How many of you here think you are pretty familiar with tools?

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Well, let’s take a little quiz on tools and see how you do. You’ll have to grade yourself on the honor system.

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Ok, here’s the first tool. Do you know what this is? It’s a toilet bowl flange removal tool.

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Here’s the second tool. Do you know what this is? It’s an oil filter removal tool.

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Next, here’s the third tool. Do you know what this is? It’s a pair of end-cutting pliers.

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Ok, here’s the fourth tool. Do you know what this is? It’s a cross-peen finish hammer.

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Finally, here’s the fifth tool. Do you know what this is? It’s a pulaski tool used for forest-firefighting.

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You see, we use tools for all sorts of special tasks.

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The truth is that most tasks for which we use specific tools can be completed without those tools.

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After all, I’ve taken an oil filter off by jamming a screwdriver into it and turning it.

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However, having the correct tool makes the task a lot easier, doesn’t it?

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Today, we’re continuing our series called “Gospel Tools for Gospel People.”

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Last week, we learned about telling our story; we learned how to tell our gospel story.

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This week, we’re going to learn how to share the foundational elements of the gospel using a simple tool called, “The Three Circles.”

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Some of you may remember this tool; that’s great if you do. However, many of you may not be familiar with it, and all of us can probably brush up on it.

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So, let’s learn about this tool, which will make the task of sharing the gospel easier.

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So, let’s go to the Lord in prayer, then prepare to learn about The Three Circles.

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(prayer)

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Ok, let’s dive into The Three Circles. What I love about this gospel tool is that it’s easy to explain, it’s easy to remember, and nearly anyone can understand it.

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The Three Circles tool is composed of three circles (believe it or not). So, in your bulletin, you’ll see those three circles.

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Let’s learn what those circles are.

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In the first circle, write . . .

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‌I. God’s Design

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So, we’ve already provided a rough outline for you in the bulletin. However, the great thing about this outline is that you can draw it on nearly anything.

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So, in that first circle, write God’s Design.

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This is where the gospel story starts, right? God designed everything in our universe. He designed the planets, He designed nature, He designed animals, and He designed each and every person.

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Part of God’s design for His creation is that it would be good.

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Genesis 1:25 says, “So God made the wildlife of the earth according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that crawl on the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.”

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God had a good design for all of us.

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God’s good design is that people would have joy, and purpose, and happiness, and love, and fulfillment.

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God has a good way for us to live and a good way for us to operate our lives.

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Think about this: No one knows what’s better for the creation than the Creator, right? The Creator teaches the creation how to operate.

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God teaches us how to find joy.

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God teaches us how to find wisdom.

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God teaches us how to find love.

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God teaches us how to find life.

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God teaches us about healthy relationships.

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God teaches us what it means to be a man or a woman.

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God teaches us about family relationships.

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God teaches us about government and authority.

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God teaches us how to operate a church.

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God is our Designer and He has a perfect design for our lives.

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Part of God’s good design is that we would be in a relationship with Him and would enjoy His creation with Him.

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God’s creation was created perfect and good.

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However, we’ve learned that the world we live in is not perfect and good, is it?

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What we see sometimes is that the world is messed up.

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What we see sometimes is brokenness. That takes us to our second circle.

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‌II. Brokenness

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You can write the word brokenness in the second circle.

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When we speak of brokenness, we mean that things are not perfect. Things are not operating the way they are supposed to operate; things are broken.

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If a child brings you a toy and it’s not working properly, they will often say, “This is broken.” Some of us have looked at the world, or we’ve looked at our lives, and we’ve said, “This is broken.”

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Well, what causes brokenness?

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Brokenness is caused by sin.

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I say this a lot, and it’s important for us to remember: Sin messes up everything.

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As you’re using this tool, it’s important that you share with someone what sin is. We don’t simply say that sin causes brokenness and then move on.

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We must explain that to sin means to depart from God’s design. To sin means to reject God’s good ways and go our own way.

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That departure from God’s design leads to brokenness in our world and brokenness in our lives.

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It’s also important that we point out how widespread the problem of sin is.

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Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

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All mean all, right? All of us have sinned and it has lead to brokenness in our lives.

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Sin is the reason we have messed up things in our lives. Sin is the reason we have messed up things in our world. Sin is the reason we have brokenness.

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We have broken relationships.

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We have broken families.

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We have broken finances.

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We have broken governments.

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We have broken children.

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We have broken identities.

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We have broken communities.

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We have broken churches.

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We have brokenness because of sin.

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None of us are immune from sin, and none of us are immune from brokenness.

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You know what happens with humans? We try to fix our brokenness, don’t we? We try to fix our sin.

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Proverbs 14:12 addresses this idea. Here’s what happens when we try to fix our lives. It says, “There is a way that seems right to a person, but its end is the way to death.”

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We try to fix our brokenness with relationships, with money, with acceptance, with power, with addiction, with education, with success, and with all sorts of other things.

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However, the way that seems right to us doesn’t fix us; it makes our brokenness even worse.

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Worse than all of this brokenness in our lives is the reality that our brokenness separates us from our Creator. Our brokenness and sin separate us from God.

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We were meant to have a relationship with God in heaven, but instead, our brokenness leads to an eternity separated from God, suffering from the punishment we deserve in a real place called hell. Sin leads to a broken world, a broken life, and a broken eternity.

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It turns out that we cannot fix our brokenness, but there is one who can.

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The only one who can fix God’s design from brokenness is God Himself.

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That leads to the third circle.

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‌III. Gospel

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Do you remember what the word gospel means? It means “good news.”

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The good news is that God can fix what we broke.

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John 3:16 is perhaps the most famous verse that speaks of this. It says, “For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”

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“The Three Circles”