Take your Bibles and turn with me to the Book Of John 1:14-16. Last week we started in this series on Grace. I know when the Lord told me that he wanted me to preach on grace a while back and I put that on the calendar. To me it was such a basic subject and I asked the Lord why he wanted me to cover this over 3 weeks. The Lord told me that although it's a basic thing, it's essential to what he's done for us.
Today I want to speak to us a message entitled, "Receiving the effects of Grace". John 1:14-16, "And the word became flesh (the word being Jesus) and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth. John bore witness of Him and cried out saying, "This was he of whom I said, he who comes after me is preferred before me for he was before me". And of his fulness we have all received and grace for grace".
Father, thank you for your word today. Holy Spirit we thank you for what you're doing in this place and that you're not done with us yet. Lord, as we come to your word, we ask that we would decrease and that you would increase in us, in Jesus name.
John 1:16 in the amplified says, "For out of its fulness or abundance we have all received, all had a share and we were all supplied with one grace after another and spiritual blessing upon spiritual and even favor upon favor, gift heaped upon gift". How many know God has some gifts and favor for everyone of us? We talked last week about when we are saved how we received that grace of God for salvation, not only his saving grace but his keeping grace. There is something wonderful that continues throughout the life of the believer. As I was studying the word, God told me he wanted me to use this verse as the key verse today in verse 16, "Out of his fulness we have all received and grace for grace". I remember looking at grace for grace and for years it was always something that I read but I didn't quite understand. God would say, "Pause when you read that, Grace for grace". Favor for more favor, his work for more of his work.
We don't just get a one time thing from God. Each day that we live for Him, God is giving us the grace to live for Him each day and then the grace to receive all that he has for us. There are some people who really have a hard time receiving. Sometimes as Christians we get so caught up in the sense of being careful not to get extreme on things that we really don't get to walk in all the fulness of what God has for us. First of all it's important to understand that it's through Jesus that we receive the fulness of God in our lives. Without Jesus there would be nothing that is complete about us. You and I are whole today because of Christ's saving work on the cross and daily because of his work in us. Grace for grace, favor for favor.
I want to remind us that grace is not just the disposition of God, it's not his attitude. People say that God is a graceful God. He is but he's a merciful God and a helpful God and a healing God. Grace is something that he gives to us, not just what he is. It is the favor of God and the provision of God being activated in everyday life. Someone described it this way, What is Grace? God's riches at Christ's expense. Listen, how many believe that Jesus paid the greatest price of all?
I'm excited about the grace of God and next week we're going to talk about healing grace. He's the healer. Understand that we receive God's favor at salvation so we continue to walk in grace and God's favor everyday. God gave us grace, or Jesus, so that we could live in grace, or favor, everyday.
Grace for more grace. The grace of God, when you receive it will have a profound effect on your life. I believe that there should be an ongoing revelation of God's grace each day that we serve Him. I have noticed in my life that there are periods where it is easy for me to kind of get motoring along on autopilot serving God and there are moments that I need Him to show up and give me a fresh revelation of who he really is.
Last night I was in the study, I was praying and sought the face of the Lord.
How many of can just feel when the enemy is trying to get in there a little bit, trying to discourage? I said, "Lord, I just need you to speak, so I just opened the Bible and I said, "Lord, I'm tired, it's been a long week, I just need you to speak". So I opened the Bible and how many know you have to be careful when you do that because you could turn to Leviticus where it says, "I'm going to smite everybody from the face of the earth". I opened the word and happened to turn to the end of Luke and it was saying, "Go make disciples of all, baptizing them in the name of the father, son and the holy spirit. And lo, I am with you always". Wasn't that just gracious of the Lord? I love that. God said, "Marvin, I'm with you all the time". That grace of God constantly speaking into our life and last night I had a fresh revelation and it was wonderful.
We receive God's grace and we'll never be the same. The truth is once we're saved we're never the same. Each day we're transformed, he's doing a work in our lives. Romans 5:17 says, "Much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one Jesus Christ". Jesus has called us kings and priests and I'm not talking about some weird theology, I'm talking God wants us to have a good life, to be able to live it and to walk through it in his grace and his graciousness everyday. When I thought about receiving the effects of grace, I said, "Lord, where is that starting point? How do we continue to live in that grace and grow in that grace everyday? The Lord said this, "Humility is a key to favor with God and more grace with God everyday".
