Grace is Stll Amazing

The first verse of Amazing Grace says:

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound

That saved a wretch like me

I once was lost, but now am found

T’was blind but now I see

Many find the word wretch describing humans as offensive. I find it very accurate in describing me before I experienced the grace of Jesus. My thoughts, my desires, my words, and my actions were self-focused, negative, and ungodly. They were wretched because I was a wretch.

Grace does not minimize or ignore the terrible reality of our sin. Grace emphasizes the depth of our sin by focusing on the unthinkable price paid to redeem us from it.

Romans 5:6-8

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one would scarcely die for a righteous person – though perhaps for a good person one would dare die – but God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Jesus died for utterly unworthy people, not for good people who deserved it. It shows Jesus’ unfathomable and unearned love for us. It is so huge and unlimited and powerful that it frees us from our sin.

In admitting that we are wretches, sinners that are undeserving of Jesus’ gift of salvation, we acknowledge that it is all about Him and His finished work on the cross. We tend to try and qualify ourselves so that we are no longer powerless and unworthy. We are no longer wretches. That makes grace no longer grace.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is acknowledging the awesomeness of Jesus’ gift of salvation.

A person with a strong and healthy heart has no need of a heart transplant. It is the person with a weak and sick heart that needs a transplant. God offers grace to the needy. To the people who know they are sinners, not the people who see themselves as righteous with no need for God’s grace.

In Luke 5:31-32 Jesus says that it is not those who are well who need a doctor, but the sick. He had come to call sinners to repentance, not the righteous.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is acknowledging our needy condition and thus our need for the grace of Jesus.

According to Ephesians we were not just sick in our sin, we were dead in our sin. The fact that we were dead in our sin means that we were utterly incapable of earning salvation. My salvation is completely the result of the grace of Jesus.

Our utter incapability of earning salvation should lead us to bring our need to the only one capable of securing salvation for us – Jesus.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is bringing our need of salvation to Jesus.

Since we were dead in our sin, then what was needed was life. When a person is dead, only new life can bring them back to life.

Ephesians 2:4 says that God, because He is rich in mercy and because of great love, made us alive.

Jesus didn’t die on the cross to make us better people, to reform us, or to make us look better on the outside. Jesus died to give us new life. The only thing you can do for a dead person that is going to make a difference is to give them life. Jesus out of His grace gives us new life.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is experiencing new life in Jesus.

Grace:

Changes us from sinner to saint

Gives us a new heart

Meets the real needs of our lives

Brings us salvation

Enables us to experience new life

Because I was a wretch, I needed the grace of Jesus.

Because I received the grace of Jesus, I am now a God-declared righteous person.

In God’s Grace Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                        Joe

Grace Overcomes

Grace overcomes. There is no better picture of grace overcoming than what is pictured in Mark 5.

Jesus and His disciples had crossed to the other side of the Sea of Galilee to the Gerasene region. He encountered a man possessed by a demon.

In this passage we see Jesus by grace overcoming the forces of Satan and society.

Mark 5:2-5

And when Jesus stepped out of the boat, immediately there met Him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit. He lived among the tombs. And no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain, for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces. No one had the strength to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and on the mountain he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones.

Here we see the power of Satan to kill, steal, and destroy. The man was:

Spiritually and Emotionally Tormented

Physically Harmful to Himself and Others

Living in an Environment of Death

This man had lost his peace and purpose for living.

This man had lost his home and family.

This man had lost his decency and his humanity.

Satan is our enemy and wants to destroy us and make us children of disobedience, who disobey God’s will.

Mark 5:6-13

And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before Him. And crying out with a loud voice, he said, “What have You to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.” For He was saying to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” And Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” He replied, “My name is Legion, for we are many.” And he begged Him earnestly not to send them out of the country. Now a great heard of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged Him, saying, “Send us to the pigs; let us enter them.” So He gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the sea.

We see the destructive power of Satan as the demons enter the pigs and they rush down the steep bank and drown themselves. But we also see the reality of who Jesus is and His power to overcome Satan. The demons acknowledge who Jesus is, the Son of the Most High God. The demons recognize Jesus’ power by begging Him not to send them out of the country. The demons recognize Jesus’ authority by doing what He commands them to do.

Jesus out of His grace uses His power and authority to rid this man of the demons.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is knowing Jesus can and letting Jesus overcome Satan’s influence in our lives.

Mark 5:14-17

The herdsman fled and told it in the city and in the country. And people came to see what it was that had happened. And they came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed man, the one who had had the legion, sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. And those who had seen it described to them what had happened to the demon-possessed man and to the pigs. And they began to beg Jesus to depart from their region.

