following that, Jim was clearly told that when a sinner like him wholeheartedly places his trust in Christ as his substitute on the cross, that he will be given something. And that's eternal life. What's that? Well, it involves, first of all, God establishing a personal relationship With the penitent believing sinner. A relationship with a holy God is formed. And as that takes place, what happens? God forgives. He declares to the individual, your sins are forgiven, they're no longer between you and me, they're gone, they're forgiven, I no longer hold them against you. And God bestows upon that believing, penitent sinner the status of sonship. They become sons and daughters of God the Father. And they gain the privilege of fellowship and the responsibility and privilege, really, of obedience to the Word of God. That's part of eternal life, having that ability and that desire to hear from God through his word and believe it and eternalize it and actually make it a part of your life. That's part of the deal. And as that's done, what's taking place, what has God been doing in your life ever since he established that relationship with you? In your attitudes, in your thoughts, in your words, and your actions, you have been being conformed to the likeness of Jesus Christ, the end goal. But then beyond that, eternal life will reach its zenith when Jesus Christ comes from the heavens. When he does that, what's going to happen? you're going to be perfected. Eternal life is going to consummate in the sense that you will be fully adult as Jesus Christ. Sin will be no more. Sorrow will be no more. Dying will be no more. Hassles with sin will be no more. You will be completely conformed to Jesus Christ. You will be 100% satisfied. in God, and God will be glorified in you. And the mission of Jesus will be fully and finally complete. What did he say in John 10.10? I have come that you may have life and have it to the full. You don't have it to the full right now. The promise is there. You have the life. You have the eternal life, which I've outlined here. But the fullness of it is going to come when Jesus parts the sky and transforms you and transforms the world and opens up the gates to the new heavens and a new earth. That's eternal life in the full. You perfected, happy, healthy, living in a new world, pleasing and honoring God and loving your fellow man always. to the glory of God. Well, that night at the Bible study, Jim, by the grace of God, wholeheartedly believed that. And he placed his faith in Christ and he embraced, he embraced the gospel and received eternal life. He left that night a changed person, full of joy, full of peace. And you know, there are many like Jim out there, people that you know, people that you talk to on a regular basis, and they too need to hear the words of the gospel. Now, John 3.16 is not the only obvious, only text or passage you can use, but you have to admit It's all there in one simple verse. Not real hard. It's real, I mean, God's the one that saves, OK, God's the one that opens eyes that you're not being asked to do that, it's impossible for you to do that, but it's not impossible for you and me. To have some kind of presentation of the good news similar to what you see in John 316. Now you have to present something like that in the context of a relationship where there is mutual respect and love of the other person. But given that, our conversations eventually need to lead to speaking truth like that. Next week, We're going to present something that's growing out of this particular strategy about a gospel mission team that we're going to develop here that's going to help us stay focused on what we're to be doing in joining God in his redeeming work. That's all I'm going to say about it. We'll talk more about it next Sunday and also next week. We're going to continue on the journey with Jim and look at the second E, so to speak, on his journey from faith to faithfulness. Let's pray. Father, thank you for the gospel, the good news, that at some point in time, most of the people, if not all the people here in this room, understood and believed. We thank you for that. We thank you for the work that you did bringing us to that point. But the intention wasn't for us to leave it there, but to join God in his redeeming work as his ambassadors. To take this great message, this good news, to others who so need to hear it. And so, Father, help us as a church as we seek to continue to pursue maturity in this area of our ministry. Lord, we can't let up. We've got to keep moving forward. We've got to become wise and wiser. But nevertheless, we need to keep moving forward, seeking to learn and seeking to apply what you've called us to do. And so, Father, we commit what we're doing to you with Good News Club and our counseling ministry where the gospel goes forward there. But there are other areas where we can take part in your redeeming work. And so we pray for your help and your assistance. as we do seek to be more faithful to you and more faithful to the mission that you've given to us all as the Church of Jesus Christ. Thank you for this time of worship and learning. This we pray in Christ's name. Amen.