Grace: There Are No Buts; Part 1 of 2 - YouTube Snowmass Chapel

Sermon by Dr. Robert de Wetter Senior Pastor, Snowmass Chapel Recorded Sunday, November 17, 2013 Sermon Notes -- Grace: There are no Buts -- Part 1 1. Seems that it is part of human nature to make things more complicated than they nee to be at times. Countless examples. 2. Christians have often made the Gospel too complicated. Lots of buts. 3. Paul wrote letter to the people in a region called Galatia. It is where Turkey is today. Many churches there, some of which started by Paul. 4. Many have a hard time with notion of grace. What is grace? It is the good news and God loves and forgives us unconditionally and there is nothing we can do to make that stop. No ifs and or buts. 5. Robert Capon quotes shared. 6. The bottom line of grace. God's claim on you is a done deal. You cannot change that claim. You can mess up, but it does not change God's claim. God's love of you in indissoluble and unconditional. You are forgiven. 7. People have added the word but to grace making grace conditional . If we make grace conditional, it is no longer grace and we take power away from God and put God's power in the hands of human beings. 8. This was the problem in Galatia. Made God's grace and favor dependent upon the ritual of circumcision. 9. But remember, grace is a done deal. As Paul writes, it certainly has nothing to do with a ritual like circumcision or for that matter any other ritual. This is something the Galatians forgot. 10. There is nothing coercive about grace. 11. Ways in which sometimes conditions are put upon grace explored. 12. Confessing Jesus as Savior doesn't change God or God's grace; it changes how we see ourselves and God. It may in fact affect our actions and the course of our life and relationships with others. 13. Doing the right thing doesn't change what God thinks of us and does nothing with regard to how much grace we get. Again, it changes how we see ourselves, God, and others. It affects our actions and relationships and who we are. 14. Reading the bible, attending a revival, going forward for an altar call, or singing songs of praise earn us nothing with God, but it changes who we are in response to God. 15. As an addendum to grace, not a but, Paul writes that our actions matter profoundly. Integrity and morality are incredibly important. Not anything goes and not all behaviors are ok. Nor does grace mean that there should not be justice or that there should not be consequences for bad conduct. But let us never think that actions or rules or moral behavior increases the grace we receive. Rather we act with integrity precisely because we are on the receiving end of God's grace. 16. You see, when we get in touch with grace, the reasons we do what we do fundamentally change from trying to earn something to working to reflect the grace of God. The more in touch we get with grace, the more we become different from the inside out. Often people make and poor moral decisions because they have lost sight of God's grace.

Grace: There Are No Buts; Part 1 of 2 - YouTube
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