How many of you here think you are pretty familiar with tools?
Well, let’s take a little quiz on tools and see how you do. You’ll have to grade yourself on the honor system.
Ok, here’s the first tool. Do you know what this is? It’s a toilet bowl flange removal tool.
Here’s the second tool. Do you know what this is? It’s an oil filter removal tool.
Next, here’s the third tool. Do you know what this is? It’s a pair of end-cutting pliers.
Ok, here’s the fourth tool. Do you know what this is? It’s a cross-peen finish hammer.
Finally, here’s the fifth tool. Do you know what this is? It’s a pulaski tool used for forest-firefighting.
You see, we use tools for all sorts of special tasks.
The truth is that most tasks for which we use specific tools can be completed without those tools.
After all, I’ve taken an oil filter off by jamming a screwdriver into it and turning it.
However, having the correct tool makes the task a lot easier, doesn’t it?
Today, we’re continuing our series called “Gospel Tools for Gospel People.”
Last week, we learned about telling our story; we learned how to tell our gospel story.
This week, we’re going to learn how to share the foundational elements of the gospel using a simple tool called, “The Three Circles.”
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.
So, let’s learn about this tool, which will make the task of sharing the gospel easier.
So, let’s go to the Lord in prayer, then prepare to learn about The Three Circles.
(prayer)
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.
The Three Circles tool is composed of three circles (believe it or not). So, in your bulletin, you’ll see those three circles.
Let’s learn what those circles are.
In the first circle, write . . .
I. God’s Design
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.
So, in that first circle, write God’s Design.
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.
Part of God’s design for His creation is that it would be good.
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.”
God had a good design for all of us.
God’s good design is that people would have joy, and purpose, and happiness, and love, and fulfillment.
God has a good way for us to live and a good way for us to operate our lives.
Think about this: No one knows what’s better for the creation than the Creator, right? The Creator teaches the creation how to operate.
God teaches us how to find joy.
God teaches us how to find wisdom.
God teaches us how to find love.
God teaches us how to find life.
God teaches us about healthy relationships.
God teaches us what it means to be a man or a woman.
God teaches us about family relationships.
God teaches us about government and authority.
God teaches us how to operate a church.
God is our Designer and He has a perfect design for our lives.
Part of God’s good design is that we would be in a relationship with Him and would enjoy His creation with Him.
God’s creation was created perfect and good.
However, we’ve learned that the world we live in is not perfect and good, is it?
What we see sometimes is that the world is messed up.
What we see sometimes is brokenness. That takes us to our second circle.
II. Brokenness
You can write the word brokenness in the second circle.
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.
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.”
Well, what causes brokenness?
Brokenness is caused by sin.
I say this a lot, and it’s important for us to remember: Sin messes up everything.
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.
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.
That departure from God’s design leads to brokenness in our world and brokenness in our lives.
It’s also important that we point out how widespread the problem of sin is.
Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
All mean all, right? All of us have sinned and it has lead to brokenness in our lives.
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.
We have broken relationships.
We have broken families.
We have broken finances.
We have broken governments.
We have broken children.
We have broken identities.
We have broken communities.
We have broken churches.
We have brokenness because of sin.
None of us are immune from sin, and none of us are immune from brokenness.
You know what happens with humans? We try to fix our brokenness, don’t we? We try to fix our sin.
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.”
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.
However, the way that seems right to us doesn’t fix us; it makes our brokenness even worse.
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.
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.
It turns out that we cannot fix our brokenness, but there is one who can.
The only one who can fix God’s design from brokenness is God Himself.
That leads to the third circle.
III. Gospel
Do you remember what the word gospel means? It means “good news.”
The good news is that God can fix what we broke.
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.”
You see, Jesus never departed from God’s design. Jesus was perfectly faithful. Yet, God gave Jesus to pay the penalty for our sin. God gave Jesus to suffer the ultimate brokenness by taking on the punishment of sin, dying on the cross, and being buried in the ground.
The good news of the gospel, in part, is that Jesus died to fix our brokenness.
The other part of the gospel is that Jesus didn’t stay dead. Jesus rose to new life. Jesus lives again.
Further, the Bible teaches that we can also live again. We can be rescued from the brokenness. We can be made new.
2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!”
You might wonder how we experiences this newness. You might wonder how we receive the blessings of the gospel.
The Bible teaches that we are to repent and believe.
To repent means to turn away from our sin and our own way, and to turn to Jesus. To repent means to turn away from our old life and to live our new lives in Jesus. To repent means to start going in a new direction.
To believe means that we acknowledge that Jesus is the Son of God; we trust that Jesus died on the cross, was buried, and rose to new life; and we have faith that Jesus can rescue us from our sins.
The gospel can change our lives. The gospel can rescue us from brokenness.
What’s really cool about The Three Circles tool is that you can see that the diagram doesn’t end there. There’s another arrow, isn’t there?
You see, because of the gospel of Jesus Christ, we can begin to recover and pursue God’s design for us.
We say recover because we are trying to get back that which was lost because of sin.
We say pursue because we are actively going towards God and His design.
You see, sin takes us away from God’s design, but the gospel takes us back towards God’s design.
Romans 6:4 says, “ . . . just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life.”
In Jesus, we walk in newness of life.
We are no longer going our own way. We are no longer going the sinful way. We are now going God’s way.
We can recover and pursue God’s design for our lives.
Well, there you go; that’s The Three Circles.
Let this bottom line summarize what we’ve learned in this outline:
Bottom Line: The gospel is our only hope to fix our brokenness and restore God’s design.
Going back to the second circle of brokenness, there’s nothing that can help us fix that brokenness.
Listen, church: The longer we live in sin, the farther away we get from God’s design and the closer we get to brokenness.
The gospel of Jesus is our only hope.
So, when you share The Three Circles with others, challenge them to consider where they are in this diagram.
Are they in sin now, which is leading them to brokenness?
Perhaps they are well-established in brokenness and don’t know how to get out.
Perhaps they’ve been exposed to the gospel, but they have not yet repented and believed in order to receive the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Maybe they have already been changed by Jesus and they are now in the process of recovering and pursuing God’s design.
Be willing to use this gospel tool to become a more faithful gospel person.
On that note, challenge yourself this week in these two ways:
Weekly Challenge #1 – Practice learning The Three Circles.
Some of you are familiar with The Three Circles, but you need to brush up.
Some of you have never learned it before. Take your bulletin home and practice some more. It’s amazing how helpful this tool can be in sharing the gospel.
Weekly Challenge #2 – Practice sharing The Three Circles.
Listen, church: Let’s make 2025 the year of evangelism.
Would you share The Three Circles with someone this week?
Commit to that and see what God does.
(Gospel presentation)
(closing prayer)
COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER: The text contained in this sermon is solely owned by its author. The reproduction or distribution of this message, or any portion of it, should include the author’s name. The author intends to provide free resources in order to inspire believers and to assist preachers and teachers in Kingdom work.
