Monday, October 18, 2010

Embrace Grace

Ephesians 2:8 "For it is by grace, you have been saved, through faith, not or your works, it's a gift of God."

*As a leader in the Church, we've gotta do church simple!
  • Either Teach you something new about Jesus.
  • Or Remind you of something that you've forgotten.
Grace is God meeting man at our point of need in the person of the Lord Jesus.

  • Grace & Faith are both gifts of God.
  • Faith is nothing more than a response to grace.
  • If you remove grace from your faith, all you have is self-effort & self-will.
  • Anytime you preach on faith, you must preach on the object of our faith, which is Jesus.
  • Faith alone doesn't come by preaching on faith apart from Jesus. Faith preaching, just on faith, leads us to believing in our faith. Or having faith in our faith.
  1. Grace is always first.
  2. Then Faith.
  3. Then Works.
  • If we get the order wrong, there will be a lot of frustration, anxiety, and confusion in your life.
  • Here in America we know "good works" better than grace & faith. It's "what can I do? It's great what Jesus done, but what do I have to do?"
  • So we end up focusing on what we have to do, but what we have to do, has no relevance, no meaning, until we understand what He has done! - What we do is in response to what He had done!
  •  Faith in faith? Good works in good works? -That's "Do Good-ism" & we're no better or different than any other belief system.
  • Grace is our order in our belief system!
  • Grace is always first in scripture. John 1:17
  • Why? Cause Jesus is always first.
  • Jesus is the personification of grace. - with out Jesus there is no grace.
  • What is faith without grace? A dead end!
  1. If we preach Jesus.
  2. If we preach the Gospel.
  3. If we preach Grace.
  • Faith happens. Then Works happen. 
  • Faith is a response to grace. Works is a reflection of that response.
  • Ephesians 2:8 "For it is by works you have been saved, through self-effort, this is of yourselves, and is your gift to God."
  •  For many of us, that's how we live our life.
  • If you wanna grow in your faith, grow in the knowledge of Jesus.
  • It's about Jesus!... So that means: We've gotta preach Jesus! We've gotta worship Jesus! We've gotta honor Jesus!
  • Jesus is the object of our faith. He is the object of our Love. He is the object of our obsession. He is the reason we do good works. He is the reason we believe.
  • What we should understand the most in Grace, Faith, & Works.. is Grace, and if we do, faith will come!
  • When you see the Cross, you have confidence in grace.
  • This is the life of Freedom & Liberty.
  • There is grace fro each and every person! It's by grace, and  grace alone you can be who God is calling us to be.
  • Apart from grace, we are most people doomed and pathetic, we can do nothing apart from God's grace!
  • Ready or not, Here grace comes! You don't have to go looking for grace, cause it's been looking for you.
  • Alot of the time when grace comes, we don't fully understand it. So we don't know how to react to it.
  • We sing & talk about it, but really don't know what it is.
  • Grace is much more a person, than a principal. 
  • Jesus himself is the personification of grace. *John 1:17
  • Anytime Jesus show's up grace come with him.
  • If you're looking for grace, you don't have to look for a feeling, warm fuzzy, sermon, podcast, twitter, etc.. just look for Jesus.
  • Grace has been so mis-used. 
  • We tend to use it as our "get out of jail card" Live like hell, Monday-Saturday, and on Sunday get your grace on..
  • When you meet grace, and look into the eyes of fire of grace, and you see grace for who He is.. it will Not lead you into sin, but Righteousness,  and be the fuel to your holiness in your life.
  • We have gotta see His unconditional Love He has for us, that He accomplished on the cross.


*REDEFINE GRACE:

  • It is more than favor, it's a force, it's the person of Jesus. And it's the life you've always dreamed of in your journey with Jesus.
  • To understand why Jesus did what he did, you gotta understand who He is.
  • He did what He did, because He was who He was.
  • So If you wanna do what Jesus did, you gotta understand who He is, and become like him. And to become like Him, you can do what He did.
  • Alot of us are trying to do what Jesus did, and not become who He was, so our Christianity will die. And apart from grace, it's impossible.
  • We've gotta become like Jesus, to live like Jesus.

