We are a few weeks into a new series on “Becoming Like Family”.  This is important as members of our online community begin to share the daily challenges with friends, and we begin to gather our larger community together as one church community.  We won’t be bound together by a building, or institution, but rather by five commitments.  We’ve talked about commitment to common learning goals, connectedness as a community of small and large groups, connectedness to God in worship, and now this week, we come to grace in lifestyle.

Those who’ve decided to follow Jesus, and walk in his path, are going to have to choose this over other paths.  These choices impact many areas of life.  That should be no surprise, but sometimes it’s hard to swallow.  We can recoil from rules, or worry about restricted freedom.

We’ll explore that this week, but it starts with understanding why we are asked to live by, and with, grace.

But what does grace mean?

There is a classic Seinfeld episode where Elaine is in a job interview, and the interviewer shares her admiration of Jackie O, who had “grace”.  Elaine tries to say, “I think I have a little grace” but the interviewer snaps back, “You can’t have a little grace, you either have it or you don’t.”  Elaine backpendals, “Alright, I have no grace.  I don’t have grace, I don’t want grace.  Hey, I don’t even say grace.”

You can see the confusion here – what does grace even mean?  Is it poise and kindness?  Is it a lovely name for an old lady that is finally making a comeback?  Is it a prayer before a meal?

Question: What do you think of when you hear the word grace?  What does it mean?

Reminder:  Last week we talked about worship, and asked you to complete our online survey about worship here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/8TS7K93

Reminder: Earlier in this series, we saw the importance of reading the Bible together in sync, so our new daily bible readings start today in our mobile app and web site.

Read the Bible in Sync Today

Ryan Sim - May 12, 2014

Monday - A New Idea - Pioneer Spirit

Pioneer Story

When did you first hear about life coaches? I hear about them all the time, but it’s a relatively new phenomenon. I had a terrible time finding its origins. A Google search reveals mostly ads. Searching through Huffington Post reveals article after article written by life coaches, but nothing about what that means. A search on Maclean’s, a reputable news source reveals mostly quotes from interviews with life coaches, and only two articles about the idea, including one about 25 year olds coaching each other through their “quarter life crisis”. This is when Millenials hit the workforce and find it’s not all they’d hoped for, and a lot of hard work. Some have decided to share these ideas with others for up to $70 an hour by becoming life coaches. In fact, a friend suddenly announced she was quitting her job and going to be a life coach. She tooks osme courses, but many don’t. More and more people taking on the title – pastors, bloggers, etc. as they find it’s something people want. The profession is not regulated – so anyone with advice to offer, good or bad, can call themselves a life coach, and if you’re willing to pay them, you can put your career and life in their hands. We do all need help – I meet with a mentor regularly, maybe you do too. We need doctors, psychologists, home inspectors, investment advisors, and so on. We need good advice. So how do you tell the difference? How do you know when you’re getting good guidance on your life’s mission? We regularly find that our little missions in life – to buy a house, to get a job, to be happy at work, etc. could benefit from some guidance. But we should be especially careful about the big mission – the reason God put you on this earth in the first place. That’s not one to take lightly. That’s what we’ll talk about this week – as Jesus’ followers were given a mission, and they weren’t going to be alone in doing it, they’d have the ultimate guide. Question: Who would be your ideal coach or guide in life? What could they do, say for you?

Related Topics: Ascension, Early Church, Jesus, Pioneer | More Messages from Ryan Sim | Download Audio

From Series: "Pioneer Story"

We read through the Book of Acts as a Pioneer Story for the church.

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