We desperately need to explore how much of our understanding of the gospel is American and how much is biblical.

When we realize that Jesus is the one who takes the initiative and invites us to follow him, everything changes-on multiple levels.

It is impossible to be a follower of Christ while denying, disregarding, discrediting, and disbelieving the words of Christ.

Surely the gospel evokes unconditional surrender of all that we are and all that we have to all that He is.

Passionate worship always leads to personal witness. Always. And what that means is . . . if we’re not witnessing, there’s a problem with our worship. We’re not seeing God for who He is! We’re not realizing what He’s done! We’re not realizing the magnitude of what He’s done for our souls!

We are afraid that if we stop and really look at God in his Word, we might discover that he evokes greater awe and demands deeper worship than we are ready to give him.

The modern-day gospel says, 'God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. Therefore, follow these steps, and you can be saved.' Meanwhile, the biblical gospel says, 'You are an enemy of God, dead in your sin, & in your present state of rebellion, you are not even able to see that you need life, much less to cause yourself to come to life. Therefore, you are radically dependent on God to do something in your life that you could never do.