Saved to Walk

Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically from the audio and may contain small errors.

Father God we come before you this morning as we open up your word I pray that we our hearts are ready to receive it gotta pray that you know my motivation this morning isn't to pleasing you one in this room but it's to obey and and glorify your name God so let us handle your word with respect and honor and it's in your love and grace we pray amen all right you guys can be seated my name is Daniel Oster and I'm a pastor here at South Baptist South Burleson Baptist Church and it's exciting to be here with you as we kind of walk through Ephesians and before we get started I want to ask who remembers a movie about a 17 year old high school student who was accidentally sent in time 30 years while traveling in a DeLorean invented by a scientist okay well who what movie is that Back to the Future okay iconic all the teenagers are like what what back to the web Back to the Future 1985 iconic movie and the movie

emphasizes the importance of what happens before our existence the character in the movie accidentally goes back in time messes with some things his parents may not meet which means if they don't meet he won't exist and there's this there's this you know this he's kind of fading away and what's going to happen all all dependent on what is happening in the past affecting his future and as we walk through Ephesians 2 today we're gonna look at how we are made alive by things that were put in motion before before our existence and we're gonna look at how God was working in our lives and we're gonna look at grace that's that's we're gonna look at grace back we're gonna look grace towards our future and what it means now so we're gonna call this grace back to the future now okay and so last week we began in Ephesians 2 and we're emphasizing this alive us being alive and thought we'd open up and we're gonna read a couple verses we

read last week and then we're gonna read a couple more starting in Ephesians 2 if y'all want to turn there with me Ephesians 2 and we're going to read verses 4 and 5 and 8 and 9 Ephesians 2 4 and 5 8 and 9 I'm gonna read those says but God being rich in mercy because of the great love which he loved us even when we were dead in our trespasses made us alive together in Christ by grace you have been saved and then verse 8 says for by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not your own doing it's the gift of God not a result of works so that no one may boast okay so to understand grace fully we have to be aware of what we were before God gave us this gift and so before we dive into grace I want us to take attention of just kind of thinking about what our life would was like without grace and we talked about this last week live a little bit about being dead in our transgressions and I feel

like it's important for us to kind of double down because we're not going to understand grace unless we understand what what was poured out what we were before and so I don't know see you put Mike Rowe up there Mike Rowe does anybody recognize this guy he used to do a TV show called dirtiest jobs okay and he would go around the US and he would do these crazy jobs and they asked him what was the grossest thing that you ever did and he said it was being a sewer cleaner which we probably made could have guessed right but listen how he describes it he says aside from sloshing through a relentless chocolate tide inspectors encountered a myriad of man-made products that shouldn't be flushed down toilets along with roaches the size of your thumb and rats the size of bread loaves it's hot dirty and too smelly to describe okay and we can easily think that before Christ we were okay you know if there was a beauty pageant

maybe we wouldn't have won first place but we definitely wouldn't have been last but listen how Isaiah describes it in these terms Isaiah 64 6 it says but we are all as unclean thing and all our righteousness are as filthy rags and all we do fade as a leaf and our iniquities like the wind has taken us away in that the terminology there when it talks about filthy rags is like menstrual rags it's like it's it's garbage it's sewage is trash and so to think about our state and what we brought to the table before God's beautiful gift of grace is sometimes we elevate ourselves too much so to think that we were filthy we were separated from God we were we were dead in our transgressions and we were on a train of destruction rest rushing straight to face God's just wrath and so when we can kind of understand that that was our condition before that's where that's where we understand that his grace had nothing to do with

nothing to do with our own doing great his grace was not our own doing and and that's why the first two words of these scriptures and we talked about this a little bit last week but God when you hear about what we were and then it says the two words that look we better be super excited they're there because before we're dead or filthy we're separated but then we get these words but God and then and then it describes his characteristics separate from us we see rich in mercy that has nothing to do with with us it has has to do with his kindness and compassion it's seen here as God not punishing us for the sins that we deserve it's God because if God gave us what we deserved we would we would have been condemned for eternity then we see God's great love and his love on display through his son Jesus Christ which we get in John 3 16 which is for God's love the world that he gave his only son and so we see God displaying

