Grace And Peace

I. EXORDIUM:

Is GOD's Grace and Peace in you?

II. AUDIENCE PROFILE:

Believers

III. OBJECTIVES:

To show GOD's Grace and Peace is dwelling in us in the Person of the LORD JESUS CHRIST.

IV. TEXT:

2 Thessalonians 1:2 (Amplified Bible)

Grace (unmerited favor) be to you and [heart] peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One).

V. THESIS:

GOD's Grace and Peace is dwelling in us in the Person of the LORD JESUS CHRIST.

VI. TITLE:

Grace and Peace

VII. EXPLICATION:

A. Author: Apostle Paul

B. Date written: 50 to 54 A.D.

C. Purpose: To correct the coming of the LORD as not having taken place yet and is still a future event for all of us living in the last days.

D. To whom written: Thessalonica church, 2nd epistle

E. Main Theme: Second Coming of CHRIST

F. Keywords: Day of CHRIST

G. Key verse:

2 Thessalonians 3:5 (Amplified Bible)

May the Lord direct your hearts into [realizing and showing] the love of God and into the steadfastness and patience of Christ and in waiting for His return.

VIII. MAIN BODY:

A. Grace and Peace to us

"Grace (unmerited favor) be to you and [heart] peace"

1. Grace of GOD

a. Freely given

Psalms 84:11 (Amplified Bible)

For the Lord God is a Sun and Shield; the Lord bestows [present] grace and favor and [future] glory (honor, splendor, and heavenly bliss)! No good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly.

Acts 11:23 (Amplified Bible)

When he arrived and saw what grace (favor) God was bestowing upon them, he was full of joy; and he continuously exhorted (warned, urged, and encouraged) them all to cleave unto and remain faithful to and devoted to the Lord with [resolute and steady] purpose of heart.

Acts 13:43 (Amplified Bible)

And when the congregation of the synagogue dispersed, many of the Jews and the devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who talked to them and urged them to continue [to trust themselves to and to stand fast] in the grace (the unmerited favor and blessing) of God.

b. Empowers men for service

1 Corinthians 3:10 (Amplified Bible)

According to the grace (the special endowment for my task) of God bestowed on me, like a skillful architect and master builder I laid [the] foundation, and now another [man] is building upon it. But let each [man] be careful how he builds upon it,

1 Corinthians 15:10 (Amplified Bible)

But by the grace (the unmerited favor and blessing) of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not [found to be] for nothing (fruitless and without effect). In fact, I worked harder than all of them [the apostles], though it was not really I, but the grace (the unmerited favor and blessing) of God which was with me.

c. Enables men to live a simple life

2 Corinthians 1:12 (Amplified Bible)

It is a reason for pride and exultation to which our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world [generally] and especially toward you, with devout and pure motives and godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God (the unmerited favor and merciful kindness by which God, exerting His holy influence upon souls, turns them to Christ, and keeps, strengthens, and increases them in Christian virtues).

d. Maybe rendered ineffectual

2 Corinthians 6:1 (Amplified Bible)

LABORING TOGETHER [as God’s fellow workers] with Him then, we beg of you not to receive the grace of God in vain [that merciful kindness by which God exerts His holy influence on souls and turns them to Christ, keeping and strengthening them—do not receive it to no purpose].

Galatians 2:2 (Amplified Bible)

I went because it was specially and divinely revealed to me that I should go, and I put before them the Gospel [declaring to them that] which I preach among the Gentiles. However, [I presented the matter] privately before those of repute, [for I wanted to make certain, by thus at first confining my communication to this private conference] that I was not running or had not run in vain [guarding against being discredited either in what I was planning to do or had already done].

Ephesians 3:7 (Amplified Bible)

Of this [Gospel] I was made a minister according to the gift of God’s free grace (undeserved favor) which was bestowed on me by the exercise (the working in all its effectiveness) of His power.

Hebrews 2:9 (Amplified Bible)

But we are able to see Jesus, Who was ranked lower than the angels for a little while, crowned with glory and honor because of His having suffered death, in order that by the grace (unmerited favor) of God [to us sinners] He might experience death for every individual person.