Tuesday, March 10, 2020

3.8 sermon audio: John 3:1-17



·         If we don’t believe with every fiber of our being that Jesus Christ is in a perpetual state of SAVING us from our own humanity with every breath we’re blessed to breathe in this life then we’re sorely mistaken. When once asked if he was saved, David Lowes Watson answered,

o   I am not saved. I am being saved.

·         In other words, if how we currently exist in the world—as sinful, fallible creatures—is what it means to be “saved” as in…God’s done with us because there’s nothing left to fix or alter or refine or prune or SAVE…then we are in a heap of trouble as my friend Rev. John Weaver would say.

·         There is still work to be done. WE ARE A WORK IN PROGRESS FOR GOD UNTIL WE TAKE OUR FINAL BREATH. The minute we begin thinking that we’ve reached the peak of righteousness, we can rest assured that we’re nowhere near it.

·         This isn’t a sermon to make us feel awful about who we are; it’s to remind us that without the saving grace of God made available to us in Jesus Christ, we are NOTHING. We are nothing without God. We know this. So, why do we insist on wasting precious time with petty pursuits of false righteousness just so we can appear to have a leg up on someone else…in faith, no less!?

·         When we should be spending our precious time saying THANK YOU to God for the power of God’s Spirit and God’s grace at work in our lives…that it is possible to repent of our sinfulness, to reorient ourselves from our way of doing things to God’s ways…and that that possibility is endlessly available to us because of nothing else but God’s unconditional, unmerited love for us.

·         I mean, WOW. What a gift! No matter how many times we fall short, get caught up worrying about the wrong things, get off track with who God is calling us to be, there is always and forever GRACE.

·         Grace that redeems us.
·         Grace that refines us.
·         Grace that renews us.
·         Grace that reconciles us.
Grace that restores us.

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