his great love and today we're work on a kind of kind of plant is we see him as a giver of grace and this is not because of anything that we've done or that God owes us and so when we talk about people being saved usually it's like there if you think about it it's in the context of them being saved from something that they didn't deserve like like maybe they were saved from drowning it was a horrible accident or maybe they were they were saved you know from something else you but if we talk about like a villain or somebody who's evil we don't really say they were saved we usually say things like they just didn't get what they deserved right like it wasn't that they were saved they just really didn't get what they deserve and so when we talk about God's grace we have to talk about it like remember that it's something that we are recipients of that we did not deserve okay so if his if his grace is not our

doing so much so that we should not boast that's what has the verses in and I wanted to as parents you think about all the things that you give your kids okay from the very beginning you're feeding them you're making sure they're warm you're you're giving them a place to say shelter safety you're paying for all the bills look I remind my kids of this all the time okay and so my kids my kids because of my great love for them for cancer my great love they gave me this I'm gonna show you they don't even know I'm showing this today in 2012 I got this shirt says we love you and there's handprints on there okay yeah but I mean this doesn't pay the bills y'all I mean I mean this is great right I'm at harvest house wouldn't even give me a dollar for it and and and so guys I love the shirt thank you very much if if and this is kind of like this is kind of what we do with God is we and you know what I was thinking I

probably paid for that shirt in the glue right so that shirt cost me negative but that but but that is that is literally like what we do with God in our actions right we we say if the kids go like dad look we gave you that shirt like you owe us like think about all that look at that shirt you know you owe us we we've pretty much are even now and we do that with God we say hey God look at look at what we're kind of bringing to the table you know if I do a little bit of more of this does it equal you giving me some more and what we forget is that the bill that was due was something that we could not pay that what we brought to the table was it was about worth as much as that shirt because because the bill that was due was death for our sin and Jesus Christ paid that for us and so when we try to rest in grace and what was done and this was done before our grandpa you know you just think about generations how long

this was thousands of years ago this was done for us way back then and so kind of like back to the future reference is we're not fading away because of what Christ did for us back before and so if his grace is not our doing we must reject self-reliance and embrace grace okay and I'm sure that if I passed out a quiz a Christian test and I said hey should you depend on God or should you do depend on yourself and we're gonna be like God we're all gonna get that right but let me just give you a couple scenarios to just kind of get you thinking about what it looks like when our life gravitates to rely on our own self-reliance maybe you're just searching for something to be happy right your self-reliance tells you hey spend time money on things like digital games on your phone you know if you wear brand name clothes or things people want to think better of you maybe you put a lot of emphasis in your kids sports

social media posts all these things self-reliance is saying look you can make these things happen invest your time your money in these things embracing grace reminds us that because of Christ we have a direct relationship with God the Father and nothing he made can be more satisfying than a relationship with him so so so embracing grace encourages to love the giver and not the gifts okay a second one you think about all those responsibilities you have at work responsibilities your family maybe you're doing a lot at this church all the things you do self-reliance says look at all that you're doing Wow if people knew how hard you worked all that you did they would be amazed if things get tough you get tougher shoulder the responsibility and wear it like a badge of honor okay that's what self-reliance says embracing grace and is you go into God and thanking him for

everything he's done and knowing that no matter how you work how hard you work he's the giver and you pray you pray constantly to be a good steward with these things and so when when times get tough you pray and you lean into him you lean in into your community and so when people give you compliments you're quick to point them to God our Father and give him the glory so that's the difference one more you have sinned again this is the same sin you've asked God to forgive you for and you told him last time you wouldn't do it again and he's already forgiven you hundreds of times for this same one sin self-reliance says you better get your act together before you think about going to God now that you've sinned he's not gonna forgive you again without you bringing something to table or somehow showing him you're really really sorry this time that's what self-reliance says okay embracing grace is us falling to our

knees and repenting not because we deserve it because we know that his grace and forgiveness doesn't run out okay that's the difference so our flesh will constantly tell us that we need to do more and that we can do a lot listen what's second Corinthians listen what Paul says in second Corinthians I didn't write the chapter of verse but I promise you it's in there says my grace is sufficient for you my power is made perfect in weakness therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weakness for that is the power of Christ may rest upon me so where do we see boasting in this one we see it happening in our weakness and God shows up and shows off in our weakness and all we can do is point to him and just say that's God that is not me so now kind of with our hopefully with our perspectives realigned and understanding that we had nothing to do with the grace that was done before I want you