Society had labeled the man possessed by demons. They labeled him as a crazy, dangerous, demon-possessed man. When they saw him, they didn’t see the person; they saw the label. But when they saw him with Jesus, they realized he had changed and they didn’t know what to do with that. They also were fearful of Jesus because He had done something that they believed to be impossible. Their response was to ask Jesus to leave.

Society is fallen and naturally doesn’t understand Jesus. They feel safer when Jesus is at a distance. Jesus in His grace still works even in the midst of a nonbelieving society. Society does not determine what Jesus can do. Grace works in any and every situation.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is trusting in God’s grace, no matter the situation.

Mark 5:18-20

As He was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed with demons begged Him that he might be with Him. And He did not permit him but said to him, “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how He has had mercy on you.” And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled.

The result of Jesus by grace overcoming Satan and society was the transformation of the man. He was no longer controlled by Satan, but by grace was directed and guided by Jesus.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is being transformed by the grace of God.

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

                                        Joe

Grace is Accepting the Outcast

Jesus shows grace in many ways. He did not let circumstances or what others expected Him to be or do stop Him from displaying grace.

In Mark 2:13-14 Jesus calls Mathew to leave his position as a tax collector and come and follow Him, Jesus. Later Jesus appoints Matthew as one of the twelve apostles. Jesus called a man who, because of what he did for living, was hated by his people, the Jews.

Jesus shows grace by accepting and calling an outcast to be not just a follower, but one of the Twelve.

Then in verse 15 Jesus is at Matthew’s house eating with Matthew’s friends. Matthew’s friends are other tax collector. Eating with another person in eastern culture shows acceptance. Jesus not only accepted Matthew; He showed acceptance to many other outcasts.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is allowing God to manifest His grace through us by us accepting those who are cultural outcasts.

In verse 16 the Pharisees question why Jesus was eating with sinners. Jesus responds in verse 17 by saying, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteousness but sinners.”

Jesus can do nothing for those people who see themselves as righteous apart from what Jesus did on the cross. When we recognize our sin and admit our sin and our need for Jesus then we can and will experience the acceptance and forgiveness of God.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is acknowledging our sin and seeking Jesus as the solution.

In Mark 2 :18-19 Jesus is asked another question. Since the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, why did His disciples notfast?.

In verse 20 Jesus asks why the wedding party would fast and not celebrite while the groom is still with them. He tells them in verse 21 that there will be a time to fast after the groom has left.

Jesus says that He as the bridegroom is reason for celebration, not fasting.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is focusing our lives on Jesus and celebrating Him.

In Mark 2:21 Jesus points out that no one sows a new cloth patch on an old garment. If they do, it will shrink and make the hole bigger and worse. In verse 22 Jesus says that you don’t put new wine into old wineskins because it will burst the old wineskins and both the wine and wineskins will be ruined. You put new wine into new wineskins. Jesus came with something new, the gospel, and it needed a new container, a new structure. If not, then everything will be ruined.

 

Jesus is pointing out that grace cannot be contained in the old structure of the law. The gospel needs a new container. It needs the faith community of the church to effectively impact the world.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is letting grace, not rules and rituals, control your life.

Jesus in these passages is:

The Physician who heals the sick.

The Bridegroom who brings joy to His friends.

The Tailor who fixes the hole.

The Winemaker who provides new wine.

Grace is accepting outcasts and the unlovable no matter what others think and living based on a relationship with Jesus, not religious rules.

In Grace Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                      Joe

Grace and Revival

It was a Tuesday in October of 1998 and was on my way to a meeting that I did not want to go, but was going because I had promised a friend I would go. I still don’t remember the man who spoke at the meeting. I do remember what he talked about; he spoke about revival. I had been through the study called Fresh Encounter by Henry Blackaby but not really desired or sought revival from God for His church. This man who spoke challenged me, and through that challenge God impressed me to beginning praying and inviting my church to pray for revival. I have been personally praying for and leading the church God has called me to pastor to pray for revival for over 20 years.

I realized three things in the process of praying for revival.

First, that it comes only as an act of God’s sovereign grace and, just like salvation, is not something I can make happen.

Second, that in the process of praying for revival I need to be ready to obey God as He speaks to me about doing or not doing certain things.

Third, that most people are not going to get excited about praying for revival and will not join me.

Revival is the reawakening and repowering God’s church.

In 2 Kings 22 and 23 we see one of several revivals God out of His grace sent to His people, Israel.

Israel had strayed from a pure worship of Yahweh. They had mixed worship of Yahweh with the worship of other false gods. When Josiah became king, he began to make spiritual reforms.

Josiah was only eight years old when he became king.

