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Understanding and Living in God's Grace

Explore the concept of grace, its definition, and its implications in our lives. Discover the need for grace, God's saving grace, and how to live by grace instead of works. Engage in a discussion about the seriousness of sin and our fallenness, and the freedom and blessings that come from accepting God's grace.

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Understanding and Living in God's Grace

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  1. TERM TIMETABLE – WHERE WE’RE HEADED

  2. DISCUSSION TIME How would you define Grace (avoiding anecdotes)? What does it look like and how would you describe it?

  3. DEFINING GRACE There are many varied meanings of the word Grace, so to clarify what we are talking about this term we have two meanings which we shall focus on: Grace as “God’s unmerited favour to us through Christ whereby salvation and other blessings are freely given to us” Grace as “God’s divine assistance to us through the Holy Spirit”

  4. TONIGHT’S PLAN This evening we shall cover: The Truth About Ourselves: Our Need Of Grace The Answer To The Problem: God’s Saving Grace The Performance Treadmill: Living By Grace Not Works

  5. 1 – OUR NEED OF GRACE a) Our Heritage: God also instructed them not to “eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for [if they ate] from it [they would] die.” Genesis 2:17 b) Our Inescapable Problem: “The heart of the human problem is the problem of the human heart” Adrian Rogers c) Our Moral Bankruptcy: There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one. Romans 3:10-12

  6. 1 – OUR NEED OF GRACE d) Our Worthless Deeds: The prophet Isaiah describes that even our “righteous acts are like filthy rags” to the LORD. Isaiah 64:6 e) Our Lack of Innocence: In Psalm 51:5, King David wrote: “surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.” f) Our Wilful Rebellion: We all like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way. Isaiah 53:6

  7. DISCUSSION TIME Are we really all that bad? Harold Kushner defined good people as “ordinary people, nice friendly neighbours, neither extraordinarily good not extraordinarily bad.” Why does comparing ourselves with others cause us to miss the point of why we need grace?

  8. 2 – GOD’S SAVING GRACE A RESCUE PLAN “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the Kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we dead in transgressions– it is by grace you have been saved.” Ephesians 2:1-5

  9. DISCUSSION TIME The Bible takes sin far more seriously than we are ever likely to do; how do the words gone astray (Isaiah 53:6), rebellion (Leviticus 16:21), despising God (2 Sam 12:9-10) and defying God (1 Kings 13:21) illustrate this seriousness? To what extent should a deeper understanding of our fallenness help you develop a deeper appreciation of the grace of God?

  10. 2 – GOD’S SAVING GRACE A LAVISH GESTURE

  11. 3 – LIVING BY GRACE AVOIDING THE PERFORMANCE TREADMILL

  12. 3 – LIVING BY GRACE Justification is by grace Sanctification is by grace And glorification is by grace “Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?” Galatians 3:3

  13. 3 – LIVING BY GRACE LEAPING THE CHASM

  14. 3 – LIVING BY GRACE LIVING TO BE FREE “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery […] You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.” Galatians 5:1, 4

  15. 3 – LIVING BY GRACE JESUS PAID IT ALL “One of the best kept secrets among Christians today is this: Jesus paid it all. I mean all. He not only purchased your forgiveness of sins and your ticket to heaven, He purchased every blessing and every answer to prayer you will ever receive. Every one of them – no exceptions. Why is this such a well-kept secret? For one thing, we are afraid of this truth. We are afraid to tell even ourselves that we don’t have to work anymore, the work is all done. We are afraid that if we really believe this, we will slack off in our Christian duties. But the deeper core issue is that we don’t really believe we are still [spiritually] bankrupt. Having come into God’s kingdom by grace alone solely on the merit of Another, we’re now trying to pay our own way by our performance. We declared only temporary bankruptcy; we are trying to live by good works rather than by grace.” Jerry Bridges, Transforming Grace

  16. DISCUSSION TIME How do you understand the distinction between ‘saving grace’ and living by, or in grace? How do you respond to Jerry Bridges’ statement, that having been saved by grace we still tend to revert to living by works?

  17. CONCLUSION – YOUR RESPONSE We REJECT Grace We ACCEPT Grace, but soon come to UNDERAPPRECIATE it We LIVE BY Grace

  18. CONCLUSION – GRACE ABOUNDS

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