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 14, 2014

Wednesday - Change It - Pioneer Spirit

Pioneer Story

What was the meaning of all this about Jesus’ followers speaking different languages or “tongues”? It was a sign that the impossible mission they’d been sent to accomplish was actually possible. I love to rock climb, and I used to pride myself on never needing chalk. I considered myself a good climber with just my hands, and sweat never seemed to make me slip off holds. One day, as I struggled on what felt like an impossible climb, a friend insisted I put some chalk on my fingers. I immediately realize what I’d been missing – I could actually do what seemed impossible if I put down my pride and got a little extra help from some chalk. If Jesus’ followers try to spread the good news on their own, they will flail about like me on a difficult climb. They simply don’t have the skills, the numbers, the power to reach the entire world with this message. Think of the number of languages spoken, the various cultural norms to learn, the geography to consider. But with the Spirit of Jesus living in them, speaking through them, acting through them, they could and they did. There are 2 billion people in the world now claiming to be Christians. One web site offers a film about Jesus in 1200 languages. This was all evident in how the disciples began to speak in other languages, they never even knew. People remarked that this was unlikely, since they were Galileans – not considered refined and educated people - with an accent that made it difficult to speak other languages. One of those big barriers, language, was already being dismantled by the Spirit of God speaking through them. In a world with lots of barriers, how refreshing is it to see the Spirit of God taking some down? His good news about Jesus is for everyone, who speaks every language, from every nation. Christianity is not meant to divide people, but rather it’s good news God uses to transform each and every culture, each and every nation, each and every individual. Question: Luke never says what the people were saying as they spoke these other languages – what do you think the Holy Spirit would have said through them?

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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