Grace..."God's Second Chance"
Oops... Illus. From sermon central staff
Bill, Jim and Scott were at a convention together and were sharing a large suite on the top of a 75-story skyscraper.
After a long day of meetings, they were shocked to hear that the elevators in their hotel were broken and they would have to climb 75 flights of stairs to get to their room.
Bill said to Jim and Scott, "Let's break the monotony of this unpleasant task by concentrating on something interesting. I’ll tell jokes for 25 flights, Jim can sing songs for the next 25 flights and Scott can tell sad stories for the rest of the way."
At the 26th floor, Bill stopped telling jokes and Jim began to sing. At the 51st floor Jim stopped singing and Scott began to tell sad stories.
"I will tell my saddest story first," he said. "I left the room key in the car!"
Grace is certainly a lot easier to receive sometimes, then it is to give. Isn't it?
Everything associated with Grace can be summed up on the receiving end of it in a word, "UNDESERVED".
TBS. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. Ephesians 2:8-9 NKJ
The best thing about a gift is that you don’t have to earn it, its usually given because that someone felt like you deserved it.
God's grace is unique, though! Because it doesn't have the word "usually" associated with it. When God decided to extend His Grace, He made it free and exceedingly available to everyone!
Grace extended by anyone could be considered to be amazing. But grace extended by the one who invented the all words, including "Amazing" is so far beyond the word that describes it!
Still there's a catch, Unless it's received or accepted, it doesn't realize it's complete purpose in a persons life! Oh, it still retains all of its power, benefits and availability for future use. And that brings to mind the question, why would anyone not want to accept and realize something so amazing?
In the entitlement society that we live in, you would think that everyone would want to get in on something wonderful and free wouldn’t you?
With Grace, the mindset though of most people says there has to be strings attached to it, everybody knows that there is no free lunch!
Somewhere, somehow someone has to pay for it, someone did pay, someone already did pay the bill, that’s what makes the Grace of God so Amazing!
Because you don’t have to work for it, you can’t earn it, your not worthy of it and you don’t deserve it, but yet you are entitled to every ounce of possibility it can accomplish for you in your life!
If you could obtain it on your own, then that would make it all about you, wouldn’t it?
That’s the part that’s hard to figure, its not about you, its about what’s been done for you and made available to you,
The only strings attached, are the ones who play the most beautiful music of what Grace can accomplish for you in your life, if you will let them!
TBS. that no one is saved by their good works. No one earns their salvation, no one gets to work their way into heaven.
We are all saved by Gods merciful grace. And I say that, because God's Grace is a voluntary thing, It was His choice to make it available to us!
And there is only one reason that He did, because of His immense and extravagant love that He has for us! Thank the Lord we serve a Giving, Graceful God.
Not only are we saved by Gods grace but also the word tells us were forgiven by Gods grace.
TBS. in John 1:9 NKJ
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Why does God forgive us? Because God is a gracious and giving God.
Contrary to what some might believe...God is a giver, all the world thinks about is taking, all God thinks about...is Giving!
That’s what Makes God and His Grace so Amazing! The way He thinks, is totally opposite of the worlds way of thinking! We don’t deserve it, but He gives it anyway!
While some may not realize or understand, God's Grace sustains us and keeps us.
It goes before us, it carries us, Grace is our sufficiency! Once we have it, we can depend on it to be there, it never leaves!
TBS. Phil. 1:6 HCSB
I am sure of this, that He who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
I don’t know about you, but there is great comfort to be found in the words "carry it on to completion!" Those are words that you can stand on:
*when the going gets tough
*when trouble is knocking on your door
*when everyone around you is speaking the words of an impossible situation
*when you’ve done all you know to do and don’t know what to do kind of word!
That verse is a declaration, that will keep your feet on the ladder of life and not let you slip off the step God has your feet planted on! Amen?
God will keep working in your life, until there’s nothing more to do and He has completed His work in you.
He will not leave you, or forsake you, you are not just a stepchild in the family with a room in the basement! You have been adopted, you are an heir to the throne of God, you are a child of the Most High God, you have the right to call Him, your Daddy!
We all know how a child is with their father;
Dad...can I do this?
Dad...can I do that?
Dad...will you help me?
And what do dad's do? They respond!
Matthew 7:11 MSG.
“Don’t bargain with God. Be direct. Ask for what you need. This isn’t a cat-and-mouse, hide-and-seek game we’re in. If your child asks for bread, do you trick him with sawdust? If he asks for fish, do you scare him with a live snake on his plate? As bad as you are, you wouldn’t think of such a thing. You’re at least decent to your own children. So don’t you think the God who conceived you in love will be even better?
God is amazing, He will stick by you through thick or thin. He will never leave you, He will sustain you and keep you. His Grace will be your sustenance for your every want or need!
TBS. also and I’m so glad it does, not only are we saved by grace, but that we are also healed by God's grace.
Isaiah 53:5 NKJ
But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.
Psalms 147:3 NKJ
“He(God) heals the brokenhearted And binds up their wounds.”
Only God can take what’s crooked and make it straight, what’s wrong and make it right.