There is a saving grace and then there's continued favor. Those who live in God's grace are humble. Humility is a result of wisdom. Wisdom recognizes that you need to do something. How many realize that when you gave your life to Jesus that wisdom had a work that you realized you needed Jesus? Humility is a result of wisdom but favor or grace with God is a result of humility.
James 4:6 says, "But he gives more grace therefore God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble". I want to speak this, the key to living in the grace of God and the favor of God, his unearned demonstrated favor is that the life of a believer is one lived in humility before the Lord. He gives more grace or greater grace. The word "more" when I read that, it caught my attention, he gives more grace. Well God, how could you give more? You already gave Jesus, your all. How many know there is more than Jesus? He gives us Jesus and then we live for Jesus everyday. There is that grace that he continues to give from Him. That word "More" means "Mega"in the Greek, like high, loud, mighty and great. How many believe we serve a mighty, loud and great God? Some of you last night experienced some of that when he just demonstrated nature and began to rain all over everything.
Listen, God can be high, loud and mighty in us and through us when we are humble and lowly before Him. The people of God that walk in the favor of God and the grace of God are those who understand their position. Those who walk in the favor of God are not chest thumpers, they're knee benders. If you want to find yourself getting strong in the Lord, bend your knee to Him everyday, not just in prayer but in acknowledging God as the Lord. I believe this is so important in the life of a church. How many of you are believing that what we saw in Haley is just the beginning of what God wants to do in Harvest Community Church? The tendency is to do this, "Look what God's doing? Check me out, I laid hands and they were well. Look how good we are as a church because look at the things God is doing". God can be mighty and powerful in and through us when we are humbled before Him. All we're doing is what God asked us to do. It's that simple. If we will do it then God is able to work through us with all His power.
True faith is humble confidence in God and there is a difference between confidence and pride. I want to tell you Christian, God wants to be mighty in you. He wants to be mighty through this church. God can be loud but he's not arrogant.
I love those people who do amazing things through the Lord. Todays culture relishes primping and bragging. The church somehow in many ways began to take on the thought of the world, as God began to move, thinking that if we can just promote this and yell it out and bring attention to us and let people see us then people will be drawn to that. But that has really drawn people away from the Lord. But when we have become humble and we bring the true work of God into people's lives, God can do great things.
One of the effects of God's favor is that we develop what I want to call "people grace", grace for grace. When we receive the graciousness of God and his favor in our lives we can be favorable and gracious to others. Something happens inside of you. Haley will know forever what God has done in her life and she'll never to able to forget it. That grace that she has received, she will begin to extend that same grace to others. That's why we kept her up here and let her lay hands on people, not just because a miracle happened and now somehow she's a sacred object. The truth is she needs to begin practicing what God did to her. It's a marvelous thing, Grace for grace. The favor of God in our life will soften our hearts towards others. Those who have known the favor of God should become grace extenders.
John 13:35 says, "By this, all will know that you are my disciples if you have love one for another". There is something about those who have been touched by God and receive the favor of God. What's interesting, you can watch people in church, they can go one of two ways after they've been Christians for awhile. They can become more loving and receiving and caring or they can become very judgmental. How many of you have met some of both? The truth is as your pastor, when I see people acting more like Pharisees than Christians, I want to grab the Pharisees and stand over them on the floor and yell "What are you doing"? But God gives more grace, that wouldn't be wise.
The true favor of God is revealed in his love for us and the favor of God is revealed through us to others by us loving them. He gives us grace so we can live graciously, treating others with respect, dignity and honor regardless of their life situation, regardless of what they're doing or the deep sin they're in. Walking up to someone who's on drugs or who's going through a divorce, having an affair or just living an ungodly life and saying, "Brother, you're wrong and you're going to hell" is probably not going to win anyone to Jesus. Now we know that's what we deserve but it's not what he gave us. People grace, Christians that are making the difference.
