Jesus IS _____, Week 2: Grace

Welcome to week 2 of Jesus is.   Wasn’t last week amazing? Easter Sunday… so many new faces… lives changed…and today… today is baptism Sunday where over 10 people are letting all of you know how much they love Jesus!  But, we must realize that we live in a world where everyone doesn’t love Jesus.  In fact, many aren’t sure what to think of Jesus.  Was He a good teacher?  A prophet perhaps?  A good man?   Last week we learned a central truth that set Jesus apart from anyone else… that truth is… Jesus is ALIVE!   This week I want to teach you another central truth about Jesus.   Title:  Jesus is Grace. When Rachel and I set out on this journey to plant Freedom Church, there was one glaringly obvious problem we had in our community.  Jesus was misrepresented.  In fact, what I’ve noticed over these last 7-8 years is that many are believing a misrepresentation of Jesus not because they searched for themselves, but because of what others told them. STORY: I heard about a pastor once who was talking with a man on the plane and when you are a pastor it’s weird when the question:  What do you do for a living, comes up.  He told the man, I’m a Pastor and the countenance of the guy changed immediately.  Then, the next 10 minutes were filled with misconception after misconception of who he THOUGHT God was. He said, I want nothing to do with God, he is mean, distant…doesn’t care about me and my problems, always mad, waiting on me to mess up, he stopped and the pastor said: Wow, I wouldn’t want anything to do with that God either, but that’s not my God.  Maybe that’s you today.  Maybe you sit here and like the man on the plane, those were your thoughts… Please know that we can’t always trust who others SAY Jesus is. We have to discover for ourselves…   you see, when people say Jesus is… Mean? (2 Corinthians 1:3-4)(NLT) All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. Distant? (Isaiah 41:10)(NLT) Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand. Doesn’t care about you and your problems? (Psalm 31:7)(NLT) I will be glad and rejoice in your unfailing love, for you have seen my troubles, and you care about the anguish of my soul. Waiting on you to mess up? (Micah 7:18)(NIV) Who is a God like you? …You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy. As you can see, it’s easy sometimes to get the wrong impression about Jesus.  In our time left, I want to focus on the fact that Jesus is grace… What is Grace? Justice: Giving someone what he deserves. Mercy: Not giving someone what he deserves. Grace:  Giving someone what he doesn’t deserve. The word grace can be confusing… let me show you what I mean… If SIN is bad, and it is.. and I asked you what the opposite of sin is, many of you would say righteousness.   Sin is bad, righteousness is good.  Makes sense, but that’s not the opposite of sin. The opposite of sin is Grace. Here’s why… If righteousness was the opposite of sin, then there would be at some point a place where you would have worked so hard at being good that you would’ve earned the grace and that’s not possible. Here it is in scripture: (Romans 5:20-21)(NLT) But as people sinned more and more, God’s wonderful grace became more abundant. So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God’s wonderful grace rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. IOW-Grace puts sin in its place!  Now… does grace change us?  Of course it does! Grace helps us change the way we live.  (Titus 2:11-12)(NLT) For the grace of God has been revealed, bringing salvation to all people. 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. So that begs the question… if you still WANT to live in this world and have no problem sinning, were you saved in the first place?  We have to understand that we can’t do enough good things in order to be righteous… grace is the only way that happens. We have to understand that Jesus IS Grace…not has some grace to divvy up, or He is usually upset and mad at us, but then puts on the grace hat and gives it to us… NO!  HE IS GRACE!!!!  He isn’t acting outside of Himself. Mercy is used 4 times more in the OT than it is in the NT. Grace is used 3 times more in the NT than in the OT.  Why?  Because Jesus is Grace. (John 1:17)(NIV) For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. What is so amazing about Grace? 1.     Grace is not a goal we achieve but a gift we receive. Question? How many of you have received a gift? It’s either works or grace not both.  (Romans 11:6) (NIV) And if by grace, then it cannot be based on works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace. Do you believe you were saved or you are STAYING saved because you earned it or because it was a free gift?   2.     Grace is not cheap but it is free. Crazy story of a man named Hosea in the OT.  He is asked by God to go and pick out a wife.  Not just any wife.  A Prostitute... for a wife. You think that’s bad… her name was Gomer!  He rescues her…but she returns to her old ways… and look at what happens…. (Hosea 3:1)(NLT) Then the Lord said to me, “Go and love your wife again, even though she commits adultery with another lover. This will illustrate that the Lord still loves Israel, even though the people have turned to other gods and love to worship them.” The price Hosea paid for his wife was significant. The reason for the payment was because she probably had become the legal property of another man or because she was being redeemed from service as a cult prostitute. As for the price Hosea paid for his wife, the amount seems to correspond to the price paid for a slave according to the law of the goring ox: (Exodus 21:32)(NLT) But if the ox gores a slave, either male or female, the animal’s owner must pay the slave’s owner thirty silver coins, and the ox must be stoned. According to Leviticus 27:4, thirty shekels of silver was also the value of a woman when calculating the fulfillment of a vow. Jesus is Grace….  He is a gift… not earned..  He is not cheap but freely He gave his life..   for how much? (Matthew 26:14-15) (NLT) Then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve disciples, went to the leading priests and asked, “How much will you pay me to betray Jesus to you?” And they gave him thirty pieces of silver. The story of Hosea & Gomer was a picture of what was to come. Jesus is Grace….  Jesus is the bride of Christ who gave His life, a gift for us to have for free. 3.     Grace is not an earthly transaction but an eternal transformation. Grace isn’t just a thing we receive for this earth…. It’s a transformation that will take us from here to eternity. (1 John 5:13)(NLT) I have written this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life. (Romans 6:23)(NLT) For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. Listen, is anyone thankful that because Jesus is Grace that we can join Him in heaven forever and forever? It’s true…let me say it this way… If by your sins you’ve been sentenced to Hell then… By His grace you have been sentenced to Heaven. Make no mistake about it… Jesus is Alive…and wants to bring to life those dead things in your life…but He is also Grace.   A free gift, not a cheap one…a high price was paid…. And it’s all so that we can join Him forever in Heaven. PRAYER