Speaker 1: In 2006, richard Dawkins published his wildly popular book the God Delusion, which was fuel for a generation of so-called new atheists.
Speaker 1: He spent almost two decades the next two decades attacking, deriding and mocking Christianity and calling it evil, and in fact at one stage he goaded his fans to mock Christians, saying that's all we deserve, such was his disdain.
Speaker 1: In recent comments, dawkins hasn't exactly seen the light, he hasn't met Jesus, but he has come out and said he's a kind of cultural Christian, which is mind-boggling if you know anything about Dawkins and he says that holding Christian values is important for society.
Speaker 1: Very recently, hugely popular social media influencer, russell Brand who knows who?
Speaker 1: Russell Brand is A few hands going up.
Speaker 1: He's big.
Speaker 1: I don't follow him, but he's huge.
Speaker 1: He's been on this spiritual journey.
Speaker 1: He was recently baptised in the River Thames and, by all accounts, is on a genuine journey of discipleship.
Speaker 1: And he's not the only prominent personality that's turned to faith.
Speaker 1: The Southern Baptist Convention in America has had a number of scandals over the years.
Speaker 1: It hasn't really resolved all of those and its on-paper membership has been rapidly declining for several years, probably decades actually.
Speaker 1: But in the last few years, despite the on-paper decline in membership, it's seen an increase in service attendants and baptisms.
Speaker 1: And do you know what other denomination has seen an increase in baptisms over the last few years?
Speaker 1: Australian Baptists.
Speaker 1: Closer to home a couple of months ago my son and a friend were doing walk-up evangelism, just going to people randomly on the street and sharing the gospel.
Speaker 1: They went to a park in Ellenbrook so this is just little old, suburban, ordinary Perth where they met some teenagers playing basketball and they engaged them in conversation and when they asked them if they ever thought about spiritual matters, they said yeah, actually we've been thinking about going to church, and a few weeks later, after the invitation, they did.
Speaker 1: Just when critics were gleefully writing off Christianity.
Speaker 1: It feels like God is up to something.
Speaker 1: Paul wrote to the church in Romans 1.16,.
Speaker 1: I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, and our mission statement is that we exist to see the kingdom of God established on earth as in heaven, god's love, peace and righteousness transforming every heart and home by the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: The gospel still has power today and this morning I want to spend some time reflecting on the power of the gospel.
Speaker 1: What is it and how do we see our communities transformed through it?
Speaker 1: Well, I don't want to assume that everyone here this morning knows what the gospel is, so let me start with that.
Speaker 1: Gospel comes from an old English word that basically means good news, and translate the Greek word for good news, which is euangelion, which we transliterate as evangel, evangelist and so on.
Speaker 1: And this is the gospel in a nutshell.
Speaker 1: It begins with some bad news.
Speaker 1: The bad news is that we humans have turned our back on God.
Speaker 1: We've rejected his way of life, we've rejected relationship with him and we've incurred his just judgment.
Speaker 1: Essentially, when we say no to God, he gives us what we want, and this is why the world is in such a mess.
Speaker 1: But the good news is that he has not turned his back on us.
Speaker 1: God became a man, jesus Christ, to show us the way to live based on love and truth.
Speaker 1: He died so that our sins can be forgiven and our wrongdoing can be forgiven and our shame erased, and so that we can be reconciled to God.
Speaker 1: And he rose again so that we can have new life in him.
Speaker 1: He ascended on high to heaven where he reigns, and he promises to return and establish his kingdom on earth one day, and that's the good news the gospel.
Speaker 1: And we are not ashamed of the gospel, because it is God's power to save.
Speaker 1: But what does this power save us from?
Speaker 1: Well, people come to God with many needs sickness, depression, anxiety, shame, guilt and more besides.
Speaker 1: And as we track and we're not doing this this morning I encourage you to go away and read Romans.
Speaker 1: Just make sure you don't stop in the first few chapters, because they're kind of depressing as we track Paul, the Apostle, paul's teaching through the letter to the Romans.
Speaker 1: These things are important because but they're not the main thing they're caused by something deeper.
Speaker 1: And in Romans 6.23, paul famously declares the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life.
Speaker 1: In Christ Jesus, our Lord, our problem is what we as Christians call sin, wrongdoing.
Speaker 1: We as Christians call sin wrongdoing the stuff in our heart that is icky.
Speaker 1: Sin isn't a popular concept today.
Speaker 1: People associate it with guilt, condemnation and uncleanness.
Speaker 1: You know what they should, because it is ugly, and the first few chapters of Romans shows us just how sinful and guilty and ugly our hearts are.