There's a reason why I'm preaching like this to our church. There are many people who come and receive the grace of God and keep getting it and getting it and never give it. I believe God has called us to something different, to have people grace, to know how to treat people. I've held drug addicts in my arms and their life is a mess and everyone treats them like trash. They smell bad, they don't look good and they are a mess. They're not making good decisions ever and they're frustrated. Treat people with respect and love them. Those are the extremes in society but what about the people that you work with? That one that just talks too much and you wish you could get the duct tape out and just wrap his head about 5 times? God gives us tact and grace.
I want you to see what happened with Jesus. John 1:14 says, "And the Word became flesh and He dwelt among us and we beheld his glory". Jesus didn't show up in this big light looking like Moses coming down from the mountain. The Bible says Jesus became flesh and he dwelt among us and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth". I want you to notice the order by which Jesus came, grace and truth. Nothing in this word is written by accident and everything is put here in order. God has been able to preserve his word. Jesus came full of grace and truth, graciousness and truth.
I want to speak this again, God did not call the church to raise a standard to our culture. He called us to live a standard in our culture. We must declare his word. We must say what it says but we've got to live it ourselves. Listen, the grace of God that works through us as we live that standard before people makes all the difference. The reason why America is still great in the world today is because people founded it on the Word of God and they lived that standard. They were imperfect people and their are alot of imperfect people in this room today. The goodness and the grace of God is confrontational enough. It freaks people out. But too many times we want to declare the truth and the truth is that God loves us and he demonstrates it for us by being gracious. I heard someone say this week and I really liked it, "No one ever came to Christ because they lost the argument. They come to Christ because people lived it before them".
I want to encourage us as a church, we have a standard and we're going to send that standard to our senators and say we believe that marriage should be between a man and a woman. Why are we sending it? Because we are living it. We want you to see this is what we believe. We're not to go out and jump on gay people and start shooting and killing them. They don't need that. What they do need is Jesus. The truth is this, if you come into this church and you're a homosexual, we will love you. But you won't be able to stay in this church and be a homosexual long because I believe that Jesus will set you free or you will run from it because the conviction of God is powerful. People say, Are homosexuals welcome in this church? Yes, but I believe they won't stay that way. Are drug addicts welcome? Yes. Are adulterers welcome? Yes. Can they become members? No, not until they get saved. Someone say a good amen. God will change them, that's the difference. How many believe this gospel is able to change people? It's able to touch their lives.
Love, grace and truth go hand in hand. We will share that truth but we will do it in a loving way. Listen, even when you're loving people the truth is confrontational and that's why you must be gracious with it. Grace for grace. It's because of the grace of God that we can effectively speak truth into others lives.
I want to speak this to us because so many times the reason why people aren't growing and becoming mature in the Lord is because 1) people have become afraid to speak the truth or 2) people have only spoken the truth without God's grace. We have teenagers in this place who are still learning to live for Jesus. We have new believers and each of us are at a different place in our walk with the Lord and we're growing in that. But there are times when we must deal with certain issues when they arise. Paul was never afraid to speak the truth and he did it marvelously.
In Romans 15-16, "Nevertheless brethren, I have written more boldly to you on some points as reminding you because of the grace given to me by God that I might be a minister of Jesus Christ". How many know that you can be bold and speak to people about different things that need to be spoken of but you do it because of the grace of God, not in spite of the grace of God.
Romans 12:3 says, "For I say through the grace given to me to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think but to think soberly as God has dealt to each one of us a measure of faith".
Listen, be bold, be confident but don't become cocky. Instruct to build. People grace or grace for grace. I believe when we have people grace another area it will effect is our speech. Receiving God's grace or favor in our lives will effect the way we talk. I believe that everything that we say should be graceful. Faith, not doubt. It is grace for grace. God will give us the grace to believe for His favor. What's that called? Seed faith. How many have something going on in your life and you're saying, "God, I know what your word says, i just need to be able to believe". How many know that God will give you grace for his favor? He never leaves you empty. Hope instead of discouragement; Blessing instead of cursing: Life instead of death; Grace for grace.
Colossians 4:6 says, "Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt that you may know how you ought to answer each one". Gracious speech is kind, pleasant and tasteful. The grace of God will give you the grace to know when to tell a joke or not to tell a joke, when to share something you know and when not to share something you know, what to say and how to say it and how to express it. Grace for grace.
