GOSPEL FLUENCY SERMON SERIES

D E S I G N E D TO C O R R E S P O N D W I T H T H E E I G H T W E E K S / T H E M E S I N T H E

G O S P E L F LU E N C Y H A N D B O O K

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Each outline below is a bullet-point skeleton, to help preachers shape a sermon and introduce that week’s theme. You should still do the hard work of putting flesh on the bones: exegeting the passage, adding stories and support material, and editing/nuancing each week as you see fit. We hope these outlines serve you and your people well as you pursue a church-wide dive into gospel fluency!

WEEK 1: Gospel Fluency (Eph 4:1-18) Give context for fluency: a language that comes naturally or without thought.

Explain background and grace/gospel foundation (Eph 1-3), Paul’s transition in 4:1: “therefore,” and then explain implications of that grace/gospel foundation (Eph 4-6).

Tell the purpose of ch.4: unity (v.1-6).

Describe the means of unity: God’s gifts of grace and variously-gifted people in the body (v.7-11).

Emphasize the goal of various gifts: to speak the truth in love and grow everyone into maturity (v.11-16).

• Verse 14 lists ways we try to grow in Christ but fail.

• Verse 15 explains the way we grow in Christ: “truth” is “gospel” — we need gospel fluency!

Explain the series; end by drawing us back to Jesus as the motive and power for the unity, gifts, and goal described above.

WEEK 2: The Gospel (Rom 1:16-25) Explain that everyone lives under a dominant story: the most important person/thing to us is what defines that story.

Consider ‘lesser stories’ we believe (v18-23) and the results: those things fail us (v24-25).

• Give examples of other ‘lesser stories’ people find themselves living by (or your own!).

Show how the gospel is a better story (v16-17).

• It impacts past (“salvation” / “from faith”), present (“live by faith”) and future (“for faith”/eternity).

• Explain the story of God and how each element gives us a better story: creation/ true identity, fall/ true problem, redemption/ true Savior, restoration/ true hope.

Clearly show Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection as the gospel, the culmination of all parts of the story.

© 2018 Saturate

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WEEK 3: The Gospel in My Heart (Mark 10:17-31) What do you love? (X-Ray questions: what do you talk about, where does your mind go, etc.?)

Explain how our actions/decisions/lives are an overflow of our hearts and display what we love most.

Show how the ‘rich young man’ was a good religious man (v17-21a: incredible obedience/ Jesus loved him), but how in a key moment, his greatest love was displayed (v21b-22).

• From last week, explain some ‘lesser stories’ that become our greatest loves.

Contrast the ‘rich young man’ vs Jesus followers who were willing to leave everything (v28-31).

• Celebrate God alone as being worthy of our greatest love.

Explain that this may feel hopeless or the call of God may feel too great (it’s how the disciples felt v23-26).

Then apply the balm of Jesus’ principle (v27) and pour tons of grace on your people and glory to God, who alone is worthy of greatest love, and who alone pursued us and turns us toward that love.

WEEK 4: The Gospel in My Mind (Eph 6:10-18) Start by introducing common lies that we hear — in our heads/our culture/false teachers/etc.

Introduce the idea of warfare and lies as a common tool of the enemy in the spiritual war.

Explain that the way to combat lies is to be reminded of the truths of God.

• Biblically: explain “taking our thoughts captive to obey Christ” (2 Cor 10:5).

• Practically: introduce “fruit to root” and give examples of the exercise.

Explain the elements of Eph 6’s armor of God as ways to guard your mind against spiritual battle.

Show Jesus as the ‘true and better’ of each element, and that He is our true armor (Isaiah 11:4-5, 59:16-17).

WEEK 5: The Gospel Around the Table (Matt 26:26-30) Start by sharing about some of the best times you’ve had over meals and why meals matter.

• Explain the uniqueness of eating: multi-sensory memory, community, vulnerability, etc.

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• Trace “eating” through the Bible: God provides food; sin entered humanity with a bite; Peter’s revelation (Acts 9); Jesus’ first miracle at Cana; feeding 5000; the Last Supper; etc.

Explain how the gospel is on display every time we eat/drink (1 Cor 10:31): something comes into us from outside of us to keep us alive physically… just like Jesus eternally.

Discuss communion/ Lord’s Supper as the culmination of the gospel on display, and a vital piece of Christian community together: at the table is togetherness, unity across divides, etc.

