Backyard Gospel

Know: You are an Evangelist

Do: Get to know your neighbors

You are inadvertently sharing something or evangelizing for something all the time. (Motorcycles, Camping, Cynicism, DWTS,)

Gospel = Good News

"You were courageous and honest and you got the goods for confessing! Way to go!!"

-a young woman who was angry with her brother for leaving her due to a drug addiction

-a young woman who binge drinks and dates men from other faiths

-a woman who felt she had broken up a marriage and drank too much

-a woman who confessed being self-centered

-a woman who was angry with her Ex for the sexual abuse of her children

-a woman who felt alcohol had “gotten” her

-a woman who was angry with her fiancée

-a man who drank too much

-a man who felt he had to perform for love

-a man who admitted sexual addiction

I heard from others who received confessions of marital infidelity, a woman who had the secrecy of an abortion 16 years earlier and had never told anyone, eating disorders, …

I will remember the depth of the pain people were sharing was overwhelming. They weren't confessing that they gossiped a little or stole something from the candy store when they were 8 (although those are valid confessions!). I had confessions of men lusting after women who weren't their wives, women having eating disorders trying to fill themselves with food and not God, drug addicts who neglected their children. Heavy, heavy stuff. I think what I remember is looking into each person's eyes when I told them they were forgiven and seeing the tears well up in each one of them and the weight physically be lifted off of them. I will be honest when I say, I didn't know if our community would take the challenge to confess and they did and it FREED them! Right before my eyes. It was amazing.

John 1:29

…he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

Decking of America

Evangel or evangelon: Good news or news that brings joy. This was a normal word which meant history, life-making news. There is an ancient roman inscription, which starts “The beginning of the gospel of Caesar Augustus.” It is the story of his birth and coronation. Caesar changed everything.

Another example of how gospel or “evangelist” is seen is in the ancient war between Greece and Persia. When the Greeks won the sea battle of salamis and the battle of marathon. After the Greeks won the battle of marathon legend says they sent a runner to Athens to announce that the Persians had been defeated in the Battle of Marathon. It is said that he ran the entire distance without stopping and burst into the Senate, exclaiming, “We have won.” He immediately collapsed and died of a heart attack. Other heralds or evangelists were also sent throughout the land proclaiming the good news of freedom.

The Battle of Salamis has been described by many historians as the single most significant battle in human history. Many historians argue that Greece's ensuing independence laid the foundations for Western civilization, most notably from the preservation of Athenian democracy, the concept of individual rights, relative freedom of the person, true philosophy, and art and architecture. Had the Persians won at Salamis, it is very likely that Xerxes would have succeeded in conquering all the Greek nations and passing to the European continent, thus preventing Western civilization's growth (and even existence). Given the influence of Western civilization on world history, as well as the achievements of Western culture itself, a failure of the Greeks to win at Salamis would almost certainly have had seriously important effects on the course of human history

They sent heralds (evangelists) who went to all the cities who proclaimed, “We have fought for you and you are free.” That is a gospel. That is The gospel. Something has been done for you in history that changes your status forever. This is different from your religion or spirituality, which gives you advice.

It isn’t about behaving better. It is about believing better.

Colossians 1:5-7

Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, 6 which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth,

John previously said, “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”

John 1:35-42

The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples, 36 and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” 37 The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. 38 Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, “What are you seeking?” And they said to him, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are you staying?” 39 He said to them, “Come and you will see.” So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour. 40 One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. 41 He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means Christ). 42 He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon the son of John. You shall be called Cephas” (which means Peter).