Monday, August 31, 2015

God's Grace is a Way of Life

God's Grace is a Way of Life
But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them--yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. (1 Cor. 15:10)

We all talk about God's Grace but how many of us truly understand just what we are really saying and truly understand what that means? How many of us know all there is to know about grace? How many of us take the little things for granted? How many of us believe that we are where we are in life based upon how hard we've worked to get to where we are? If you believe that, then we really need to talk!

We need to understand that it was not our doing, but only God's Grace! By God's Grace, we are able to be here today. Grace has the ability to change us, reshape us, strengthen us, encourage us, soften us and the list goes on. In all of our stuff, God is gracious and merciful by not giving us what we truly deserve. His grace is nothing other than Unmerited favor. We did absolutely nothing to receive his grace nor could we ever do anything in order to receive God’s grace.

So, what is grace? Grace is a free gift. It is a free gift from God! Just because He loves us!


We cannot work for it. We cannot negotiate it. We cannot earn it. We do not deserve it. We cannot manufacture it for ourselves. It can only come from our God of grace and He gives it to us completely free.

Do you all remember being taught about grace using an acrostic? Grace is: God’s Redemption At Christ’s Expense.  That’s cute and catchy but to really comprehend what grace is, we have to understand who God really is. In Hebrew the word for God is EL which simply means one with strength, with might, with power, is great and is strong.  Some names of God we as Christians sometimes use ; Elohim, our creator who is mighty and strong, El Shaddai our God Almighty or El Elyon, our Most High God.

Because of what happened in the Garden of Eve, sin entered our being and we were separated from God.
This was never in His plan for us to be separated from Him at any time. The only way to cover our sins permanently would be for Him to offer His Son, Christ Jesus as a living sacrifice. We were reconnected to God by the bloodshed of His Beloved Son, Jesus Christ. The cost of our redemption was indeed very costly! Our redemption is the greatest portion of grace given to us by our Loving Father! God’s Grace! Hallelujah!

The extent of God’s grace is endless and it’s probably not even humanly possible to understand just how big and how deep and how wide His grace truly is! It is not because we have been good but only because He is good! 
God pours out grace on each of us every day! We are like little spoiled children because we think it is always of our own doing.

The daily grace we receive comes in many types, many forms. In other words, we receive our daily portion of grace based upon how God sees our needs at that time. God tailors His grace to meet our needs. Praise God for His Grace!

God loves all of us dearly, whether all of us acknowledge Him or not and He therefore provides grace to all of us. This form of grace is known as Common Grace. We can find an example of Common Grace in Matthew 4:44-45 says “He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”
Common grace takes the form of things we take for granted such as the earth and what we get from it such like precious stones and various metals. Like natural gas and oil. Even the makeup of our bodies, like our immune system to fight off germs, our skin which is self-repairing! (God designed us this way!)  What about our senses, we can smell the roses, we can feel the touch of a new born baby, our spouse or significant other? Things that we don’t even think about! God’s Common Grace, is provided to
allow us to partake in His creations for our enjoyment and for our benefit!  Common Grace! Don’t take it lightly!

Ephesians 2: 8 says: “For it by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.” In order words, our ransom was paid in full on Calvary in order for us to receive the gift of salvation!  Jesus went to the cross on our behalf, we were able to take off our old selves and become new again in Christ all because of His saving grace! Because
Hallelujah! Saving grace!  This is something to shout about!  God saved us, simply because He loves us and He forgave us!  But wait! There’s more! Not only can we thank God for His saving grace, because immediately after we were saved, His grace started to work on us to purify us and sanctify us! God’s sanctifying grace which is His Holy Spirit that lives inside of us is always putting us in check, pointing out our sins, prompting us to confess our wrongdoings and repent. It is up to us to be obedient in order for the work of sanctification and purification to continue working in us! Just remember, Ephesians 1:6 tells us “he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion.” Let us never sell ourselves short by walking in disobedient because it delays the purification process that God has started. Praise His Holy Name for His Sanctifying grace!

Has anyone ever experienced that grace, having your needs met right unexpectedly, at the time you are at the end of your rope? Not knowing if you should tie a knot and hang on of just let go?



How many of you saw Tyler Perry's movie, "Good Deeds"?  Tyler Perry played the part of a very successful business man who was about to get married but found himself drawn to the night housekeeper of the building he worked in. The housekeeper was a single mother, working, struggling to provide for her daughter which became impossible. She and her daughter lost their home and lived in her car. She lost her babysitter for not having the money to pay. Children services caught wind of this and the mother was forced to be separated from her child.
Having witnessed the child being taken away, Tyler Perry becomes very concerned for the well-being of the mother and the child. He asks her to allow him to help her and she was filled with pride like so many of us however, she wanted to be reunited with her daughter, so she agreed to allow him help her. Never in her wildest dreams did she imagine, someone would provide a place of her own to live so that she could regain custody of her daughter. She wondered why this man was so generous and kind to her, something she had never experienced before. James 1:17 tells us that “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights.”  When we at the point of giving up, God steps in and tells us the same thing, “Let me help you. He tells us “I am  Jehovah Jireh, your provider. I can and will supply all of your needs.”  God already knows what we are in need.
God is a God of provisional grace!

God knew of her needs and had pre-arranged how she would receive the help she needed through a chosen vessel to work on His behalf. What an experience to be the beneficiary of God’s provisional grace!  Say Provisional Grace!

Provisional grace and Miraculous grace are very closely related. We see and witness God performing miracles every day. When there is absolutely no explanation for something occurring or not occurring can only be the miraculous power of God!

