This morning when you came into the citadel you found the seats up against the wall, confusing, a bit of a nuisance? This was used to illustrate what life without God’s Grace is like, it is confusing, it’s not ordered, each of us as individual’s are lost and in turmoil, we do foolish things we are disobedient, we hate we are envious. It’s really not much of a life in this dog eat dog, self focussed existence.
What God does is this, he takes us, because of his mercy. Not something that we have done and ‘saves us’ from the old life through the washing of rebirth and renewal of the Holy Spirit. We are born again, our life changes, we are made new by the Holy Spirit, because God our Father pours Him out on us because of what Jesus did in sacrificing himself for our sins. The works been done. It’s like coming to a meeting here knowing that there will be a seat waiting, no confusion, no concern about finding a spot to sit, or that you won’t be able to sit where you normally do, the works already been done, someone’s taken the time to set it all out.