Second Chances: Amazing Grace
Ephesians 2:1-10 (Message)
1-6 It wasn’t so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn’t know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It’s a wonder God didn’t lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah. 7-10 Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish! We don’t play the major role. If we did, we’d probably go around bragging that we’d done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.
This passage clearly teaches…
We all start in the very same place – separated from God.
We are each personally responsible for that separation - no excuses.
We can’t change this position on our own so Jesus changes it for us - grace.
We were all saved to join Jesus in The Good Work – Real Purpose.
“Amazing Grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now I am found was blind but now I see.” John Newton
The New Testament’s usage of grace is a combination of “forgiveness and power.”
God’s grace was a costly antidote to sin – forgiveness grace took the cross.
The power side of grace comes from Jesus’ resurrection and the Holy Spirit. Power grace gives us the ability to live a pleasing and productive life for Him.
“T’was grace that taught my heart to fear, And grace my fears relieved. How precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed.” John Newton
God’s grace is uniquely both confrontational and covering at the same time. Grace has to confront us before it can cover us.
Grace has to force your hand before you can grab its hand.
2 Reactions to Grace: Receive or Recoil
Receiving grace produces forward momentum. Recoiling produces backward momentum.
3 Uncomfortable Confrontations with Grace
Grace Calls Us Out
Luke 19:1-10 (NIV) 19 Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. 3 He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way. 5 When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” 6 So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. 7 All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.” 8 But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
Jesus didn’t call out Zacchaeus to make an example of him, He called out Zacchaeus to remake him.
How you give grace is a clear indicator of your understanding of grace. A lavish response to grace exhibits a lavish understanding of grace.
3 Uncomfortable Confrontations with Grace
Grace Calls Us Out
Grace Catches Us
John 8:2-11 (NIV) 2 At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts; where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4 and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. 9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” 11 “No one, sir,” she said.” Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
Getting caught can produce shame or conviction. Shame is a tactic of the enemy to get you to recoil away from God. Conviction is a method of God to get you to receive grace. Shame buries you. Grace digs you out.
3 Uncomfortable Confrontations with Grace
Grace Calls Us Out
Grace Catches Us
Grace Challenges Us
Matthew 19:16-22 (NIV) 16 Just then a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?”17 “Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.” 18 “Which ones?” he inquired. Jesus replied, “‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, 19 honor your father and mother,’ and ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’ 20 “All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?” 21 Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” 22 When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.
Whatever you are holding onto the most may be the very thing holding you up the most from your 2nd Chance. 2nd Chances can’t come with God playing 2nd fiddle.
Do you feel called out? That’s grace.
Do you feel caught? That’s grace.
Do you feel challenged? That’s grace.