I
will never forget in August of 2018 God speaking to my spirit. He said one
word, grace. God became clearer on what He wanted in relationship to that word
as I prayed about what I was to do. He wanted me to teach for a whole year on
grace. I had never in over four decades as a youth pastor or a lead pastor ever
taught on one subject for a year. I didn’t think I could do it. God said that
it was that important. I began to study grace and collect ideas for the
teachings. When I looked at the year, I saw I needed forty-nine grace teachings.
When I finished putting together the teachings, I saw I had fifty-seven
teachings on grace. As of today, December 29, I have delivered forty-nine
teachings on Sundays about grace to my family faith. I have also developed five
teachings called Grace Abounds to do has a church wide study at the end of January.
So,
what have I learned about grace? I am so glad you asked.
I
have learned that grace is lacking in our culture and many times misunderstood
in the church.
Grace
being undeserved goes against the entitled attitude in our culture. God’s Word
constantly challenges us to let God’s grace guide our lives.
Romans
12:3
For
by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself
more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each
according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.
Philippians
2:3-4
Do
nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more
significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own
interests, but also to the interests of others.
Grace
moves us out of the mindset that it is only about us and guides us into the truth
that we need to be servants of God serving others. That goes against the
concept of entitlement.
Raise
the Roof and Remove the Walls is letting grace enable us to focus on others,
not ourselves.
I
have learned that God’s grace has to be my motivation for everything I do.
In
Galatians 1:15 Paul says that God set him apart before he was born and called
him by grace. It is through grace that I exist and it is by grace that I am
saved and it is by grace that God has called me to serve Him. In other words,
everything I have and everything I am is by God’s grace. Because that is true,
I submit myself to God and obey His will, not out of duty or to earn something,
but out of my great gratitude to God.
Raise
the Roof and Remove the Walls is letting God’s grace motivate me to serve
and obey Him.
I
have learned that God’s grace is to characterize my life as a follower of
Jesus.
John
1:14
And
the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as
of the only Son of God from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Jesus
is full of grace and truth.
2
Corinthians 3:18
And
we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being
transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this
comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
Salvation
is not just about going to heaven. Salvation is about restoring in us as humans
what was given up: that we were created in the image of God. It is about reforming
the image of God in us. According to Colossians 1:15 Jesus is the image of the
invisible God. As a follower of Jesus, I need to reflect the truth of who He is
and grace is certainly who Jesus is.
Raise
the Roof and Remove the Walls is by God’s grace being formed more and more
into the image of Jesus.
I
have learned that grace is what makes Christianity different than any other
religion, worldview, or philosophy.
Grace
is used over one hundred times in the Bible. Other religions and worldviews
have high standards of morality, caring for others, and doing things that help
humanity. But Christianity is the only religion or worldview that teaches that
God accepts us based on Him and not our effort and that what we do is to flow
out of grace.
Galatians
2:20-21
I
have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who
lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of
God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God,
for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.
Other
religions and worldviews make it all about what the person does. Christianity
makes it all about Jesus and what He did.
Raise
the Roof and Remove the Walls is about being God’s peculiar people, people
saved and changed and formed by and through God’s grace.
I
have learned that grace is the heart of God.
1
John 4:8 and 16 say that God is love. God’s love is made real in our lives
through the grace that God gives us through Jesus.
Grace
is the practical reality of God’s love applied to our lives.
Raise
the Roof and Remove the Walls is experiencing the reality of God’s love
through His grace daily in our lives.
Thanks
for listening to and reading God’s grace teachings this year. And have an
awesome 2020.
In
God’s Grace Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,
Joe
Luke
2:10
But
the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy
that will be for all the people.”
This
was the angel’s message to the shepherds. It contains three awesome examples of
God’s grace.
Good
News
The
coming of Jesus the Christ as our Savior is good news.
Why
is Jesus’ coming into the world good news?
It
is good news because:
It
means that the means of our salvation was in the world
It
means that God loves us
It
means that God’s heart desire is for my good
The
good news of Jesus can be turned into bad news when we try and add things to it
(legalism) or remove things from it (license).
Galatians
5:1 says “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not
submit again to a yoke of slavery.”
The
good news of Jesus means we have been set free from the burden of legalism or
sin to be who God created us and recreated us to be.
Raise
the Roof and Remove the Walls is, by God’s grace, experiencing the reality
of the good news of Jesus.
Great
Joy
The
good news of Jesus is meant to bring great joy to people.
The
celebration of Jesus’ coming has been changed from the focus of that first Christmas.
