What Do I Believe About Salvation? Series

INTRODUCTION

• SLIDE #1

• It is great to be with you today! Today we are in week three of our series, WHAT DO I BELIEVE ABOUT…

• WEEK 1, we examined we we believe about the concept of God, is there a God, or did everything happen by accident for no particular reason.

• Last week we examined the concept of a personal God, a God who knows you and loves you, this week we take it one step deeper.

• Our key QUESTION today is this, “HOW DO I HAVE A RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD?”

• Once we wrap your mind around the thought that there is a God in heaven who created everything, and if you dare take it to the next level of believing that God loves you, the next logical question is how can I have a relationship with this God?

• Today we are going to cut a path that will help us to understand this concept, and once we grasp and accept the premise of this message from the Bible, it will help is to have the understanding we need so that we can have a saving relationship with Jesus.

• The key idea is that I believe a person comes into a relationship with God by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

• This key idea is actually an idea that is loaded with theological baggage probably since the 1520’s. For about the first 1500 years of the church, there was little dispute as to what this statement actually meant.

• I am going to share with you what happened around 1523 that colors the way people people today view what one must do to be in a saving relationship with God through Jesus.

• But first, let us take some time to examine…

• SLIDE #2

SERMON

I. The problem.

• SLIDE #3

• The problem that we run into when we are born is that we are not born into a relationship with God.

• I will not hit this point too long because we have already looked at the fact that when God created Adam and Eve, it was to have a relationship with them, and what fractured that relationship with their decision to choose their will over God’s will.

• The freewill God gave to Adam and Eve. As well as all of mankind allows one to decide who and if they are going to love. We have the freedom to choose whether we love God Himself or not love Him.

• Some say that God is not fair; however, look at Genesis 2:15-17 with me.

• SLIDE #4

• Genesis 2:15–17 (HCSB) — 15 The Lord God took the man and placed him in the garden of Eden to work it and watch over it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree of the garden, 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat from it, you will certainly die.”

• Notice that God gave Adam and Eve the parameters in which they could live in harmony with each other and with God.

• HE also told them what would happen to them if they disobeyed His wishes.

• For a time, they walked in harmony with God, we do not know how long they did so, but for a time they did.

• They knew what would happen, yet Satan was able to convince Eve that God did not have her back, he appealed to her pride and convinced her to eat.

• Satan convinced Eve that nothing bad would happen to her if he disobeyed God’s one command.

• In Genesis 3:6, Eve succumbed to the temptation and ate, then she offered it to Adam and he ate.

• I want to share a verse that shows how close Adam and Eve were to God before this event happened.

• SLIDE #5

• Genesis 3:8 (HCSB) Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and they hid themselves from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

• From there is all went downhill, Adam blamed God, then he blamed Eve, Eve blamed the serpent, and here we are today!

• That sin causes all of us experience physical death.

• Well, the problem is we are not born into a relationship with God. And as long as we have a sin problem 1 Corinthians 15:21–22 (HCSB) — 21 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead also comes through a man. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.