GRACE
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· 86 viewsMorning message celebrating our 5th Church Anniversary
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8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— 9 not the result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.
The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version.
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— 9 not the result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.
The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version.
This morning, on this, our 5th Church Anniversary, we’re going to talk about “Grace”. Grace, the unmerited favor of God. This letter, written by the Apostle Paul, is believed to be a circular letter that was meant for a group of churches because it addresses numerous things aimed at Christians in general, not a specific issue or topic. So it would make sense that it is so applicable to us today, after all, we are Christians. Right? So let’s just for today say this letter is addressed to the saints at Love Christian Center.
and this is what he remembered which is our Scripture text for this morning.
Paul begins the letter talking about the spiritual blessings of God. It’s good to know how blessed you are. Amen? Sometimes we can get so bogged down, so caught up, wrapped up, tangled up and tied up in our problems, we forget just how blessed we are and we need a reminder. So when you find yourself in your own pity party, read . Paul is giving you a whole list of things to be thankful for, a whole list of spiritual blessings. He starts by telling you that
For the grace of God has been revealed, bringing salvation to all people. 12 And we are instructed to turn from godless living and sinful pleasures. We should live in this evil world with wisdom, righteousness, and devotion to God, 13 while we look forward with hope to that wonderful day when the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, will be revealed. 14 He gave his life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us his very own people, totally committed to doing good deeds. 15 You must teach these things and encourage the believers to do them. You have the authority to correct them when necessary, so don’t let anyone disregard what you say.
For the grace of God has been revealed, bringing salvation to all people. 12 And we are instructed to turn from godless living and sinful pleasures. We should live in this evil world with wisdom, righteousness, and devotion to God, 13 while we look forward with hope to that wonderful day when the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, will be revealed. 14 He gave his life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us his very own people, totally committed to doing good deeds. 15 You must teach these things and encourage the believers to do them. You have the authority to correct them when necessary, so don’t let anyone disregard what you say.
You were chosen before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before Christ in love.
The book of Titus is one of the pastoral epistles Paul wrote. He wrote this letter to Titus who was on the island of Crete trying to lead a group of converts who, imagine this, did not want to follow because Titus was not a Jew. He was a pagan convert and they thought he should among other things, be circumcised so he would look like them, at least on the outside. He would take part in one of their customs. I mean, how can you get this thing that was for the Jews, if you don’t adhere to the Jewish customs? Many people spend so much time trying to do a makeover to make Christians look alike on the outside, instead of helping them to look like Jesus on the inside. We’re missing the mark and the goal.
You were destined for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us
You have redemption through the blood of Jesus
You have forgiveness of your sin
He has made know to you the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure
You have an inheritance
You’ve been marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit
He has made known to us the mystery of his will
After Paul reminded them of their many blessings, he prayed for them. Someone is always praying for you. When you join the Kingdom of God, it is wonderful, but in addition to giving your life to Christ, you need to join a local church. Why? Because when you are a part of a local church, it’s that pastor’s responsibility to pray for you. He or she has the responsibility for your growth in the Lord, they are responsible for keeping watch over your soul.
So for those who want to be a part of the teleministry; yes you can hear the preacher, but when you have to go to the hospital, when a family member dies, when you want to get married in the church, when you want someone to bless your baby, the televangelist is not there for you; they have no responsibility to watch over your soul.
tells about not forsaking the gathering of yourselves together, which is the custom of some, it’s important that we all come together in Sunday school and Worship Service on Sunday. If you work on Sundays and not on Wednesday night, make that your Worship service and do on Wednesday night what you would do on Sunday morning. Thursday mornings we meet for intercessory prayer, that’s another opportunity for you to avail yourself to meeting together.
Sunday school, Worship Service, Bible Study and Intercessory Prayer, each of these services has a different format and purpose and you can benefit from all of them. The important thing is that you avail yourself to the teaching, preaching and corporate prayer that is taking place at the church.
In these last five years, we have had some people come, and we’ve had some people go, yet God has been faithful to provide more than we needed to fulfil the ministry He’s given us to do. For those who are here and have stayed, God bless you, we love and appreciate you. For the ones who have come and gone, we love you too and pray God’s blessings upon you, wherever you may be.
But as the second chapter of Ephesians begins, Paul tells us a truth that would seem rather strange; he says, “You were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient.”
Now, how can you be dead and alive at the same time? Well, before a person comes into the knowledge of Christ and gives their life to him, their soul is dead and there is sure death for their soul after the first death. The Bible says “each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment.” But before you die and have to face that judgement, the world or your flesh will talk to you. They will tell you,
you’re good you don’t need to go to church - but the truth is, while it is indeed possible to find God somewhere else, your chances of finding him go up significantly at the church.
Those people in the church are no better than you are. Well -- there are two kinds of people, sinners and sinners saved by grace. Something people sometimes lose sight of is, the people in the church are not better than those outside the church, they just know where to go for help.
The people in the church just know to run to the rock of salvation,
The people in the church know God is their refuge and strength
The people in the church know that God never sleeps nor slumbers, that He’s watching over them day and night.
The people in the church know where to go for forgiveness and they receive it
The people in the church know to call on the elders of the church to come pray for them when they are dealing with sickness
The people in the church know that God is strength and power and love and mercy and goodness and grace.