In Bethlehem, the focus was on Jesus. Mary and Joseph were focused on Jesus.
The angels revealed to the shepherds that Jesus the Savior had been born. The
wise men came seeking Jesus, the king of the Jews.
We
focus Christmas on:
Family
Food
Gifts
And
some “spirit” of the season
When
we don’t experience those things to the degree that we are told we need to
experience, we feel depressed and our celebration of Christmas is not one of
great joy. Personally, our celebration of Christmas has changed over the years
as family circumstances have changed and as where we lived has changed. What
has not changed is that our celebration centers on Jesus. Christmas is a time
of great joy because Jesus is to be the great joy of our lives.
Raise
the Roof and Remove the Walls is daily experiencing the great joy of Jesus
in our lives.
Will
Be For All People
Jesus’
coming was not just for certain kinds of people:
Jews
Good
People
Religious
People
Wealthy
People
Poor
People
Jesus
came for ALL PEOPLE!
I
love the fact that my faith family is made of people who love people, all kinds
of people. I love standing every Sunday and looking at the diversity of our
faith family. I love it because Jesus is not just the Savior of America or
Europe or Asia or Africa or Australia or Antarctica, but He is the Savior of
the world.
Raise
the Roof and Remove the Walls is proclaiming to everyone and anybody that
Jesus loves them and came to deliver them from the penalty of sin.
May
you have an awesome Christmas with Jesus as the focus of your celebration and a
Jesus-filled 2020.
In
the Grace of God Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,
Joe
Religion
gives you things to do and rules to follow.
Christianity
gives you a relationship to enter into.
And
rules without relationship lead to rebellion.
The
reason that Christianity is different is because of grace. The story is told of
C. S. Lewis that, as he was attending a theology conference, a group of
theologians were discussing the major difference Christianity and other
religions. C. S. Lewis said that was easy; that the major difference was grace.
In
John 3 we see the evidence of that truth. John shows us grace that makes a
relationship with God possible.
John
3:3
Jesus
answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you unless one is born again he cannot
see the kingdom of God.”
It
is a living relationship. It begins with the new birth. It is a birth from
above. When we receive Jesus into our lives, we share His very life and become
children in the family of God.
In
John 17:3 Jesus says that eternal life is knowing the Father and the Son.
Eternal life or salvation is not a commodity; it is a person.
In
Galatians 2:20 Paul says that He has been crucified with Christ and that it is
not him who lives but Christ who lives in him. Salvation is by faith experiencing
the resurrected life of Jesus being lived through us.
Raise
the Roof and Remove the Walls is experiencing a living relationship with God
through Jesus living in us.
John
3:16
For
God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son and that whoever
believes Him will not perish but have everlasting life.
It
is a loving relationship. Jesus is the bridegroom and we, the church, are the
bride. Our desire is for Him above all else. John the Baptist in John 3:30
says, “He must increase, but I must decease.” That needs to be our attitude.
Grace moves God to love us and do what is necessary to establish a relationship
with us.
Raise
the Roof and Remove the Walls is experiencing a relationship with God based
in His love for us.
John
3:11
Truly,
truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have
seen, but you do not receive our testimony.
It
is a learning relationship. Jesus is the faithful witness. He is the teacher.
He shares God’s truth with us. It is a real delight to receive God’s Word,
mediate on it, and make it a part of our daily lives.
The
relationship continues to grow, and the longer we are in relationship with God,
the more we learn and the more we can experience the joy of the Lord.
Raise
the Roof and Remove the Walls is enjoying a growing relationship with God
year after year.
God’s
grace is what enables us to experience a living, loving, and learning
relationship with God. May God’s grace invade you and fill your life.
In
God’s Grace Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,
Joe
John
3:14-15
And
as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be
lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life.
Numbers
21:4-9
From
Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom.
And the people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God
and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the
wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless
food.” Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the
people, so that many people of Israel died. And the people came to Moses and
said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you.
Pray to the Lord, that He take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for
the people. And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a
pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live. So Moses made a
bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look
at the bronze serpent and live.
The
people sinned by rebelling against God and against Moses, God’s anointed
leader. God sent snakes among the people as a reminder of His authority. When
the people confessed and repented, God by His grace provided a way for the
people to be delivered and be saved. God had Moses make a bronze snake and put
it on a pole, and as the bronze snake was lifted up and a person bitten by the
snakes looked at the bronze snake, he would be healed.
Jesus
says that in the same way, when the Son of Man, Jesus, is lifted up and a
person believes in Him, that person will be saved.