to I want you to read the I want you to hear these verses of one more time before we go on I want you to hear hear hear about what God did for us okay I'm reading one more time says but God being rich in mercy because of his great love which he loved us even when we were dead in our trans trespasses made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved for by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not your own doing it's a gift from God not as a result of works so that no one can boast okay so now that we kind of looked at what grace was done before let's let's look at what our future has in store because of grace let's read verses 6 and 7 it says in raised up with him and seated with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus so that in the coming ages we might show that he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus okay so it

talks about us being raised up with Jesus is seated right next to him yet we're right here and so this is talking about spiritually and so we have to remember that because of because of the grace that was done our future we are in union with Christ now spiritually and so what that means is when Christ died we died when he was buried we were buried when he was raised we were raised and when he was seated at the right hand of the father so were we okay the one big difference is is when we were buried and raised our sins remained buried and that's what grace looks like that's that that's that's what God's grace does for us and you look at you look at the word show here and it means to make visible or apparent or to display God shows his abundant grace to sinners so it's it's a display not only affecting our lives but also on display for others we see the word exceeding which means like surpassing it can also like translate to

say like super grace like like just just more than enough and so God wants to demonstrate and show his grace towards sinners so because of this his grace gives us a future and so there are plans for us in eternity that involve our plant the plans for us in eternity involve more than us just floating in a cloud playing a harp like his plans in eternity are big and listen to what Charles Spurgeon says when he's when he's talking about what it what it's going to look like our future he says when all the Saints shall be gathered home they still still talk and speak of the wonders of Jehovah's love in Christ Jesus and in the golden streets they are they shall stand up and tell what the Lord has done to them list listening crowds of angels principalities and powers and I think one song that kind of shows this well that talks about our future and grace is a very familiar Amazing Grace it's a song that we sing listen to the

last verse of Amazing Grace it says when we've been there 10,000 years bright shining as the Sun we've no less days to sing God's praise than when we first begun so you see what's happening there is we're singing of God's grace day one and even 10,000 years later and so we're going to be experiencing this grace for eternity just like it was in day one and so it's never going to get stale it's never going to get old and we're going to be singing about it for eternity and so when you think about okay this grace does this for our future in that and that's wonderful and I can't wait till heaven and eternity and spending time with God what is that what is knowing that do for us right now and and what what what it does when grace gives us a future it should allow us to have an eternal perspective okay so what does it mean to have an eternal perspective Colossians 3 1 says says if anyone have been raised with Christ

seek the things of above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God okay we when we go to we go we like to go to Colorado sometimes in the summer and one thing that we've done before is we've been horseback riding okay and it's it's amazing and we went one year several years ago and we get on we go to get on horses in the horse guy I'm sure they have like an official name but the horse guy says look here's your horse his name is Ned which is weird because I work with a Ned he likes to eat the grass on the trail whatever you do do not let him eat grass on the trail I'm like okay that should be fine he's like we got hay and stuff but he likes to eat grass on the trail so get on Ned and we're out and we go 100 feet and what happens is buries his face right and so I think that if I just pull back and go no Ned that's not gonna happen no he didn't care what I was doing I literally had to like stand up in the

stirrups and so my whole horse ride I felt like his Ned goes and so I'd get him out and he's eating like branches I mean I don't even know this horse is going wild the guy in front's like come on I'm like trying to pull this horse up he's eating all this grass around me and and I mean it's just like every 200 feet and so finally we get to the end and and we're done and I'm tired from trying to keep this horse from eating so much grass and it is like I'm thinking like this this horse knows at the end he's about to get like this like you don't have to work for it's this nutritious hay at the end this grass whatever it is I don't know horses obviously and but and it's not like I'm the first guy to ride him he knew that that hay and stuff was going to be there at the end of our trail ride and he's probably done this hundreds of times and this this is how short-sighted we can be this is what it means to have an

