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#4 Defining Moments
Begin Again With Grace
America’s relationship with God.
85% considered themselves to be Christians
77% believe there is a heaven
76% say their chances of going are good or excellent
57% of Americans believe salvation is earned through good character or behavior.
USA TODAY: Man on the street survey asking ‘what do you think your chances are of getting into heaven’
- 85%, I don’t think the entrance exam will be that tough
- 50-50, the older I get the more my chances will improve
- 50%, you have to be a nice person so I think I am still in the running
When asked about certain celebrities chances of going to heaven:
O.J. SIMPSON 19%
Dennis Rodman 28% Bad boy basketball player in the NBA. Has talent, tie-dye hair colors, tattoos, and many body piercings.
Bill Clinton 52%
Mother Teresa 79%
Mother Teresa wins on good works but all miss the essential truths about salvation: BY GRACE – THROUGH FAITH – OF GOD
Last Kiss
Jay Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers
Number two on the charts in 1964.
The song was the last in a long line of teen tragedies that were popular in the U.S. during the early ’60s
Hyper Link to song
Oh where oh where can my baby be?
The lord took her away from me.
She’s gone to heaven so I got to be good.
So I can see my baby when I leave this world.
Where is GRACE in any of these?
1. Christ the Giver of Grace
- Begin Again With Grace
- Lk 7:41-42
- Pence/Coin - a days wage
Slide - min. wage = $20,600 vs $2,060
- Which debtor represents you?
- What have you got to pay?
- Well, “I want to be saved”
- Put on the credit side
- I have nothing to pay
- v.42 – Forgave them both - GRACE
What Is GRACE
Acronym - God’s Riches At Christ Expense
- Suppose that filthy bum breaks into your home.
- In the course of a robbery, that person kills your child.
Vengeance --You hunt him down yourself and kill him
Justice -- You allow the police to do
their jobs and the person is apprehended and punished
Grace -- You take him into your home
and adopt him as your son or daughter
- The root word for grace in the Greek is charis. This verb means, "I will rejoice and be glad.
- Intoxicated with joy
2. Christ A Lover of Losers
a. Understanding the Past through Scrip
- Sinful women anointing Jesus
- Samaritan Women with 5 husbands
- Invalid who had failed to get his
timing down for 38
- Fishermen failed at fishing
- Woman caught in adultery
- Doubting disciple failed to believe
b. Our Experience in the present
- Here we are today with our problems
at losing
- Unhappy with our situations
- Job is difficult with it’s hours and
demands insecure with no future
- Families that do not understand me
- My possessions are breaking down
c. Our Solution is Grace our way
- We have come to cheap grace which
we want to be replaced with the next best thing
- Our focus is always somewhere else
- Seeking forgiveness without repentance
- We want grace without our cross
- We want life without Christ
- Never understanding our debt and
Christ’s payment
- Eph 2:8-9 calls out
3. Christ A Savior of Sinners
Gospel can be summarized from three passages .
Cause for salvation
God’s love Jn. 3:16
Conduct of Salvation
Confess & believe Rom. 10:9-10. Channel of Salvation
By grace through faith Eph. 2:8-10 It’s not by works v. 9,
But for works v. 10,
So begin again with Grace
Salvation’s Work
A. Salvation set us free from sin,
Sins power,
Sins effects its consequences. ROM 8:1 says, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."
B. Salvation restores our relationship with God
Back into fellowship and communion, with Him.
C. Salvation protects us from sins power of temptation
The boy stood defiantly. "Go ahead, give it to me."
The principal looked at the young rebel and asked, "How many times have you been here?"
The child sneered rebelliously, "Apparently not enough."
"And you have been punished each time?" the principal responded.
"Yeah, I been punished, if that’s what you want to call it. Go ahead. I can take whatever you dish out. I always have."
"And no thought of your punishment enters your head the next time you decide to break the rules does it?"
"Nope, I do whatever I want to do. Ain’t nothin’ you people gonna do to stop me either."
The principal looked at the teacher who stood nearby. "What did he do this time?"
"Fighting. He shoved Tommy’s face into the sandbox."
The principal looked at the boy, "What did Tommy do to you?"
"Nothin’, I didn’t like the way he was lookin’ at me."
The teacher stiffened, but a quick look from the principal stopped him as he quietly said, "Today, is the day you learn about grace."
"Grace? Isn’t that what you old people do before you sit down to eat? I don’t need none of your stinkin’ 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…”
Grace came to you through the sacrifice of Jesus of Nazareth who at Calvary received the punishment that you and I deserve for our sin. His back was whipped for the idols that we have bent our backs to. Nails were driven through His sinless hands for the things that we have done with our hands. Nails were driven through His feet for the paths that we have chosen to walk. He wore a crown of thorns for the things we have given our minds to. A lance was driven into his heart for the things we have held in our hearts. Truly we have received God’s grace.
C. H. MacKintosh
“God’s grace is magnified my ruin. The more keenly the ruin is felt, the more highly the grace is valued.”
The most joyful converts to Christ you will ever see, are the ones who have come to realize how utterly lost and helpless they were without Him
