A Powerful Invitation

A POWERFUL INVITATION

2nd Corinth 6: 1-13

As always our message invite’s you to accept Christ as your personal Savior!

Tonight is not any different...You’ll be offered Salvation before we leave you tonight!!!

And then from this day forward you must go on allowing Christ to be in your life.

You must go on in the freedom that God has given all of us to enjoy..AMEN

Go on in grace and don’t let anyone put you back under law...This the Apostle Paul’s first and last message....

He began with the message of grace and when he was saying his goodbye’s he commended them to God’s message of Grace!!!!!!

God’s Grace is the most awesome story in the whole bible. It’s the central theme of Scripture...How God stoops and bends to man to bring him into a relationship with himself...

and not based on works, But on the grace of God...AMEN

In our reading tonight we find another place where the Apostle Paul invites a group of people to go on in Grace...He wrote this church two letters and some have even said it was three...

But they had all kinds of problems...Relationship problems that would absolutely stagger us...

And in this particular letter He’s writing to the people who have criticized him almost unmercifully...

They question his authenticity and not to mention his sincerity...And right in the middle of all this he writes to them about grace...

He already knows that if they do decide to change its not gonna be in their doings but in God’s doings....

Its not gonna be because they want to but because God wants them too....

Titus 2:11 says:

For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men...

This salvation that appeared to all men is based on God’s grace that has provided salvation for you and for me throughout the ages of all man kind....AMEN

Paul’s invitation to these folks is centered on what tonight????? GRACE....

Do you want to see someone’s life change????

Or more-so do you even want to see your life change????

If so then Grace is the answer!!!!

Just Look at what Paul writes to the Corinthians...’

#1 don’t waste grace....In 6:1 & 2 it says

don’t receive the grace of God in vain’ and what does he mean when he says this??

Lets look at the next verse and it’ll tell you...

This verse is found in the book of

Isa. 49: 1-17

Israel is in captivity, in despair, the abhorred one; a servant of rulers; and what does God do in that situation?

He hears their cries and their pleas...

He listens to them and helped them in their day of trouble...Paul uses this verse to say the same thing to the Corinthian Church

He said He has heard you in your acceptable time, listen to Him....today is your day of trouble; Listen to Him. Don’t waste this grace

He said behold now is the accepted time; behold now is the day of salvation...AMEN

He’s saying don’t waste this opportunity to reconcile, don’t waste this opportunity to take someone back....

The day of salvation could be the day your marriage was saved, or the kids are back on your team....

Now is the accepted time for Him to do for you; what you can’t do for yourself...AMEN

You see people we have to allow this grace to be applied to each and every relationship.

And I think that we have to apply it in our everyday walk as well...

Today lets begin to listen to God

Today lets begin to Depend on God

Today lets not waste this precious grace..

What if Peter had wasted His grace at the sea of Tiberas?

People We have seen these wasting grace relationships...

And we’ve seen it in our everyday walk too.

Ephesians 4:1 says:

Walk worthy of the calling wherewith

ye are called!!!!!!

That puts it pretty plain now don’t it????

Phillipians says

let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus

Romans 12:1 says:

Therefore present your bodies a living sacrifice...

God wants to work out that he has worked in....

Titus says:

The grace of God has appeared teaching us to deny un-godliness....

And another thing Paul says in his invitation to the Corinthian Church is;

Don’t put off Grace...I like the message translation....

Listen to what it’s saying!!!!!

Don’t put it off....don’t frustrate God’s work by showing up late....

Or throwing a question mark over everything we’re doing.....

Our work as God’s servants gets validated;

OR NOT....in the details........

People are watching us as we stay at our post....in hard times, tough times bad times and worser times....

When we were beaten up and jailed and mobbed; working hard or working late

working without eating

with a pure heart a clear head a steady hand