Sermon Series–Pastor John
Every follower of Jesus has in some way become aware that God’s grace is a knee bending, thank you God, thank you Jesus, gift every human being desperately needs. And every human being is offered this gift. Scott Hoezee gives us this definition of God’s grace.
“Grace is the power of God, rooted in his abiding love, by which God comes to free those who through their own doing are held captive by sin and death. In grace God forgives the sinful, accepts the unacceptable, revives the spiritually dead, and so enables a reunion between Himself the Creator and his wayward creatures. Grace is the power of God’s love that crashes (and sometimes creeps) unexpectedly and undeservedly into our lives, and so brings about a spiritual restoration we could never achieve on our own.” I like that.
There are more definitions of God’s grace than you or I could recite. We sometimes debate these definitions. There are whole theologies built around different understandings of God’s grace. At the end of the day before we sleep or at the beginning of the day before our day unfolds, we know in our bones that God’s grace is a pure gift for which we give our deepest gratitude. Every gift evokes such a response. The response to God’s grace, God’s gift, the giving of God’s Son for us evokes our deepest and our best gratitude. We respond with our lives laid in God’s hands for use in God’s kingdom.
I hope to explore aspects of God’s grace as we explore some of the stories in the Old Testament, the Gospels, and the writings of the Apostles. Pray with me that we grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.