God’s Grace

Sunday April 17, 2011
Speaker:

Offering message: II Cor. 8:9 Through His poverty we might become rich. The favor of God toward you is to make you rich. God’s favor and grace is not like taking a Tylenol. Ps. 30:5 tells us that His favor lasts for a lifetime. God doesn’t change, and you can’t make Him change His disposition toward you. It’s because of what Jesus went through that He can pull you through what you’re going through. Realize He wants you to be blessed. Jim delivered a word to the congregation. I Cor. 15:9. Our faith will increase based on your knowledge of God. We can only take advantage of grace if we know it’s there for us. We are saved by grace through faith. We have to put our faith in the grace of God. GOD ALWAYS MOVES FIRST. God’s grace toward us should not be in vain. We need to receive it as a gift. Paul said that he labored more abundantly than the other apostles by the grace of God. Grace will never leave people where they are, because it removes sin. We must participate with God’s grace. God puts a grace in us and a desire for something, and then we put labor to it. We must see the grace behind a person’s labor, whether it’s a Michael Jordan or a Tiger Woods or whomever. Gal. 2:20; Eph. 1:17-19. God’s power is released in response to our faith. His power reflects His character. His exceeding greatness- exceeding means to surpass, be higher than some other level. GOD CANNOT DO LESS THAN HE DID BEFORE. God is the God of increase. We should always get something better than what we had. That’s grace. God’s favor is not for a season; it’s for a lifetime. It will empower us to surpass. Pastor Dale gave a word about a career adjustment that would mean the person can surpass in money or influence or learning or position… Pastor Dale told of how John Adams had to choose between being a preacher or being a lawyer. He chose being a lawyer and greatly moved the Continental Congress and influenced George Washington at a critical time in our country’s history. If you’re not following grace, you are in works and self-will.