Journey of Grace
Selected verses
Introduction-
If you only had 24 hours to live would it change the things you do and the things you say?
If you knew someone only had 24 hours- Would you change your plans to see them?
I would hope it would-
Good morning everyone-
We do not know what a day will bring- we are not able to see the future but we can prepare for the future.
There are certain things you can do and there are certain things to avoid.
We call that life!
Life is a time period that we have to live and make our mark on this earth.
That is the time given to us by God to accept the gift of salvation and eternal life with Him. We will live forever but where we spend eternity is by the decisions that we make in our lifetime.
There are so many people that have regrets in this life because they either thought they had more time or choose to ignore the things God was trying to show them.
Life is from first breath to last breathe. What you do in that period of time is your journey.
This morning let’s talk about that dash of time called your journey and life and see what God says about it.
Let’s pray
Father in the name of Jesus I pray that as each one of us looks at our journey, that period of time we have on this earth, may we be wise and look to you for your guidance and make the most important decision of our life and that is to accept what you have done on the cross for us. in Jesus name. Amen.
King David wrote Psalm 37:25- “I was young and now am old.” He was right- time gets away from us quickly. That verse has more and more meaning to me as I get older.
I see life in a different perspective than I did at 20-25.
When I was younger I thought I would live forever, even now after I got Covid-19 Pneumonia, I realize that things come up in life that can knock you off your horse.
I don’t see things the same as I did when I was first a Christian, I would hope I see the bigger picture and when you think that you live such a short time on this earth compared to eternity.
A dash, a period of time which we cannot know how long we live or to what health we could have while we live it.
Everyone loves living on the mountaintops but no one loves living in the valleys of life.
Where you sit determines what you see and what you see determines what you do. I don’t know who said it but it certainly is true.
What we do with our life will determine where we spend eternity- Do you think it important to get it right?
Only a fool would think that they could live an entire life on the mountaintop and then be mad at God when they are not.
Only a fool would think that they will never get out of the valley they are in-
Mountaintops and low valleys are all part of the journey.
Every person should desire to find purpose and fulfillment in their life.
Inside of us is a God given void that can only be filled by God.
You can in your journey try to fill it with many things but the only true thing that fills that void is a relationship with God.
On our journey God speaks to us and tries to direct us toward a relationship with Him.
It is not forced but especially in the West, we would never be able to stand before God and say that He did not numerous times in our journey reach out and move us toward Him.
Though our journeys have different elements, our journey should move us from unbeliever to believer. From sinner who is lost in their sins to sinner saved by God’s grace and God’s mercy leading us to eternal life with Him.
God’s grace- God’s riches at Christ expense-
Grace is God giving us what we do not deserve.
Mercy is God not giving us what we deserve.
I believe that God purposefully gives us numerous times to experience His love and His Holy Spirit wanting to draw us to Himself.
God draws you to Himself (Prevenient Grace)
Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this; while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
While you and I were doing our own thing- Christ died for our sins-
He draws close to us wanting us to have a relationship with Him. He made the first move.
We think we found God. He found us and we responded to his love.
As Nazarene’s, we believe that God in His love reaches out to all people everywhere.
It is the grace to believe. It is the grace of God that points us to a loving God.
Grace awakens us to know that we have a need for God.
It is the grace of God that brings us to a point of reconciliation with God.
We do not have all the answers, there are still questions, but it is a point in our life that we know that there is a void in our lives and we begin to investigate the possibility of God being the filler of that void.
I have shared before my first experience with the prevenient grace of God and my need to draw close to God and I won’t share it again today.
At some point in our journey, we encounter God and God shows up in our mess of life and reveals himself to us.
He draws close (first move) and desires for us to move toward him.
In that encounter we know that God is real.
We know that God desires a relationship with us.
We know that we cannot keep going the same way we are going.
We are heading in the wrong direction and we need to turn around.
We need to stop what we are doing.
Many of us can think of times these experiences have happened to us and we slow down, we hesitate, but we keep doing our own thing.
God’s attempt to reach out and we reject his hand of grace.
It is the time in church God speaks and we don’t listen.
It is the time that God puts someone in our path to warn us and we don’t listen.
It is the time that we know God is reaching out but we don’t respond.
Somewhere in the journey of life if we are to become a Christian, we have to respond to God’s grace that reaches out to us. If not, we ignore those experiences, we will regret for eternity the opportunity God gives to us.
God reconciles you to Himself (Saving Grace)
Saving Grace you have listened to Him moving you toward Him and you realize that you are in need of a savior.
You have tried to fix your life and you know that you cannot fix it yourself.
There is a crisis moment- everyone of us that has accepted Christ as savior has had a crisis moment where we discover that Jesus is who he says he is and wants to do what he said he would do and realizes that what Jesus did on the cross is the only way that he/she will be redeemed from their sins.
It is no longer about being a good person. It is about accepting a good and great God as Lord of your life.
Saving grace-God drawing you to himself and you saying yes!
It is where what you heard is now what you experience and it is where faith is born.
