Grace Has Changed Me

This week I have been preparing a new sermon series on "Second Mile Living."   As I did I was thinking about God's great motivator in my life called grace.   Paul told Titus that God's grace was a teacher.   So, my prayer today is that God would teach me through His grace to live rightly for him.  

So here is a lesson I have to learn:  The passion in a believers’ life for “Second Mile” living is a picture of the “effects of grace.” Grace is defined as unmerited favor- it is God’s richest at Christ’s expense.

In the context of receiving His grace as a gift, it means to take something that belongs to someone and credit it to another’s account. The only thing you can do is confess your sin.  We bring nothing to the table, and  I have a ministry and for that ministry I have a deposit only account.   They will receive deposits but they will not process debits when making deposits.

So Preacher Steven, what did you do to deserve such grace?

Romans 4:3
“For what does the Scripture say? "’Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.’"

The old song says it this way:  “Grace, grace, God’s grace - Grace that will pardon and cleanse within.”

I’m grateful for the effects of Grace. I am saved by grace, kept by grace. It is grace that gave us the church, grace gives us hope, it is grace that gives, forgiveness, fellowship, and heaven. 

Grace has affected my past, present and my future. Grace has touched every area of my life. It has touched my wife, my children, my work, my worship and my worth. It has touched my mind (the way I think), my life (the way I act, live), grace sure makes a difference in life as a whole.

2 Corinthians 8:9
“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.”

Jesus Christ is a GIVER and a GENEROUS GIVER. The Apostle Paul uses the example of a local church in order to display the effects of grace in a people’s giving to support God’s work.

What are we doing to give and make an investment in the one thing that has had such  an impact upon us?