Our focus for this week is 2nd Corinthians chapter 6 verse 1 to 13.
Please open your bibles to 2nd Corinthians chapter 6 verse 1,
or if you don’t have a bible please refer to the sheet in your bulletin.
This reading follows immediately after the reading we explored last week.
Last week we were reminded that walking by faith primarily means relying on and sharing God’s forgiveness and reconciliation throughout our life.
Receiving and sharing God’s forgiveness is the number one priority for our lives.
Connected with God’s forgiveness is the concept that essential to the church is God’s Grace.
Grace has been described as
God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense
Grace is also understood at what God is doing for us and through us.
Throughout history graceful actions have changed people.
A few years ago in South Africa.
Whites had significant power over blacks.
One day a young black boy and his mother were walking down a street, approaching them was a tall white man.
Before they could get off the path as required, the white man stepped off the path into the gutter, and tipped his hat and sad afternoon maam.
The young boy asked, “Mum why did that white man do that, aren’t we the ones who are supposed to be in the gutter.”
His mother responded, “He’s an Anglican priest,
He listens to God more than He listens to men.”
That small gesture of grace changed the young boy’s life.
He got more interested in God.
And as a result that young boy became an Anglican priest,
His name is the Desmond Tutu, the black Anglican Bishop.
And when it comes to grace we all love receiving it.
Who here loves benefiting from God’s grace?
As I live my life I am constantly thankful for
how graceful God has been and is to me.
God’s grace is essential to our lives as individuals and as a community of believers.
We should aim for every action, every word and every decision we make as individuals and as the church to be influenced by God’s grace.
Let’s look at verses 1 to 2
As God’s fellow workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain. ž
2ž For he says,
“In the time of my favor I heard you,
and in the day of salvation I helped you.”
I tell you, now is the time of God’s favour, now is the day of salvation.
It is always Grace time…time for grace
God’s grace is relevant for every situation.
Think about your life right now.
What is happening in your life?
Think about how God’s influence can affect every situation you are involved in.
In some situations, it may actually change what occurs.
In Acts chapter 9 we see an example of God’s grace at work.
A gentleman called Saul, who had been killing and persecuting the early Christians,
His life is changed when God interacts with Him.
God didn’t disown him for what he had done, but equipped him for a new life.
And becomes one of the best known Christians, St Paul.
Instead of persecuting Christians, he dedicates his life to following God
converting people to Christianity
and encouraging churches.
Also God’s grace can actually change how we view life and ourselves.
Research shows one of the biggest issues people face today is poor self esteem.
That is people not thinking themselves as being worthwhile.
People with poor self esteem either harm themselves or harm others, and often both.
Some years ago I developed a friendship with a young man
when I first met him he was a skinny young boy.
He however became obsessed with body building.
Over a few years his body altered to a muscley character.
Because of his obsession with body building His mother was worried.
He would look at himself in the mirror constantly,
picking out the smallest flaws in his body,
and connecting them to other problems in his life.
Body building had taken over his life.
At times he would miss school and not do chores around the house
because he was so obsessed.
His obsession had even meant he had cut people out of his life.
His girlfriend was fed up with him, and she soon became his ex girlfriend.
For him this was devastating.
Basically he had done what every obsessed person does
He had turned his interest in life into an idol,
It was more important than loving God and loving others.
Is there something in your life you are obsessed about?
Is it an idol?
But there were two things going for him, one he was prepared to talk to someone and secondly he had some respect for God.
That’s how I became friends with him.
As we talked about life I discovered that he didn’t think much of himself and he thought no one else did either.
Everyone including those closest to him had highlighted his problems and failures.
Now think about the picture.
Here I was this overweight character spending time with a teenager sports obsessed body builder.
I was not sure how he was going to relate to me.
As we talked we kept exploring about how God sees us as valuable.
That no matter who we are or what our situation, God considers us valuable.
He doesn’t like some of the things we do but He loves us.
We are so valuable that Jesus died for us and God wants us in heaven
And that he keeps persevering with us despite of flaws and failures.
Now getting to the point where he accepted this took a long time.
We met regularly and chatted a lot about life.
