The RESCUE – “Is there any hope?” – God’s purpose made possible

“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God.” – 1 Peter 3:18 (ESV)

“Jesus gave his life for our sins, just as God our Father planned, in order to rescue us from this evil world.” – Galatians 1:4 (NLT)

Sin is so horrendous that only God is powerful enough to cancel its hold on us.

“We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.” – Isaiah 64:6 (ESV)

How do we try to fix our brokenness apart from Christ?

God promised—first in the Garden—to one day set His people free from the bondage of sin.

God’s rescue plan was set in motion with His first words to Adam and Eve after their rebellious act in the Garden . . . “Where are you?”

The first mention of the Gospel appears in Genesis 3…

“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” – Genesis 3:15 (ESV)

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• How was God’s rescue plan initiated in the Garden of Eden?

The Bible records the unfolding of God’s plan for redemption.

• Adam & Eve were expelled from the Garden. (Genesis 3:21-24)
• They and all of humanity since suffered the weight and consequences of their sin. (Romans 5:12)
• God promised there would be an incredible rescue that would restore all that had been lost (Romans 5:8)

God’s promise was fulfilled in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Jesus paid the sin-debt we owed by living the life we should have lived and dying the death we should have died.

1.  Jesus lived a sinless life and perfectly fulfilled the Law of God.

> “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished” – Matt. 5:17–18 (ESV)

> “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” – 2 Corinthians 5:21 (ESV)

2.  Jesus willingly, obediently, and sufficiently suffered and died on the cross for our sin.

> “He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.” – Isaiah 53:3–5 (ESV)

3.  Jesus’ death was the substitutionary atonement for our sin.

> “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God.” – 1 Peter 3:18 (ESV)

> “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” – Romans 5:8 (NIV)

> “Substitutionary Atonement” is Jesus dying the death we should have died and paying the price for our sins (2 Cor. 5:21).

4.  Jesus rose from the dead on the third day.

> “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve.” – 1 Corinthians 15:3–5 (NIV)

5.  Jesus returned to His Father 40 days later.

>“And when [Jesus] had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.” – Acts 1:9 (ESV)

Each one of us must respond to God’s rescue and redemption with repentance and a faith-filled heart that trusts God’s promises to forgive, rescue, and restore.

What does it look like to embrace the invitation of God’s rescue?

1.  Admit your need to God.

> We are in DESPERATE NEED for our sin to be removed so that we can be reconciled to God. We must come before Him with humility and admit that we are guilty and without excuse.

> More than anything, we need to be forgiven and made right before God. “God be merciful to me a sinner.” Luke 18:13

> Have you responded to the Hero’s rescue and redemption? 

2.  Ask Him to forgive you and help you turn from your sin. This is called repentance.

> We need to do a 180 and turn away from the selfish and sinful direction we have been headed as we have been trying to make our story all about us and focusing on created things rather than the Creator.

> By God’s help, we must TURN FROM OUR SIN and put our trust in Jesus as the only hope of rescue.

> Jesus’ message was “Repent and believe in the Gospel.” - Mark 1:15

3. Trust in Jesus Christ alone to rescue you.

> We need to place our faith in God’s offer of rescue and redemption found in the sacrifice, death, and resurrection of Christ.

> Deep down, we understand that there is nothing we can do to save ourselves and there is no other way to be rescued. - “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” - Acts 4:12

> Jesus is God and He is perfect. He bought your rescue with His blood. Jesus alone can save you. If you trust in Him completely, He alone will free you from slavery to sin and you can live at peace with Him forever!

> Trusting in Jesus is more than just believing He existed like any other historic figure. It’s more than trusting in Him to bail you out of whatever problem you are facing at a given moment.

> “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.” - John 6:47

> “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” - Ephesians 2:8–9

4. Follow Jesus Christ, the King of your life, in faith from this day forward.

> The rest of your life you have the high privilege of following, honoring, obeying, and worshipping Him.

Promise made, promise kept!

God’s intended purpose—to worship and obey Him—is made possible again now that we have been washed clean from sin. 

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The FALL - 

The perfect world God created was operating in harmony as He intended until…

1. Adam & Eve DISOBEYED God. (Genesis 3)

“The LORD God commanded the man, saying, ‘From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.’ ” Genesis 2:16–17 (NAS)

> Eve listened to the serpent and fell for his lies

> They wanted to be able to decide what was right and wrong.

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• List some recent world, national, and local events that illustrate that the world has fallen from God’s original plan.
• What lie of Satan did Adam & Eve believe?
• How is our disobedience similar to Adam & Eve’s?

