The following is a guest post by one of our elders, summarizing the content from this past Sunday's Adult Bible Study Hour. In the class, we are going through eight different aspects of our Planting Joy vision. Consider joining us this Sunday at 9:30am in the sanctuary.

The Apostle Paul might summarize the gospel as simply as, "Jesus saves sinners" (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, 1 Timothy 1:15). And as blood-bought followers of Jesus, we want that beautiful reality to so shape all that we are, do, and say that it could be said of us that we are saturated with the gospel—the good news of Jesus' death and resurrection on behalf of sinners just oozes out of us.

But what does a gospel-saturated life look like? In John 12:23-26, Jesus calls for us—we who have been drawn to himself when he was lifted up (cf. John 12:32)—to follow him in hating our lives. Jesus led the way in that radical call by mimicking the grain of wheat, which falls into the ground and dies in order to bear much fruit. We can follow him in this call by not miserly seeking self-preservation or comfort but freely giving of ourselves and possessions. We can live like that because we know we have a greater treasure, namely Jesus himself.

So gospel-saturated followers of Jesus will seek to multiply our joy by bringing others into the same experience of joy. And we'll do that by making disciples, by sharing not only the gospel but also our own selves (cf. Matthew 28:19-20, 1 Thessalonians 2:8). This accomplishes our mission as a church because it is the mission.

And it relates to our Planting Joy vision because giving towards the raising up of this sending-base-of-a-building is one evidence of a John-12-giving-of-oneself kind of faith—we're demonstrating that our hope is not wrapped up in this life or the things of this life. Instead, our hope is the one who was raised up and draws all to himself.

May Five Points be a gospel-saturated people who radically love Jesus and are marked by freely and joyfully giving of all that we are and have.