10/27/10 - Grace - Mike Barker

Mike Barker teaches on "Grace" in this Wednesday service.

Grace

Mike Barker
Wednesday, October 27, 2010

www.mylifegatechurch.com


Sermon Notes:

Grace

1.   A a quality within something that’s beautiful or joyful. (Fragrance of a flower, the beauty of a lovely person)
2.   Anything that has loveliness. (Thought, an act, a word, a person)
3.   A gift or a favor that someone might extend to a friend.
4.   Forgiveness that a friend gives you.
                   
We all need Grace- Some of us need it in areas: 

1.   Relationships
2.   Marriage
3.   Children
4.   Friendships
5.   GOD


Testimony - Part 1:

There was a time in a particular man’s life when he treated a lot of the people who loved him like they were his enemy. The man grew up in a Christian home with parents that loved the lord. He went to church twice every Sunday and every Wednesday night. He grew up serving the lord.

As he got older he found a career that he loved and started a family. He loved his job. The man got to help and meet new people every day. He found himself spending more time at his job than at home with his family. A void began to grow inside him. He searched for things to fill the void like expensive and fast vehicles, motorcycles or anything that would give him a rush of adrenaline. He was his own worst enemy when it comes to finances. That’s another area that he needed grace. Often times he would get focused on the material things of the world and leave GOD out of his finances.

He would pray the same prayer that some of you may have: Lord if it is your will….. Just open the door for me to get this high interest loan on this new Ferrari, and if it is not your will… just close the door and I will take it as sign to second mortgage my house and buy the Corvette.

As time went on, the man kept drifting away from his family and the will of God. He felt alone in the world, even though he had people who loved and cared for him all around him. The Man never told his family what he was feeling; he just kept it to himself.

Eventually, he drifted so far apart from his family. He started living a separate life. A separate life that included another woman. After the excitement of the new relationship was over, he found his world crumbling around him.

Eventually, the affair came to the surface with my family. He needed to be forgiven, but first he needed to humble himself before God. As you might have guessed, he didn’t humble himself, instead he ran from God and his family when he left home. The man thought that the answer to problem was a divorce.

Now, not only was he acting like a jerk to everyone around him, he was fighting against what the Word teaches. He felt like he was an enemy to God.

Although we may feel like we are God’s enemy, God still has grace that extends to every horrible thing that we’ve ever done. He needed to be saved from the situation that he was in, and he needed to be saved from himself. He needed a lot of grace. God saves us from sin and he saves us from our self.

GOD:
•    Eph 2:8-9
Ephesians 2:8-9 (NLT)
8 God saved you by his grace 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.

God’s grace is different than any other kind of grace that is available to you. God’s grace is defined by Webster’s as:

Grace: (charis) - unmerited divine assistance

God gives us help when you do not deserve it. And He wants to make sure that we understand that He is giving it to us and we did nothing to get it, all because we trust Him. He’s going to assist us when we don’t deserve it, when we don’t expect it, when we are at our lowest point in life.

There are many things that we could learn about God’s grace. It would be impossible to begin to understand all of it in an entire lifetime. But today we are going to look at 3 things we need to know about God’s grace.


3 things we need to know about God’s grace.

1.   God's grace is not earned. (Eph2:8)
 (It is something completely undeserved and unearned.)

Grace has been operating for you when you couldn’t see it or didn’t recognize it.

Ephesians 2:8b (NLT)  And you can’t take credit for this;
It has nothing to do with us. We can’t take credit for it.
It’s like an unearned honorary degree from some University.
God’s Word says that grace is something that we can’t take credit for. Grace doesn’t bring about pain, shame, rejection, hurt or marriage trouble. These are things we do on our own.
These are things that we can take credit for. Now understand that the things I just described don’t apply for those who have been the victim of a horrible situation. That is not what I am referring to here.

-   There may be things in our marriage that have earned us trouble, like arguing or silence and rejection.
-   Tere may be things that we have done in our family that have earned us disrespect, anger, or distance in relationships.
-   There may be things in our friendships that have brought about hurt.
All these things happen apart from grace. Those are things we earn.

UNEARNED ASSISTANCE: But God’s grace can come in and give us what we can’t take credit for . He can give us what we have not earned. He can give us what we do not deserve! He can give us hope for the future. When we have grace, that unearned assistance from God, we have the things that God is capable of doing. God showed the world grace when He sent His Son to do the impossible in our lives.

God wants us to be unable to do it our self so that we can have His grace. He wants us to realize we can’t do it on your own. We can’t earn it. We HAVE to have Him. His grace will give us the power to do things we thought were impossible.

First, God’s grace is not earned. And second…

2.   God's grace is a free gift. (Eph 2:8)

Ephesians 2:8c (NLT) ; it is a gift from God.

Just like a child that is born into a rich family, who didn’t do anything to deserve the inheritance his father has for them. When we have grace, we are given a free gift that we do not deserve.


Testimony - Part 2:

Sitting in his aloneness… with a can of beanie-weenies, and they have several flavor. He realized that he was getting nowhere with the things he had earned on his own! He needed to accept what was freely given to him. It was time to stop running away from God and apply the things of His Word to his life through the free gift of His Son. It came to a point of surrender.
To have God’s free gift of grace, you have to come to a point of surrender.

Don’t do what you can do; do what God empowers you to do through His free gift.

When you do that, you have all the good things that God can do in your life…


First, God’s grace is not earned. Second, it is a free gift. Finally…


3.   Salvation is only possible through God's grace. (Eph 2:9)

Ephesians 2:9 (NLT)
9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.

It’s not about what we have done. It is about what God has done. If it were about what you could do, then you could boast about it. But it is nothing good that you can do or ever do to earn God’s grace. Salvation is only possible through God and what HE has done.
Some of us today think we are fine. We don’t think that we have to apply grace. We don’t think that we have to trust God.

Being a good person will not save you. Comparing yourself to someone else will not save you. You can’t have God’s favor or blessing by being a good person! You have to believe and trust in God.

-   If you have a marriage that needs to be saved, it is only possible through God’s grace.
-   If you have a family relationship that needs to be restored, it is only going to be possible through God’s grace.
-   If there are unresolved issues between you and someone else, it is only going to be fixed through the grace and forgiveness that God gives you and works through you to someone else.

YOU:

-   Things that help us apply the free gift in our life:
   1.   Praying
   2.   Reading His Word
   3.   Live like changed person
   4.   Allow God’s grace to flow in restoration with:

-   Marriage
-   Family
-   Friends

WE:


Testimony Final Part:

You know that man I was telling you about sure could use some grace. Without his knowledge, his family was praying for him. Even though he had given up on them, they never gave up on him. Grace was working in his life when he didn’t know it.

After what seemed like years to his family, they began to start communicating. Communicating led to spending more time together. Spending more time together led to him stopping the divorce proceedings and moving back home.

He was so ashamed of what he had done and become. The man started asking for God’s forgiveness. God showed me more grace than he ever thought possible. God started changing his life. God revealed the plan that he had for him. And finally he quit running and surrendered everything to God. And his life has not been the same since.

That man is here. As a matter of fact, he is standing up right now.

Here I stand… with a call to plant a church and be a Pastor. God has me on a track that I never, ever thought was possible.

Grace has been operating for you when maybe you couldn’t see it or didn’t recognize it. Christ died for you 2,000 years ago. Grace has been operating for you for 2,000 years.

God has you here today for a reason. It’s grace that brought you here today. And grace will continue to be with you for the rest of your life as you accept Jesus and trust Him to be your Lord and your guide.

Romans 5:8-10 (NLT)
8 But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.  9 And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation.  10 For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son.