Paul's Life: Grace Manifested

James 4:6 says, “But He gives more grace. Therefore, it says, ‘God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble’.”

God gives grace. Giving grace is God’s nature. We don’t have to beg for God’s grace, we don’t have to even ask for God’s grace. He just gives grace.

This verse also says that God gives grace to the humble but opposes the proud.

God gives grace to the humble because the humble are open to receive grace because the humble understand their need for grace.

God opposes the proud because they are unwilling to receive grace. They don’t think they need grace. The proud stand in opposition to the person and will of God.

God by His nature extends grace to everyone. The key is that humble people recognize their need for grace and accept it. Proud people don’t.

The life of Paul shows us the way grace is poured out on the humble.

1 Corinthians 15:9-10

For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.

Paul says that he is the least of the apostles. He sees himself in that context because he persecuted the church before his conversion.

But he is an apostle by God’s grace.

And he is effective in his ministry as an apostle by God’s grace.

It is by God’s grace that we are saved and it is by God’s grace that we are called into God’s service and made adequate in our service.

Did Paul deserve to be an apostle? – No

Did Paul deserve the blessing of effectiveness in his ministry? – No

Paul expresses his knowledge of his unworthiness and inadequacy and acknowledges that it is all by God’s grace.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is knowing that it is God’s grace that makes us worthy and adequate.

Ephesians 3:8

To me, through I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.

Paul sees himself not as the first or most important of all the saints, but as the least.

Paul, who is arguably the most important Christian ever, doesn’t see himself in that way. He sees himself as the least.

Paul acknowledges that is God’s grace that gives him the anointing to proclaim God’s Word to the Gentiles.

Paul did not have the ability to effectively and powerfully proclaim God’s Word. He knew it was by God’s grace that he was blessed to proclaim the truth of God.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is experiencing the power of the Holy Spirit exercising God’s power in and through us.

1 Timothy 1:15-16

This saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display His perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in Him for eternal life.

Paul saw himself as the foremost or worst sinner. But he also acknowledged that because of God’s grace and mercy he was saved from the penalty and guilt of sin.

None of us is worthy of Jesus dying on the cross as our sacrifice. He did it because of His grace.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is realizing the depth of our sin and the hugeness and power of God’s grace.

Ephesians 2:8-9 says that we are saved by faith, not by works, so that we cannot boast that we had anything to do with our salvation.

Ephesians 2:10

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

We are God’s workmanship or God’s masterpiece.

We were created in Jesus for good works.

God prepared them before we were born.

We live to accomplish the good works to honor God.

Works don’t lead to grace.

Works flow out of grace.

Paul’s life shows us what a life lived in and by God’s grace looks like.

By God’s Grace, Rising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                         Joe

Holiness and Grace

In 2 Peter 3:18, Peter tells us to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

In 1 Thessalonians 4:7, Paul tells us that God has not called us for impurity but in holiness.

1 Peter 1:15 quotes Leviticus 11:44 commanding us to be holy because God, who called us, is holy.

What is the relationship between grace and holiness?

Holy means to be set apart. Holiness is the state of being holy or being set apart. Saints are people who have been set apart. It also carries the concept of being morally upright or morally living as God desires us to live.

We have been called and commanded to be holy.

We know that holiness is not a natural state of human beings.

Romans 3:10-12 says, “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”

No one:

Is Righteous

Understands

Seeks God

Does Good

All have:

Turned Aside

Become Worthless

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is recognizing that we are born with a bent toward sin.

This passage makes it clear that no one has a natural bent toward God. We all as humans have a bent toward sin. Our default setting is sin, not holiness.

In Romans 9:31-32, we are told that Israel tried to get right with God by keeping the law, and that never succeed. They tried to get right with God by keeping the law instead of trusting Him.

In Galatians 5:4 it says “For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace.”

These passages make it clear that we cannot by our own ability get righteous by keeping the law because we our incapable of keeping the law perfectly.

James 1:10 says that if we keep all of the law, but fail at one part, we have broken all the law.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is recognizing that we cannot keep the law well enough to become holy.

So, if we don’t have any natural ability to be holy, and we don’t have the capability to perfectly keep the law and thus becoming holy, how do we get to be holy?

We have received grace upon grace according to John 1:16.

We are saved by grace according to Ephesians 2:5 & 8.

We are to continue in the grace of God according to Acts 13:43.

We are not dominated by sin because we are under grace, not law, according to Romans 6:15.

We behave in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity not by earthly wisdom but by the grace of God according to 2 Corinthians 1:12.

