Full Service On Demand - August 29, 2021 - Grace Community Church

[Music] welcome everyone to grace online my name is logan hall and i'm the associate young adults pastor here at our church and i'm honored to be one of the first to welcome you all to grace community church we are one church in two physical locations right here in sarasota florida and we stream our services every weekend in order to help you find god's direction for your life and to grow in your walk with jesus in just a minute or two we're going to be doing that together through powerful songs of worship through fellowship and community via the live chat and through world-class bible-based teaching and preaching so get excited with me because we will be getting started with service in just a few short moments but before we begin we want to share an awesome opportunity that's available for everyone including our online family here at our church we truly believe that church is more than just an event to attend but it's a people to connect with and one specific way that we're highlighting them is this weekend is through what we call grace groups we have a ton of groups from smaller groups to larger groups and they're all specifically designed to help people connect with others to grow in their walks with jesus and also to go out and be intentional neighbors in their community and so for all of you at home we want to invite you to go to our website greysarasoda.com and go to the grace groups under the connect tab and take a look at many of the options and consider joining a group that interests you if you live here in sarasota there really are tons of groups available for you and if you live far away or maybe you can't join a physical group we've also added numerous online and virtual groups as well so again make sure that you visit our website and check those out today but all that being said it's about time for our services to begin so no matter who you are or where you are right now i hope that you're really able to focus on jesus in this time his presence isn't confined to any one room or specific building but an amazing way we believe that jesus is with you and me right now as we lift up his name and sing his praises so i really encourage you to join the grace worship team as they lead us in whatever way you feel comfortable at home but from all of us here at our church thanks for being here and welcome to grace would you stand with us and worship today [Music] when all i see is the battle you see my victory [Music] when all i see is a mountain you see a [Music] and as i walk through the shadow yours love surrounds me [Music] there's nothing to fear now for i'm safe with you [Music] so when i find with my hands lifted high oh god the battle belongs to you and every fear i lay and your feet i'll sing through the night oh god the battle belongs to you [Music] and if you are for me who can be against me [Music] for jesus there's nothing impossible for you when all are seen are the ashes [Music] when all i see is [Music] oh god the battle belongs to you and everybody [Music] oh fortress you go before us nothing can stand against the power of our god you shine in the shadows you win everybody nothing can stand against the power of our god almighty fortress if you go [Music] [Music] nothing can stand [Music] against the power of [Music] [Music] oh the battle belongs to you and every fear i play at your thing i'll sing through the night oh god you know [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh i trust you jesus i trust [Music] i've tried so hard to see it took me so long to believe it that you chose someone like me to carry your victory perfection could never earn it you give what we don't deserve you take the broken things and raise them to glory come on [Music] i am who you say i am [Applause] undefeated with the one who [Music] now i can finally see it you're teaching me how to receive it so let all the striving cease this is [Music] [Music] you've [Music] is [Music] because of who you are [Music] jesus has given me [Music] miracles [Music] authority jesus has given me [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] jesus has given miracles [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] undefeated [Music] before we continue in worship i want to take a quick moment to welcome those of you just tuning in my name is logan hall and i'm the associate young adults pastor here at grace and we are so glad to have you all with us online today and as an extra special shout out we really want to acknowledge any of you who are joining us this weekend as a new guest if that's you feel free to say hey in the chat below or more importantly we would really love to connect with you as well you can either visit our website at gracesarasota.com and click the i'm new button or you can text the phrase new guest srq with no spaces and you can text that to the number 9700 both of those things will bring you to our digital connect card which is just a quick and simple way for us to get to know a little bit about you so that we can then connect with you we can be praying for you and we'll also send you a free gift plus it will allow us to plan a future visit that you can come to either of our two campuses here in sarasota so please check those things out but the most important thing that we want you to know is that we really are so glad that you're here so welcome now really quick in case you missed the beginning of today's service we mentioned that there are many ways for you to get connected here at grace that go beyond our weekend services and one of those ways for you to get connected is through our grace groups there truly are tons of groups which are designed to help you connect with others grow in your walk with christ and to go out and be intentional neighbors and so if you live here in sarasota there really are numerous groups available for you and if you aren't able to join an in-person group we've also added quite a few online groups as well now as many of you know we exist here at grace to reach the unchurched by being intentional neighbors who reflect christ and in light of that let's check out this short video the grace life food pantry we're more than just the food pantry