2. Their disobedience had devastating CONSEQUENCES.

“Each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment.” – Hebrews 9:27 (NLT)

• Broken relationship with God
• Immediate guilt & shame
• “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden.” – Genesis 3:7–8 (NIV)
• Harmony with God was broken
• Religion is man’s attempt at making things right with God. (Isaiah 64:6)
• Broken humanity
• Spiritually – disconnected from God – spiritual death
• Physically – disease & physical death
• Socially – Dysfunctional relationships – conflicts in families & marriages – divorce
• Emotionally – depression & anxiety
• Morally – overflowing prison system
• Romans 3:10, 19, 23
• Broken creation
• Crazy weather patterns
• Powerful storms
• Earthquakes
• Fear between man and beast
• Disease-carrying pests
• “All creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay.” – Romans 8:19–21 (NLT)
• “Then to Adam [God] said, ‘Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, “You shall not eat from it”; Cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you.’ ” – Genesis 3:17–18 (NAS)

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3. We have a desperate NEED to be rescued from the consequences of our sin.

• Understand what sin is – idolatry – focusing on created things more than the Creator. (Romans 1:21-23)
• Every one of us has sinned (messed up – in what we have said, done, and thought!)
• Because of our sin, we are permanently cut off from God – our relationship with him has been forever broken and severed with no hope of being restored by anything we can do on our own.
• Adam & Eve (and each of us) threw away God’s purpose for them and replaced it with their own purpose

Has God’s story become your story?

// Mirror

• What lie from Satan have I listened to and believed today?
• Who is the determiner of right and wrong in my life today?
• Am I broken over people who are broken?
• Am I cognizant of how sin has affected everything in this world?
• How does my own brokenness fit into the context of God’s story?

The CREATION

1. The story began with GOD

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” – Genesis 1:1

God’s key attributes: eternal, creator of everything, King and sovereign ruler, holy and righteous judge, God is love.

Have to realize how God’s attributes compliment each other rather than overemphasizing one over another – He is love AND righteous AND just!

“The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.” Isaiah 40:28 (ESV)

“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.” Psalm 19:1 (ESV)

“For the Lord is a great God, the great King above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; for he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care.” Psalm 95:3–7 (NIV)

“Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?” Genesis 18:25 (ESV)

“God is love.” 1 John 4:16 (ESV)

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• God’s ceaseless attributes cause each of us to encounter Him uniquely. What attribute of God do you embrace? What attribute of God do you resist?
• Do you believe that people are already hardwired to know there is a God?

2. CREATION exists to glorify God! (including me and you!)

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• Where is the most beautiful place you’ve ever been?
• Planet Earth is part of a gigantic solar system in a universe full of other planets and galaxies. Yet, as far as we know, Earth is the only planet that sustains life. What does this say about the uniqueness of Earth in God’s creation?

3. God’s character is reflected in everything He created.

God intentionally created everything that exists!

“Of old you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands.” Psalm 102:25 (ESV)

“For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made.” Romans 1:20 (NAS)

“For this is what the LORD says—he who created the heavens, he is God; he who fashioned and made the earth, he founded it; he did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited—he says: ‘I am the LORD, and there is no other.’ ” Isaiah 45:18 (NIV)

God made us (humans) to worship Him and obey Him

As humans, we are uniquely made in the image of God!

“Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness’ . . . So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” Genesis 1:26–27 (ESV)

“Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” Genesis 2:7 (NAS)

We were commissioned to govern God’s creation.

“And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” Genesis 1:26 (ESV)

We were designed to be fruitful and fill the earth with worshippers.

“God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.’ ” Genesis 1:28 (NIV)

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• What’s your reaction to the thought that humans—we, ourselves!—are the crown jewel of God’s creation? Is it difficult to believe that humans are the creatures He is most delighted in, even compared to the glories of the unseen universe?

God created everything to work together in perfect HARMONY

“God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good.” Genesis 1:31 (NAS)

Adam and Eve existed in harmony with God, each other, and creation.

There was no suffering, pain, sickness, disease, or death.

God ‘s purpose was to create a place where He would live in perfect intimacy and peace with all mankind.

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//Mirror

• Does God’s creation awe you and inspire you to worship and obey Him?
• How does your life reveal that God is the main character of your story?
• How are you fulfilling your purpose to worship and obey as God created you to do?
• In what ways does every person reflect the Creator?

Understanding the Story…

The Bible tells one single story - not just a collection of individual stories

How you view the Bible (reference book or God’s story) affects every aspect of your life.

Explore

• In which ways have you looked at the Bible as a reference book or one big story?
• Why is it important to see that all the stories of the Bible are tied to one big story?

