WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:10.000
You know, the gospel is good news, eh? It's good news. It really is.

00:00:10.000 --> 00:00:20.000
And I hope you get it into your head that this gospel is good news.

00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:30.000
In some churches, you struggle hard all week, then you come to church, they tell you how bad you've been.

00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:40.000
You got to struggle even harder to be good, to be welcomed by God, isn't it?

00:00:40.000 --> 00:00:50.000
But this gospel liberates. It is incredibly good news.

00:00:50.000 --> 00:01:00.000
Can I say this? It is such good news, we struggle to believe it.

00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:15.000
It's that good, the news. One day, someone in this room is going to share testimony

00:01:15.000 --> 00:01:30.000
of how he has struggled financially and someone he never even knew, never met,

00:01:30.000 --> 00:01:45.000
died and left him enough money to go and buy a home, cash, which he did in the last month or two in this church.

00:01:45.000 --> 00:02:00.000
And when he spoke to me about it this week, he said, Greg, you know what?

00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:15.000
Looking at where my life's been and looking at how what's been given me,

00:02:15.000 --> 00:02:30.000
I dared not ever believe God could be so good that he works out things for my good

00:02:30.000 --> 00:02:45.000
when I don't even know he's working behind the scenes at all.

00:02:45.000 --> 00:03:00.000
And God works for your good and God works for my good. And when you share the Gospel, you don't have to be afraid.

00:03:00.000 --> 00:03:15.000
It's good news. And I started off by saying three points last time I preached two weeks ago.

00:03:15.000 --> 00:03:30.000
The first point was this. You got to have the faith of Jesus, not just faith in Jesus.

00:03:30.000 --> 00:03:45.000
Remember the story of being in the boat? If you're in the boat with Jesus and you're in a storm

00:03:45.000 --> 00:04:00.000
and you have faith in Jesus, that's when you start shouting, screaming, calling out for help, waking Jesus up.

00:04:00.000 --> 00:04:15.000
If you have the faith of Jesus, well, then you just get up, tell the waves to be still and go back to bed.

00:04:15.000 --> 00:04:30.000
Because you got the faith of Jesus, not just faith in Jesus.

00:04:30.000 --> 00:04:45.000
Number two, the kingdom gives life initiated by the new birth.

00:04:45.000 --> 00:05:00.000
Any person here who's born again today, the kingdom is your inheritance. You've inherited a whole kingdom of which you are a son or a daughter.

00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:15.000
Then thirdly, I said, God offers himself to us and draws us closer to Him.

00:05:15.000 --> 00:05:30.000
Do you know that in every single religion in the world, you climb a staircase to get to God and you have to get his approval.

00:05:30.000 --> 00:05:45.000
You've got to somehow get to God. It is only Christianity who teaches us that God came down to us to reach out to us, number one.

00:05:45.000 --> 00:06:00.000
Number two, every religion has things you have to do to get God's favor.

00:06:00.000 --> 00:06:15.000
Only Christianity teaches you that God did something. But the death and resurrection of his own son to give you favor.

00:06:15.000 --> 00:06:30.000
Do you see how the Gospel is good news and God introduces you to a kingdom

00:06:30.000 --> 00:06:45.000
and that's what we're going to spend many weeks talking about.