Gospel

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4/12/09 Pastor Alex's Easter Sunday sermon: GRACE
Eph 2:5, Romans 3:23, Romans 6:23, Acts 9:1-15 Romans 6:14, Col 1:13, Col 3:12-17, Luke 2:40, Acts 4:33, Acts 11:23

Humanity has an inner desire to worship something. This is why there are so many types of religions. The difference between Christianity and all other religions is that with other religions, you have to WORK to be accepted. Christianity is the only religion where we don't have to WORK to be accepted by God. He had a plan for us and the plan was Jesus coming to be our Savior. The plan is the Grace of God!! We don't have to WORK for Grace. God gives it to us FREELY just like He gave us Jesus!

Jesus died for all of us and restored our ability to have a relationship with God. Jesus justified us with God again by making all our sins be as if they NEVER happened. Easter is about GRACE. Eph 2:5 By Grace we have been saved! Grace is undeserved favor. Grace is unmeritied favor.

Romans 3:23 We all have sinned. Roman 6:23 The wages of sin is death. Since the result of our sin is death, then we would have to be perfect or die. God cannot look upon sin so when we sin we can't come into His presence. So Jesus had to step in and pay the sin penalty.

We need to come face to face with the Grace of God. Just us doing one sin will get us the death penalty. So we need GRACE! Now there are two types of people. The first type accepts Jesus and the grace. The second type believes in Jesus but won't let him into all the parts of their lives. They keep a tiny bit of their lives to themselves and won't let Jesus/Grace come in to take over and clean up the area. These areas could be their thought life, anger, acts of disobedience etc.

Acts 9:1-15 Paul was transformed by grace. Romans 6:15 Sin shall not be our master. We are not under the law but Grace! Sometimes we don't accept grace because our fear of what people might think. Sometimes we don't accept grace because our fear of letting God have control of our lives. Wake up people!! We are not in control of anything anyway!! Evidence of that is the bad economy.

Also, we let our past sins haunt us and we don't accept the Grace of God. When these thoughts enter our minds, we need to tell satan that the Grace of God has penetrated us, healed us and transformed us.
Col 1:13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness.....
Darkness has no power over us unless we give it to him.

With Grace we need to:

1) Understand the Grace of God.
2) Let Grace transform us to be more like Jesus.

3) Become an agent of the Grace of God. We must begin to demonstrate the character of God as holy people.Col 3:12-17 Be tender, humble, patient, kind, forgiving, thankful

The Grace of God on People in the Bible:

* Luke 2:40 ---- Grace on Jesus
* Acts 4:33 ---- Grace on Apostles
* Acts 11:23 ---- Grace on the Church--- US!!

The Grace of God can be seen by people if we are walking in it. We are not judgemental, full of love and forgiveness. We need to pray for everybody in our community.
There are two important things for us to remember:

1) Jesus came because He loved us. What attracts people to Christ is love. His love. God's love.
2) God doesn't meet people in their sin. He meets them at the cross. He pulls them from their sin to the cross. God says to meet him there, at the cross, to receive His overflowing GRACE!!

AMEN

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