The Amazing Grace Highway (The 'agh') Series

The Amazing Grace Highway

Living-Hope – week 3

TODAY – is Mother’s Day…

And moms are awesome, amen?

NOW - I want us to take a moment to honor all of the moms in this room today…

Check out this video

Why We Celebrate (Video)

Why do we celebrate moms!

Well for a lot of reasons, right?

And one of those reasons is because God created moms to reveal His heart.

And from where I stand, I must say that moms have done a pretty awesome job doing just that…

• Compassion

• Sacrifice

• Unconditional love

• Believing in her children

I would like all moms to stand….

Let’s give it up for these moms.

Now I want everyone else to stand and let’s surround these moms and pray for them…

Pray for moms….

NOW – just 2 weeks back we began a message series on the letter 1 Peter called, ‘Living-Hope, A Sure Anchor In Troubled Times.’

This letter was written by Peter, you know the walking on water fisherman who had the opportunity to hang out with Jesus (God the Son) for 3 years, when He wore flesh and walked on this planet.

I MEAN – think about it, Peter had a ring-side seat to all of the awesome things Jesus did…

THIS LETTER – is from Peter, a guy who had knowledge about, a relationship with and access to Jesus that is unequaled in human history…

AND IT – was written… to people just like you and I…

PEOPLE - who found themselves in the midst of great hardship and difficulty… trying hard to hang on to hope.

NOW - it’s been an awesome study so far…

AND – until 5:38 am last Sunday morning what I had planned on doing was to hit the pause button on 1 Peter and ‘Living-Hope’ today so that we could have a conversation about Hannah, one of the awesome moms we find in the Bible.

HOWEVER – last Sunday morning as I was going over my message, ‘Living With Great Expectation.’ A CONVERSATION – about how as people… God the Father chose, God the Son died for and God the Spirit lives… As people who have been given a new birth into a living hope that we can expect some pretty GREAT things.

We can expect…

• An inheritance in heaven that can never perish, spoil or fade away… Listen – if you are a Jesus-follower there is an inheritance in heaven with your name on it.

• God’s power to protect us… And that is a really awesome thing. I mean – when we are protected by the God who literally breathes out stars, that is some serious protection.

And because God’s power is protecting us… ‘Ultimately nothing can hurt us because nothing can hurt us ultimately.’

• Troubles to strengthen our faith – “we do not just have to GO through it – instead we can GROW through it…

• The salvation of our souls… and remember salvation is everything God has done, is doing and will do for us ‘in Christ.’

WELL – early last Sunday morning as I was going over that last point… that you and I as Jesus-followers can expect to receive the salvation of our souls that I felt God say to me,

“Hey Steve, I need you to talk about this salvation some more next week and expand on it… because my people (including you) do not fully appreciate and are constantly underestimating the power of my amazing grace and the magnitude of the salvation that is yours because of My Son....”

And I was like, “But God, you know what next Sunday is, right? It’s Mother’s Day and I was planning on talking about Hannah.”

“Yes, I know next week is Mother’s day… and I also know that there is nothing a mother (especially the moms who will be in this room next week) want then her children being right with God…

In fact, that was ‘the passion’ of all the great moms in the bible… including Hannah”

BOTTOM LINE – this morning… May 11, 2014, my goal, my intent is twofold…

#1 – honor the moms in this room

#2 – talked about this GREAT salvation that every Christian

mom wants for her children…

ALRIGHT – let’s do this… Goal #2…

Prayer

Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things. – 1 Peter 1:8-12