We have sufficiency in all things at all times and abound in every good work because God makes grace abound to us according to 2 Corinthians 9:8.

These passages say that we are saved by grace, live by grace, and receive all we need to live as holy people from grace.

We are declared holy because of grace.

We live holy because of grace.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is depending of God’s grace for salvation and daily living.

Yes, we are to be holy, but not out of our natural ability or by keeping the law, but from the grace of God given us through Jesus.

I want to pray for each of you to have a Jesus-filled and Jesus-focused Christmas.

                    By Grace, Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                                       Joe

Jesus Only Jesus

Matthew 1:21 says, “She will bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

It is about Jesus. It is not about Joseph and Mary. It is not about the shepherds. It is not about the wise men. It is not about decorations. It is not about presents. It is not about family.

It is all about Jesus. It is not all about Jesus just at Christmas. It is all about Jesus every day.

Why is it all about Jesus?

It is all about Jesus because “He will save His people from their sins”.

Jesus is the Savior.

He is the one who went to the cross and died there for our sins. Jesus took our punishment.

Jesus is the only means of salvation for all human beings.

I cannot save myself.

My parents cannot save me.

My wife cannot save me.

My children or grandchildren cannot save me.

The church cannot save me.

Only Jesus can save me.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is trusting Jesus and Jesus alone for salvation.

Jesus is the Christ.

Jesus is the Messiah.

Jesus is the Anointed One of God.

In John 1 John says that Jesus is the Word.

Jesus came to proclaim the Gospel. The gospel is the good news. That good news is that God loves us and, through His grace that caused Him to send Jesus, we have forgiveness of sins.

Jesus being the Christ or the Messiah means that He came to proclaim and demonstrate how we can know and please God.

Jesus as the Christ is, according to John, full of grace and truth. He not only came to proclaim that, but He came to share that with us.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is Jesus as the Christ proclaiming truth and grace.

Jesus is the Lord.

Jesus is the absolute sovereign creator and ruler of all creation.

We don’t have anybody in the American culture that is an absolute ruler. But in Jesus’ time on earth the people knew and understood what it meant for someone to be an absolute ruler.

Jesus is the ultimate absolute ruler. He has no one more powerful than Himself or more majestic or with more authority. There is absolutely no being that is above Jesus.

1 John 4:4 says that the One who is in us is greater then he that is in the world. Jesus is the greatest.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is acknowledging Jesus is Lord and living under His authority.

The thing that blows me away is the sacrificial love that Jesus shows by His willingness to give up the awesomeness of heaven and His position as God to become a human in the manner of a servant.

Jesus is the Savior.

Jesus is the Christ.

Jesus is the Lord.

Jesus is all that and yet He chose to go to the cross and die as the sacrifice for our sin.

That is why it is all about Jesus all the time.

Making It All About Jesus, Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                                   Joe

Three Choices

Little is known about the men who came to worship Jesus as the King of the Jews. They are called wise men or Magi. They came from somewhere east of Israel. But the story of these men traveling to find Jesus is a picture of how, even today, people relate to Jesus.

In Matthew 2:2 these wise men come and ask, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews?”

These men were not Jewish. They had no national, ethnic, or religious connection. They should not have even cared about the king of the Jews.

God had revealed to them through a star that a king of the Jews was to be born and that he would have an impact on them and the world.

In Matthew 2:3 when Herod found out about these wise men and what they were asking, it says that it disturbed him and all Jerusalem.

Herod didn’t want any competition for the throne and title as king of the Jews. Herod had already had a wife and two brothers killed because he thought they were plotting against him.

If Herod was disturbed, then that was reason for the people in Jerusalem and all Israel to be disturbed because he would stop at nothing to secure his position as king.

In Matthew 2:4-6 Herod calls together the chief priests and teachers of the law to see where the king of the Jews was to be born. They inform him it is in Bethlehem.

In Matthew 2:9 the wise men are given the information and they head out for Bethlehem.

The chief priests and teachers of the law don’t go. They don’t even send any representative.

Keep in mind, the wise men were Gentiles.

The chief priests and teachers of the law were Jewish.

Herod tells the wise men to find the child and get back to him when they do so that he can go and worship him. Herod also gets all the information about when the star appeared to the wise men.

We know he is doing that, not so he can go and worship the child, but so he can kill the child.

What is God revealing to us in this story of the wise men?

We see in the wise men, Herod, and the religious leaders three responses to Jesus.

The religious leaders were ignoring Jesus.

They told Herod where the king of the Jews or the Messiah was to be born. They knew scripture. They knew the importance of the Messiah.