we consider ourselves a ministry there are a lot of broken people out there who struggle with many things and a big need is putting food on their table they have to humble themselves and ask for help and we are there to walk alongside them to lift them up to pray with them to provide food to feed their children their parents grace community has offered to purchase 9 000 pounds of food per week that entails providing food for at least 500 families a week [Music] it's just more than a bag of food or a box of food it's that relationship building and that care and that gentleness that they need right now when times are really tough grace life and the nightlife center would like to thank grace community for partnering with us you have impacted our pantry tremendously by your giving and your generosity there's so many people that are so humbled and grateful so thank you so very much isn't that amazing it's so awesome to see how god is using this church to continue to make a difference in people's lives so thank you grace for allowing god to use you through your giving and generosity you're allowing god to use you to reach people and make a kingdom impact in our community and if you would like to be a part of what god is doing here in this church we want to give you an opportunity to give as well like we say almost every week we believe that giving isn't just something that god wants from you and me but giving is something that god wants for you and me so we want to invite you and challenge you to worship the lord through giving this weekend you can give here at grace in many different ways so make sure that you take a look at the bottom of the screen or you can hit the link that's available in the chat but once again thank you to everyone for being such a generous church would you pray with me as we take a moment to ask god to bless this week's offering father god we thank you for your goodness we thank you for giving us all of the blessings and the many gifts that you've given us and god as we give as we give it back to you i pray that you bless the offering that you multiply our giving that because of the giving of grace community church people come to know jesus father we love you and we pray this in the name of jesus amen now let's all continue to sing with the grace worship team [Music] my faith rises in spite of what i see lord i believe but help my unbelief i choose to trust you no matter what i feel their faith rises for my champions not dead he is alive oh and he already knows my every need so surely he will come and rescue me [Music] god of miracles [Music] nothing's impossible you're the god of miracles oh that's who we worship in this place hope we're needing a breakthrough [Music] we need a touch from you god [Music] and see the kingdom come i lift my eyes oh for the battle has been won my god is faithful and every single word he says is true [Music] miracles [Music] nothing's impossible you're the gods [Music] be weak but your spirit is strong in me my flesh may fail oh my god you never will i may be weak [Music] he is [Music] [Music] is [Music] miracles come we need your super natural love to break through nothing's impossible cause he's the god of miracles [Music] yes you're the god of miracles [Music] now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we can ask or think according to the power at work within us to him be the glory in the church and in christ jesus throughout all generations forever and never and the church said amen [Music] [Music] the one who made the blind to see [Music] is moving here in front of me moving here in front of me [Music] the one who made the death to hear is silencing my every fear silencing my every fierce thing i believe i believe in you i believe in you you're the god of miracles i believe in you i believe in you [Music] you're the god of miracles [Music] it's who you are thank you jesus the one who does impossible is reaching out to make me hold reaching out to make me whole the one who put death in its place his life is flowing through my veins his life [Music] you're the is of miracles i believe in you i believe in you you're the god [Music] [Applause] [Music] i believe in you i believe in you i believe in you i believe in you you're the god of miracles [Music] the power of the risen one the god who brings the dead to life you're the god of miracles you're the god of america [Music] one [Music] you're the god of miracles [Music] i believe in you i believe [Music] [Applause] [Music] i [Music] i believe [Music] i believe in you i believe in you you're the god of miracles yes you are i believe in you i believe in you you're the god of miracles [Music] [Applause] if there's ever a time that the church is needed to believe that god is the god of miracles it would be today do we believe that god can still do the miraculous do we believe that right we do believe that and so what i want us to do if we could i i want us to just take a moment and i want us to pray we have much to pray for um we're opening up the church regularly now on wednesdays from six to eight trying to transfer back and forth to the campuses but i just believe that god's people need to pray and i don't know what your need is this evening i don't know what your need is online whatever whatever it may be i just want you to know that you're not here you didn't tune in by accident you're here because god wanted to meet you here and he's just a prayer of faith away would you bow your heads and hearts with me those online as well and just take a moment here father we come to you because we are um we're people that are are needy we're many people during this season are weary and tired and afflicted and and wondering and lord i just pray that as you said in matthew 11 you said that if you're tired if you're weary if you're heavy laden lord you invited us to come to you and you said you would give us rest lord we come to you right now this weekend we come to you and we say that we need you in our lives we need your rest we need your peace lord we need you to do the miraculous lord we look around our world and we realize how ravaged our world is whether it be the things going on overseas whether it be things here in the united states whether it be a