Summary: For anyone who feels inadequate. . . you ARE! You need to hear about grace! Here are three things you need to believe about GOd’s grace. *HANDOUT INCLUDED*

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God’s Grace: Absolutely Free!

Two cows were grazing alongside a highway when a tank-truck of milk on its way to the distributor happened to pass. On one side of the truck in big red letters was a sign that read,

"Pasteurized, homogenized, standardized, Vitamin A added."

One cow turned to the other and remarked,

"Makes you feel sort of inadequate, doesn’t it?"

This series is for anyone here who has ever felt inadequate!

* Inadequate to please God.

* Inadequate to please others

* Inadequate to face your problems

* Inadequate to change your life.

First, understand this: You are inadequate!!!!! :-) Me, too! We’re all inadequate together!

Second, hear this: That’s why the idea of grace is so powerful. That’s why Jesus Christ is so awesome. Let’s focus in on his grace today...

Here’s my definition of Grace:

Grace:

God’s undeserved kindness to me

God’s enabling power in me

Three things you need to believe about God’s free grace:

1. You can’t possibly earn it.

“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God...” (Ephesians 2:8)

Reader’s Digest recently asked the great fighter Muhammed Ali what his faith meant to him. Ali replied:

"[It] means [a] ticket to heaven. One day we’re all going to die, and God’s going to judge us, [our] good and bad deeds. [If the] bad outweighs the good, you go to hell; if the good outweighs the bad, you go to heaven. [I’m] thinking about the judgment day and how you treat people wherever you go. Help somebody through charity, because when you do, it’s been recorded.

I go to parties, [see] good-looking girls. [I] take a box of matches with me. [I] see a girl I want to flirt with, which is a sin, so I [light] my matches, [touches his finger] oooh, hell hurts worse than this. Buy a box of matches and carry them with you. Put [one] on your finger and see how long you can hold it. Just imagine that’s going to be hell. Hell’s hotter, and for eternity."

Ali is right. Hell is hot. But those who go there do so not because their list of good works is too short. They go there because their belief in themselves is too strong. "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-- and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--not by works, so that no one can boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9)

Source: SermonCentral Staff. Citation: Face to Face with Muhammad Ali. Interview by Howard Bingham, Reader’s Digest, December 2001.

2. It cost the blood of Jesus Christ.

“...being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 3:24)

“Justified” means to be declared “not guilty.” It’s “just as if I’d” never sinned.

So we are freely declared not guilty by His grace. That sounds good! But look at the last half of the verse: “through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”

“Redemption” means “to buy back.” Jesus Christ paid the price to buy us back when we were slaves to sin.

This is a true story. Two guys in a church, Paul and William decided that they really wanted to become godly men. So they started meeting with one another to pray and encourage one another; they even set goals for themselves and their behavior, and then were accountable to the other one. Paul decided he wanted to break his habit of using profanity. He decided he was going to put five dollars in the offering for every time he swore during the week. In order to stay accountable, he would tell William how many times he’d failed. The first week cost Paul $100.

However, Paul didn’t stop his swearing. In fact, while he improved somewhat over the next couple weeks, he really wasn¡|t having the success he wanted and was losing a lot of hard-earned cash.

After the fourth week, William told Paul he had decided that the deal needed to be changed for the coming week, but he wasn¡|t going to tell Paul how it would change. He just said, “Trust me. It will cost you both less and more.”

When they met the following Sunday before worship, Paul admitted he¡|d failed again. William put a hand on his shoulder and said, "Paul, I told you this was going to cost you both less and more. It’s called grace."

William took out his checkbook, and made out a check to the church, leaving the amount blank.

He gave the check to Paul and said, "Your sin still costs, but for you it’s free. Just fill in the numbers. And next week there will be more grace."

William’s grace cost him $55 the first week; the second only cost him $20. There was no third week. Paul couldn’t bear to see what his sin was costing his friend, so he quit sinning.

Someone said, “Grace is something that costs the one who receives it nothing, but costs the one who gives it everything.”

3. You must choose to accept it.

“We then, as workers together with Him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain.” (2 Corinthians 6:1)

Now, you might say, “Hold on! I thought it was free. Now you’re telling me I have to DO something for it?”

If you saw an ad in the newspaper tomorrow that said, “BRAND NEW CARS FREE!” Would you complain because you had to go down and drive it home?

“Forgiveness needs to be accepted, as well as offered, if it is to be complete. A man who admits no guilt can accept no forgiveness."

- Philip Yancey, author

In 1830, a man named George Wilson was convicted of killing a government employee while robbing the U.S. Mail. He was tried and sentenced to be hanged. Andrew Jackson, then the President, issued a pardon for Wilson, but Wilson did a strange thing: he refused to accept the pardon and no one seemed to know what to do. The matter went to Chief Justice Marshall, perhaps one of the greatest Chief Justices we ever had, and he concluded that Wilson must be executed. “A pardon is a slip of paper,” wrote Marshall, “the value of which is determined by the acceptance of the person to be pardoned. If it is refused, it is no pardon. George Wilson must be hanged.” And he was.

SOURCE: George Maronge, Jr., Birmingham, Alabama. Leadership, Vol. 12, no. 3.

How to access God’s grace:

1. Confess - admit your guilt and helplessness.

2. Repent - change your mind and show it in your life.

3. Believe - set your faith on Jesus Christ.

4. Receive - take him as your Forgiver and Leader.

“Will you do 10 pushups so she can have a donut she doesn’t want?”

To illustrate grace to his class, a professor brought in doughnuts. He asked the first person on the first row if he’d like a donut. “Sure.” So the professor called “Steve” a big, tough guy in the class up to the front.

“Steve, will you do 10 pushups for me, so he can have a donut?”

Steve smiled and dropped and did 10 pushups. After about the 4th time of this, steve was starting to slow down. Then a girl had pity. “No, I don’t want a donut.” She thought she’d let Steve have a rest.

“Steve, will you do 10 pushups so that she can have a donut she doesn’t want?” By this time, Steve seemed as if he was on a mission. He could have quit, but as if he understood what was happening, his arms shook and he did 10 more...

This continued until finally Steve collapsed, exhausted after the final person in the class. The professor turned to the class, and said, “And so Jesus Christ cried ‘It is finished’, and slumped to die, having freely paid the price for everyone...whether it is accepted or not.”

__________________

HANDOUT

__________________

God’s Grace: Absolutely Free!

Definition of “Grace:”

God’s ___________________ ________________ to me

God’s ________________ _______________ in me

Three things you need to believe about God’s free grace:

1. You can’t possibly __________ it.

“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)

8. God saved you by his special favor when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God.

9. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.

2. It cost the ____________ of Jesus Christ.

“...being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 3:24)

“Justified” means to be declared “_______ ____________.”

“Redemption” means “to ________ ___________.” Jesus Christ paid the price to buy us back when we were slaves to sin.

“Grace is something that costs the one who receives it nothing, but costs the one who gives it everything.”

3. You must ___________ to _____________ it.

“We then, as workers together with Him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain.” (2 Corinthians 6:1)

“Forgiveness needs to be accepted, as well as offered, if it is to be complete. A man who admits no guilt can accept no forgiveness."

- Philip Yancey, author

How to access God’s grace:

1. Confess - admit your __________ and ___________________.

“God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble." (James 4:6)

2. Repent - change your _________ and show it in your _________.

“Now turn from your sins and turn to God, so you can be cleansed of your sins.” (Acts 3:19)

3. Believe - set your _____________ on Jesus Christ.

“...we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand.” (Romans 5:2)

4. Receive - take him as your _______________ and ____________.

“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God.” (John 1:12)