Pastor Robert Morris - Amazing Grace - What's So Amazing About Grace?

I want you to turn to two passages of scripture Ephesians chapter 2 and Romans three Ephesians two and Romans three okay we're going to good'un it's begin a new series called amazing grace so give me grace okay all right amazing grace okay so so the title of this message is what's so amazing about grace and I know that was the title of a book a while back which was a great book I read the book I loved the book but about two months ago when the Lord put this series on my heart he was actually on my study break time I said Lord why do you want me to teach you on grace I'm well I want to know that I I know the doctrine of grace I know the theology of grace I know how poured it is for us to believe in grace but why do you want me to teach on grace here's what I felt like you said I felt like he said look around just look around how many people don't know the grace of God and don't understand the grace of God and even how many believers how many believers live with a sense of shame and condemnation and fear of failure and how many believers are performance-oriented and perfection driven and how many have a father wouldn't how many live discouraged and depressed because they can never measure up yesterday when I was coming to the service I stopped by a store on the way when I walked out the store there was a young lady there probably in her 20s on the phone and she's just crying saying yeah but y'all said y'all said and I didn't hear it but I just thought she just she just feel so rejected right now by her friends so I want us to understand how amazing grace really is I mean it is so amazing and there's such misunderstanding about it I have a good friend a good friend who's a a wonderful man of God and as a teacher and the body of Christ great guy but he doesn't understand grace and so we got together to talk about it and one of the things he said was that grace is like the oars on a boat and he said we're in the boat and there's a current that's pulling us toward hell and God has provided these oars that's his grace and he said and if we keep rowing we'll get to heaven that's the way he talked about race but if we ever quit growing we go to health ok let me tell you something that's not amazing grace that's amazing you and you're not that amazing he's amazing uh and so he and I sat and talked in in and he said okay Robert he said I some will tell you what I feel about it and he said you tell me if I'm wrong and I said okay I'll probably do it there and so he shared about grace um and he said I pulled a hundred pastors and I asked them what is grace and he said ninety something percent of them came back with some answer close to the typical answer unmerited favor or the traditional answer unmerited favor he said only a few said in divine enablement and he said I think we've totally missed it I think grace is the divine enablement of God and he said and he went and he took about 20 to 30 minutes to explain to make sure he had covered all his bases and then he said okay am I wrong I said 100% yeah I mean you're a hundred percent running poor he laughed and I laughed and we're still good friends I had tremendous respect for him even though he's wrong I'm right he's wrong but he said well why is that wrong I said because you asked your question you said you asked what grace is you didn't ask what grace does and one of the aspects of grace is it does divinely enable us to live a new life in Christ but it is the unmerited undeserved unearned kindness in favor of God that's what it is so let me do and if you want to write that down I ask them that that statement grace is the unmerited undeserved unearned kindness and favor of God that's where this so I just want to unpack these three words just just a little bit for you just kind of lay a foundation for our series today right here's number one unmerited unmerited Ephesians 2:8 9 says for by grace you have been saved by grace through faith but now listen to this that not of yourselves wasn't your rowing it's not of yourselves it is the gift of God not of works lest anyone should boast okay here this clearly there will be no boasting in heaven there's a lot of boasting on earth right now but there will be none in heaven you will not say I kept rowing that's why I'm here I'm here because I kept rowing I have some friends they didn't keep rowing notice they're not here but I'm here because I rowed the first time you see the mail prints in his hands you'll say that's why I'm here that's that's why I'm here I'm here because of Jesus its unmerited we don't merit it what's amazing is when we first get saved we know we don't married it but 20 years later after all the good things we've done for God somehow we think now well yeah I mean I didn't back then but I'm a little closer now no even your righteousness is that filthy rags the best thing about you it's still not even close to the worst thing about God um when I think of this unmerited I was talking to my son this week and talked to telling about the series on grace he said that I remember grace in my life way several times growing up but I just thought of a time he said when I was even probably early junior high he said we got our yearbooks and before our lunch time he said for some reason a group of guys my friends we decided it would be funny to draw mustaches and beards on the pictures of the teachers in our yearbooks and uh and so when he got home I said hey you got you here but let me see your book and he didn't show it to me and so anyway I got it and I looked and I say some of the ladies actually look never know right okay so um but I remember saying to him son do you realize what you've done and it was beginning to dawn on him I said you ruined this this is something you know you may want to look back on this your Chanel but you ruined it and and Josh has such a tender heart he started crying and then I remember picking his chin up and I said to him son look at me tomorrow I'll buy you a new one I'm gonna buy you new one he said why would you do that that's sir because that's what father's do son I I raised my children because of my own father with the sense of them trying to model what the father's like grace they have hundreds of examples of grace because I always always wanted to err on the side of grace always I said this is what father's do I said let me tell her father's do they take care of it when you do something stupid and son this this was stupid uh you know the scripture says love covers a multitude of sins here's two here's a statement I thought of grace covers a multitude of stupid sins now you don't have to raise your hands but you ever done anything stupid you can better be glad for grace so it is unmerited here's the second thing it's undeserved well deserve it we didn't deserve it then we don't deserve it now even though we're teachers or leaders or groups or whatever we do we don't deserve it Romans 3:24 being