I met a young woman on Sunday whom experienced God’s working power, His Miraculous grace very recently.
I will not say what the situation was, because that is her testimony to share but it was one of those “Wow! Look at God!” moments! Jehovah Ropha!  God our Healer!

Praise God for miraculous grace interceding on our behalf!
It cannot be explained! It cannot be denied! It is only God’s grace!

Grace is a way of life! Many of us feel that our sufferings seem to be endless when actually our sufferings are only momentarily when we weigh them against what we will experience in the realm of glorious eternity. Listen, if God is going to use us, you can best believe that we are going to suffer. Don’t take it personal. The good news is God will sustain us while we are going through the fire! Sustaining grace! Yes, we will go through trials and suffer much pain,
but our Bible tells us in Hebrews 4:16 “Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace to help in time of need!”

When we look back over our life and everything that we have ever been through or still in, do you know why you are still standing? Do you know how you still have sanity?
You are still standing in spite of you losing that job and now wondering what will happen to you and your family;  in spite of your worrying about that wayward child causing you sleepless nights because you see them going down the path of destruction;  in spite of the what the doctors are telling you that you have cancer and it is in the last phase;  in spite of it being only the 5th of the month, money is gone and there’s still 25 more days left in the month! In spite of all that; God continuously pours out His sustaining grace on every one of us! Remember what
our Bible tells us in 1 Peter 5:10 “And after you have suffered a little while, The grace of God, who has called you to is eternal glory in Christ, will Himself restore, confirm, strengthen and establish you!” Praise God for His sustaining grace! Every one of us should be running around this church right now praising Him for His Sustaining Grace. During those times of trials and suffering, we can have comfort in knowing from God’s Word, 2 Corinthians 12: 9 “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”  This is why we have not fainted during our sufferings. This is my testimony! You may now see my glory but you don’t know my story! Praise God for His sustaining grace!

Grace is a way of life! Say Grace is a way of life!


There’s more about God’s grace! The magnitude of God’s grace is immeasurable!  Ephesians 1: 13 -14 says “When you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and when you believed in Him, you were also sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. Want to know what I just said?  I just said our God has secured us from sin! Our salvation has been locked and secured by His Securing Grace! We have been saved by the blood of the lamb, we have been sanctified by the Holy Spirit and we have been justified by His grace! It is good to know that we can have relief in knowing our salvation is Secured by His mercy and His grace!  Grace is a way of Life!

So far we know that we all share common grace just because God is a Loving Father who loves all of us. We know that we have been saved by His grace, sanctified by His grace, our immediate needs are met by His provisional grace. God is a miracle worker and extends miraculous grace making a way out of no way. We have comfort in knowing that by God’s sustaining grace, we are still standing when it felt like we were carrying the weight of the world on us and we could have lost our mind, and we can be assured that our salvation has been secured by God’s beloved son, Christ Jesus. But there is still more!  We all have been given spiritual gifts by our loving Father.
Those gifts were not given to us just to have, but for the sake of serving others. 1 Peter 4:10-11 tells us that “each of us should use whatever gift we have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.”

It goes on to say “if we speak, we should do so as one who speaks the words of God and if we serve, we should serve with the strength God provides, so that God will be praised through Jesus Christ.”  In other words, don’t kick a sister while she is down! As stewards of God, we have been given the gift of Serving grace and we are to use it blessing others, paying it forward for the purpose of glorifying God, not ourselves.

God’s grace is freely given and we have 2 options of how to live our lives. We can choose to accept anything and everything that happens to us as being our ‘destiny’ or we can choose knowing and understanding God’s grace, God’s divine assistance, unmerited favor and why we need it in our lives. His grace has been given to keep us from sinning. Yet, when we do sin, we can ask for forgiveness and God grants us tender mercies! Although, don’t think because God provides grace to us, that it is a greenlight to sin! Don’t get it twisted!

God’s grace is a way of life! 

·       By his saving grace, we have been saved from the wages of sin which is death.

·       By his common grace, we live in the midst of all that He has created for us to enjoy!

·       By His grace, we have been sanctified!

·       By His grace, we have received His Holy Spirit that lives within us which justifies us!

·       we least expect it.

·       By His miraculous grace, He still performs miracles everyday. Miracles which cannot be explained.

·       By His grace, we have been sustained. We have been kept. 

·       By His grace, we have not lost our minds as we continually go through storm after storm in our
lives.

·       His sustaining grace provided strength to us to keep us from fainting.

·       God’s grace has given us security in salvation. We have been sealed with a promise by the Holy Spirit.

·       God’s grace has been given to us in the form of spiritual gifts that we are to use for the benefit of others for the growth of the body of Christ.

Grace is a way of life! It is a wonderful free gift from our Father! Therefore we should extend grace to others in the way of love and kindness! 

Again, we will never fully understand the full magnitude of God’s grace but one thing I do know for certain. God’s grace is working in us every day! The best thing we can do is to submit to the influence of His grace!

Grace is a way of life and I received revelation of this years ago when God spoke to me clearly revealing ‘a better way of life.’ What I realize now that I did not realize at that time was how freely His grace was flowing in my life knowing that I did not deserve His grace. But because he loved me then and He still loves me now, I can say I am still standing because of His grace and who He is!

If you feel you have come to a crossroad, not knowing whether to go right or go left. Go right because it leads to God and His grace. If there is something holding you back, and keeping you from fully yielding to Him, trust God to reveal those things so that you may recognize His grace is with you and Has been with you all along.

God’s grace is a way of life!  As I close, I want to leave you all with this verse, 2 Corinthians 9:8 which says “God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all time, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.”


May God’s grace continually be with you all! God bless you!

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