hurricane getting ready probably to hit somewhere in louisiana we look around and we realize god we need you to move father we pause right now as your people and say that we believe that you are the god who created the heavens and the earth we believe that you are the god who can do exceedingly abundantly above all that we could ever ask or think we believe that you are the god that rose from the dead on the third day we believe that you are the god that can walk on the sea we believe that you are the god that can split the red sea for the children of israel to walk through lord we believe that you opened the eyes of the blind and you opened the ears of those that were deaf you made those who could not walk walk again nothing is too difficult for you so lord we call out to you with our own needs our own things that we're going through and and the problems and pains of this world and we ask father that you would invade this world once again that the kingdom of god would show forth strong lord that that your kingdom would come and your will would be done for your glory and for your glory alone and lord we love you and we thank you and we praise you in jesus name and all of god's people said amen can we give the lord a hand clap and go ahead and have a seat a couple things real quick that i want to say uh um i just want to brag real briefly on mike cason who did a fantastic job last last weekend um didn't have a whole lot of time to put that together but i am i am grateful here at grace community church that we have um a number of young men and young women that are coming up that are going to serve this church for many many years to come and uh it's a it's just uh it's fantastic to know that god is raising these this next generation up to do um great things so uh if you see mike please make sure you tell him what a great job that he did because because he did well let's get to work here and get back into galatians one of the questions i get asked um regularly is chip can we really know what the early church was about like can we really know what was going on back then and it that that question question's predicated on a lot of disinformation that's out there in the world of social media blogs youtube and so on and so forth that somehow the the gospels and the letters that we're reading in the new testament are so far removed from what originally happened in the early church so therefore what we've got is sort of this distortion and this this this that the church is sort of reworking certain things into the gospels and to the epistles that we that we have and i would like to just say that that's that's just not the case um the the the gospels and the epistles that we have are not so far removed in fact we're looking at this epistle that paul wrote to the church at galatia and many people feel that this is the earliest book in the new testament oftentimes first thessalonians or james sometimes are proffered up but many people feel galatians is the earliest book in the new testament this is this is as early as it gets and if you if you run on the theory that the jerusalem council was somewhere between 48 a.d maybe even up to 50 a.d we're not we're not we're not precise but if you run with that two-year variance then you know if paul wrote this before the jerusalem council which i believe that he did then you're looking at a book that could be written as early as 48 a.d so this is this is a really early epistle and so we're going to learn a lot as we go through this now if you were not here a couple of weeks ago i would highly recommend that you go back and re-watch the introduction to this particular epistle um i i think it's it's it's a lot of stuff it's probably more stuff than i should have put in the message but that's just the way it is i didn't want to spend a whole lot of time doing the intro so we we looked at that and suffice to say the most important thing that we get for this this weekend is that paul had visited the the area in what we would call today southern turkey and he had planted um multiple places of christianity multiple churches and different parts of that region and he had left and then some other people had come in and said hey what paul taught yeah it it really wasn't the full gospel paul's sort of a people pleaser he doesn't like to tell you the full deal you know i mean the gospel is a little bit rougher than the way he makes it and and so we need to come in and tell you the rest of the story so to speak and paul hears and gets wind of this and he writes this epistle so as we go into this this is early paul this is early christianity this is early working it out and i think we're going to enjoy it very very much now every sermon will start with the title will have a chapter and the verses so that when you go back online or you go back um on the mobile app if you're reading in galatians a year from now two years from now and you're in chapter three and you're looking at a verse and wondering you'll be able to go back and catalog we also are highly considering transcribing all of the messages and making a commentary on galatians to to to be read so um we're trying to do this so that you can have the the scriptures at your uh um you know that you can get to scripture best that you can to learn it so let's let's get to work and uh let's let's gonna go we're gonna go line by line and and we're only gonna get through five verses this weekend um and we'll get through it in just a few hours so it'll be be good and y'all can still get something to uh just kidding so let's let's uh let's let's get to work so verse one of chapter one of this epistle starts off paul an apostle not from men nor through man but through jesus christ and god the father who raised him from the dead now most of us if we're being honest probably when we read that we're on to the next verse i want to try to help us to really take some time and realize there's not one word in any of these books that we read in the bible it's just happenstance there's not surplus wordage so to speak they're super important the way they're put together so the first thing that we realize is he starts off with paul which is different from you and me when we write a letter today we say to whom it