A Heart Motivated By Grace

The clocks were pushed back an hour last night and our bodies will have to adjust to a new sleep schedule as Daylight Savings Time is put away for another winter season. The weather remains surprisingly kind though, unseasonably warm with pristine blue skies again today. Chuck Vanderscheuren welcomed us and invited us to join the adult Bible study on Wednesdays.

Other announcements and reminders included....
1. We have a mission barrel in the hall outside the sanctuary for shoes, new underwear, socks and other clothing items for Christmas to be distributed by the Salvation Army.
2. Also there is a need for new or lightly used toiletries for women.

There was also a building update.
The outside lights are now up and all that is left is for these to be wired. The garage will be started this Monday. Someone will be coming to determine where and how to install the bell. A sound system upgrade and a dishwasher will be coming soon.

We then entered into a time of worship, which was followed by the receiving of our offerings and a time of prayer.

A Heart Motivated By Grace

By way of introduction, pastor Terry White noted that despite the frenzy of activity surrounding the election, God is in control. Do you believe God is in control?

Pastor White then shared about a free car wash another church he was part of used to do. People often tried to pay for the free car wash and hot dogs. They had a hard time receiving something good absolutely free.

Today's sermon would be based upon and extracted from Romans 3:21-26

Pastor White brought a couple object lessons. A law book, a robe and cross. In the Old Testament righteousness was given through the law. But now, apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known.

In Galatians 3:21 Paul amplifies this.  Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law.

In the old way, obedience was the only route to righteousness, though we were incapable of fulfilling it. But In Galatians Paul goes on explain that the Law was like a tutor to help keep us in line till grace was revealed. The goal is not to have a tutor, but rather to live a righteousness that comes from Christ.

There are two ways to live, under the law or under grace. The former is an enormous burden; the latter is liberation.

He then read snippets from The Ragamuffin Gospel, a book designed to bring hope to the bedraggled, beat-up, and burnt-out, the marginalized folks to whom Jesus ministered.

Christian life, living fully in Christ, is not a game in which we try to "appear" good. What would your life look like if it were truly motivated by Jesus Christ?

The Gospel, the Good News, is not about avoiding hell or to avoid feeling shame.

What is a life of faith? Answer: it is trust. Faith means to trust God. Terry stated that you could replace the word "faith" with "trust" in the Bible and it would not change a thing.

He then addressed the matter of accepting grace. It is hard to receive grace when we are not honest with ourselves. The first step is recognition of how fallen we are. This is the heart of the Gospel. Once we realize how fallen we are we can then appreciate the free gift of God's mercy and the sacrifice He made on our behalf.

The most gracious people are those who have grown the most to understand how dark their hearts are.

What does a heart look like when it's been thoroughly immersed in grace.

The irony of this freedom is that it was bought with a price. It was only free for us; it cost Him everything.

Returning to the passage in Romans 3:
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith.

There is much more that can be said, but at the end of all here's the question: Have you placed your trust in Jesus Christ?

Finally, the sweet sound of amazing grace of Jesus Christ frees us from the necessity of self-deception.

The moment our focus shifts from my badness to His goodness, it means I no longer dwell on "what have I done?" and so I can focus on what He has done.

In Romans 2:4 Paul asks, "Do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?"

We then celebrated Communion together.

Atonement

In his morning greeting Brad told about a recent incident involving Dale who was on his way to Canada for a fishing trip when just this side of the border he became aware that he'd forgotten his passport. He must have said to his fishing buddies, "Well, I only forgot one thing" but in this case it was the one thing that matters if planning to leave the country and come back again. In the same way today's sermon deals with one thing of vital importance, the atoning work of Christ Jesus.

After a beautiful introit by Darlene we stood for a moment of silence to acknowledging the passing of Gordy Garrett from the Isle of Mann, who passed this week.

Announcements included two by Cheryl Borndal.
1) We're looking for helpers who can participate in the worship in various ways from special music and Scripture reading to drama and greeters. Cheryl then put her "camp hat" on and made a second announcement.
2) We have 26 kids going to camp this summer from our congregation. Cheryl reminded us to pray for these youth as many will have life changing experiences there. An offering was taken after the service to help defray expenses for these young ones.

The Scripture reading was from Romans 6:12-23, which was followed by a time of prayer.

Atonement

Pastor Brad, a baseball fan, created an imaginary baseball league for us as an illustration to make a few points about today's theme. He called this leabe the All Universe Baseball Association. He said there were special requirements to be in this league. First, you had to have five years experience. Second, no errors for an entire career. And finally, you had to have a perfect batting average of 1,000.

In real life, of course, these kinds of numbers would be impossible to achieve. Even the best batters of all time get a hit only one in three times. And an errorless career has never been experienced by even one ballplayer. The qualifications for the All Universe Baseball Association are but an impossible dream, and any player who seriously sought to qualify for this imaginary league was likely himself living in a fantasy world. No matter how good you are going forward, the errors of the past will not permit you to achieve a perfect, errorless career.

So it is that the illustration sets up Brad's message, based on passages from Romans 3, Paul's letter to the church at Rome.

Brad said that according to Scripture there are two ways to get to heaven. The first is based on performance. That performance is a lifetime of sinless perfection. Not only no errors, though, but also every hit is a home run, a blend of perfect altruism and perfect rightousness in thought, word and deed.

This standard is so high that any realistic attempt to achieve it will end in futility. No one has done this, and no one will. Hence in Romans 3:10-12 Paul quotes the Old Testament passage affirming as such:
10 “There is no one righteous, not even one; 11 there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. ¹² All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”

It is not possible to work one's way to heaven. BUT.... there is another way. And with regard to this other way, all sinners are eligible. This "other way" is to take the righteousness manifest in Jesus and appropriate it to ourselves. This is the meaning of the atonement. All are justified by faith in Jesus' atoning work.

We become eligible to this gift by acknowledging that we are sinners. In verses 21 and 27 Paul notes that this salvation is obtained apart from the law. And again, in Roman's 4:5 Paul re-affirms the same. Salvation is ours apart from the law, irrespective of works.

Brad said he sees three kinds of people in the world today. Group one believes they will get to heaven by doing the best they can, and taking their chances with God. This group of non-Christians justifies themselves by saying, "At least I'm not an axe-murderer." The second group are Christians who believe that by praying, by having a right relationship with God and doing good and hoping for the best that they will get to heaven based on doing the right things.

The third group are those who understand the narrow way, that it is a narrow door... a priceless treasure. And is ours apart from works. Jesus said, "I am the way. I am the door."

The day will come when we stand before God, and some people will have their life record in hand believing it's pretty good, and they God's light will show how their very own records condemn them. Salvation is a gift, a free gift apart from works.

"For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law." (vs 3:28)

When it comes to atonement, it's like Dales forgotten passport. It's the one thing that matters. We need to appropriate that grace into our lives.

The service closed with the classic affirmation hymn, "My Hope Is Built On Nothing Less."