The people in the church know the source of their power and they stay connected.
No the people in the church are no better, their just better off.
The people in the church are striving to live a life that is pleasing to God. Do we get it right every time, no, but the difference is, when we miss the mark, when we fall down, we get back up, dust ourselves off, pray and ask God for forgiveness and then we move on. While we’re there we may ask God for guidance so we don’t fall down again. The difference between success and failure is another try.
So no, you’re not going to walk into a church and find it full of perfect people, unfortunately
there will continue to be stories about preachers and pastors doing inappropriate things with inappropriate people and taking money,
there will continue to be churches who can’t find a musician because the many of the musicians don’t feel the need to give back to God the gift He has given them if they’re not going to be paid for it,
you’re going to continue hear stories about the divorce rate in the church being as high as the divorce rate in the world,
you’re going to continue to hear about pastors quitting not just the church but leaving ministry altogether
You’re going to continue to hear and see people doing and saying things that are not pleasing to God I don’t care how many times they say amen, how pretty they sing, how high they jump when they shout or how holy they seem to be.
The truth of the matter is, we are all imperfect people on a perfect mission for a perfect God. It’s not an excuse for sin, but what we must recognize is the flesh is continually evil everyday and the world we live in is constantly pulling at the flesh, enticing the flesh to live for the flesh, live for today, telling you tomorrow is not promised, but you know what, you do have a promise for tomorrow, if you know Christ in the pardoning of your sins.
Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations 2097 The Grace of God
When the learned, and wealthy John Selden was dying he said to Archbishop Usher, “I have surveyed most of the learning that is among the sons of men, and my study is filled with books and manuscripts (he had 8000 volumes in his library) on various subjects. But at present I cannot recollect any passage out of all my books and papers whereon I can rest my soul, save this from the sacred Scriptures:
“’The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and wordly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ: who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purity unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works’ ”
Because even while we were in our messed up state, even while we were dead through our trespasses and sins, God who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, made us alive together with Christ and by His grace we have been saved. We have literally been snatched from the fire that was to be our permanent home. Anybody want to tell God thank you. Oh that’s something to get excited about.
But not only have we been saved, we have been raised up with him and seated with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus…why? So that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
So if you know Christ in the pardoning of your sin you won’t follow the course of this world, you won’t follow the ruler of the power of the air, and just for clarity’s sake, I’m talking about Satan.
Now, as good as some people think they are, and as nice as some people seem to be, and as much as some people give, whether it be time, money or service, none of that is enough to get them into heaven.
Why? For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God—not the result of works, so that no one may boast. Most times, when people work for something, study for something, give money for something, they expect something in return. They expect a reward, an award, recognition and or acknowledgement for what they did. They want to hear their name called from the podium, they want to see their name on a plaque on the wall with “Employee of the Month” on it, they want to see their name on a street sign or a bridge or a highway or a building or on the wing of a hospital. Many times when people do something, they expect something in return.
Here’s the problem with having to give to get, most of the time, not always, but most of the time there will be someone with more than you or someone with less than you. When you have been saved by grace, it doesn’t matter what you do or don’t have, you can have salvation just because of God’s grace and nothing more.
God did it, God wanted us to have it and God provided it for us. It was a gift and you didn’t even have to ask for it all you had to do was accept it.
(The gift bag of grace)
When you have the grace of God, the unmerited favor of God, when you recognize just what that means your soul should get happy; your soul should rejoice at the prospect of what that means.
The grace of God should make you wanna shout
make you wanna shout - hallelujah
hallelujah
thank you Jesus
Lord your worthy
hallelujah
of all the glory and all the honor and all the praise
The grace of God should make you grateful that he thought of you and provided for you before you were born.
The grace of God should make you glad that He thought you were worth saving.
The grace of God should make you delighted that He will give you the desires of your heart
The grace of God should make you content in whatever state you find yourself, whether you have much or little
The grace of God should make you jubilant that he turns your mourning into dancing
The grace of God should make you pleasant to those who may not be so pleasant to you.
Love Christian Center, the grace of God should make you ecstatic and happy and overjoyed and elated
that God allowed us to be here another year,
that he allowed us to bless some people along the way,
that he allowed us to comfort some people along the way,
that he used us to redeem some lost people along the way,
that he used us as a conduit to answer some prayers along the way
that he allowed us help some people along the way
Love Christian Center, we’ve been blessed by the best, we’ve been blessed by the true and living God. He’s a living God not a statue you can sit on a shelf, not one who once lived and is now in a grave. We’ve been blessed by the Creator of the universe. And not only did He bless us, He’s with us. God is with us everyday, in everything we do and everywhere we go.
And as much as we rejoice and praise God for what He’s done, we praise Him even more for what He is yet to do. Because Love Christian Center you’d better know, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”
We’re taking just a little time out today to thank God for five years, because you celebrate milestones with markers, you celebrate victories with markers and from whence we came church, five years is a sure ‘nuf victory.
We love those who have been with us and we’d love for you to be here to celebrate with us next year as a member of the body.
Grace brought you here today, will you let it take you a step further? If you’ve never accepted Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior let this be your anniversary too.
Church membership appeal
Rededication appeal