may concern or to whoever it is that we're writing to then we write the letter at the very end we say sincerely chip okay in the first century they didn't do it that way they started with the person who wrote the letter paul we know about him we know about his journeys we know about his missionary journeys we know a lot about paul just from the new testament um there's some recorded stuff about paul as a person that we can't say for sure but but the word paul itself means little or it means modest and so paul was probably a very short statured man we see this in the corinthian correspondence where they say when he's in front of you in physical he's not very impressive so he probably was a short man there's we have a we have a little sort of detailed about paul that we can't say is completely true but he said paul was short that he had a crooked nose and that his eyebrows met so paul had the first unibrow um you know and uh but but but the reality is is paul was probably a very short man nothing really to look at and he writes this letter he says paul it is in all of his epistles he reminds us except for philemon who's written to a friend to try to um release a slave he tells us that he's an apostle why does he do that why does he tell us that he's an apostle what's what's the what's the reasoning for paul letting us know in his epistles that he's an apostle well what it does is it says that he has the authority to speak into the life of the church imagine if the church never had anybody that could speak to it we would be like the book of judges where everybody did what was right in their own site everybody just sort of did what they wanted to do paul says hey i'm an apostle because i'm getting ready to write you something because there needs to be some correction and anytime he writes he always lets you know he's an apostle because he's writing to a church that needs correction why can he be the one that tells them hey you need to sort of not do this and you need to start doing this because he's an apostle now what he does here in this epistle that he doesn't do in any other epistle is he starts off after saying that he's an apostle and he goes what we would consider to be some negative things he says he says something instead of just saying i'm an apostle called by god or by the will of god he says this he says not from men nor through man why does he say that why does he stop and pause and let them know that hey by the way my apostleship yeah it's not from men it wasn't like a bunch of men decided that i was going to be an apostle nor is it through man well probably what's going on is the people that came into the region after paul had left said things like this paul yet he's not really an apostle because he didn't walk with jesus see he was set forth by people we have that in acts 13 where the church at antioch set paul and barnabas fourth as missionaries as apostles and so these people that came in after paul probably said yeah you know he he says a lot of things and it sounds impressive and it and it feels good but he's probably not to be regarded on the same level as the is the real apostles which is why he sort of takes this defensive posture at the very beginning to say hey my apostleship yeah it wasn't from men like just in case you heard that in case in case somebody came and told you that i'm not the real deal let me let me go ahead and dispel that and it's north through man my apostleship is for real and i have the ability to speak into the church because my apostleship didn't come from man at all and what he does next is shocking for early christianity especially if this is the first epistle the first piece of literature that we have in the new testament and this is coming from a monotheistic jew who understood the scriptures who was a pharisee of pharisees look at what he does and oftentimes we breeze through this and don't pay attention to it look at what he does here he says he's an apostle not from men nor through man look at this but through jesus he puts jesus before he places god the father that is striking you people say well you know the early church didn't really consider jesus to be god or they didn't consider jesus to be something special this may very well be the first piece of literature that we have in the new testament and paul has put jesus in the primary place to support his apostleship this is the christological significance of this cannot be understated he says my apostleship it's not from men nor through men but it's through jesus and god the father now this is really important here hold on do we just lose the can we go back maybe did it die it may have died if it died we're going to try to do what jesus did for lazarus and we're going to try to resurrect it there we go so we got god the father here so notice here what's going on i want to stop here because what i'm going to do periodically in this text is i'm not going to just give us the background and the theological stuff i'm going to also try to make some real practical applications so paul is convinced that he's speaking into the life of the church and i want us to just stop for a minute here and think about this because this is important do you do we have anybody in our life i want you to be honest with yourself you don't have to tell anybody you don't have to look to your neighbor or say anything like that someone should be honest with yourself saying they can speak directly to us that we would listen to even if they were telling us that they disagreed is there anybody in your life that can speak into your life right now that could say to you hey i think what you're doing or what you're saying or what you're thinking might be wrong that you would stop and you would seriously consider what they said to you now i know there's a lot of recoiling because here in america we're these radical individualists but the church and the bible is not written in that way the bible is written that we need people in our lives and i know many of you may have grown up in a tradition like i did where this was abused i had people that abused spiritual authority and you know said things that and they did it to control and manipulate and all that stuff that's not biblical we shouldn't throw