Speaker 1: And so some people say that you should just learn.
Speaker 1: We all admit we've got faults and mistakes and make mistakes and so on.
Speaker 1: And some people say that you should just love yourself and accept who you are and that you're good enough.
Speaker 1: But let me ask you who here really thinks they're good enough?
Speaker 1: Who here has not felt like an imposter or a fraud or a hypocrite at some point?
Speaker 1: Who here hasn't done something they hope no one ever finds out Maybe not huge, but just you're ashamed of it?
Speaker 1: Who here has never felt or feared the condemnation of friends or strangers or society if they found out something like you are?
Speaker 1: We really meant to just accept that?
Speaker 1: Well, the power of the gospel is the message, not that you are good enough, but that you are loved enough despite your sin.
Speaker 1: It's not that you have to accept yourself despite your ugliness, but it's that God makes you beautiful in Jesus.
Speaker 1: You know, a while ago some of us went to pray for a woman and her child who she felt there was a demonic presence oppressing them in their home.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you she did not need a pop psychology lesson on self-acceptance or anything like that.
Speaker 1: She needed deliverance, she needed God's salvation, and you know what a joy it is to be able to walk into a situation like that, where someone knows they need help and to share the gospel and be able to tell them God loves you and God wants to change your life.
Speaker 1: And what a joy it was when we returned a few months later, pray for someone else in her family, and to see a transformation in the atmosphere in the home.
Speaker 1: The gospel has power and the power of the gospel is for those who believe and receive.
Speaker 1: Not everyone does Believe and receive.
Speaker 1: Not everyone does.
Speaker 1: But believing begins with knowing we have a problem and that we need saving.
Speaker 1: When we bring the gospel into that environment whether it's a heart or a home that's open, we see transformation.
Speaker 1: We see the power of the gospel at work.
Speaker 1: Well, the power of the gospel, the message of the gospel is powerful, but it's not just about words, it's not just a message.
Speaker 1: It is a powerful message, but it's more.
Speaker 1: It has substance.
Speaker 1: See, when we put our trust in Jesus, he moves into our lives through the presence of the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1: In Romans 15, paul wrote I would not dare say anything except what Christ has accomplished through me, by word.
Speaker 1: There it is.
Speaker 1: And deed for the obedience of the Gentiles.
Speaker 1: So Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles.
Speaker 1: He was preaching the message to them in word and deed.
Speaker 1: And he says and in 1 Thessalonians 1,.
Speaker 1: He says, for we know, brothers and sisters loved by God, that he has chosen you because our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power in the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1: When God moves in, everything changes.
Speaker 1: And speaking of Christ's ministry looking forward and, by the way, we're now agents of this ministry.
Speaker 1: So what we read in Isaiah applies to us.
Speaker 1: Isaiah 61 says the Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me because the Lord have I missed that one, sorry.
Speaker 1: The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me because the Lord has anointed me to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.
Speaker 1: Friends, we have a mission and God has not left us alone to accomplish it.
Speaker 1: And God has not left you alone.
Speaker 1: He dwells in us through his spirit and he gives us transforming power, a power that can transform you and that we take with us to bring transformation into the lives of people around us.
Speaker 1: So I know a guy.
Speaker 1: We'll call him Bruce, not his real name, but he is a real person, a friend.
Speaker 1: Before I knew him he was a married man having an affair.
Speaker 1: Needless to say, the marriage was on the rocks, it was about to end and his wife found out and, although she was an atheist, she cried out to God.
Speaker 1: God, if you are real, save our marriage.
Speaker 1: And God did.
Speaker 1: They both believed the gospel, turned from their sins and trusted in Christ and he saved them, saved their marriage, and they ended up becoming integral parts of their church.
Speaker 1: It's a church I was part of, see.
Speaker 1: This is the power God has, through his spirit, to change the human heart, to save marriages, to bring reconciliation.
Speaker 1: Where why?
Speaker 1: Why would there be reconciliation?
Speaker 1: How can you rebuild trust in a situation like that?
Speaker 1: And yet he did.
Speaker 1: It's a power to set people free from addictions, to restore broken marriages and broken lives and broken hearts, friends.
Speaker 1: It's also a power to give knowledge and insights.
Speaker 1: When we're talking to people, it's even a power to work miracles and when we see this power at work, this is an expression of the kingdom of God.
Speaker 1: This is what Jesus came to bring.
Speaker 1: This is a foretaste of one day what heaven is going to look like, heaven on earth, when his kingdom is established fully and finally on earth as in heaven.
Speaker 1: And then Thessalonians 1.5 goes on to say Our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power, in the Holy Spirit and with full assurance.