We can all know of God, but until we ourselves experience Him, we cannot be saved from our sins. It is a personal experience that goes from that crisis moment till the day the Lord brings us home.
Faith goes from the head to the heart- it is intellect to life experience.
It is from what you think to what you know to be true.
Jesus becomes the truth in your life. “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no man (women) come to the Father except by me.”
This is the moment that your life changes for ever.
You can never undo the moment that God became real to you.
You can later reject what you have experienced by choice, but you will never be able to stand before Him and say I didn’t know.
The born again experience!
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old has gone, the new is here.”
All this comes from God as we respond to His life saving grace. It is a free gift that keeps on giving. As the new believer travels on his/her journey.
James 1:17-
“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of first fruits of all He created.”
Illustration-
A young boy was taken to the principal’s office for fighting. This is not the first time the boy was in trouble. What is he in here for today? Fighting says the teacher to the principal. What did he do? He shoved Tommy’s face in the sandbox. What did Tommy do to you? Nothing! I did not like the way that he looked at me. The teacher stiffened, but the principal stopped him as he quietly said that Today is the day you learn what grace is.
“Grace? Isn’t that what you old people do before you sit down to eat? I don’t need none of your stinking’ grace.”
“Oh but you do,” said the principal. The principal studied the young man’s face and whispered, “Oh yes, you truly do…” The boy continued to glare as the principal continued, “Grace, in its short definition is unmerited favor. You cannot earn it. It is a gift, and is always freely given. It means that you will not be getting what you so richly deserve.”
The boy looked puzzled. “You’re not gonna whup me? You just gonna let me walk?” The boy studied the face of the principal, “No punishment at all? Even though I socked Tommy and shoved his face into the sandbox?”
“Oh, there has to be punishment. What you did was wrong, and there are always consequences to our actions. There will be punishment. Grace is not an excuse for doing wrong.”
“I knew it,” sneered the boy as he held out his hands. “Let’s get on with it.”
The principal nodded toward the teacher. “Bring me the belt.” The teacher presented the belt to the principal. He carefully folded it in two, and then handed it back to the teacher. He looked at the child and said, “I want you to count the blows.” The principal walked over to stand directly in front of the young man. He gently reached out and folded the child’s outstretched, expectant hands together and then turned to face the teacher with his own hands outstretched. One quiet word came forth from his mouth. “Begin.” The belt whipped down on the outstretched hands of the principal. Crack!
The young man jumped. Shock registered across his face, “One,” he whispered. Crack! “Two.” His voice raised an octave. Crack! “Three.” He couldn’t believe this. Crack! “Four.” Big tears welled up in the eyes of the rebel. “OK stop! That’s enough. Stop!” Crack! came the belt down on the hands of the principal. Crack! The child flinched with each blow, tears beginning to stream down his face. Crack! Crack!
“No, please,” the former rebel begged. “Stop, I did it, I’m the one who deserves it. Stop! Please. Stop…” Still the blows came. Crack! Crack! One after another.
Finally it was over. The principal stood with sweat glistening across his forehead and beads trickling down his face. Slowly he knelt down. He studied the young man for a second and then his swollen hands reached out to cradle the face of the weeping child and said, “Grace…”
So we have a grace from God that draws us close to him- prevenient Grace. We have a grace that saves us from our sins and we don’t get what we deserve because Jesus has paid the price for us and third, there is sanctifying grace.
God’s grace that empowers us (strengthens and guides us)
Sanctifying grace allows us after we totally surrender ourselves to the Lord to work in his ways- we are not perfect but we are devoted to Him and by choice walk in surrender to him. Many wait to be saved, but only a few devote themselves to total surrender to the things of God. The Holy Spirit of God empowers us to live a life fully consecrated to Him. From the time of salvation, God is desiring for us to have a deeper walk with him. Not only to be saved from Hell, not only to experience eternal life with Him but also to be devoted to him that He is allowed to cleanse and purify our hearts. We desire to know more of God, we desire to be used by God. We desire that we want to please God rather than just please ourselves.
Nazarenes believe we are drawn by holy love through prevenient grace, we are captured by holy love through saving grace. We are purified and set apart by holy love through sanctifying grace.
We grow in grace as we get closer in our walk with God. That is the fullness of Christ. This is what John meant that the devil comes to kill, steal, destroy, but Christ comes that we might have abundant life.
This is the abundant life he is talking about. To be devoted and serving God, having a life to the full because we are in the fullness of Christ.
Close-
We are to have the grace of God walking in our lives. No matter where we are at in the journey called life-
Beginning with the grace that draws us close to God and we respond to his drawing-
Saving grace where we realize we need a savior and reconcile with God for our sins.
Sanctifying grace where we want the Lord to fill us to over flowing and we devote ourselves and surrender ourselves completely to him so that we might enjoy the abundant life promised by the Lord. Each one of us may be at different spots on our journey but this morning the Lord is speaking to each one of us- He desires a closer relationship with each of us.
Prayer-
