Amazing Grace Sunday - Amazing Grace A Gift That Needs To Be Opened Series

AMAZING GRACE a gift that needs to be opened – William Akehurst 1/12/07

Harford Senior Worship Center – Non-denominational

Bel Air, MD

50+

Amazing Grace a message of salvation built around the acronym of GRACE. Gift, Received, Accepted, Changed, Enriched.

Scriptures Referenced

Ephesians 2:8

Romans 5:15, 17; 6:4

John 1:12; 3:3; 3:16; 10:10b; 14:6

2 Corinthians 5:17

Luke 9:23

1 John 1:9

Matthew 10:32

Luke 12:8

Acts 11:23

How many of you love to get gifts?

Have you ever received a gift, but didn’t open it?

I have, I still have an envelope that was given to me by my Grandmother when I was 16 years old, almost 30 years ago. It is an envelope with a $5 bill in it, and her hand writing on the outside. I know this because I held it up to the light! I keep that ‘gift’ as a special memory of her. And every now and again, when I’m cleaning up my dresser, I stumble across that envelope and think and remember of her.

The money is $5, it still has its value, although in today’s economy, it won’t buy much today, but the package is worth $5000 in the memories and remembrances it carries. I always told myself. Someday, when I need it I’ll open it and use the money. Until that time, I will just keep it as a memory. It amazes me of the flood of memories from that money shaped envelope and her handwriting does for me.

It’s Amazing, the things we hold near and dear to us. Things that have molded us and made us who we are, Events and memories and precious tokens of these things that we cherish.

Aside from existence itself, It’s Amazing that we are who we are

There is a whole lot of things to which we are amazed, and that is what I wish to discuss with you today.

Today is Amazing Grace Sunday.

You know the song.

Amazing Grace, How sweet the Sound…of the very word, Gracccccccce…….

It saved a wretch, a person such as me.

I was lost, but now am found

I was blind to it, but now I see

What is this thing called Grace?

What is so amazing about it?

Why is it so important that we would call it amazing?

Let’s take a look at the acronym of Grace

[READ PORTIONS OF SCRIPTURE]

G - Gift

Grace is a Gift of God – Ephesians 2:8

Jesus – the Gift of Grace – Romans 5:15, 17

Granted to Us - John 3:16

Given Freely

R - Receive

Receive it John 3:16 John 1:12

Renew Us Romans 6:4 Walk in newness of Life

Rejoice

A – Accept and Act

Acknowledge it

Accept it

Act on it John 14:6, John 3:3

Access to God

C – Cleansed and Created anew, Confess it

Call out to God

Cancels our Debt

Creates a new creature 2 Corinthians 5:17

Cleanse from all Unrighteousness – 1 John 1:9

Commands us to Change our ways Luke 9:23

Confess it to others! Matthew 10:32, Luke 12:8

Celebrate it

E – Erased and Enriched

Erases our Sin

Enriches our lives – John 10:10b

Enjoy freedom of forgiveness

Encourage others Acts 11:23

God’s Grace to us was given freely. God wants us to be in fellowship with him, and to worship Him, our creator.

God’s Grace is a Gift, and the Gift is our Salvation through Jesus Christ.

Just as John 3:16 says, we are to believe in Him in order to have everlasting life.

Remember that $5 gift my Grandmom gave me. If I never use it, I won’t get the benefit of the Gift, for how it was given, for the purpose in which it was given. In order to receive her gift as she had given it, I was to have opened the envelope and spent the money on something I needed!

ASIDE: [It’s kinda like the bible on the shelf, collecting dust. It’s a good book, but it becomes a token instead of a roadmap.]

God’s gift of Grace, MUST BE OPENED. It can’t be left on a shelf for a later time.

The Gift of Life is Jesus. Salvation is Jesus, we must open and receive and use the Gift!

There was a time in my life, when I was doing things I should not have been doing. I had turned my back on God. I thought, I’ve got plenty of time.

I thought, when I’m ready to die, I’ll get myself right. I’ll toss the bad things away and clean up my life. I’ll do that with my last dying breath.

I thought I was invincible; I was the holder of my time here. I was Wrong.

But I know that is not true. When God calls us home, it happens in a blink of an eye. There is no time to ‘clean up’, there is not time to ‘get right’. We can not put off ‘til tomorrow, what needs to be done today.