it out because we've had some bad experiences i mean first peter 5 says that people that are over us should should do it as an example and should do it as a servant you know and all of those good things but but i want to ask this question because this is this is a question who do you have in your life who do we have in our life like paul who could directly speak into our life that would put us on the dime that would read our mail and would make us pause from them and i always say this way everybody needs a pastor in their life everybody needs somebody in their life that they can say hey i believe this person is a godly person i believe this person really cares about my interests and i believe that if they spoke to me and told me something it would be something that i would need to really go home and think about and pray about if you don't have somebody in your life like that i can tell you that usually sets us up as christians for bad things we see it in the aggregate in in the larger church when pastors people like me get way out of line and when you go back and you ask why does that happen typically it's because they didn't have anybody in their life that could read their mail they couldn't somebody couldn't pick up the phone and say hey what you're teaching this this weekend that was crazy man we need to have like a cup of coffee and talk about that hey the way you're treating your wife it's just not acceptable man your kids you need you need to go home and spend a little more time with the kids like who do we have in our lives because paul is convinced that the church needs people in the church that can speak into the church in fact in ephesians 4 he says that god put apostles and prophets and evangelists and pastors and teachers to equip the saints to do the work of ministry if we don't have people in our lives that can read our mail it's very easy to get off very quickly just something to think about something to pray about something to just let let the lord work with you about so paul says he's an apostle not for men nor through man but through jesus christ and god the father and then listen to what he says of all the things that he could have said especially if this is the first piece of literature that we have in the new testament what does he lead with that the father raised him from the dead like the one thing paul knew that made christianity christianity was the fact that jesus got up on the third day that was that we in in latin there's a term called cena quan on it's the not without which in other words you can't have whatever it is that you have without this you can't play basketball without a basketball you can't play football without a football you cannot have we cannot have christianity without the resurrection resurrection is the not without which christianity doesn't exist and this is so important because right here in verse 1 of all the things paul could say he he lays it right out there that jesus has been risen from the dead this is so important because we have to start thinking what is our faith what is your faith based on is it based on a checklist is it based on a creed is it based on a system is it based on a theological doctrinal commitment what's it based on because the earliest christians would tell you that christianity is based on a person who raised who was raised from the dead alistair begg says it this way alistair begged says if when we talk about what is our faith based on if we use first person we're in trouble i believed i did this i lived this way he said that's not the appropriate response the appropriate response is the third person he died for me he rose again on the third day he forgave my sins what's our faith based on is it based on all kinds of other stuff or is it based on the truth of the fact that jesus rose from the dead so paul says he's an apostle and it's not from or through men and he is he is he's he's called of god because jesus and god the father have called him and jesus has been risen from the dead and he says to all the brothers who are with me to the churches of galatia he probably would have just blown through that it's okay but there's a lot in here that's important first of all he uses this word brothers this is this is important paul is saying hey i want you to know that what i'm teaching you and what i'm saying to you is not something that's coming from me alone there are a lot of other people that are in this thing with me which is so important because paul articulates here he's not alone in his understanding listening and doing theology with others is vital we forget it's so easy for us to forget as christians that christianity is not an individual sport it's a team sport the lord's prayer is not my father which art in heaven it's our father which art in heaven we tend to forget that most of the yous in the new testament when we read you were saved and you were saying we go oh that's great no most of the use in the new testament are plural which means the church like when he says to the philippian church work out your salvation with fear and trembling we typically read that as okay i've got to work out my salvation is true no what he's saying is is the church the church at philippi together needs to work out its salvation with fear and trembling that we're in this thing together paul says hey i'm not just writing this stuff out of nowhere i'm not just making this stuff up i got the brothers that are with me there's a number of people that that are in this thing with me and then he says to the churches of galatia this is important because oftentimes we think of like just the church in terms of like the larger church which is true but to paul the the larger church had groups of people that met in different cities like he says to the church at corinth he says to the church of god in corinth he says to the churches of galatia in other words paul sees that when the people of god meet and they always meet somewhere whether it's a house or a building or whatever it is that when they meet it's huge it's important that what we do matters i see these memes all the time on on social media that says my church is out in a kayak with a fishing pole can i tell you something that's false you don't have