This week we’re exploring how following Jesus impacts our lifestyle by one principle: grace.  Grace is one of the most important, life-changing aspects of Christian story.  Here’s how the Bible talks about grace:

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

(Ephesians 2:4-10 ESV)

Here is an easy way to remember the meaning:

God’s
Riches
At
Christ’s
Expense

A friend had a young child at home, and a baby on the way and his mother loved to help out by cleaning up the house.  One particularly stressful time she was coming down to decompress the situation by cleaning up the house.  My friend came home that day to find his wife madly cleaning up the house, before the mother in law arrived.  She didn’t want her mother-in-law to see a messy house, even though she was there to clean it as a gift.

We so often we think that we have to have cleaned up our lives before we can accept what God wants to give us.   We don’t have to have sorted ourselves out before we can accept God’s free gift of forgiveness, his grace.

When you ask someone why they don’t like Christianity…you’ll often hear “it’s just a bunch of rules.”  I don’t need a book to tell me how to be a good person.  If that was true, I wouldn’t want to be part of this religion either.

But it’s not true…that’s the religion that Jesus came to get rid of, and not his hope for us.  Here’s the version of Christianity that people are usually describing:

  1. Obey God’s laws
  2. God will accept you
  3. He’ll provide you with loving care
  4. He’ll give you a new status, as a servant of God.

 

This is a law religion, the kind of thing the Pharisees liked to promote.  Jesus didn’t have very nice things to say about that!

The problem is – no one has ever obeyed God’s laws perfectly enough to earn God’s love.  Actually, there was one person – Jesus.  He knew our hopeless situation, and did something about it.  Jesus was all about grace.  This involves the same steps, but in a different order:

  1. God loves and accepts you…unconditionally
  2. God will provide you with loving care.  He wants to be part of your life today, not some day in the future.
  3. God will give you a new status: Child of God adopted into his family
  4. You now return God’s favour with thanksgiving and living in his way.

In grace…we are given God’s love, care and fatherhood as free gifts, even before having proven ourselves worthy, and that gives us a lot to live up to!

Question: Where have you typically seen laws and rules in your faith?  As the way to earn God’s love, or respond to it?  Why?

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 - November 14, 2013

Thursday - Act On It - God in Worship

Becoming Like Family

So why do Christians gather to worship week in and week out? The answer is that there are at least three very good reasons: to acknowledge God’s presence and worth, to remember that we are not alone but part of a community that is growing and learning, and to offer a visible witness to ourselves and others. But when we gather to worship for these reasons, what do we do? We celebrate! The keynote of worship is celebration. At times in its long and winding history the church has lost its sight of this. But that is what Sunday mornings are all about—celebrating who we know God is (wow—he is our Father) --celebrating what Jesus has done for us (wow—set us free from the consequences of our sin)---celebrating that can live in relationship with God through the power of the Holy Spirit (wow---we are not alone). God is a God who throws parties. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why Jesus told adults to keep their eyes on the children if they wanted to know what God is like. Left on their own, adults develop strange ideas of what worship should be. …in the purely adult world, God frequently comes across as a cranky old grandfather..but children seem to know instinctively that God likes celebration. Christians are people who are called to live in community, and we are a community of learners. We need to realize how impossible it is to be a Christian on our own, not to mention half the fun. As Redeemer Church comes together, we’ll have three approaches to worship, in order: Personal: We encourage you to engage in prayer, particularly on Fridays. We also hope you’ll have personal moments of worship to thank God for what happens in your life day to day. Small Groups: As you share our challenges with friends, we hope your Friday prayers will no longer be something quiet and personal but something you share with the team. Share the moments when God was at work in your life, and pray about them! Celebration Events: Up to now, our celebration events have been just about fun, but in a few months we’ll start to host events with worship component. We want to hear from you what will help you worship God as part of a larger community. Challenge: 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.

From Series: "Becoming Like Family"

This series looks at becoming “like family” with others learning to follow Jesus. We're exploring how the church is not a building, institution or event, but a community of people. It's important that explore what church means as we prepare to launch a new church in Ajax in 2014.

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