Speaker 1: And now another word for the Greek word assurance is conviction, or certainty.
Speaker 1: It's that you know what you know, what you know Like.
Speaker 1: Galatians 4, 6 says God sent the spirit of his son into our hearts, crying Abba, father, how do we explain this?
Speaker 1: It's the spirit within us drawing out our praise and our awareness of our relationship with God and the power of the gospel is a deep confidence that centers our lives.
Speaker 1: And when we have this conviction it gives us the power to weather any storm.
Speaker 1: Now, philosopher William Lane Craig has been a powerful defender of Christianity for half a century.
Speaker 1: With arguments and evidence.
Speaker 1: He is considered one of the most formidable defenders of Christianity.
Speaker 1: He has come up against some of the sharpest minds in science and philosophy and theology and numerous disciplines, disciplines, and often leaves them quaking in their boots.
Speaker 1: And even he says while we can show Christianity is true through arguments and evidence, we can only know it's true through the witness of the Holy Spirit in our hearts.
Speaker 1: And that witness defeats any argument an opponent can bring.
Speaker 1: And you know, there are really powerful arguments that assert the truth of Christianity and defend against even strong critiques of Christianity and the existence of God.
Speaker 1: Yet many Christians are still wracked by doubt, even knowing some of those arguments.
Speaker 1: Look, it is natural to doubt.
Speaker 1: If you have doubts, that's okay.
Speaker 1: In the face of so much evil in the world, in the face of scandals in the church, how can we not have doubts?
Speaker 1: I think many Christians are wracked by doubt unnecessarily, because they haven't let the Spirit work in their lives and bring the awareness of Abba.
Speaker 1: Father.
Speaker 1: That I know, and I can't explain how I know, but I know, like I know, I'm loved by my mum or dad or my husband or wife, or they haven't stepped into the full assurance of conviction in Christ through the Spirit.
Speaker 1: You know, for many years I had a head knowledge of Christianity.
Speaker 1: I was the kid in Sunday school who had all the answers really precocious.
Speaker 1: It must have been annoying.
Speaker 1: But it wasn't until God filled me with his spirit one night that I came into a deep and transforming assurance, a change that wasn't just intellectual but went to the core of my being.
Speaker 1: The gospel is a powerful message that inspires hope.
Speaker 1: It brings hope.
Speaker 1: But it's more than just words the power of the gospel is in God's presence with us, to save and transform.
Speaker 1: It's the power we want to see transforming every heart and home, not only in our church hopefully, it's happening in our church but in our neighborhoods, in our workplaces, in our families, in our city and in our world.
Speaker 1: It's a power we need to experience, friends, it's a power we can experience.
Speaker 1: It's a power that God offers to you.
Speaker 1: It's a power we can have confidence in, and we need to have confidence in if we're going to see hearts and homes transformed, and I know that many of you have this power.
Speaker 1: You've experienced this power.
Speaker 1: Perhaps, though, you realize there's something missing in your experience of God, because, if you're a Christian, let me tell you, you have this power within you, whether you have experienced or not, and perhaps you've never been filled with the Spirit.
Speaker 1: Again, if you're a Christian, you have the Holy Spirit, but the Bible talks about a transformative experience called being filled with the Spirit.
Speaker 1: It gives us an assurance that I've been speaking of, and faith to see his power at work.
Speaker 1: And perhaps, friends, this morning you're not a Christian here you wandered in, took a wrong turn or, I don't know, heard there was morning tea.
Speaker 1: I want to tell you, if you're not a Christian, this morning the gospel is for you and I want to invite you to put your trust in Jesus, to turn to him, to look to him for hope, to follow him.
Speaker 1: So this morning what I want to do is lead us in a prayer.
Speaker 1: I'm going to lead us if you want to receive Jesus.
Speaker 1: If you haven't done that before, I'm going to just lead you in a prayer.
Speaker 1: I'm going to lead us If you want to receive Jesus.
Speaker 1: If you haven't done that before, I'm going to just lead you in a prayer.
Speaker 1: You can pray along or pray with me afterwards and if you want a deeper experience of God.
Speaker 1: So I talk about this experience I've had.
Speaker 1: But you know it's easy just to you can't live off yesterday's experience and it's easy for our hearts to just grow lukewarm or cold.
Speaker 1: And whether you've had an experience or not, I want to invite you to ask God for more this morning.
Speaker 1: I'm doing this in the context again of this is our mission.
Speaker 1: We want to see our world transformed and it's through the power of the gospel.
Speaker 1: We need that gospel to stoke our faith and our hope, to put a fire in our bellies for the glory of God.