Embrace the Simple Gospel Message

I love this acronym. Keep it simple, stupid. And for you, delicate people out there…Keep it simply simple. Keep it short and simple. Keep it simple, silly. I don’t care which one is your favorite, but mine is Keep it simple, stupid! I like that because, Jesus kept is simple and sometimes I can be really stupid. And sometimes no matter how simple the instructions are, no matter how easy we try to make them, people will mess it up.

Here are a few examples of what I am talking about…. We have a few for our teachers out there and I am sure they will be able to relate to some of these.

As you were seeing these slides, besides the people that I connected them to, did you think of someone that you know that would mess up the following of instructions?

I love simple things. I love to buy things that say, “No assembly required” or “Completely assembled,” partly because I am lazy and partly because I hate to read. I love the bible app that reads the scripture to me, because I don’t like to read. I love the New Living Translation bible, because it is easy for me to understand and it is closer to the way that I talk than the KJ or the New King James. Both are good, but to me the NLT is gooder.

Let’s read a few scriptures from Matthew 13 from the gooder translation called the NLT.

I have been working on our basement flooring, the carpet that we had in the main room and in the hallway was starting to fall apart. If you walked through our basement with dark colored socks, they would be covered in small dust size pieces of our carpet. I have torn up the old carpet, which served its purpose for almost 24 years and am replacing it with some vinyl plank and if that will last 24 years, I will be over 80 and will not care nor be able to do the work to replace it.

Anyway, I thought I knew exactly what I was doing with the install and quickly began to figure out a quicker and easier way to do it. No! I will not help you do yours. Just kidding. I took me until the halfway point for me to figure out the easier way and other than getting up off the floor to get another box, most of it, after the halfway point, went quickly and easily because I had a better understanding.

Let’s dive in to using the KISS method to share about Jesus.

Point 1 tells us to….

1. Share in a way that others can relate.

Matthew 13:44-46

I remember when I got to bootcamp for the Marine Corps and this dude gets on the bus and starts yelling at us for no reason. He said things like, “Your whole world has just flipped upside down. Everything you say and I mean everything you say will start and end with the word ‘sir’, do I make myself clear”? Sir, yes, sir. “I didn’t hear you; did I make myself clear”? SIR, YES SIR!

Let me tell you, if I learned anything it was that every answer was going to start with “Sir” and end with “Sir” and it was going to be loud. That was some very effective communication. Let me tell you. There was no doubt that for the next 13 weeks I was going to learn a new lifestyle.

Those drill instructors really got their message across to us. Because if we didn’t understand, they found a way to communicate more effectively and you didn’t want that.

Jesus was so much better at communicating than those drill instructors. He was very patient and He related His stories to His audience. He told simple stories about a farmer planting seeds, one about a mustard seed, yeast, the hidden treasure, the fishing net.

These are things that Jesus knew His audience would relate to. Most of them would be fishermen, farmers, shoppers, or cookers. They could relate to seeds not growing, weeds, yeast, or finding a hidden treasure.

Jesus spoke in a way that kept things simple and we can make it into something more difficult. We don’t relate to the people we share with. We don’t try to share on their level. We use churchy words to explain things to people that don’t speak churchy words. To them we can be the King James version when they speak and understand the Gen Z version or the NLT.

Jesus talked to fisherman about fishing not about the regulations of Leviticus. Does that make sense? Some of you look confused. If Cheryl talked to me about music and she used words like coda or pizzicato then, I ain’t going to get it. But if she were to talk to me about baseball and used terms like suicide squeeze or safety squeeze, I would understand. We need to relate to those we talk to.

But just because we relate what we are saying to the people we are saying it to does not mean that they will get it. Point 2 tells us….

2. Not everyone will understand.

Matthew 13:14-15

I am not a fan of some assembly required. I am very impatient. I do not like to read and I feel like I paid good money for whatever I bought and it should come assembled, but that is not always how life is.

I remember several years ago that I had boughten a new BBQ grill. I was so excited. I brought it home and it was not assembled and at the time, I was okay with that. I started putting it together and I went slowly, step by step. Until I reached the last step and still had a part left over. It was the basket that was supposed to hang in the front of the grill for the utensils.

I looked back through the steps of assembling the grill and this part was about halfway back in the instructions. There was no way, I was going to take it all back apart to install a stupid basket. I loosened this and that, and stuck a screwdriver in as a prybar to make enough space to fit in the basket and guess what? It would not go in. So, guess what. My grill never had the basket put on it.

The instructions were clear, but somehow I missed it. Jesus was clear when he told them the stories. He was clear, at least to us, it was clear. Bad soil doesn’t grow good crops. Weeds are bundled up and destroyed. We are the treasure found in the field. Wait… maybe you missed that. Think about these parables. Who is the farmer that plants the seed? Jesus. Who is the farmer that planted wheat? Jesus. Who is the fisherman that caught the fish? Jesus. He collected the good fish and threw out the bad. Who is the man that found the treasure? Who is the man that found the pearl? Jesus. He sold everything He had, His life, to pay the price for you.

What an amazing thought right? Jesus’ sells everything, does everything and what we need to do is accept it. God finds you valuable enough that no matter what you have done or where you are, “Yet while we were still sinners, Christ died for us and gave His life as a ransom for many.” Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.

Sometimes people won’t get it. Though seeing, they don’t see. Though hearing, they don’t understand.

Let me give you one more and this one is not the popular truth. Point 3.

3. Not all people go to heaven.

Matthew 13:37-43

Matthew 7:21-23

One thing that many people like to believe is that no matter what you do, you will be in heaven. You see it all the time on Facebook. To my cousin Dewayne, I miss you so much. We raised a lot of he!! together, but I know you had a great heart and I will see you in Heaven. Enjoy your wings.

Or Aunt Mable was such a good person. She loved everyone and is with God because of all the good that she has done. Even though Mable didn’t believe in God, didn’t worship God, had never accepted Jesus as her Lord and Savior, never repented of her sins. Let me tell you, it doesn’t matter what good thing or bad thing that you have done in your life. What matters is accepting the fact that you are not good enough and it is only by the grace of God that you even have a chance of Eternal life in Heaven.

The bible is clear that the only way to the Father is through Jesus. We all are born with a sinful nature and Jesus tells us that we have to be born again. Born of the Spirit. What does that mean?

If we confess our sins, our evil doings, our actions that are not Christlike, then He is faithful and just, He is true to His Word and will forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. He wipes away all that dirty junk and makes our slate clean. Then we are born again in a way that the desires of our old self gets changed in a way that our desires are to live like Jesus.

And not only will we be changed on the inside, we will be changed on the outside. We won’t act like we once did. We will be more loving, forgiving, patient, kind, have more peace and we will be a vessel used by God to do whatever He tells us to do.

Are you that vessel?

K.I.S.S.