Living By Grace

COVENANT COMMUNITY CHURCH

PASTOR: TERRY VAUGHAN

AUGUST 18, 2002

KJV

SERMON TITLE: Living By Grace

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16

Pastor addressing the church: I want you to remember that church is a place where people can come and bring their husbands and wives and their children, friends, co-workers, etc. It needs to be a place where people can come and get things that they need in their lives and in their families lives that will help them to be better Christians. A church needs to be a place where you can come and get something that you can’t get anywhere else than the house of God and from the Lord. That’s what church is all about. I pray one day I’ll be a better Preacher. A better husband, a better father to my children and all these things can be accomplished by coming to the house of God.

Turn to 1 Corinthians 15:9-10 “For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the Grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.”

Notice Paul said that he was the least of the apostles. That’s the way we need to look at ourselves. We should look at ourselves at the least and the less of the Christians. In verse 10 he says that I am what I am. Have you ever made that statement before? Notice he also said that his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain and lastly I want you to notice where he said, “but the grace of God which was with me.”

This morning I want to preach to you on “Living By Grace.” We find in God’s word in Ephesians 2:8 “For we are saved by grace and that not of ourselves; it is the gift of God.” Here’s what God showed me. If His grace is good enough to be saved by, His grace ought to be good enough for us to live by. There’s a lot of Christians not living the Godly kind of life that Christ wants them to live. A lot of times we feel like we can just pick and choose and do what we want to do and go where we want to go but we have to find out what the Will of the Lord is in our lives and do that which God would have us to do. We aren’t here to please one another. We are here to please God. We’re here to do what God wants and not what we want.

Philippians 1:21 “For me to live is Christ.” That’s what we’re supposed to do. We’re supposed to live a Christ like life in this world. We’re made in the image and likeness of an Almighty God. When people are around us and when people see us and hear us, they aren’t supposed to see us but they are supposed to see Christ. They need to know there is something different about us in what we do and how we reach out to others.

2 Corinthians 9:8 “For God is able to make all grace abound toward you that ye always having all sufficiency in all things may abound into every good work.” His grace is good enough for us. If it abounds with us we ought to live by the grace of God and we ought to love it and cherish the blessed hope that God brought when he come from heaven. We can live by the Grace of God.

We need to ask ourselves this question: Are we really living by His Grace? If we’re saved by his grace, we ought to be able to live by his grace. There’s so much loose living in the world with some Christians that it’s pitiful. It’s sad that Christians want to worship God on Sundays and live like the devil the rest of the week. I want to live God every step of the way. This is a lifestyle for me.

Now I want to point out seven things.

Number one: His Grace destroys our sin. Romans 5:20 “But where Sin abounded, Grace did much more abound.” It’s possible for us to live a Godly life in this world. His grace will always work in your life when nothing else works. It’ll transform your life if you let it. Christians in the state and mind that they are in now, hardly ever think about their brothers and sisters in Christ. You know what they usually think about? Self! Self righteous is what they are. When I read in my Bible I find that we are supposed to do more things for others than we do for ourselves. Love others more than you do your self. Give unto others more than you do yourself. That’s living by the grace of God. The Bible says in 1 John 1:9 “He’s faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” So His grace destroys our sin. His grace leads us into an area in our lives where we don’t have to live under sin. We can live under grace.