eternal perspective that we can be stiff-necked and when when we know what the Lord has prepared for us in the future but we like Ned are walking through our life and then we just get enamored with like what's right in front of us and we lose sight of what is waiting for us and so eternal perspective does two two major things have an eternal perspective gives us proper value of things and it also and it also gives us kind of the appropriate size of a matter okay so let's look at value so on the trail Ned is seeing like this grass and these weeds and I'm sure it's like thorns I mean it was I didn't even know horses ate some of the stuff that he was like pulling up from the ground that had dirt on it and all this stuff and likewise we tend to think that when we go through life that these things around us give us great value like there's some things that we just we can't imagine life without to help identify some of

these things if you exercises you can do and you can like write this down think about things think about where your mind goes when you daydream like when you don't have to think about anything a good exercise is to think about where your mind goes okay what are you hopeful for what's something that just captures your attention a second way to think through it is what are some things you just move your schedule around a lot to make sure something happens okay like you cannot wait to do this activity frequently in your life and you may already be thinking about it like man I can't wait I hope he doesn't go long I've got this today don't worry my family already warned me not to go along today so think about just things that you move your schedule around you make sacrifices for and these these things could be good or bad one more is maybe think about something you feel that you've just not gotten what

you were owed what you deserved like you feel slighted and when you think about this that you didn't get the right recognition maybe didn't get the right monetary reward whatever it may be when you think about this it frustrates you you feel like maybe lacks justice it's if you wrote something down or you have something in your mind I want you now to compare those things take those things as a whole you can even add them together and I want you to compare them to what you think scriptures talking about when it says the immeasurable riches of his grace okay compare that to the promise we have in God when he says that we're gonna one day be sitting next to him next at his right hand of Jesus Christ okay where do you think those things are going to be well when we're singing about his amazing grace in heaven okay that's what an eternal perspective is it's it's not allowing us to be

distracted and put time and pain in these things and it could be good or bad but this is what it means to look forward and think of the things above so having an eternal perspective gives us proper value so it reminds us that these things are temporary okay we can't take them with us and then and then eternal perspective gives us an idea of the size of the matter when things happen in our lives and we can be we can be consumed by them anxiety and fear are rampant and I don't want to like to smish this minish them and think all you have to do is slap some faith and everything will be okay but what I can say with confidence is that whatever situation whatever things that you're going through that God's eternal plan and promises bigger than those things and so I want you to think think or even write down on the same sheet you have I want you to think about write down things that you're stressing or have

anxiety about right now like what are some things that are occupying your mind this goes for me I woke up this morning I woke up this morning I woke up this week it's something I just wake up thinking about work way early and I'm kind of stressing about all the things I have to do that day okay think about those things okay now eternal perspective then looks like I want you to now imagine yourself where scripture says that we are now spiritually and where we will be with Jesus with his arm around you and I want you to I want you to hand those I want you to act like you're showing Jesus those things and you're going Jesus do these things worry you like like do you do you get stressed about these is this something you can't handle should I look for somewhere else for me to take these two I mean that's that's foolish right and so when I get like that I kind of have the go-to scriptures that I have to remind

myself and you would think that once you learn it you can move on and I haven't accomplished that in a lot of things in my life and so I I encourage you to have kind of those go-to scriptures and for me it's it's mark five and and the summary of it is is demon-possessed man who can't even be locked up he lives in the cemetery me sounds like a start of a scary story right so scary situation the townspeople can't restrain him with chains and then what happens Jesus walks on the scene this guy is running towards Jesus and I'm sure everybody thought he's just going to obliterate this Nazarene man and what does the guy what does the man do with this has all the demons in him he falls down he's scared to death like he he sees Jesus now Jesus didn't like take his shirt off and like flex or like say some hocus-pocus or do something real crazy they were scared because they knew who he was I mean like they're like

are you come here to destroy us and that's the same Jesus that like that walks with us that's the same power we have in us so all these things that we walk into with fear and anxiety really fall down at the feet of Jesus there's nothing okay and so that's what an eternal perspective it's kind of like just it's kind of like taking a step out of your situation and going like and even in your path go back in your past has there been a situation that you've been there's no way I can see getting past this and what happens God delivers you from it it's probably done that more than once and yet we're faced with a similar problem and we go what are we going to do now so in order to keep our head from just going down in the weeds and losing sight of the future that God is in store for us the grace that he pours out for us to get through these things we must pray for God daily for this perspective and so when stresses and