church in a kayak fishing by yourself you don't church doesn't happen individually church happens corporately it happens when the people of god get together and sing songs and listen to scripture and are changed and are moved and have accountability and have people that pray for them and people that they can talk to church is not just something that's no big deal what we do here matters it matters and i i'm i'm i'm saddened by how many things i see in america today we're sure like we don't need to gather you know church isn't a building it's not but the church is always gathered in space whether it be a house whether it be a synagogue no matter what the church is always gathered in sacred space and what we do matters because what happens in this room people decide to keep their marriages going there's people that were dead that have walked in this building that have come to life because of jesus to paul this matters he's writing to the people of god in the local communities that are representing jesus where they live he then says grace to you in peace from god our father and the lord jesus christ a phrase that many of us probably know because anytime you read paul you read this but this is so pregnant with meaning it's it's so profound he's not writing non-believers he's writing to believers he's writing to people that have been saved by god and he writes to the church in the churches in galatia and he says grace and peace from god the father and the lord jesus christ grace is unmerited favor notice here he doesn't say you secured the grace you got the grace you did something for the great no no he says this was something that god did for you as a believer he gave you unmerited favor and not only that he gave you peace he tore down the walls of hostility between you and him it wasn't something we did it was something that he did see the unmerited favor of god and the lack of any animosity or separation with god because of what jesus has done for you and me should be the driving force of our attitudes and emotions and not our circumstances we should wake up as the most privileged and humbled people in all of the world every single day amazed that the god who spoke billions of galaxies into existence decided to give you and me as his people unmerited favor and peace with him we should rejoice over that these are not just flippant words these aren't just words that are thrown together they're massively important for you and me see we got to continually remind ourselves that christianity it starts with god like he loved you and me so much that he sent jesus to die as paul says in ephesians 5 for his church he gives us his grace and then he gives us his peace like this is profound the profoundness of an unmerited favor coming from an almighty god and the fact that he took care of the animosity and the separation and the chasm between you and me could not be more profound and then paul says he gave himself for our sins to deliver us from this present evil age according to the will of our god and father look at this is this is just a few words say so many things he gave himself have you seen anything yet about what you've done have you seen anything else here about what i've done have we seen anything about a response have we seen anything about let me tell you what i know paul wants us to understand the massive amount of divine work towards his people he gave himself i think of the passage in philippians 2 that says that we should have the mind among ourselves as the people of god the same mind that jesus had jesus who existed as god and had all the rights and had all the privileges of what it meant to be god what did he do he didn't cling he didn't exploit he didn't grab he emptied himself and became a servant so that he could redeem you and me listen to the profoundness of what paul is saying to the philippian church there he says let this mind be yours how well have we had that mind during covid how well have we had that mind during what's going on in our world it seems like we like to grab and cling and claim and pull these are my rights says let the mind of jesus be in all of us who could have clinged to it who could have demanded but what did he do he gave it up why because he gave himself see this is this is divine work and initiative this is this is almighty god stepping out for you and me like we didn't even know it we weren't even looking for it we weren't even thinking this was even going to be a thing and he steps out and he gave himself look look for what did he give himself for our sins i know this doesn't go over very well in the world today that we are sinners before we meet jesus i know nobody likes to hear that because most of us like to think well i'm pretty good i'm not as bad as my neighbor have you seen my neighbor pretty bad like compared to him pretty good i like what hcg mule is a wonderful theologian he said one of the things he used to say was is that you may be on the mountaintop and your buddy in the valley but neither one of you can touch the sun see jesus came to give himself for our sins we can try to change the bible we can try to make it say stuff that it doesn't but it's very clear here why jesus came he came because you and me were in need of rescue we were broken we were problems we had issues and we all know it i mean we may not like the word sin but we all know that you know like if you if you do one thing and you blow it one time you can maybe call that a mistake right you do it again okay maybe it's a mistake some of us have done the same thing hundreds and hundreds of times i don't think that makes us mistakers i think that means there's something that's fundamentally not right that needs to be repaired jesus gave himself for our sins look at this to deliver you in me there is power in the gospel there is power in the transformational nature of what jesus does in our hearts and our lives when we say i want to follow you it's the greatest news in the world there's transformation jesus doesn't just meet us where we are which he does but he doesn't leave us where we are i love what one theologian says he goes you may not be any better than your neighbor as a christian but you were you're better than you were before you met