There are four things we see in this passage that show aspects of revival.

2 Kings 22:2

Josiah did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and followed completely the ways of his father David, not turning to the right or to the left.

Revival begins with a personal commitment to worship, serve, and obey God.

Josiah from an early age chose to follow God rather than follow the ways of those leaders who came before him who followed the ways of false gods. God’s people must commit to follow God regardless of circumstances or consequences.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is committing to follow and obey God no matter what.

For revival to happen, God’s people must prioritize the Word of God.

The Book of the Law was found in the temple when they began to make repairs on the temple.

When the Book of the Law was read to King Josiah, his reaction is recorded in 2 Kings 22:11-13

When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his robes. He gave these orders to Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam son of Shahan, Akbor son of Micaiah, Shaphan the secretary and Asaiah the king’s attendant. “Go and inquire of the Lord for me and for the people and for all Judah about what is written in this book that has been found. Great is the Lord’s anger that burns against us because those who have gone before us have not obeyed the words of this book; they have not acted in accordance with all that is written there concerning us.”    

When King Josiah heard the words of the Lord, he repented, torn his robes, and told his leaders to pray to God because His people had not obeyed Him. God’s Word brought conviction. God’s Word needs to bring conviction to His people today.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is allowing God’s Word to convict us and restore us into right fellowship with God.

When God’s people long for revival, they must recognize and confess their sins and ask God for mercy.

2 Kings 22:19

“Because you heart was responsive and you humbled yourself before the Lord when you heard what I have spoken against this place and its people – that they would become a curse and be laid waste – and because you tore your robes and wept in My presence, I also have heard you,” declares the Lord.

Disobedience and sin will never bring God’s blessing, but obedience will always allow God to pour out blessings on His people.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is recognizing our sins, confessing them, and repenting by turning from them and back to God.

Those hoping for revival must decisively turn from everything and anything that competes with God for our hearts.

2 Kings 23:3

The king stood by the pillar and renewed the covenant in the presence of the Lord – to follow the Lord and keep His commands, statues, and decrees with all their heart and all their soul, thus confirming the words of the covenant written in this book. Then all the people pledged themselves to the covenant.

We are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, all our mind, all our soul, and all our strength.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is loving God with all that we are all the time.

In God’s Grace Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                         Joe

Grace is Found in Jesus

The heart of the gospel of Jesus is grace.

The life of Jesus shows grace.

He healed ten lepers and only one came back to thank Him, but all ten were healed.

He raised the Widow of Nain’s son because He had compassion on her.

He feed five thousand people because He saw them as sheep without a shepherd.

He turned water into wine at a wedding because His mother thought there was a need.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is experiencing grace through the life of Jesus.

The teachings of Jesus show grace.

Love your neighbor as yourself.

Love one another.

Don’t judge.

Meet the needs of the outcast and the powerless.

To anyone who will come to Him, He will give rest.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is experiencing grace through the Word of God. 

The death of Jesus shows grace.

Luke 23:34: “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” – Grace that Forgives. (Jesus prays to the Father for us to receive the opportunity to be forgiven)

Luke 23:43: “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in paradise.”  – Grace that Accepts. (Jesus accepts a dying criminal on a cross)

John 19:26-27: “Woman, behold your son!... Behold your mother!” – Grace that Provides and Protects (Jesus provides John to protect His mother)

Mark 15:34: “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?” – Grace that Understands (Jesus understands our feelings of separation from God)

John 19:28: “I thirst.” – Grace that Suffers (Jesus experienced human suffering so He can help us in our suffering)

John 19:30: “It is finished!” – Grace of Salvation (Jesus finished the work of salvation through His death on the cross)

Luke 23:46: “Father, into Your hands I commit My Spirit!” – Grace that Trusts (Jesus trusted Himself to the Father)

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is experiencing grace through Jesus’s death on the cross for my sin.

The resurrection of Jesus shows grace.

It gives us victory death. (We cannot defeat death)

It gives us victory over sin. (We cannot defeat sin)

It gives us victory over Satan. (We cannot defeat Satan)

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is experiencing grace through the victory we have through Jesus’ resurrection.

1 Corinthians 15:53-57

For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immorality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Through Jesus we have the victory.

Because we have the victory, what are we to do?

1 Corinthians 15:58

Therefore, my beloved bothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the works of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

God’s grace manifested in Jesus gives us the victory. The victory we have - not that we will get, but that we have now - means I don’t have to fear, I can just live my life serving Jesus.

In God’s Grace Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                        Joe

Grace in a New View

Moses said it.

Gideon said it.

David said it.