fears way heavy we must orient our perspective to the eternal king who who always has is right now and always will be reigning on his throne and we can take those things and so we've looked at God's grace before we've looked at it in the future and so what does God's grace mean for us right now what are we supposed to do with that so let's read the last verse in 10 Ephesians 2 10 it says for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand and we should walk in them okay so we see we see him say the word workmanship your translations may say masterpiece or handiwork or work of art and so what makes us it's referring to us so what makes us so special and it's not because you turned out okay it's not because you're born in Texas it's not you know there's a lot of different things but it's based on who created us listen to this psalm I don't I feel like I never

heard that so this psalm it's already this week but listen to what psalm 33 6 through 9 says says by the word of the Lord heavens were made and by the breath of his mouth all their hosts he gathers the waters of the seas of as a heap he puts the deeps in storehouses and listen says let all the earth fear the Lord let all of its inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him for he spoke and it came to be he commanded and it stood firm so our value is in the creator not not our own ability however God's purpose doesn't stop there for us like it's not like he created us where this artwork so now he's gonna hang us on the wall or put us in a display case but what does it say it says that we are created in Christ Jesus for good works so his grace invites us to walk now and what can be confusing when we talk about our walk now is that it can kind of seem like somehow like Jesus was like a credit card payment

for our sins and now we're just kind of working off that debt like we're just we just need to kind of do some things and that's not what grace that's the opposite of grace actually and so listen you know Christians are people who follow Jesus and walk in him and listen to what first John 2 6 says it says whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in him in the same way as he walked in Ephesians references walking quite often we're gonna it talks about walking in a manner worthy talks about walking in love it'll talk later about walking in light and so if grace invites us to walk now how how do we know what to do how do we know what first step we should take okay you may know that I do commercial insurance so I work with a lot of different businesses and it's really great and early on I walked into a contractor's office and I saw up on the wall and it said it said plan your work work your plan and I'm like these

guys are geniuses that's a great idea okay and then it's not a couple months later I walk into some other company and I see the same saying like up on the wall and I'm like oh this is kind of like an industry kind of like motto and it's a plan your work work your plan and so the idea is look if you put the time in the beginning and you kind of lay out and you've kind of done everything you need to you're planning what you're going to do the work then becomes easier because you've kind of done all the heavy lifting in the beginning okay and so if you think about what these verses are talking about us is the fact that the God the creator of the universe has done the same in our lives it says it says which it says created in Christ Jesus for good works now talking about the good works which God prepared beforehand so for us walking in God's grace God has planned your walk so let's walk in God's plan okay so all

the heavy lifting has been done and what we're doing but there's a call for us to do this now and so sometimes when we are saved by grace and we hear that and we're like yes we miss we think about the future but we're missing what God is calling into calling us into now and listen to what Timothy second Timothy says in 1 9 it says he has saved us and called us with a holding calling not according according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace which he has given to us in Christ Jesus before time before time began so you hear us mention a lot in church about your walk may refer to as your spiritual journey may be referred to as sanctification all those are the same but what does it what does it mean and I think a lot of times we can be short-sighted on what God has to do now so let me give you some dress some drastic examples okay talking about walking and what that means for us now

some may say Sundays are my only walking days okay I'll only walk on Sundays and that sounds silly but have you ever have you ever gone to get your Bible on Sunday morning and it was the same place you left it Sunday after church the week before do you walk in the church and you're going oh man I should have been praying for these people around me I haven't really thought about that until I was here last Sunday and it's not a guilt trip it's an invitation to know that God's walk is a daily like he wants to do it with us and that is a call in our lives Colossians 1 10 says so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord fully pleasing to him bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in knowledge of God and so this idea that God is calling us to walk he's holding our hands like we do with a child to kind of help us along and then when we stumble he's there to pick us up so misnomers

that you only walk on Sundays that's the Christian day that's when I'm gonna walk the second way is why walk when you can coast okay why walk when you coast the Lord's doing things and if you ever been commute canoeing which I know the smirks have suitor and I've actually been in a canoe together there's a lot of times when you don't have to do anything and the river just takes you and it's great and you get really relaxed and then what happens like a sharp turn or some rapids happen and if you're not doing any type of work you're gonna fall in to the water and so a lot of times when we talk about coasting we can kind of think about like what's the Christian minimum how can I coast what what is it what what's the minimum I have to do to make the man upstairs happy so questions that you may ask is how how much how much time reading my Bible actually qualifies as a quiet time like if it's a two-minute