• Explain the bread as representing Jesus’ body (v.26).

• Explain the juice/wine as representing Jesus’ blood (v.27-28).

Explain how this dinner happened at Passover as Jesus was declaring Himself to be the true and better sacrificial Passover Lamb who came, lived, and died once for the sins of mankind.

• Spend some time on that theme of “Jesus as the true and better…” (and from previous weeks, how other things fade in comparison to His “true and better-ness”).

End with communion: invite people to ponder first where their hope is or what they look to, and to declare as they partake, “Jesus, you are the true and better…”

WEEK 6: The Gospel with Us (Acts 2:42-47) Recap themes so far: fluency, speaking truth in love, fruit to root, and Jesus “the true and better.”

• Show that those themes culminate in Christian community: that like the Lord’s Supper, we need one another to help us see/remember/apply the truth of God to our lives.

Explain the early church as a community of disciples together, truly devoted to one another.

• They pursued God and His word, fellowship/food, and prayer (v42); they worshipped (v43); they sacrificed for one another (v44-45); they were together in God’s mission (v46-47: FYI, “temple courts” wasn’t Christian church; they went to where Jewish friends gathered).

Show how the only motive for coming together and this level of devotion was Jesus: like other verses that talk about the supernatural unity/devotion to one another, Jesus was their core!

• This leads us from “Bible fluency” to “gospel fluency” when we discuss the Bible in groups.

• Give a few examples of finding Jesus in common Bible stories; show Him to be the hero.

© 2018 Saturate

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Remind folks that we need community: we grow by others “speaking the gospel in love” into areas of our disbelief. When we’re each tempted away from God’s story, they point us back!

WEEK 7: The Gospel in our Actions (1 Peter 2:9-12) Start by reminding folks of their better story/better hero in Jesus and how He gives us a new/better identity.

• Explain again how our identity overflows into our action: show Peter’s example of what we do because of who we are (v.9-10).

• Celebrate God for the new identity He gives, Jesus as the only means by which that new identity happens, and the Spirit as the one who brings that alive in us!

Explain that, just as Christian life was never meant to be carried out individually, neither was it intended to be lived in a vacuum (John 17, Jesus prays that the Father leaves us in a broken world for a reason).

Verses 11-12 explain two halves of the Christian life; many Christians do one or the other well, not both.

• They abstain from passions of the flesh (fight sin), but away from the world (Christian commune).

• They live among non-believers, but don’t fight sin (in other words, alike the world and its sinful ways).

• Verse 12: if the former, people can’t “see/glorify” because they can’t see! If the latter, they can’t “see/glorify” because our lives look no different than theirs — either half without the other hinders God’s gospel work.

Balance: live radically different lives “among the Gentiles” (“not God’s people”): to display the gospel.

• This means we know non-believers well as friends, listen and learn with them, and exist where they are, while living radically different lives from them, as we display Jesus as “true/better” in everyday life.

WEEK 8: The Gospel in our Words (Colossians 4:2-6) Start by acknowledging that for many, sharing the gospel is one of the hardest part of Christian life.

• Relieve some pressure by pointing out misconceptions: we don’t have to be perfect or get it 100% right; we don’t fail if we mess something up or if they say “no,” etc.

Remind them that Paul himself acknowledged that only God could save (v.3).

Show how Paul’s confidence in God led him to boldly share the gospel (v4-6), “clearly,” “in wisdom,” “graciously,” “saltily” (palatable for hearers), and personally (“answer each person”).

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• Explain which element(s) of the gospel made Jesus sound like truly “good news” to you (e.g. was it satisfaction? Freedom? Grace?) and that there are dozens of roads that lead to one gospel.

Remind them of Peter’s charge and posture (1 Peter 3:15-16), which echos what we see of Paul.

• Invite them to consider what made the gospel sound like good news to them; praise God for that.

• Point back to last week’s charge to know/listen/learn, and invite them to consider how the gospel is tangibly good news for one or two of their non-believing neighbors/friends.

End by celebrating the multi-faceted good news of the gospel, and Jesus at the core of each facet; then spend time praying for God to open doors and for the Spirit to embolden you all to share the gospel.

© 2018 Saturate

© 2018 Saturate. Some rights reserved. You are free to use, remix, and build upon this work non-commercially if you attribute Saturate and abide by terms found at: saturatetheworld.com/license.