What was very helpful was constantly being reminded about what God is doing for us rather than what we have to do
He now sees himself as someone valuable in God’s eye…
someone God wants in heaven.
As a result he wants to live how God wants him to live.
He keeps reading his bible for this guidance
He is still body building but it is not dominating his life, God’s grace is.
He has a better relationship with his family.
So who are the people in your life that need to hear such grace?
Who needs to hear…life is not about you or them,
it is what God’s doing for you and them!!!
All of us are called not just to receive God’s grace,
but also to share it, and to share it gracefully.
And this is where some of our problems begin
most of us are quite happy to receive God’s grace.
But at times we have trouble sharing it.
Do you like being forgiven?
What about if someone hurts you,
do you think they should receive the same forgiveness?
Most of our troubles with sharing God’s grace occur because we don’t think it works in all situations.
We see people misuse it.
This is something that always worries may…
People abusing God’s grace.
In Jude verses 3 and 4 God actually speaks to us about this matter
ž3ž Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. ž4ž For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.
Being forgiven by God is not permission for me or you to continue doing the things we are gaining forgiveness for.
That’s abusing God’s grace.
It does mean relying on God to help me with the sin in my life.
However when it comes to deciding
about whether we share God’s grace or not
We should not say because some people abuse God’s grace we should abandon a life of living gracefully.
Also another area where we face problems in sharing God’s grace is when we are going through difficulties.
In 2 Corinthians verses 4 and 5 we hear
žRather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; ž5ž in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger;
The first thing this list reminds me is that being a Christian.
Following Jesus will not always be easy.
Secondly how
How do you see this list?
Are they obstacles in your life?
Are they obstacles to you living gracefully?
Or can they be opportunities for you to live gracefully?
Whenever we have problems in our life they can become excuses for us to avoid living gracefully.
We may be aggressive with the problems, attacking with a sledgehammer.
We may be very passive about the problem, and become very quite even retreat from others and the world.
In both these situations, we are allowing the problems in our life to control us.
But there is another way.
How about we may deal with our problems in a graceful way,
Lets considers how God wants to help us with problems in our lives.
Remember the list of problems in verses 4 and 5 is written by a man, St Paul,
experienced many problems in his life including gaol and beatings.
And he often used his problems as an opportunity to drop the Gospel into other people’s lives.
How would that affect how you deal with problems?
Think about the problems you are experiencing now
The difficulties you are facing
They maybe long term, they maybe short term.
What if we saw the problems in our lives,
including those caused by others, as opportunities to reflect God’s grace,
to reflect how important God’s forgiveness is?
And verses 6 to 7 reveal to us what is helpful in us be graceful,
especially when faced with problems.
in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; ž7ž in truthful speech and in the power of God;
Look at this list again
Purity refers to us having not having a fault, not just in the sexual area, but all moral areas.
Understanding refers to having an understanding of God and others.
Patience refers to expect some situations to take a long time.
Kindness refers to doing good for others and being useful to others.
In the Holy Spirit refers to allowing God’s Spirit to be your guide
in sincere love being genuine with your love, wanting to love them regardless
in truthful speech, saying it how it really is, being truthful about ourselves and God.
in the power of God…
And it is good that we ended with the power of God,
Because often for us to be graceful during difficulties that is what is required.
Without God’s power it is impossible for us to be graceful.
As you look at the list,
which of these areas do you need God’s help right now in your life?
Let’s stop and pray about it….
The final section of our reading says this,
Reading from 2 Corinthians 6 verse 7b
with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; ž8ž through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; ž9ž known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; ž10ž sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.
As I read through these things I am reminded of the following:
First God’s grace is applicable in every situation…in all areas of life. Bad and good report, glory and dishonour, right and left hand, etc
Secondly being Christian is not just about everything going well or everything going badly. God is involved in every situation. His grace is needed for those who succeed and those who fail.
He is with everyone, loves everyone.
Thirdly in many situations we face we will see difficulties and joys.
This week as you live your life,
Allow God’s grace to influence and encourage you in all situations.
Be graceful witnesses.
Amen
Something for you to reflect on
and share with the person/people near you
In your life how have you seen or experienced God’s grace?