In knowing all this, they had no desire to go and find and worship Him.

There are many people who know about Jesus. They know the facts of His birth, life, death, and resurrection but it is not important to them. They live their lives with knowledge but no relationship.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is living based on a relationship with Jesus, not a religion of rituals.

Herod was afraid of Jesus and wanted to destroy Him.

Herod was king, and to hear that another king had been born was intimidating to him. Herod’s way of dealing with fear was to eliminate the source; in this case, it was Jesus.

Many people seem either to hate God or be mad at God.

They may feel that God has failed them or that He can’t be trusted.

God understands those feelings. We can express any feelings of doubt, fear, and anger that we have. That will not surprise or anger God. He will love us in the midst of those feelings and, by that love, transform our doubt.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is trusting God’s love for us in the midst of trials.

The wise men were seeking Jesus.

Jeremiah 29:13 tells us that when we seek God, we will find Him when we seek Him with our whole hearts.

Matthew 7:7-8 tells us that when we seek, we will find, when we knock it will be opened, and when we ask, we will receive.

The promise is clear: When we really seek God, we will find Him and experience the reality of His presence.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is seeking God and finding Him.

We will either ignore God, be fearful of God, or seek God. Each of these will result in certain consequences.

God’s desire is that seek Him, find Him, and experience His love.

Seeking God and Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                            Joe

Foundations

Living in a relationship with Jesus must never be a life that stands still. If we try to stand still in our relationship with Jesus, it will go backward. A house that is not maintained will fall apart. We are created by God for life and to grow in that life. If we are not busy being born then we are busy dying.

Jude 1:20-21

But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.

We are to build ourselves up.

The foundation for life with Jesus is our holy faith.

This is faith in Jesus, not just faith in faith.

Things just don’t “work out” because we have faith in some cosmic good fortune. God in His grace and mercy works in and through us.

So, what can we have faith in?

We can have faith in God’s love.

Romans 8:37-39 tells us that nothing can separate us from God’s love in Jesus.

I can have faith in God’s presence in my life.

Hebrews 13:5 tells us that God will never leave us or forsake us.

Isaiah tells us that Jesus is Immanuel or God with us.

I can have faith in what the Bible says.

The Bible reveals to us the:

Nature of God

Character of God

Mind of God

The Bible reveals to us all that we need to know to have real love and a trust relationship with Jesus.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is having faith in God and His Word.

How do we develop faith in Jesus?

Spend time daily in God’s Word.

When we ignore the Word of God, we are unfruitful and ineffective in our life with God.

Spend time daily with Jesus in prayer.

The key to prayer is being radically honest with God and radically dependent on God.

Honesty frees God to graciously provide what I need.

Dependence shows God that I know it is all about Him.

When we pray in the Holy Spirit, it means we pray according to the leading of the Holy Spirit.

We never pray alone. According to Romans 8:26-28 when we don’t know what to pray, the Holy Spirit intercedes for us. He also takes all the circumstances of our lives (good and bad) and works them for our good.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is allowing God to build the foundation in our lives through the Bible, prayer, and the Holy Spirit.

We are to keep ourselves in the love of God. 

We receive God’s love and we dispense His love to others.

The love God gives us is for us to experience and for us to share with others.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is experiencing God’s love and giving His love to others just as He gave love to us.

We also build the foundation by receiving God’s mercy.

Mercy is not getting what you deserve.

You and I deserve, by our actions toward God, death and hell. God, in His mercy, provides a way for us to not experience death and hell.

Romans 6:23 tells us that the wages of sin is our death. The very best we can earn by our actions is death. The second part of that verse tells us that the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is relying on God’s mercy and receiving by grace eternal life through Jesus.

The last ingredient is obedience to the word and will of God.

We can believe God and His word.

We can spend time with Jesus.

We can keep our lives in God’s love.

We also have to obey.

Jesus says that obedience is our way of showing our love for Him.

Obedience is important to God because all of His commands are for our good. God wants our good, and obedience to His commands will bring us good.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is obeying Jesus.

The three graces of faith, hope, and love enable us to grow in our relationship with Jesus. We are able to build on a solid foundation with materials that will not decay. Merely professing with words will not cut it with Jesus.

In Matthew 7 Jesus says that not everyone who says to Him, “Lord, Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the person who does the will of the Father.

In Matthew 7 Jesus also tells the parable of the two men who built houses. One built on sand and the house fell; and one built on the rock and that house stood. He makes it clear that it is essential that we build lives on the person of Jesus.

Building the Foundation by Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

Joe