They said, “Who am I that God should bless me so much.” I can totally identity with that thinking. I have been blessed by God beyond anything I could ever have imagined. When I expressed that feeling to my wife, she in her quiet wisdom simply said it was because of God’s grace. She was absolutely right.

This weekend God showed me the truth of the awesomeness of His grace.

Romans 5:20

Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but when sin increased, grace abounded all the more.

I know that apart from God’s grace I have no hope. I am lost and cannot ever hope to obtain forgiveness and eternal life. But God’s grace is more than just what saves us. It is also why God blesses us.

This weekend I was given four great grace gifts. 

Grace Gift #1: I got to hear and see my granddaughter sing at a performance with her Broadway children’s group. They sang a song at the performance from the Lion King called the Circle of Life. I was privileged to see another generation of Byerses and love them and have them love me. But an even greater grace gift was the next morning when my granddaughter stood next to me and sang praises to Jesus. The grace gift was to see my granddaughter use her gift from God to praise Jesus.

Grace Gift #2: I got to sit on the floor and play video games with my grandson in the same way I used to play with my son. It was gracious of God to allow me to build new bonds with my grandson. It was gracious of God to let me spend time with my grandson on his turf and getting to know him in a different.

Grace Gift #3: I got to worship with my daughter-in-law leading people in singing praises to Jesus. I got to see her heart and know that it is focused on Jesus. I prayed for my son to marry a woman who loved Jesus and together they would serve Jesus with great passion. God with overwhelming grace answered that prayer.

Grace Gift #4: I got to sit under the teaching of my son. I don’t listen much (actually not at all) to other preachers or teachers. But I love sitting under my son’s teaching. He loves Jesus and it comes out as he teaches and it comes out as he relates to the faith family that he pastors. I prayed that he would become a man after God’s own heart and again God overwhelmingly answered that request.

Grace is God’s sovereign desire to love us, not based on us but on His choice to love His human creation. It produces salvation as we receive and accept it. It is also why God’s blesses us. Those blessings are not based on our goodness or our being worthy of them or our performance. They are also based on God’s choice to bless us.

I love God’s grace because it is His heart. Grace is who God is and we see it in great depth in the life of Jesus. Grace is the reason God saves us and blesses us.

I know that this is a little shorter than usual. But after spending the weekend with my children and grandchildren I am tired. Grace gives me great joy and comfort, but not much energy.

In Grace Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                      Joe

Grace is Found at the Feet of Jesus

God focuses on who we are in Him, the being, before He focuses on what we do, the doing. God’s grace makes us who we are in Jesus so that we can do what pleases Him. Grace also puts us in the position to know who we are in Jesus.

Mary, the sister of Lazarus and Martha, is mentioned three times in Scripture. Each time that she is mentioned, she is located at the feet of Jesus.

Luke 10:38-42

Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to His teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”

Mary is at the feet of Jesus, listening to His words. Martha was distracted by trying to make everything perfect for Jesus. There was nothing ungodly or immoral or unspiritual about what Martha was doing. It just was not the best. Mary had chosen to seat herself at the feet of Jesus listening to what He was teaching. Martha was distracted from the best by the good, from the essential by the unessential, and from the being by the doing.

Mary found blessing at the feet of Jesus.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is by God’s grace receiving God’s blessing.

John 11:28-32

When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to Him. Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met Him. When the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there. Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw Him, she fell at His feet, saying to Him, “Lord if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

She came to Jesus with great sorrow over the death of her brother. In her grief, she said to Jesus that if He had gotten there in time, Lazarus would not have died. But even in the anger and grief, she fell at Jesus’ feet.

She found comfort there at the feet of Jesus.

Comfort is found by being in the presence of Jesus, not in doing, but in being. Our comfort is found in Jesus because He is the God of all comfort.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is experiencing the comfort of God through the presence of Jesus.

John 12:1-3

Six days before the Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. So, they gave a dinner for Him there. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with Him at table. Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

Mary came and worshiped Jesus at His feet. She anointed Jesus’ head and feet. She then wiped His feet with her hair. A woman’s hair was her glory according to 1 Corinthians 11:15. She surrendered her glory to Jesus. She worshiped Jesus with the precious gift she brought. It was a selfless act of love and devotion and faith. It was an act in which Mary gave her best to Jesus.

Mary found real purpose worshiping at the feet of Jesus. Nothing given to Jesus in love is ever wasted.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is worshiping Jesus at His feet and experiencing the reality of His love.

Mary came to the feet of Jesus and found blessing, comfort, and love.

We when we come to Jesus and bow before Him at His feet, we will find blessing, comfort, and love.

1 Peter 5:6-7

Humble yourself, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time He may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you.

In God’s Grace Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls.

                                    Joe