Stories of Grace
Since we are celebrating several baptisms in our Contemporary services, these sermon notes are for the 8:30am Traditional service. To view the baptisms, please visit our website, Facebook, or YouTube page.
“ 1 Praise the Lord. How good it is to sing praises to our God, how pleasant and fitting to praise him! 2 The Lord builds up Jerusalem; he gathers the exiles of Israel. 3 He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. 4 He determines the number of the stars and calls them by name. 5 Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit.” —Psalm 147:1-5
“ 1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. 2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” —Romans 12:1-2
(1.) By grace, you are accepted into God’s family
“ 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace 8 that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.” —Ephesians 1:4-8
(2.) By grace, you have infinite value in God’s eyes
“ 12 Yet to all who receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” —John 1:12
“ 45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” —Mark 10:45
(3.) By grace, you are unconditionally loved
“ 10 Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed.” —Isaiah 54:10
“ 3 I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness.” —Jeremiah 31:3
(4.) By grace, I have been forgiven and set free
“ 25 I, even I, am he who blots your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.” —Isaiah 43:25
“ 21 But now God has shown us a different way of being right in his sight—not by obeying the law but by the way promised in the Scriptures long ago. 22 We are made right in God’s sight when we trust in Jesus Christ to take away our sins. And we all can be saved in this same way, no matter who we are or what we have done.” —Romans 3:21-22
(5.) By grace, I am capable of reaching my full Kingdom potential
“ 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. 20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” —Ephesians 3:16-21