devotion and a quick prayer does that count or do I need to read like three or five minutes maybe you say if I do that five to seven times a week is that a pretty good score maybe look at your church attendance and you're like three out of four weeks pretty good 75% in school that's passing so pretty sure God would give me it's a C but still it's passing and maybe you go maybe maybe with your finances you're like okay what what does God what's what do I need to give God to make him happy like what's what do you think the percentage is here and see we're asking all of that wrong that that kind of shows our tendencies to want to walk the Christian walk and just do the minimum possible and so and what this happens what happens if you kind of are doing that is one is you're not seeing that the grace that he's poured out on us and what he's done in our lives and how we should respond to that but it

also kind of it stunts our growth and Hebrews 5 the preacher in Hebrews 5 says it in 1213 he says for though by this time you ought to be teachers you need someone to teach you again the basic principles and the oracles of God you need milk not solid food for everyone who lives on milk as unskilled in the word and righteousness since he is a child and so we don't want to be if the Christians our whole life and it's not like there's some gold of maturity that we're gonna reach like this Christian pinnacle it's just that when you're walking with the Lord and you're you are in his word and you're praying there is going to be fruit and you're gonna you're gonna be asking those questions in reverse you're gonna be looking at like how can I move my time around in my schedule so I can have more time in the word more time and prayer how how can I look at my finances and find more ways to give what God has

given me and so it's fighting that tendency of wanting to just coast in our walk because we know the future like we know what God's promised us so we could coast but that's not then we're really missing out what God has for us plan now the third one is that you talking about walking you're waiting on your walking map okay so you're like okay I hear what you're saying I hear you saying God has a plan on my life but he hasn't really sent me those plans yet I'm kind of waiting for him to send me the map of what I'm supposed to do and we too often think that God may be paint this perfect path in our life and that he kind of shows it to us and we're like yeah I think that looks pretty good that sounds good I'll do that and and then we begin to walk and so what that can create is is kind of like this a paralysis in your Christian walk that you're just sitting waiting for God to tell you what to do and the truth is

this Bible God's Word tells us plenty to do and and it helps instruct us in our lives and so our walk may not be as straightforward as a map we may feel like we encounter obstacles and difficulties but that's the Lord growing us and making us more into his likeness and so to help us maybe kind of remember some of the things when you're like I hear church and I hear people talking about Christian walk but I'm not really sure what that even means what I'm supposed to do we're gonna we're gonna we're gonna use the saying that walking with God is easy as pie and that's a plan words because it's not easy but God working with God is easy as pie so let's take let's take P so if you're thinking about what does it mean to walk with the Lord here's some things this isn't all encompassing I understand but this this will get us going P pray for the Holy Spirit guidance okay pray for those speakers look I know about I've been a

bad Baptist a lot of times we hear Holy Spirit Holy Ghost we think we need to like get out some like spirit meters and like okay where's this Holy Spirit like the shows do on the history channel Emma knows what I'm talking about and but the but we have to remember the importance of the Holy Spirit in our life listen listen to what Jesus says as he's leaving disciples and he's going to heaven he says in 1426 he said but the Helper the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name will teach you all things and bring you remembrance of all that I have said to you so that's the same spirit we have with us so we need Holy Spirit guidance in our life okay the eye is to imitate Christ his life is a model for us later in Ephesians in chapter 5 it says in verses 1 & 2 says therefore be imitators of God as beloved children and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice see