justified freely undeservedly by His grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus now this word grace I want to unpack it a little bit from from the Greek our English pronunciation of it is caris and put the word up so you can see how it's spelled and it's fine to say that but it's that's really not how it's pronounced the C in Greek is silent and so this word is actually pronounced ha Reis Horus that I would be like along e Horus so if I if I said the record is Horus most of you wouldn't recognize it because we know of carest as a matter of fact there are many people that name their daughter daughters carrots which is great so don't go home and start calling her Horus you know okay just just cherish is great I actually have a friend of mine who said we're seeing that name and our daughter Kuras I said I think you ought to think about that first he said why I said because your last name is Maddox charismatic okay so anyway so on I will just unpack this word just just a little bit for you it does mean the unmerited favor of God that's what that is the depth definition but I want you know that this word was a a cultural word before it was the scripture word the Holy Spirit chose to use this word but let me tell you the cultural meaning of this word before it was even a scriptural word it implied that you've always it referred to a benevolent gift from a superior to an inferior that's always what I mean in the culture when someone's superior in wealth or in goods solve someone who is in need are inferior not as a person but inferior in goods then if the superior gave a gift to that inferior person in this area of goods then that was called grace that was her ease okay but it involves and listen to me carefully because this might Chuck something it actually involves three parties three persons you would think it just involved to the person giving and the person receiving but didn't and in greet these would be the the closest English words to the Greek words so I didn't come up with these these would be what what they were in in the Greek language right the the person providing the goods was called the patron the patron and then the person receiving the goods was called the client now again I don't I don't think these are our words that we should use when we talk about the gospel like clients and patrons and things like that I'm not saying that I'm simply saying in cultural Greek that's what those were the meanings right so the patron let's put it this way maybe owned a shoe store and he wants to provide shoes for some children in an orphanage they would be the clients then who's the third person in every transaction there was a third person that this again is the closest word in Greek he was called the broker the broker would go out into the community and see the needs of the inferior and bring the inferior together with the superior but here's something else he would do the brokers actually paid for the merchandise if it was 20 pairs of shoes he paid for the shoes the patron provided it the clients received it but the broker paid for it does it sound familiar the brokers Jesus he brought us together with the father but he also paid fully for us every time I think I paid in full when I was a young man I tended up a Bible College and I mean a Bible Conference I did attending Bible College about 10 - Bible Conference and at this conference a pastor named dr. Evie Hill spoke I'll never forget this testimony he shared he said when he was young he told his mother I want to be a pastor when I grew up his mother said well you you need to go to college and he didn't think anything about was young cuz he didn't understand but as he grew older he realized I'm not gonna be able to go to college they were very poor he was a minority she was a single mother and there weren't aids and programs at that time for minorities we didn't understand our nation to not understand that need at that time or were blind to that need and so he just thought I'll never be able to go to college and as he got older he began to kind of prepare his mother for it it's safe to her mom I'm still gonna be a pastor but um I may not go to college she'd say son you're going to college they say well I'm wait we can't afford college that's what she'd say she'd looking right now she said son God will provide and every time he'd bring it up she'd say son God will provide so she sent him down on the day to register he goes down to register he's standing he gets all his books he gets all his schedule he's standing in the registrar's line he's about five back and he's thinking I'm so embarrassed I'm so ashamed I should not be here I don't have any any money at all to pay for this bill and then he was four people back in three people back to and one and then when that person stepped aside he said I started to turn and run but I remember my mother saying son God will provide so he said I took a step up to that window and when I did a man step right up beside me he took my hand like this and he put money in it and he looked at me right in the eyes and he said to me son God will provide and he said the lady said mr. Hill your bill is and he said I took that money and I put it down there and she counted it out and it was the right amount it's the exact amount and this is what he said he said she took my bill and she took this stamp and she said paid in full and he said I remember for the first time thinking that's what Jesus did that's what Jesus did he paid it in full so it is unmerited undeserved here's third word unearned it's unearned Romans 11:6 says and if by grace then it's no longer it works otherwise grace is no longer grace and if it's of works it's no longer great grace otherwise work is no longer work now let me substitute for grace and work the words free and earn because we receive the free gift of free gift of God of salvation freely you've been justified freely you receive freely it okay here's what he's saying if it's free it's not earned otherwise free it's not free if it's earned that's not free otherwise earn is not earn it's one or the other it's grace is either free or it's earned and any of its grace it can't be earned that's what he's saying if it's a gift yeah you can't earn it it was paid for what was it paid for about you it's paid for about Jesus let me show you a definition that just blows me away about grace this is the Baker encyclopedia of the Bible grace is the dimension of divine activity that enables God to confront human indifference and rebellion with an inexhaustible capacity to forgive and to bless and inexhaustible capacity to forgive and to bless it's free it's free sit listen listen you you've never received a birthday gift from someone and you say oh thank you and I say I'll be eighty six dollars yeah when I said that I actually thought of some gifts that my children have given me then I knew I'd paid for you ever opened your kids are all excited hey dad we got you a Christmas gift you