Good News When Doubts Attack Series

Good news when doubts attack (Galatians 1:1-12)

Audio at

http://www.adrian.warnock.info/2005/09/good-news-when-doubts-attack-blogging.htm

Intro

Doubts are a feature of life. Does he really love me? Will I ever meet someone? Is this the right job for me?

There is not one aspect of the Christians message that isn’t under attack from outside and within the church

Was Jesus who he said he was? Was he born of a virgin? Who made the world? How can a loving God allow suffering? Why has this happened in my life?

The world is full of bad news, and if we are honest we do wonder sometimes when the next bit of bad news that will affect us will come. We know it will come.

The world is crying out for good news, even though when it happens the papers rarely report it. Possibly because the good news sometimes seems so pale in comparison to the bad. News of a royal wedding excites, but not as much as the juicy details of gossip surrounding its almost inevitable demise.

Is there any good news that can change lives?

The answer is YES, its here in this book. Good news for the poor, good news for the sick, good news for the ones struggling with feelings of guilt. Good news for the lonely. Good news for those full of doubts and anxiety. Good news for the outwardly successful but inwardly living lives of quiet desperation.

It is the Good News that will change the world by changing one person at a time (CF Acts series)

What do we do when doubts attack?

Go back to the only truly good news in the world and get more certain about it

SLIDE

I am going to be preaching a series on good news

1. Good news when doubts attack

2. Good news when you feel rejected

3. Good news: the end of rules

4. Good news for the powerless

5. Good news when you feel like giving up

The bible has another word for good news- The Gospel. When the bible speaks of the gospel it uses a word- evangel that actually means good news. When it uses the word evangelism it simply means the process of sharing the evangel, the good news. When it uses the word ’evangelist’ it simply means one who is particularly good at sharing that good news!

Why is it that the world doesn’t immediately think of Christians as those with good news to share?

If the good news has gripped our lives, we will not be able to anything but share it.

Can you imagine ’I just got married, but Im not going to tell anyone’, ’I just had a baby, but lets keep it private and personal’I won the lottery but its not going to change my life’, ’I have had the all clear from my cancer- the operation was a success but health is a private personal matter, I don’t want to get in other peoples face about it’

’My football team won, but I am not going to gloat to others’

’The war is over but I don’t want to go to the victory party’

We have a simple message of good news that should thrill us and excite us- how can we not share it?

Can the message that changes the world really be that simple? Theologians make their living by assuming it isn’t!

We will be going back to the simple gospel here both for the sake of our visitors- please do invite people who are not yet Christians- but also for ourselves. For, as Luther says of the gospel it must ’[sound] in our ears incessantly because the frailty of our flesh will not permit us to take hold of it perfectly and believe it with all our heart’ (Gals commentary)

MY GOALS FOR THIS SERIES

SALVATION

GOSPEL TO TRANSFORM OUR LIVES ALSO

CLEAR UNDERSTANDING SO WE ALL FEEL CONFIDENT SHARING THE GOOD NEWS

The world says ’it doesn’t really matter what you think’

The lesson of 911 and 7/7 is ’Ideas matter after all.’

It sounds like the middle ages all over again.

People die in the 21st Century in England because of a war of ideas between legalistic radical Islam and secular western life which itself arose from the philosophy of a Christian worldview it now desperately tries to forget.

What does the bible have to say in the middle of the war over ideas that rages in our own heads, and the one that engulfed our tubes and buses?

We are going to address one short book which has done more than almost any other to shape the church. This book was the spark which led to the reformation which engulfed the church. Luther claimed he was practically married to this book.

It could be described as ’Romans lite’- read this book, study it well, understand it then progress to Romans. I would rather describe it as ’Romans condensed’ as it is no lite book, every word is rich with meaning. IT is a masterpiece of literature and Paul’s most passionate explanation of his life’s message.