Jesus's life was on display for us and so when we as a church go how should we make disciples we don't go to like the disciple bookstore and it will we kind of do but where we start is how did Jesus make disciples okay I wonder how I should pray well Jesus taught us how to pray in his Bible I wonder how I should treat other people like my neighbors being really mean to me I mean we have Christ as an example that we can imitate and the E is engaged God's Word it gives us instructions in our life I try to say this often because I was in church for years and when people talked about reading their Bible I assumed that everybody just would read their Bible and understood it right away and it was easy and I was the only one struggling with it and that's not that's not the case engaging God's Word can be confusing and hard and that's where we lean into the Holy Spirit guidance this is where we lean into our community our

groups here our home groups in our community here and so but engaging God's Word and Jesus talks a lot about this and he sometimes uses the word abiding listen to what he says in John 15 7 he says if you abide in me in my words abide in you ask whatever you wish and it'll be done for you and so this grace we talk about is endless as we look to walk in it and it realigns our once our desires and our focus and so really kind of like to drive this home think about think about if we were reading the story of Jesus and he go if he comes to paralytic guy who's been whose legs have been broken or not working for his whole life okay and he says your legs are healed and the guy stands up and he's like oh my gosh my legs work this is amazing thank you Jesus I really appreciate that and then he just sits back down that would be weird right like well think about what you'd be saying like well wait you haven't been

able to walk for years like you how are you not out just like you know walking in the streets running jumping all these things so why are you why are you just sitting there on your mat the way you always were before this miraculous healing in comparison as we think about what God's grace has done back meaning we had nothing to do with it as God's grace points to a future and as it invites us to walk now what does it look like if you're just still just sitting there on your mat okay we've been raised from death to life remember the but God we were dead but God and rich in his grace and mercy and so so the encouragement this morning is for us to to to walk in his grace to get up to not be to not just go yeah that was great Jesus but I'm just gonna sit here and if that's happening it means we've lost perspective of what this grace means in our life all it means we lost perspective of what Jesus did for

us and probably maybe even lost perspective of what we were before like we don't see ourselves when I'm when I'm showing you like pictures of a guy in a sewer you're like that's not me so this morning I really want you to think about his grace that we've talked about and how it's impacted your life and a few things you can do you may forget often that you haven't earned this you may feel weighted down like you're in debt and you're still working off your salvation or you may feel like you still have a lot of work to do you're relying on your own ability this morning I want you to pray and think about how you're relying on yourself and like reject that self-reliance peace and to fall into the grace that God's given us okay maybe you're caught up in some specific stresses or anxieties or stresses in your life you feel like it's this endless cycle of things not happening the way you wanted them to go and you you have

some things that you even wrote down this morning and so the prayer is to have this internal perspective that Jesus is bigger than these problems that he wants you to he wants to help you walk through them and there's a purpose for them and that in the end you can boast in your weakness and boast in what God has done okay and the third you may be a Christian couch potato okay you may be immobile not having any motivation to get up and walk you understand you've heard these things about grace and stuff but it's just you know you feel like you're too busy to really kind of spend time in the word and do these things you know the encouragement is to be reminded of what God has done for us and what he's planned it says he planned these works out before before time and so maybe you need to commit this morning to getting up and taking the first steps and maybe the first steps ever and that would be great and we

can talk to you about that but maybe you're just in a rut in your Christian life and it's kind of like I mean if you've ever tried to start a workout plan you know what it means it's like the hardest the hardest are the first few days the first few steps and so the prayer is for the Lord to give you the strength to get up not your own ability that he that but you can you can lean into the grace that we've talked about this morning and so David if you want to come up we're gonna close and we're gonna sing a song very specific about God's grace and it may be that when we're singing this song you need to sit there and you need to really focus on words that are being said and you need to try to pray and just that they are made alive in your in your life okay but maybe you want to sing and you want to declare these words and you want to you want to sing from your toes you want to say this to the Lord either way

we can find confidence and what what the Lord is doing in his grace for us and remember that it is has already been done and that we're gonna be singing about his grace this morning we're also gonna be singing about his grace 10,000 years from now in eternity okay so let that motivate you this morning don't let these words fall on deaf ears and you go away doing the same thing just remember that all the Lord is doing is asking us to lean in his grace let's God we thank you that this isn't based on our own ability thank you that we don't have a part of the deal that we have to make right and God when we distort that word I just pray that you you remind us that you've already done the work and you're calling us into something special and the fact that you're even using us for your purposes are amazing and so Lord as we sing about your amazing grace and we hear about this in church maybe often I pray that it's fresh and new

that you just remind us of this that it doesn't get old and that one day we're gonna be singing this to you singing about your grace telling about your goodness for eternity