He can take the scattered pieces of life’s puzzle, when it makes no sense at all and not only put them back together, but add new ones to make the picture more beautiful in the process! "He is Amazing!!"
God is in the healing business and He heals us by His grace, He loves to say “ I Will.”
God's Grace never stops working! Remember form Philippians, the words "Carry to completion?"
In the process of healing us God also restores us. David prayed in Psalm fifty-one:
Psalms 51:7-15 MSG
7-15. Soak me in your laundry and I'll come out clean,
scrub me and I'll have a snow-white life.
Tune me in to foot-tapping songs,
set these once-broken bones to dancing.
Don't look too close for blemishes,
give me a clean bill of health.
God, make a fresh start in me,
shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life.
(don't you just love those words, "Genesis week from the chaos of my life" in other words, Lord make something new and fresh from the mess that I have made)
Don't throw me out with the trash,
or fail to breathe holiness in me.
Bring me back from gray exile,
put a fresh wind in my sails!
Give me a job teaching rebels your ways
so the lost can find their way home.
Commute my death sentence, God, my salvation God,
and I'll sing anthems to your life-giving ways.
Unbutton my lips, dear God;
I'll let loose with your praise.
If that don’t make you want to shout about God‘s Amazing Grace, then nothing ever will!!! Because all those things to David asked God to do for him, He will willingly do for us as well! Amen?
When we fall, God's Grace picks us up.
When we have lost our joy, Grace can restore us.
Whatever we will ever encounter, Grace has already been and is already there waiting on us to arrive at, with the solution and provision for the need, before its ever encountered!
Is it any wonder that Gods grace is called Amazing? And the truth be told, that’s probably an understatement!
Like a fisherman stretches his fish catching tales, making something ordinary into something extraordinary. You see, That just brag’s on mans ability,
If were going to brag about something, we should be bragging about,
God’s Amazing Ability to let His Grace,
do the extraordinary in anyone’s life that will let Him!!!
*We are forgiven and made clean by Gods amazing grace.
*We are given the strength to make it through the world each day by Gods amazing grace.
*We are healed of our brokenness by God's Amazing Grace!
*We are created anew and set right with God each and every minute of our existence...by God's amazing grace.
Even though we don’t deserve it...God's Grace and availability is always there!
God's Grace, is what changes and totally transforms lives!
TBS. in John 1:16-18 MSG.
We all live off his generous bounty,
gift after gift after gift.
We got the basics from Moses,
and then this exuberant giving and receiving,
This endless knowing and understanding—
all this came through Jesus, the Messiah.
No one has ever seen God,
not so much as a glimpse.
This one-of-a-kind God-Expression,
who exists at the very heart of the Father,
has made him plain as day.
It's "Jesus" Jesus is the source of grace!
Notice the bible tells us that grace and truth comes through Jesus Christ.
If you don’t get it through Jesus, you don’t get it at all.
Grace doesn't come through religion, or a beautiful building, or someone else’s relationship with the Lord! Because if it did, more people would be experiencing it to an overflowing level in their lives!
It can only be found, through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
He is in the life changing business. He has a plan and a purpose for your life and wants to give you hope.
The grace the Jesus introduced to the world at Calvary, is what distinguishes Christianity from every other religion! It's Grace, it's Grace, it's always been and always will be about Grace!
Buddha couldn't do it,
Mohammed couldn't do it,
Harry Krishna couldn't do it either!
Only God, could ever create something so extravagant as "Grace!"
Only the One True God was able to accomplish something so "Amazing as Grace!"
Only God would ever be willing to spend so much, without the guarantee of ever receiving anything in return!
TBS. in 1 john 3:16-18 MSG
16-18."This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life.
God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again.
Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why?
Because of that person's failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him.”
What an Amazing God!
What an Amazing Faithful Son?
What an Amazing Gift?
Amazing Love for mankind?
God has forgiven us all of so much, sins we've committed and even the ones that haven’t, there is no way we could ever repay Him.
Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now Im found was blind but now I see.
I'm so thankful, that I have been afforded the opportunity to sing those words
and receive the Gift they describe!
All the forgiveness, the blessings, the abilities and talents, the opportunities, the freedoms, the relationships! All these things that you have that bless your life, they all stem from Gods Amazing Grace!
Philippians 2:4 NKJ
Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.
If you truly understand how amazing Gods Grace really is, you cant just keep it to yourself. There are still people out there that need to hear that there is forgiveness in this world!
If someone was willing to give you a second chance wouldn’t you want to know about it?
If someone was willing to forgive you wouldn’t you want to hear about it?
If somebody loved you so much that they were willing to die for you, wouldn’t you want to be told?
Of course you would and you have been!
But how will they hear unless someone tells them?
It's time that Christians realized...
You can’t get by with just asking someone to come to church! Deep down you know that, it's time that you showed them, you are the church! Amen?
We Are The Church!
If you won’t, who will???
You could be, the only thing standing between them and eternity,
Both Heaven and Hell, is forever!
There are still far to many people that don't know how much God can change their lives for the better, they need to hear, its not about having a religion, but all about receiving the Undeserved Grace of God and having a real relationship with Jesus!
God changed all our lives and He'll change theirs too, if someone will only be willing, to introduce them to Grace!
Lets pray