jesus jesus changes lives deliver us from the present evil age some of us need to download that a little bit need to need to take a moment and go whoa man yes he's put his spirit within us he's delivered us from this present evil age he gave himself for our sins to do this and this is what's great richard b hayes says this jesus death does not simply procure the forgiveness of sins as great as that would be rather it transposes us into an entirely new reality by liberating us from the power of the present evil age that's profound like that's why we we teach as christians that hey you can know jesus and he can make a difference in your life it's called your testimony it's called it's called the testimony of hey this is what i was and this is what god has done that god has changed my life he's made a difference in my life this isn't this isn't just something that we ascribe to and hope that it's true this is something that we believe in in a person and it changes our lives and then he says according this is really profound according to the will of our god and father a lot of people have a problem they don't understand how god can be completely sovereign and people then can also make choices and what we do in theology is we argue this stuff and if you get around the room you'll be people argue this stuff all day long can i give you a little secret to somebody who they actually pay to teach theology can tell you a little secret nobody fully understands the sovereignty of god and the responsibility of people nobody does so when they tell you that they do look at them and say you don't you don't we don't understand what i can tell you though is that paul says hey all the stuff that went on the law and and the sacrifices and and the death of jesus and all the things that have happened to get us to where we are for jesus to have given himself to deliver us from this present evil age yes every single bit of it was exactly the way god wanted it to happen you go whoa you're not going to fully understand we're dealing with god here you think we're going to just sort of master god i always say if you think you have god figured out what you have in your hands is an idol because god's a lot bigger than you and me he's a lot more profound than you and me and so think about this for a second what does this mean for us i put me i typically use us and we because i never want anybody to think that i'm preaching at you because i'm not but i do want to take this and make this personal what does this mean for me what would this look like in my life if this is in fact true if god has given me that grace if god has given me that peace if god has worked in my life and delivered me in all of these things what would that look like how would that shake out and then listen to what paul says to whom be the glory forever and ever amen listen to me hear me all good doctrine all good theology if it is good doctrine and if it is good theology will always lead us to worship it always does doctrine leads to doxology understanding what god has done leads to worship which is exactly what he says here to whom be the glory forever and ever amen a couple of things here to think about some take-homes and then we're going to sing a song first of all why does god deserve our worship and praise you know i often i often think to myself when i come in to to grace when we're meeting i i try to come through that door in the middle of a worship set periodically just to uh see what's going on and i often ask myself the question if i were a non-christian who didn't believe in god at all when i come in and watch the people sing and i watch them worship would i believe that they really thought there was something else besides themselves and oftentimes i wonder if we understand why worship and praise is so important you know why does god deserve our worship and praise well he took the initiative to rescue you and me i like to boat i can't imagine being out 40 or 50 miles off shore in a boat sinking with my kids and maybe not and we do we have all the life jackets and all that stuff but let's assume that we didn't and the life jackets didn't fit and they were half water logged and we were drowning and all of a sudden a boat came up and lifted us up do you think that we would be like thanks appreciate it i don't feel moved no we we would be ecstatic the bible doesn't say we were floating in the water almost ready to drown ephesians 2 says that we were dead in our trespasses and sins but god rich in mercy with the great love with which he loved us made us alive see why because he took the initiative to rescue you and me not only that he gave himself for our sins like just think about that for a moment he gave himself for our sins he's once and for all times delivered us he's going to continue to complete the work that he began in you until the day that he comes back paul says in philippians 1 6. like he's delivered us why does he deserve our worship and praise well because he extended grace when we didn't deserve it and gave us peace we didn't earn he deserves all of the worship and all the praise that we could ever give him and the last thing that i want to deal with and go home and think about this over the weekend is we need to make sure we know who our salvation is based on one of the things that we're going to come back and forth in in this epistle over and over again is the idea of the gospel is what does the gospel mean what does it mean for you and me and what does it mean to truly know the one who gave himself for us we need to make sure that we know who our salvation is based on it's not based on a what it's based on a who it's based on a relationship with jesus and this changes everything because this helps us to remember that we aren't somehow noble people who can sort of do good and then merit our salvation like this is not the way it works we don't stand before god one day and say well i did this and i did that and i can't tell you how many times that i've sat down with people who have been to church and and have gone to church and have attended church and i sit down and say okay let me ask you a question if you had to stand before god tonight why why would he say come in well you know i mean i've lived