Ephesians 4:29 says, "let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth but what is good for necesary edification that it might impart grace to the hearers". The proof of God's favor that its at work in our life will be reflected in the way that we talk because our speech is powerful.
I want to end with this last point. One of the effects of grace is that we can learn to grow in it, to walk in that grace. How many know we're still growing everyday? Some of us are a little short, some of us are a little tall. Some of us are growing in different ways and in different areas. There's not one of us that has ever arrived at that point.
2nd Peter 3:18 says, "But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ". I want to say this real quick, many people who come to church come to grow in the knowledge of the Lord. We live in a society that values no one. The word says to grow in the grace and knowledge. Not only grow in what you know about God, not only grow in what you know about him and who he is but also grow in how to live in Him. Grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord. When we grow in that grace of living for God and in His favor we also grow into receiving all those benefits.
Some of you who have received Christ as your savior have received grace enough to believe that God can minister in your own life. How many have seen God heal you and touch you and do miracles in you? But some of us are still growing in the grace of realizing that we can be bold enough to take that same work that God does for us and bring that to others.
I grew up in Pentecostal churches and I saw people who were in wheelchairs walk, I saw the deaf hear, I've seen people put back together, I grew up in this stuff. This is not new to me but when it came time for me to start stepping out and believing God to do it for others I was a little nervous because my thought was, "What if I pray and it doesn't happen?" I had to begin to grow in grace, to understand that the favor of God is there to do what he asks. We grow in that favor in all areas. There may be areas where you're still growing to receive the favor of God in. You might really be struggling in your marriage and you need that grace to help you, you're growing in that area to know that God can give you the marriage you always thought. You might be growing in the area of finances where you've struggled for a long, long time. That doesn't mean God is going to hand you a million dollars but you've never really been able to rub 2 cents together all the time and you've been able to trust God just to get you by but you realize that God can give you favor to do more than just get by and you learn to grow into that. Then if for whatever reason something happens, God can give you the grace to just get by again.
So many times in the Christian life we put the issue on knowledge but the effects of grace result in producing his power in us and through us in greater measure. You shall receive power after the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you will.
Growing in grace produces in us a new perspective on things. The grace to endure trial or hardship and to see what God is doing in the midst of our afflictions and know that God is at work. The grace to know that you can see what He's putting together. Maybe when you've gone through some things at the beginning you knew that God was at work and you heard people speaking that in your life but you couldn't put the end from the beginning together, you had no idea. But as you've grown in the Lord, when you enter into those hardships you can almost begin to see those puzzle pieces fitting together. God has given you a new perspective and that new perspective that you have in your life gives you a new perspective what's going on in others. How many know that's necessary for parents? Some of you need the grace to parent.
It's a wonderful thing. Sometime in my mid 20's because I started early, I have an 18 year old, I began to see the things that my mom saw when I was doing stuff. I was growing in parental grace, hopefully with a little bit of wisdom. Grace to help others to be able to see what God is doing. Grace to see that many times things are temporary and help us to appreciate what is eternal value. To see that outward pain accelerates inward growth. I want to speak this to some of you. Some of you want to receive that grace from the Lord this morning, you are going through some incredible stuff.
God will always keep you secure but he always won't keep you comfortable and God gives us grace to be uncomfortable and still grow. Can I tell you, growth will never happen if you're always comfortable. Churches will never grow if they're always comfortable. How many of you are ready to get a little uncomfortable? The grace of God helps us to persevere and to finish well, to do things gracefully. I found that the more that I have God's grace, the more I become appreciative of all that He's done. How many appreciate what the Lord is doing?
I want to speak this into your life, God wants you to receive the effects of grace and they're powerful, they're wonderful. What areas do you need grace in? What areas are you growing in? Whenever I come back to a growing point sometimes the focus is easy to get all confused on the bigger things. But it all comes back to the one thing, Jesus gave his life for us. We start with saving grace. I have found that at every point that God is doing a work in me whether it's on my speech, whether it's in healing, whatever it is, He always brings me back to the very beginning, "I am with you always". He set us free. I want you to remember what the grace of God is doing in your life.