The Bible is one big story, with a plot line (Creation, Fall, Rescue, Restoration) that features the theme of God’s grace (the rescue of sinners and redemption of the world) and includes us as participants in this ongoing drama.

We need to make sure we understand the big, overarching story of God (the metanarrative)

God is the main character - the author, the producer, and the hero!

When we see the big picture, we begin to understand how all the pieces fit together and realize that we have been invited to play a role in the greatest story ever!

Believers need the Gospel for God-centered living.

The world has lost it’s story - people don’t understand the basic components of God’s story – even many Christians don’t understand it clearly and therefore can’t clearly explain it to someone else!

Welcome to The Story!

There is nothing more important than grasping the power and beauty of the Gospel—the story—of Jesus Christ. An ever-deepening understanding of the story God is telling privileges believers to live vibrantly within the pages of redemptive history. As believers become empowered, God’s story grows and captures even more followers for His name’s sake.

That is why we’ve developed materials to help you see all of life through the lens of redemption. Through this guide, you’ll find your perspective shifting in just about every aspect of your life. And you will find that you can’t help but speak conversationally and naturally about God’s story of redemption.

• Movies > Hollywood helps us understand the Gospel
• Plot lines: Man falls in a hole; Boy meets girl
• The Gospel isn’t just something to get you in church to make you act better – its a deep yearning in our hearts that can’t be satisfied by anything else
• Someone comes to the rescue at the end of the story and they all live happily ever after – we all want a happy ending and we love heroes because there is something deep in our souls that says we want a rescue.

Luke 24:44-47

• The focus of our life is message of God and mission of God – the Bible isn’t about us – its about God!! Too much pressure for it to be all about you!
• You are deciding how you are going to decide for the rest of your life.
• God created you in his image to chase his glory – to be a glory chaser
• The message of God: Salvation is here and is available through faith in Christ!
• The mission of God: share the message of God (salvation through Christ) with everyone!
• Soak in the vastness of creation anytime you start getting too big
• We live in an amazing world!
• The Bible isn’t a book about morality but a book about reality.
• Animals don’t come close to the uniqueness of people made in God’s image
• Malls, movie theaters, sports arenas – all designed to be places of worship
• Every person who has ever lived worships something.
• God made us in His image but something went very wrong – sin entered the world and death came with it! This is why Jesus came – to die as a substitute for our sins – to fix what was broken in us.
• When Jesus fixes us it changes our morality but the focus shouldn’t be on the result but on the cause – Jesus! We need to die to ourselves, not love Jesus a little more.
• Putting a puzzle together with no box and no border – give them the wrong box – this is what we do to people when we don’t share the whole story of why Jesus came.
• If you are a follower of Christ, you are called to take the Gospel to the nations! Don’t graduate high school before leaving he country at least once!!
• Rules are half the truth – the other half is this – God made you unique to display His glory! Theres something about us that wants to be part of something greater! God has invited us into His story – doesn’t get any better than that!!
• David Livingstone – his heart was buried in Africa before body was buried in Westminster abbey

> Some movements come and go but some last for centuries even millennia – the movement of the Gospel launched with Jesus and his band of believers. Movements can change the world!

Matthew 4:18-22

> Jesus offered for these guys to be part of a movement, not an institution. IMMEDIATELY they left everything and followed him. Church should not just a recreational sport! 

1. Christianity is a movement.

• You can’t follow Jesus without moving. We live in a culture where we do the bare minimum until we can do what we really want – industrial revolution led to this mentality – compartmentalize our lives so that what we do at church doesn’t affect the rest of our lives.
• We ask what the bare minimum is to follow Jesus so we can do what we want with the rest of our lives.
• YOU are the Church – haven’t been to church a single day in your life! We get to be a part of the great movement of God! He has given us a role to play in His eternal story!! Christianity is a movement we spend our lives advancing not an institution we spend our lives attending!!

2. This movement has a master

• There is a God and you aren’t Him!
• We have to learn how to identify the idols in our lives. If video games are more important that friends who don’t know Jesus, it’s an idol. Sports, materialism, etc. can be idols -
• We are an entitlement generation – the only thing we really deserve is hell because of our sin! Everything else is grace! We have a right to honor and obey God – so anything else we do is idolatry.
• Is Jesus really Lord in your life? What is the one thing that keeps you from following Jesus?

3. Christianity is a movement with a mission!

• China is the largest unsaved nation in the world!
• The US is the 4th largest!
• RDU is one of the most unsaved cities in the US! > If we don’t live like missionaries, we might not survive in this culture.
• Life is a mission trip! Take it!! There are far more unsaved people in your school than there are saved people! Your neighborhood is a mission field!
• We are the Church everywhere we go!! Lets BE the Church!