Pastor Don has such a great message Sunday that we wanted to share it with you this week. Here is part one, we hope it blesses you as it did us. And if it does, please like our page and share with others. Living a life motivated by grace When you are studying a book of the Bible, it is very important that you understand the context. When Paul wrote a book, he was writing to a certain group of people who had special problems. If you don’t understand what those problems were, you are going to have a hard time understanding the biblical book. In his missionary journeys, the apostle Paul started a number of churches in Galatia. Everything was fine until after Paul was gone, and people came in who are called Judaizers. Paul said someone is saved through Jesus Christ and Him alone. These people told them that they must also keep the law of God to be saved. Many of them were deceived and left the truth. You may know someone who once served Christ and later turned away from him. That hurts everyone involved. It definitely hurts the one who is left the Lord. Many people have taken a detour away from God and have made mistakes that stay with him for the rest of their lives. It also hurts the one who has worked with that person. How discouraging it is to really care about someone and then to see them just walk away. The answer to that problem is seen many times in the book of Galatians. It is the word “grace.” That was a very serious thing to Paul the apostle, and the book of Galatians is his letter to try to straighten things out in the minds of these people who had gone astray. In Scripture, grace is the supernatural favor of God that brings about things in our lives that we would never able to get for ourselves. There are numbers of good definitions for grace. For example, “God’s remedy at Christ’s expense.” Or you might say, “The unmerited favor of God.” Very simply you could say grace is, “the power to do God’s will.” I came up with one last week. I said, “Grace is God freely giving the ability to do and to become what you should do and become.” Whatever you need, God’s grace is sufficient for. Understanding grace Saving grace Ephesians 2:8 tells us that it is by grace you are saved.” Heaven goes by favor. If it went by merit, you would stay out, and your dog would go in..” Mark Twain. In the Superman 2, Superman and Lois Lane decide that they are in love, so Superman chooses to give up his superpowers in order to marry Lois Lane. He warned in advance that if he surrenders his powers, he can not have them back again. Still, he chose to surrender his followers and become just ordinary Clark Kent. Shortly after, he discovers that he three evil super villains have taken control the white house and are attempting to establish themselves as rulers of planet Earth. Now more than ever, the world needs Superman, but it’s too late. A depressed Clark Kent hikes through a raging blizzard to get to Superman’s Fortress of solitude. He cries out to his father to give him his powers back again. The writers of the film have put themselves in a bind because they said already that if Superman gives of his powers he can’t have them back again. The writers took the liberty to change the rules in the middle of the story so that Superman could have his powers back. The story ends with Superman defeating the villains winning the fight for truth. That is exactly what grace is about. God has said that the wages of sin is death, but he changed the rules by offering Jesus Christ as a substitute for our sin. Sanctifying grace Sanctification is God separating you from your sin so that you can be separated to Him. Titus 2:11-12 says, “For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age,“ Sustaining grace Sustaining grace is God giving you the ability to continue on when you would quit. What kept Paul going when he was beaten, thrown into the sea, stoned with rocks, locked up in jail etc. It was God’s sustaining grace that kept him going. Enabling grace Enabling grace is God giving you the ability to do what you can’t do. Paul said, “But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” It could be that God is asking you to do something in our church, and the very thought of it is terrifying. When I first started preaching, I was a basket case. My hands were cold, and I didn’t feel like I could walk to the pulpit. I discovered God’s grace is sufficient. Restoring grace In 1758, a man named Robert Robinson, attended an evangelistic meeting of George Whitefield where he preached on the wrath of God. He fought God’s conviction for 3 years when he finally surrendered to Christ at the age of 23. Soon afterward, he surrendered to preach. He is best known for writing a hymn called, “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing.” Unfortunately, he fell back into sin. The story is told of Robinson entering a stagecoach with the young lady humming one of her favorite hymns (Come, Thou Fount of every blessing). Turning to him, she asked if he knew the hymn that had helped her so much. Robinson replied:“Madam, I am the poor unhappy man who wrote that hymn many years ago, and I would give a thousand worlds, if I had them, to enjoy the feelings I had then.” Part of the words in his song are: “prone to wander Lord, I feel it;prone to leave the God I love.” O to grace how great a debtor Daily I’m constrained to be! Let Thy goodness, like a fetter, Bind my wandering heart to Thee. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love; Here’s my heart, O take and seal it, Seal it for Thy courts above. Thousands of people have been blessed by that old hymn because we are all prone to wander. One of the greatest examples of someone slipping away is Peter when he betrayed Christ. Paul speaks of a man named “Demas” who deserted him and went back to the world. It broke the apostle’s heart to see the Galatian Christians who once served God falling away, and it breaks God’s heart when we do the same. Is that your problem? Do you at times feel like you are being pulled away from God? God’s grace is always enough, but we have the ability to turn away from it.
Posted on: Mon, 08 Dec 2014 12:00:00 +0000
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