I want to talk to you this morning about a grace
awakening. What is a grace
awakening? It is simply being awakened
or experiencing a fresh understanding of the amazing, undeserved, unmerited
favor of God in our lives. We all need to
experience it, be empowered by it and extend that grace. The beauty of it is when someone new comes to
your church and says they have experienced it here as someone spoke to me the
other week.
When John, Bryan and I were away at the D’Elia’s for a
couple days last month, we were struck by the power and enormity of grace and
all its facets in 2 Corinthians. We were
also so blessed by a couple of people, Bonnie and Perry who are living examples
of beautiful grace. They run a bed and
breakfast in Niagara-On-The-Lake but they also have a cottage that they have
also renovated for people to seek time away to refresh their body and spirit.
It’s a vision that we have shared with the LB and some of
our ministry leaders as well.
1.
A new vision for Grace built on a time and place
where love abounds
2 Corinthians 9:8 And God is able to make all grace abound
to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an
abundance for every good deed; NASB
We are built for outward flow.
John 17:15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the
world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the
world, even as I am not of it. 17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is
truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. NASB
We are called to be missional.
The Word became flesh and blood and moved into the
neighborhood. John 1:14 The Message
Jesus became flesh and blood to all those around Him. He was real and went to where the people
were. He lived among them, He cried with
them, He prayed for them, He brought healing to their lives.
We are called to the same thing.
We are called to be real with all those around us, to cry,
to laugh, to pray for them and with them as the Spirit leads. We are called to bring healing to the lives
around us .
As one LB member shared, God has called me to serve and meet
the needs of my boss who is going through a very difficult time.
The statement: People living everyday grace in our community
Why is ‘grace’ so powerful.
Charles Swindoll in Grace Awakening
Christ died for us on
the cross. He was raised from the dead for us at the tomb. When we believed in
the Savior’s death and resurrection, we were dipped into the same scene. Our
identity was changed. We didn’t feel it, we didn’t see it, we didn’t hear it,
but it occurred, never the less. When we came to Christ we were placed into him
as his death became ours, his victorious resurrection became ours, his
“awakening” to new life became our “awakening”, his powerful walk became our
powerful walk. Before we can experience the benefits of all that, we have to
know it. Chuck Swindoll
•
Our mandate
- A shift from an internal focus to an outward focus.
The word internally for us at Grace will always be love and
the word externally as we focus looking outward will be grace.
I want to take you to a passage which I believe speaks into
our vision and gives us our mandate.
2.
The vision is rooted in the transformation of
our community. Jeremiah 29:4-7; 1 Peter
2:11,12
4This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to
all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 “Build houses and
settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. 6 Marry and have sons and
daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so
that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not
decrease. 7 Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have
carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you
too will prosper.”
So, what was going on here?
Israel as a nation was to represent God’s goodness to the
other nations. They were to be a
lighthouse to them, to reveal a nation that followed hard after God, but they
were stuck. They had forgotten their purpose;
they had completely forgot where they came from. They were once slaves in Egypt, they were
oppressed and they experienced deliverance, but as soon as they became
“self-sufficient” they forgot God and worshipped and ran after other gods. They were the nation that was oppressing
other nations.
Here is the account of
the forced labor King Solomon conscripted to build the Lord’s temple… 1 Kings
9:15
In a nutshell, they became all about preserving what they
have with their land and possessions instead of a nation that is bent on giving
away and blessing those around them.
So they are stuck and now God must act.
This very nation was called to be his hands and feet in the
world; however they looked just the same as everyone else. In fact, it was worse…they looked anti-God.
God is looking for people who care about the things that he
cares about and he blesses so that justice and righteousness can be
upheld.
Unfortunately at the
height of their blessing, Israel misinterpreted everything as entitlement and
favoritism. There is a word in the Bible for when you have been
giving all sorts of blessing, wealth and influence, but completely forget why
you were given it in the first place.
It’s called Exile.
Exile is when you
forget who you are; its when you forget your story. It isn’t just about getting kicked out of a
location but it is about of state of your soul.
It’s about when you find yourself as a stranger to the purposes of
God. This is the place from which
Jeremiah is speaking to us about.
So what?
Israel as a nation could have just looked at this time as exiles in a foreign land (“we’re here for a
short time…let’s huddle up and protect ourselves and wait for God to get us out
of here…whatever you do, don’t make friends with the enemy and don’t get
involved in any of their world”)…….. and then, how God actually directed them
to live (“you’re going to be here for 70 years, so settle in, get to know
people and bless and transform their culture by living among them as God’s
people”)
It’s also a place to rediscover your story in a fresh, new
way.
Is this just another twist on an OT mandate for a nation or
is this for us?
1 Peter 2:11 Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and
exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. 12
Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing
wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
Our real home is heaven, but we have been assigned by God to
live in this “Babylon” for the foreseeable future, so settle in, get to know
people and live out God’s grace so as to bless and transform the world around
us by living as God’s people should live.
How do we start living this out?
Matt Naismith, just recently stepped down as
the youth pastor of Lakeside moving into the Ward to begin a church plant to
reach out to people there.
The move IN – West Willow Woods – reaching
out to another need filled community.
James Bast.
Seek the prosperity of the city we are told
in Jeremiah 29. We are called to pray for it and extend grace to the people
living there.
An action plan for this summer!
·
Open your homes and backyards and be hospitable - It can be really simple.
The power of invitation is an
amazing thing. Go to your street party
and if there isn’t one, make one up! Last
night was our street party and it was the 3rd year in a row for
us. It was a rich delicacy of foods from
every continent from samosas to noodles to vegetarian, deep fried from
Africa! We brought pulled pork!
·
Open your hearts and make new friends (name some
new ones by end of summer)
It is because of
opportunities like this that I not only know their names, but I now know a
number of the names of their children as well.
It’s after midnight and Sharon is still out there having great
conversations!
·
Open your hands and do good to people around you
I met some people from Grace as I was out
on the garage sale loop with Sharon and one couple said after their
neighbourhood garage sale they were having a community BBQ.
·
Open your mouth (if an opportunity arises) and
speak of your faith in Christ
Bonnie D’Elia who I mentioned in
the introduction does this with such great ease. She shared with us how she spoke to the man
renovating a meeting area doing renovations at her home. She said I could just let them do their job
or choose to reach out. So she does and
over a meal or a coffee and God is giving her great opportunities to share her
faith.
Live your life in such a way that it demands an
explanation. Francis Chan
3.
The vision is intentional in discovering God at
work in us for our community Jeremiah
29:11-13
11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord,
“plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
And for most people, the memorizing of this passage ends
here. However, there is something very
important and not to be missed….
12 Then you will call
on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me
and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you,”
declares the Lord
We really need to be asking God what are your plans for me
today? Why? Because He already has laid
the blueprint out for your day.
Ephesians 2:8-10….look at what kind of grace v7 incomparable riches of His grace.
You can’t give what you don’t have. I am praying that the vision today will be a
grace awakening in all of us. I pray
that you will experience the incomparable depths and riches of His grace! May it be just like the song, How He Loves,
where grace is an ocean and we are all sinking in its depths!
As opposed to a closed community where we cloister ourselves
away, we want to build more intentional relationships in our community.
Let’s recommit ourselves to our neighbours and friends and
discover and experience the incomparable riches of His grace.
