The Gospel to the Homosexual pt 4 (FINAL) Presenting the Gospel: I don’t pretend to have precise gospel presentation to homosexuals or anyone for that matter. I learned the Romans Road years ago, and I still use those verses often when sharing the gospel with someone. I am familiar with the FOUR Spiritual Laws, and I learned and taught F.A.I.T.H. and have come to love “Quest for Joy”. I would even recommend that Christians learn some way to articulate the gospel in a very simple, abbreviated form. Opportunities come up all the time (if we are looking for them) to simply share truths with people that God has been moving in their hearts long before we come onto the scene. So, for those staunch Calvinist who believe the gospel is too big to put into an outline are rejecting the very doctrine that they cling to- God is sovereignly working out all things after the counsel of His own will (Eph 1:11). I am not picking on them because…well as my dad would say-“I are one”(A Calvinist that is). Learning to present the gospel in a few minutes can be a very fruitful means to leading people to the Treasure of the Universe. Although these short abbreviated outlines can be fruitful, they are NOT EVANGELISM. What I mean is that an outline of presenting the gospel is not to be confused with THE GOSPEL! I say this because I know many people who have mastered Gospel Outlines yet in truth they don’t know the gospel. They are nothing more than used car salesmen peddling the gospel as they chalk up another notch on the belt. That is no gospel life. So how do we preach the gospel? What is the call to evangelism? It is to make Disciples. Not present outlines, leave tracts, get someone to sign a “commitment card”, raise a hand, say a prayer or does anything else (although all of these things, however outdated they maybe, can and have been useful). Making Disciples is the key to effective Evangelism. The assumption here in this short little series is not that we are going to meet, greet, gospel and invite in a fifteen or thirty minute timeframe. (Although I am all for that, but reality is that it rarely happens that way, and the bulk of those type of decision have a very little- lasting gospel effect on the life of the “convert”). The assumption is that we are going to have spent some significant time with people, build a relationship. Invest our very lives into people with and through the gospel. So what is the best way to share/preach the gospel with a homosexual, or anyone for that matter? Let me give two quick thoughts. Again, this is assuming that we have some relationship to the lost person whether a co-worker, neighbor, family member, or friend. I) IT HAS TO BE GOD! God is the only one that can turn a sinner from his/her sin to trust Jesus Christ. (See First Blog). People are really, really wicked. None of us can turn from our sin on our own. Romans 8:7 “The Carnal/Fleshly/Sinful mind is hostile towards God. It does not submit to God and neither can it”. 1 Corinthians 2:14 “The person without the Spirit of God does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him and he cannot understand them”. Only God can cause someone to come to trust in Him through Jesus. 1 Corinthians 12:3 “No one says Jesus is Lord accept by the Spirit of God”. Other references would be Eph 1:11,2:1-10, Matthew 16:17, John 6:37,44,65). God has to be the one to open the eyes of someone to Trust Jesus. II) We have to do our best to Show them Jesus! God doesn’t need us-(Acts 17:25 “God is not served by humans as thought he needed anything, because He himself gives life, breath, and everything else.”) God saved us that we might glorify Him by enjoying Him (the Most Enjoyable being in the Universe). Ephesians 1:11 He chose us….12 That we would be a praise to His Glory/Beauty”. “We are a Chosen People, a Holy nation, a royal priesthood, a people for God’s own possession that we would proclaim the excellencies of Him who called us out our darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9). Our greatest joy is in God. So our dutiful privilege in preaching the gospel is to show Jesus as the greatest treasure. Matthew 13:44 “The Kingdom of Heaven (Jesus) is like a man on a journey who stumbled across a great treasure hidden in a field. And with exuberant joy sold all that he had to obtain the treasure”. Jesus is the treasure that is hidden in a field. Our job is to point people to the treasure. To show sinners His Excellencies, beauty, and glory. When we do this, they will see their sin. Our job is not to highlight their sin, as if their sin was central to the gospel. People see their sin necessarily because of two things. 1. When you see the true Beauty of God in Jesus we naturally see that we don’t measure up and we are profoundly aware of our wickedness. In Isaiah 6, Isaiah has a vision of the Beauty/Glory of the Lord. At the end of his vision of the Beauty of God in Jesus Isaiah says “WOE, is me, for I am a man of unclean lips”. When Isaiah saw the unveiled glory of God he couldn’t help but be aware of his own sinful nature. Peter is another example of this. Although there are a few examples of Peter’s awareness of his sinful nature I’ll list one. In Luke 5 Peter and the gang head out fishing after a long fruitless night of fishing. But this time Jesus is with them. They catch so much fish that they had to have more the boats help them and the boats began to sink. WOW! But that is not really the point. Peter was confronted with the Beauty of Jesus so he fell at the knees of Jesus and said “Get away from me, Lord, I am a sinful man”. When people see the True Beauty of God in Jesus Christ, they are by necessity confronted with their own sinfulness. 2. The second reason people will necessarily see their own sinfulness in the Beauty of Jesus is because the greatest demonstration of Jesus’ beauty is the Cross! The Beauty of Jesus is never seen more beautiful than on the cross. I know that Jesus lived a very important life. I know that Jesus’ life was valuable while living as a man on this planet. However, Jesus repeatedly stated that he came to lay down His life. He lived to die and raise back up His life. (John 10:8-29). What makes the cross so attractive to those who believe is that on it Jesus perfect Humanity and divine love are screaming loudly. “God demonstrated his love in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). We are ugly, wicked, disgusting, unloveable sinful creatures and Jesus died to make us loveable! When someone sees this, truly sees this through the life-giving-changing illumination of NEW BIRTH by the Holy Spirit, then they see that they are wicked and that Jesus is beautiful. So, I believe that our sin is part of the gospel story, but it is not the story and it is not central. Jesus is central. And when Jesus is seen as beautiful then our sin is seen as something that needs to be cleansed and removed. So what does this translate into? Well, I am not totally sure how this looks in every situation of preaching the gospel (What I mean is that I am sure that people could come up with a million “for instances” that I cannot answer perfectly). But I believe that this type of preaching, a preaching or telling of the Beautiful Story of Jesus and His Glorious, Gracious, Love is what people need to hear. We can’t talk about the Cross in a God-honoring way without talking about sin, but we can’t make sin the central theme! This type of thinking and preaching and living should bring about love in a Jesus’ follower’s heart, not hatred, not indifference. The difference is how I say repent. Do I say “REPENT” with a tenor of anger, or do I say “repent” with a tone of brokenness. IF we really love the gospel, then every time we preached it, we would be broken. Hope this helps, it has helped me. I really want to love the gospel in a way that speaks volumes of Jesus Christ and shows off His beauty in spite of and above my wickedness. Jesus help me! -Trying to live a gospel life with you, S