open it up before the first question anything is what is it the second thing you're thinking is how much does this cost me but I literally I remember a time all of our children had one of my credit cards when they were in high school and college and case hadn't expands her to be able to fill the car with gas whatever I'm here one time my daughter Lane gave me a Father's Day gift and I said oh thank you she said put on your card okay so other than gifts from your children okay they're free gifts are free okay I remember going to to Bible College and I believe we should study church history they don't believe we should argue about it and I remember in Bible College they were setting around they were arguing about grace Tertullian grace which you've probably never even heard of Augustinian grace Pelageya grace of course some you may have heard of Calvinism arminianism we saw leaders in the body of Christ arguing today and here I was in Bible College just gotten saved you heard my testimony out of a horrible life they were arguing about grace and I was thinking if you only knew if you only knew that I shouldn't even be here today I shouldn't even be alive much less in college studying for the ministry and they actually turned to me in a moment they said so what do you think about grace I was just so overwhelmed I just said I was lost and now I'm found then they just went right back to arguing I think Satan has tried to make arguments about grace so we forget that grace is that Christ died for our sins that's grace so I want to show you a picture of grace I hope you never forget this it's about a father and son named Rick and dick Hoyt Rick was born with the umbilical cord around his neck and because the oxygen was cut off to his brain for a while he has never been able to walk or talk but they found out as he was growing up that he was extremely intelligent because they could watch with his eyes and they could communicate they taught him dick and Judy his father and mother taught him the alphabet even though he could not talk with just using his eyes and in 1973 now you think about the technology back then they gathered a group of engineers who invented a computer for him where he could move a cursor with his eyes and highlight letters and then bump something on the computer like a mouse and speak words for the first time that that technology of course has been advanced but that's in use now all over the world they invented it for this young man when he was fifteen one of his classmates was in an accident where he was paralyzed his classmate was paralyzed and they were going to run a 5k race to raise money for him and he threw the computer tapping letters he said to his dad I want to run in that race and so his dad who is not a runner trained so that he could push his son in a wheelchair in that race and after the race he said to his dad that's the first time in my life that I did not feel handicapped and so his dad continued to train now they've run in 72 marathons and 255 triathlons triathlon if you don't know is 2.4 miles of swimming 26.2 miles of running and 112 miles of biking when dick swims rick is being pulled by dick in a little raft when dick cycles rick is in a seat on the front of the bicycle and when dick runs rick is in the chair and dick is pushing i want to show you a picture of grace who taught the son where to stand and who told the old son you can only come this far and who show the moon what a high Tilney me whose words alone can catcher for me stop oops of very same God that spins things you wants to go though and the snow to talk me when I'm wrong yeah bring me the toy now my Hey I'm I'm the young man in the chair everything I've done is because the father has been pushing me and pulling me and carrying me that's grace and all he's asking you to do is just get in the chair you know actually he's asking you to let him put you in the chair because you can't even get in the chair on your own I want you to bow your heads and close your eyes we want to pray for you today we want to help you get in the chair no matter what you're going through right now you're here today for a very specific reason God knew you to be here today and you're going through something and all he's saying is are you getting the chair you're just getting the chair some of you he's saying you get back in the chair will you just get back in the chair we want to pray for you if you need to give your life to God today we want to pray for you and here's the way we do it we have a worship song well one more worship song the service is not over until after this next worship song but at every campus in just a moment we're going to stand we're going to have leaders at the front of every campus and every overflow room I know several campuses are an overflow right now we're going to have leaders by the exits of of all the at this on the second level at the South Lake campus but if you need prayer for any area of your life any area of your life family health finances relationships your relationship with God if you need prayer you're going to see other people going you'll see lots of people coming for prayer you just step out people will be standing it's easy you just step out you come down to the front and just say to one of the leaders here I need printer and especially if you need to give control of your life to Jesus Christ we want to pray for you so you make up your mind right now and you don't have to be a member of gateway church to come for prayer maybe it's your first time here maybe you've been here 10 years if you need prayer for any area as soon as we stand up you just stand up step out and come to one the leaders at every campus and let us pray for you Holy Spirit I pray you'll draw people at every campus every person you needs prayer in Jesus name Amen I was 19 years old when I gave my life to the Lord and everything changed I didn't have any desire to go back to that old life I wanted to walk with the Lord and learn more about him and some people helped me to learn the Bible and to learn how to pray and to learn about my new life in Christ and that's what we want to do for you I am so excited that you've given your life to the Lord he's forgiven all of your sins and you're on your way to heaven but we need to learn some things now about the Bible about prayer about some basics of the Christian life so that you can be victorious and live for the Lord like I know you want to so we've designed a class called fresh start and I want to encourage you to sign up for this class because we want to help you grow in your walk with the Lord now I love you and I'm so proud of you

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Keywords: gatewaypeople, Gateway Church, Pastor Robert, Robert Morris, Southlake, Texas, DFW, Lord, God, Jesus, Christ, Church, Amazing Grace, Grace, What's So Amazing About Grace?

Id: JptWmxoUYeQ

Length: 32min 35sec (1955 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 01 2014