Preserving the gospel

Recently, our son, Alan, had opportunity to preach from Galatians 2:1-17 at our young adult service, sevenoseven.

Maryanne and I were proud as mom and dad. Ryan and Even were proud as brothers.

Alan talked about the importance of preserving the gospel. He said, “In 2008 The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life conducted telephone interviews with a nationwide sample of 2,905 Christian adults. What they found was that 52% of the Christians they interviewed think that at least some non-Christian faiths can lead to eternal life. That’s like over half this room believing that!"

He went on to say, "I don’t know where everyone in here stands, but I just want to say that this is a very unchristian view. It’s sad and it’s dangerous. I truly believe that our generation is one of the most accepting, loving generations in history."

Alan expressed a concern, "But with this strength also comes a corresponding weakness. Often we don’t want to offend people we care about. In our culture it’s easy to adopt a relativistic attitude so that each tradition and belief is treated equally as if everyone has saving access to God. It seems that the chief virtue in our society is never having to say 'You’re wrong' and simply letting others have his or her own opinions. That seems to be the way many of us today (even in our churches) think about matters of faith. We often find it hard to settle on anything. Our generation seems OK with questions but answers make us uncomfortable."

Alan said, "Now obviously we aren’t going to have all our questions answered in this life. There are many things I can’t even begin to understand, but here we are talking about the gospel. The good news that Jesus paid it all! He paid for our sins with His death and then rose again. No other faith has a Redeemer. No other faith offers a Savior who can bear our sins. But our Savior has flung the doors to heaven wide open for all who will turn from sin and trust in Him alone. If we are to call ourselves Christians or followers of Christ, of that fact we must be sure. Our LORD himself says, 'I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.' This is the Gospel, this is real freedom, and this is what Paul was defending."

Alan continued, "So how can we preserve the gospel? I believe that we can preserve the Gospel today by lovingly holding fast to our precious Christian heritage that says Jesus and Jesus alone saves sinners. We can raise our hands and speak out in our classrooms. We can speak the truth in love to our family and friends when they attempt to place Jesus on the level of mere prophet, and good teacher. And we can live lives of love and service and demonstrate that the Spirit of the risen Savior lives in us. Let’s preserve the Gospel together."

I couldn't agree with him more. Check out a video of Alan's message on the sevenoseven website here.

This weekend, he's preaching at one of our church plants, Church of the Hills. It's an honor to have a son who's helping to preserve the gospel in NE Ohio.