  • Luke 15:19 - We think we're not worthy.
*Jesus said it himself, in John 3:3-7, you MUST be born again. Meaning baptism. 
  • To become a child of God, you gotta believe & be baptized. It's nothing we do,but what He already did on the cross.
  • You are never a son by worth, you are a son by birth!
  • Worth has nothing to do with it. Its not about working to be worthy, living to be worthy, trying hard enough to be worthy.
  • You are who you are by the grace of God!
  • If God loves you now, and he know's what you're gonna do later or next summer, but He still loves you!

  • Luke 15:20 - Long distance away, and the father saw him.
*All of our things and ways we try to get back to God, when we're far from him are in our efforts, are still gonna be a long distance away. 
"Grace is not man coming to God, Grace is God coming to man."
  • God initiates, we simply respond. All of our faith is a response! 
  • 1 John 4:19 - "We love, cause He, Jesus, First loved us!"
  • He came to us, we respond. 
  • He died on a cross, we respond.
-Repentance ..... Response.
-Worship .... Response.
-Holiness ..... Response.
-Giving ..... Response.
-Prayer ..... Response.

  • Jesus initiated us, so that we can be in a loving relationship with him, and its' our job to respond!
  • Don't get it twisted - The help of man is useless. God and God alone can save you, deliver you, forgive you, heal you, and make you something... and without Him, you're nothing.
  • We don't go on mission trips just because it's fun, or people are in need. Anyone can go help somebody. But it's the Holy Spirit inside us that is going to lead us to help someone. It's the love of Jesus.
  • It's out testimony, we were a great way off, far from God, and He saw us! So no matter how far you are today, God sees  you!


  • Luke 15:20B
  • The father ran. In that culture middle eastern men didn't run for nothing. Jesus is trying to communicate crazy love.
  • We can't even understand ho much our God loves us. We can't even scratch the surface of His crazy love.
  • So what are you gonna do today because grace is running toward  you.
  • These are our excuses: *I'm not worthy. *I gotta get things right first.
  • What we need to do is Let Jesus come and wrap His grace around you, and let grace empower you to live a life you only dreamed of.
  • This doesn't make since, cause we've been taught at a young age, cause and effect. For every cause, there is an effect. But when it comes to grace, we just receive effect. We did nothing to cause it. And it's very difficult for us to understand that.
  • The cause is Christ, and we receive the effects of His love.
  • There must be repentance! Grace is not grace without truth.
  • Thats greasy grace. Truth is what makes grace, grace. So there must be truth in what you've done.
  • Romans 2:4 - "It's His kindness that leads us to repentance.
  • Alot of us are trying to plot our way back to God, and you need to just STOP.
  • Ephesians 2:8 - "You are saved by grace, through faith not of your works, it's a gift from God."
  • Stop and let God's presence to embrace your past, present, and future. Become who you are by the grace of God, and respond to the love of our father.
  • Psalm 46:10 - "Be still and know that He is God."
  • His Grace is undeserved. We done nothing to get it. We just receive it.
  • Often a man's empty good deeds are a greater hindrance to him receiving God's grace.
  • The religious mind set cannot understand the grace of God. Because law centered, brings you to self centered. But when you become grace centered, you become God centered and others focused!
  • The law could never understand Grace.
  • We're taught, "you get what you deserve."
  • But the gospel, grace, teaches us the opposite. No one else has our message. No one else says what we say. Grace.
  • Grace is God meeting man at his point of need, in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
  • We've gotta embrace grace. For grace is the scandalous love of God.
  • It's scandalous what Jesus did for us. He took our place.

*Psalm 25:7 - "Forgive the rebellious sins of my youth, look instead through the eyes of your unfailing love, for you are merciful, O Lord."

  • So many of us are concerned about our past, our mistakes, and what we need to do is obsess over Jesus' finished work for you, that He has taken your place, and has set you free.
  • Jesus became sin, so that could become righteous.
  • John 8:36 - "So if the Son has set you free, you're free indeed!"  

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