Sunday 26th January 2014 - A Community of Grace - Brian Nish

A COMMUNITY OF GRACE INTRODUCTION Nick last week 'The first and Great Commandment' - "Love The Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and all your mind". The second is to "Love your neighbour - as yourself" (Math 22v37) How do we do this? "Come on, you need to love God more?" No! "We love God because He first loved us" (1 John 4v19) Read Eph 2v4-8 "But God who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace, in His kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God" THE GRACE OF GOD Definition - "Grace is God's free and undeserved favour - His unconditional love - His lavish provision - and His active power" The Father's great love is the source and foundation of all grace Everything we have in God we have received from His grace We are not only saved by grace - but we should continue in grace - to reign in life - and to finish our race Martin-Lloyd Jones said "If grace doesn't sound absolutely outrageous you probably haven't preached on grace!" Read 'Living In The Grace Of God' by Rob Rufus Some Facts About Grace Grace - means that God loves and accepts us, that He is good, and always wants what is best for us, as a loving Father Grace - is the reality of God's ongoing love and acceptance of us, regardless of our successes or failures Grace - is God's desire to bless us, not because of our performance, but because of the performance of Jesus on our behalf Grace - rescues us from rejection and insecurity, and performance orientated living Grace - reveals that we are loved and accepted by God just as we are - but that He loves us too much to leave us as we are Grace - means that God's correction is a proof of His love for us, and He does this with a smile on His face as proud Father Grace - sets us free to be what God created us to be - a loved, secure, joyful, enthusiastic, spontaneous, unpredictable, and risk-taking people! WHAT IS GOD REALLY LIKE? Rob Rufus in his book highlights the fact that there are three main channels through which we can receive the grace of God: 1) Faith - Rom 5v2 says "...through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand..." 2) A humble heart - James 4v6 says "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble 3) A true revelation of the character of God - 2 Peter 1v2 says "Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord" Sadly, even some Christians have a distorted view of the character of God. What I am going to share is my personal view of some aspects of the character of God. I cannot prove it theologically, but neither can you disprove it theologically! I am going to grasp the nettle and tackle some difficult questions about God's character. Gen 1-3 - God creates the heavens and earth - and Adam/Eve for relationship with Himself - and to rule and reign on His behalf Malachi 3v6 - "For I am The Lord, I do not change" John 14v9 - Jesus says "He who has seen Me has seen the Father" Heb 13v8 - "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever" The God of the O/T and N/T is the same God. He is a loving Father and a good God who wants a family's to spend time with Him, and to rule and reign on planet earth on His behalf. God does not have a split personality and doesn't have bad days! God lives outside time and can see the past, present, and future. Noah and the flood? (Gen 6) Jacob I loved, Esau I hated? (Rom 9v13) The hardening of Pharaoh's heart? (Gen 14v4) Conquering of Jericho? Saved Rahab/family/friends? (Joshua 6) God is against sin because it leads to wickedness, destruction, and death. But even in the O/T God saved all those whose hearts were open to Him. God didn't undergo a personality change somewhere between the Old and New Testaments!!! God always has been, and always will be, a good and loving Father. Understanding this should make it easier for us to receive His grace! A COMMUNITY OF GRACE (Acts 4v32-33) The more we understand and receive the grace of God, the more we will treat others with grace. Read 'Living In The Grace Of God pages 49-50 Living in the grace of God means: that we love and accept one another, with all our differences we don't judge one another when things go wrong because we recognise "that there but for the grace of God go I" we make an effort to encourage others daily, because we recognise that need in ourselves we value people more, and do what we can to pray for and help them because we so appreciate God's wonderful grace towards us we want to share this grace with others this can lead us beyond the walls of the building to infiltrate the world, heal the sick, set the captives free, and feed the hungry we will show non-judgemental love and mercy to a sick and dying world The church will become a community of grace!