a pretty good life you know i mean i you know i attended church i i don't i don't mean to be rude or snarky but that's a and that's not the right answer the right answer is the lord the only reason that i can come in is because i believe that your son jesus died on a cross for my sins and he rose again on the third day so that i could have everlasting life the only reason i can come in is because of what jesus did for me that's the answer it keeps us from looking down on others that sin differently than we do i want to get a shirt that says don't judge me because i sin differently than you you know i mean in in being reminded of what jesus has done for you and me helps us to understand that we can't make ourselves comfortable by thinking we're better than others that doesn't work you know when we understand who saved us we can actually take criticism as hey they may be right rather than being defensive it changes everything when we realize our salvation is based on a person not on us and we learn seeing our weakness and finding our life in christ is better than seeing ourselves strong in and of ourselves you know i want to extend to you and to those online i want to extend a moment to just to rediscover to take a moment and and rediscover what it really means to be a follower of jesus to take a moment and to really think again what he's done for you and me for some of you it may be the first time for some of you you may be going well you know i've been a church never really heard it like this i never okay man this is this really could this sounds great like jesus really loves me yeah all those things are true and i want you to make that decision if you've not but i suspect for many in the room and many online that we would probably raise our hand and say i believe but but i'd like for us to to re-think what that means what it means for god to be who he says he is for you and me what it means for you and me that he gave himself for our sins that he extended grace and peace that he took all of our pieces and put them back because of his heart towards you and me would you bow your heads for a second father i just want to take a moment here and just have a moment of honesty authenticity just brutal honesty lord it's so easy to get caught up in church to sing the songs to do the things to attend the different activities none of them are bad within themselves but it's so easy in all of these moments to somehow forget what you've done for us and for sometimes it goes dry and sometimes it doesn't feel as real as it did in many ways oftentimes we lose our first love for you i'm asking for your glory and for your glory alone that you would ignite within us a newness of appreciation and humbleness for what you've done for us lord we did not deserve what you've done for us we did not merit it you gave us grace and peace you've been the defender of our heart you picked up all of our pieces and lord we just want to say thanks and we want to walk out of here this weekend we want to tune out this weekend realizing what you've done for us and what that means in our response to you and in our response to the world and father i pray that as we sing this last song i pray that we would all have just a moment of clarity in a moment lord of just focus on how grand how magnificent your salvation is towards us and that we would worship you as a response i pray that you would continue to lead guide and direct all of us and watch over us in christ jesus name and everybody said amen would you stand with us and let's sing one final song [Music] you go before i know that you've even gone to win my war you come back with the head [Music] my victory [Music] you go [Music] before i know that you've even gone to win my [Music] it leads me from the dry wilderness and all i did was praise all i did was worship all i did was bow down [Music] all i did was stay still [Music] you know before [Music] mercy is the shade i'm living and all i did was [Music] all i did was worship you jesus all i did [Music] [Applause] all i was is stay still stay still [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] so [Music] [Music] so much [Applause] [Music] it's so much better always [Music] you reintroduced me to your love you picked up all my pieces put me back together you are the defender of my heart [Music] you reintroduce me to [Music] my so much better [Applause] [Music] this way [Music] so much [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] put me there together [Music] you are [Music] [Applause] [Music] okay grace family that's all for today we hope that something from today's service has spoken to you if there's anything that we can do to help you in your walk with christ if you would like specific prayer if you need to talk to someone on staff or if you just want to share how this ministry has impacted you please don't hesitate to reach out to us you can either send us an email to grace gracesarasota.com or you can call the phone number that's on the screen and in the chat and to all of you tuning in as a new guest don't forget that you can either visit gracesarasota.com and click the i'm new button or you can text new guest srq with no spaces to 9700 either way you'll be able to fill out our digital connect card and receive a free gift from our church and you'll also be able to plan a future visit to either our lakewood ranch campus or our bee ridge campus right here in sarasota florida all that being said it's now time for all of us to go out and be those intentional neighbors that god is calling us to be as always just know that we love you that we're praying for you stay safe and thanks again for joining us here at grace where everyone is welcome you

Channel: Grace Community Church

Views: 400

Keywords: Sarasota, Lakewood Ranch, Church, Grace Community Church, Worship Service, Chip Bennett, bradenton, florida, manatee, Grace Church, Bee Ridge, learn to read the bible, what does the bible say, sarasota church, fastest growing church, dr. Chip Bennett, sarasota worship service, bradenton church, lakewood ranch church, grace sarasota, grace worship, bee ridge church, LWR florida

Id: 6lXDD_1N1fo

Length: 80min 20sec (4820 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 08 2021