Crowd Evangel Handbook w Watermark

8/9/2019 Crowd Evangel Handbook w Watermark

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CrowdEvangel.

simple + profound .


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Crowd Evangel [events outreach]

[Survey]Like to take a Religion & Faithsurvey?

o In your view, when a religious beliefis held by a community does that

make it true? Or more likely to be

true?

o What about when a religious idea ispromoted by public institutions?

Does that make it more likely to be

true?

o Shifting gears slightly, what aboutmixing art & faith? Should individual

artists feel free to explore personal

religious themes?

o What about specific religiousideas? How do you understand the

idea of God? Is God personal or is

God more impersonal?

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[Request to

Proceed]o Do you believe there will probably be

a real afterlife?

o Do you believe there will probably bea final judgment?

o Shifting now again, this time to amore subjective question, do you

believe its possible that a real Godmay want to extricate you?

Were here to walk folks through

a 10-minute presentation that

unpacks that idea ofextrication

& what we mean by that.

Do you have a minute?

Goodandplease:

interrupt wherever you want to comment.

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[Bad & Good]Jesus of Nazareth compared the afterlife

to a king

sending his servants

to invite people

to a dinner event.

The servants went into the highways

and gathered all whom they

foundboth bad and good.

(Matthew 22:10)

Some of us like the idea that both

the badand the good

get invited to the afterlife.

And it also sounds

like an open invitation:

that agnostics & skeptics are

welcome to hear out his message

and judge for themselves.

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[Curse & Judge]And His message

is that He became a curse for humanity.

Jesus of Nazareth became a curse

to extricateor freethose who are cursed.

Things that sound strange

at first hearing sometimes

turn out to be painfullyaccurate.

Like

were all made up of particles

that are in motion!

And

the God of the Heavens is

pristineflawless morally & spiritually.

And we are not pristine!

Despite our moral & spiritual efforts,

to be pristine is to be perfectly flawless.

Theres a terrible incompatibility

between the flawless God of the Heavens

and usin effect, acting as a curse.

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[Curse & Judge]And the afterlife is when

our incompatibility with God

becomes permanent.

Jesus not only said

there would be a probing judgment

in the afterlifewhere

our lack of flawlessness

becomes insurmountableHe

even said He would be the

Judge of that Judgment.

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[The Cross]So it is important to put together

what Jesus was claiming, so you can

gauge whether or not its persuasive.

Bottom line:

He became a curse

when He was hung on a tree.

But He personally demolished the curse

with His resurrection.

He now claims to be the One who can be

trustedto transfer us out of danger

with His own personal immortality.

Eternal lifeis Jesus resurrection

somehow given as a gift.

It is a wash of new life

that cleans us from all our spiritual decay.

Eternal life extricates us from cursedness.

And it levels the moral playing-field:

Prostitutes & Scientistsno one is pristine

like God is pristine.

All equally need eternal life as a gift.

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[The Sons Claims]Jesus made many statements

about eternal life. He explained

it wasnt just about a future afterlife,

saying: He who believes in

the Son haseternal life

[meaning in the present]

(John 3:36)

He made eternal life specific to Him

when He said:

I am the resurrection and the life.

Whoever believes in me,

though he die,

yet shall he live.

(John 11:25)

He made it categorical, saying:

For this is the will of my Father,

that everyone who looks on the Son and

believes in Him should have eternal life,

and I will raise him up on the last day.

(John 6:40)

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[Transition]So according to Jesus,

believing in Him, the only pristine Man,

extricates us from cursedness.

But it poses a question.

Assuming its true,

What motivates

Gods strange generosity?

One of the reasons

He may have been so

willing to send His Son

to be hung on a tree,

is that even before God made us,

He existed as 1 God in 3 Persons,

which suggests that God was and is

infinitely personal and relational.

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[Relationship]This means

that loyalty and love

preceded the material world,

and suggests a motivation

for the Fathers generosity:

which is the love & loyalty that go

hand in hand with being infinitely

personal & relational.

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[Extrication]And that is what extricates some

of us from meaninglessness

in this lifeour own

attempts at loyalty

and loveour own

attempt to glorify the Father.

In fact, if you read along on page 11

you can see that the Bible calls for

a total makeover of our attitudes.

It says

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[Augustines

repentance text]Let no debt remain outstanding,except the continuing debt to love one

another, for he who loves his fellowman has

fulfilled the law.

The commandments,

"Do not commit adultery-Do not murder,"

"Do not steal-Do not covet,"

and whatever other

commandment there may be,

are summed up in this one rule:

"Love your neighbor as yourself."

Anddo thisunderstanding the

present time.

The night is nearly over;

the day is almost here.

So let us put aside the deeds of darknessand put on the armor of light.

Let us behave decently, as in the daytime:

not in orgies and drunkenness,

not in sexual immorality and debauchery,

not in dissension and jealousy.

Rather, clothe yourselves

with the Lord Jesus Christ,

and do not think about how to

gratify the desires of the sinful nature.

(Ro 13:8-14)

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[Summary]So the issues we began the survey with

are pretty pale fare compared with

connecting with a deeply personal God,

undermining personal gratification,

and reconstructing our personal lives

on things like loyalty & love.

The God of the Bible does extricate us.

But the extrication is

profound.

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[Final Q&A]All this poses 3 questions,

which might help me plot where

you find yourself...

o Do you think the idea of a God who isuniquelypersonal & loyal & relational

is appealing?

o Do the claims Jesus makes resonatewith you? Like: I am the

resurrection and the life. Whoever

believes in me, though he die, yet

shall he live.

o What do you feel you might say to aninfinitely relational God to convince

Him to let you into His afterlife?

If youre curious about or drawn to

any of this, wed love for you to

visit us at our church!

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