The
verb lifted up has a dual meaning:
First,
it means to be crucified.
John
12:32
And
I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to Myself.
Second,
it means to be glorified and exalted.
John
12:23
And
Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.”
The
cross of Jesus was not the end of His glory; it was the means of His glory.
The
answer with the serpents for the people of Israel was not:
Killing
the serpents
Making
medicine to cure the snake bites
Pretending
the snakes were not there
Passing
anti-snake laws
Climbing
the pole
The
solution to the problem was obeying God and looking by faith at the uplifted
serpent.
The
whole world has been bitten by sin.
Romans
3:23
For
all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
The
penalty of sin is death.
Romans
6:23a
For
the wages of sin is death.
So
just as the rebellion of the people of Israel against God led to death, the
rebellion of each human being also leads to death.
Raise
the Roof and Remove the Walls is being honest about our sin and realizing
that it is so serious that it leads to death.
But
just as the lifted of serpent would bring salvation and healing when by faith
the people looked at it, so the lifted-up Jesus would bring salvation when by
faith a person puts their faith in Jesus as Savior and Lord.
Romans
3:24
And
are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus.
Romans
6:23b
But
the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The
solution to our sin problem is not:
Condemning
those who sin
Made-man
solutions to solve the sin problem
Pretending
there is no such thing as sin
Making
laws to prohibit sin
Working
really hard not to sin
The
solution is, by faith, trusting God to save us based on the grace of Jesus through
His finished work on the cross.
Raise
the Roof and Remove the Walls is not trusting ourselves to deal with sin but
trusting God’s grace to deal with sin.
God’s
grace provided a savior, Jesus, to be our atoning sacrifice for sin.
In
God’s Grace Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,
Joe
John
2:1-11
On
the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus
was there. Jesus also was invited to the wedding with His disciples. When the
wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to Him, “They have no wine.” And Jesus said
to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come.”
His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever He tells you.” Now there were six
stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding
twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with
water.” And they filled them up to the brim. And He said to them, “Now draw
some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it. When the
master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it
came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the
feast called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine
first, and when people have drunk freely then the poor wine. But you have kept
the good wine until now.” This, the first of His signs, Jesus did at Cana in
Galilee, and manifested His glory. And His disciples believed in Him.
This
miracle or sign, like all of Jesus’ miracles, was an act of grace. Miracles are
not done by Jesus because anyone deserved it. They are done out of Jesus’ mercy
and grace.
Personally,
this is one of my favorite miracles of Jesus. I love that it was done at a
wedding. Jesus was attending this wedding and by doing so was placing His
approval on marriage.
It
was providing wine. Wine in the Bible many times symbolizes joy. Jesus was
providing joy to a family that needed joy at that point in time. Running out of
wine at a wedding feast was a huge disgrace to them as a family. Jesus, out of
His grace, provided what they could not provide and saved their reputation.
Jesus is our provider and protector.
Raise
the Roof and Remove the Walls is depending on Jesus for our provision and
protection.
John
uses the word sign to describe this miracle. A sign points beyond itself to
something greater. Jesus wanted people to believe not just in His works but in
Him, who He really was. He was and is the Messiah, the Savior, the Lord. Jesus
is God come in the flesh.
Raise
the Roof and Remove the Walls is not just looking at what Jesus does but at
who He is and receiving Him into your life as the Messiah, the Savior, and the
Lord.
This
miracle pointed to Jesus as the one who fulfills our lives.
We
look to things and people to do what only Jesus can do: fulfill us as His
creation.
Ephesians
5:18
And
do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the
Spirit.
Wine
here means the things that the world offers us that promise fulfillment but
lead to emptiness. The word debauchery means a lost, abandoned person. That is
where the fulfillment of the world leads. But being continually filled up with
the Holy Spirit leads to true fulfillment.
Raise
the Roof and Remove the Walls is finding true fulfillment in the filling and
work of the Holy Spirit in and through you.
The
water was in jars used for external purification. The water was used to
ritually wash externally. Jesus turned the water into wine that filled them
inwardly.
Romans
12:1-2
I
appeal to you brothers therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present
your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, and acceptable to God, which is your
spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the
renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God,
what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Transformation
of our lives is an inward work of God in our hearts and minds that is shown in
living out God’s will. It is an inner change that leads to outer change.
Raise
the Roof and Remove the Walls is being transformed inwardly by God and it being
manifested in your life by how you live.
Jesus,
from His grace, gives us joy, fulfillment, and transformation.
In
the Grace of Jesus Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,
Joe
