Every week, I have the pleasure of meeting with people; church members, regular attendees, staff, and those in our community. One of the things that we regularly begin to talk about is the art of preaching the gospel to ourselves.

I think preaching the gospel to ourselves sounds like something that is very easy to do, but in reality it's something we seldom consider. In his letter to the Corinthian church, Paul writes:

“Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. 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 Cepheus and then to the Twelve.” (1 Corinthians 15:1-5)

There are two things that I'd like to focus on concerning this section:

A REMINDER

We're incredibly forgetful. As Christians, we forget about who Jesus says we are, we forget that the gospel is good news, and we forget that Christianity is more about being than doing.

When Paul writes "...I want to remind you of the gospel...," there's this beautiful grace in our forgetfulness. In other words, his encouragement is that if you belong to Jesus, you are not who you used to be. In Christ, you have been made new and that affects change in all areas of your life.

Of First Importance

Paul continues and writes that the gospel is "...of first importance" and the exhortation here is that the gospel is good news and not good advice or old news. For the Christian, the gospel, that is the person and work of Jesus, is at the center of everything we are.

Before Jesus tells us what to do, He tells us who we are and what He's done.

The art of preaching to yourself should be a constant reminder of the gospel in all things in our life. And if you belong to Jesus, then that means the Holy Spirit dwells in you so be encouraged! God is at work in you; there is grace AND the gospel is still of first importance. Preach that over and over to yourself.