COVENANT COMMUNITY CHURCH
PASTOR: TERRY VAUGHAN
AUGUST 18, 2002
KJV
SERMON TITLE: Living By Grace
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16
Pastor addressing the church: I want you to remember that church is a place where people can come and bring their husbands and wives and their children, friends, co-workers, etc. It needs to be a place where people can come and get things that they need in their lives and in their families lives that will help them to be better Christians. A church needs to be a place where you can come and get something that you can’t get anywhere else than the house of God and from the Lord. That’s what church is all about. I pray one day I’ll be a better Preacher. A better husband, a better father to my children and all these things can be accomplished by coming to the house of God.
Turn to 1 Corinthians 15:9-10 “For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the Grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.”
Notice Paul said that he was the least of the apostles. That’s the way we need to look at ourselves. We should look at ourselves at the least and the less of the Christians. In verse 10 he says that I am what I am. Have you ever made that statement before? Notice he also said that his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain and lastly I want you to notice where he said, “but the grace of God which was with me.”
This morning I want to preach to you on “Living By Grace.” We find in God’s word in Ephesians 2:8 “For we are saved by grace and that not of ourselves; it is the gift of God.” Here’s what God showed me. If His grace is good enough to be saved by, His grace ought to be good enough for us to live by. There’s a lot of Christians not living the Godly kind of life that Christ wants them to live. A lot of times we feel like we can just pick and choose and do what we want to do and go where we want to go but we have to find out what the Will of the Lord is in our lives and do that which God would have us to do. We aren’t here to please one another. We are here to please God. We’re here to do what God wants and not what we want.
Philippians 1:21 “For me to live is Christ.” That’s what we’re supposed to do. We’re supposed to live a Christ like life in this world. We’re made in the image and likeness of an Almighty God. When people are around us and when people see us and hear us, they aren’t supposed to see us but they are supposed to see Christ. They need to know there is something different about us in what we do and how we reach out to others.
2 Corinthians 9:8 “For God is able to make all grace abound toward you that ye always having all sufficiency in all things may abound into every good work.” His grace is good enough for us. If it abounds with us we ought to live by the grace of God and we ought to love it and cherish the blessed hope that God brought when he come from heaven. We can live by the Grace of God.
We need to ask ourselves this question: Are we really living by His Grace? If we’re saved by his grace, we ought to be able to live by his grace. There’s so much loose living in the world with some Christians that it’s pitiful. It’s sad that Christians want to worship God on Sundays and live like the devil the rest of the week. I want to live God every step of the way. This is a lifestyle for me.
Now I want to point out seven things.
Number one: His Grace destroys our sin. Romans 5:20 “But where Sin abounded, Grace did much more abound.” It’s possible for us to live a Godly life in this world. His grace will always work in your life when nothing else works. It’ll transform your life if you let it. Christians in the state and mind that they are in now, hardly ever think about their brothers and sisters in Christ. You know what they usually think about? Self! Self righteous is what they are. When I read in my Bible I find that we are supposed to do more things for others than we do for ourselves. Love others more than you do your self. Give unto others more than you do yourself. That’s living by the grace of God. The Bible says in 1 John 1:9 “He’s faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” So His grace destroys our sin. His grace leads us into an area in our lives where we don’t have to live under sin. We can live under grace.
Romans 6:14 “Sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under the law but under grace.” Sin does not have dominion over the children of God. God is not the author of sin. He’s the minister of Grace.
Number two: His grace makes us rich. 2 Corinthians 8:9 “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.” Paul said we have nothing, yet I possess all things. Why did he say that? Because he was living by the grace of God. You complain that you don’t have money, you don’t have this and you don’t have that. All you need is Christ. When he’s first and foremost in our lives, his grace is there with us making us rich. Nothing makes me feel any better than to do something for the Lord. It seems now a days everybody wants money. Money is important. It’s important to the house of God. But the Love of money is the root of all evil. Don’t let your primary concern be how much money you have. Let your primary concern be that you’re rich because you have the grace of God. If God be for us, who can be against us?
Number three: His grace teaches us. Titus 2:11-12 “For the grace of God which bringeth Salvation has appeared unto all men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust we should live soberly and righteously and Godly in this present evil world.” We know we’re going to live that way when we get home. There won’t be any more devil up there but while we’re here the grace of God teaches us to live soberly and righteously and Godly while we’re here. If you were to put those three tags on people and judge them which we aren’t supposed to, they would fail when it comes to being a Christian. I probably would. Notice God called this a present evil world. This world is not a good place. But thank God, Christ said he was not of this world. We’ve got the grace of God to teach us how to live. A lady came up to me once after church and she said, “Preacher you got all over my toes in that service.” I said, “I didn’t want to get on your toes but I wanted to get in your heart.” That’s where it needs to be. When we let the word of God work in our lives his grace will teach us how to treat other people. It will teach us how to treat the church. It will teach us how to treat the Lord.
Number four: His grace allows us to serve him. I read some scripture over in Jeremiah where they said they had done nothing at all for the Kingdom of God. There’s a lot of Christians like that today. They are saved but they aren’t doing anything for God. The Bible says that the harvest is great but the laborers are few. There might be a lot of Christians in the world but there isn’t a whole lot of Christians doing something for God. That’s living for God, sharing God, serving God. His grace allows us to serve him. Hebrews 12:28 “Let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and Godly fear.” Three words I want to point out there. Let us have grace to serve God acceptably. We want God to be accepted with what we do. We want him to approve of what we do for him. The Bible says that God looked down from heaven and with many of them He was not well pleased. God knows what we’re doing for him. He’s keeping a record. He’s the only one that can make a difference in our life. We also need to reverence him. He gave us a prayer to go by which is our Father which art in heaven. He was telling you to reverence God. We also need to have Godly fear. I’m afraid of God. I’m afraid of what he can do to me for certain things. We have to have Godly fear when it comes to raising our children. We need to have Godly fear when it comes to a husband and wife relationship. The beginning of wisdom is to fear the Lord. Our natural man is not inclined to do anything for God but our Spiritual man is. The natural man doesn’t feel like praying. We have to make ourselves get up and go pray. When we do we can ring the prayer bells of heaven. We have to crucify the flesh and live by the grace of God.
Number five: His grace allows us to grow. 2 Peter 3:18 “But grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.” His grace allows us to grow. In John 15 it says, “without me you can do nothing.”
Why do we need to grow? We need to grow to be better Christians. Better disciples. Better Apostles. There’s a lot of Christians not growing today. I believe if you’re not growing in the Lord, you’re going backwards for the devil.. You can not stay idle for the Lord.
Number six: His grace gives us strength. 2 Timothy 2:1 “Be strong in grace that is in Christ Jesus.” You know why so many people are quitting on God? Because they don’t allow his grace to give them strength. Who was it in the Bible, I believe Jacob, He was ready to quit on God and he laid down and made him a pillow of stone and the Lord sent an angel and the angel fed him a few times and he got up in the strength of the Lord and he went on his journey and he took that rock which he had made his pillow and turned it into a pillar. It’s spelled a different way. He stood on the rock. He was standing on the firm foundation which is Jesus Christ. His graces strengthens us. Philippians 4:13 says “I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me.” Think about that. He didn’t say some things but all things. What strengthened him? The grace of God. You know what strengthened me about starting this church? The grace of God did. I’m not going to sit on the stool of do nothing. I want to stand firm on the word of God. I’m not going to deviate for the world. His grace allows me to get strength and draw from it. His grace allows us to be strong.
Number seven: His grace allows us to reach others. Ephesians 3:8 “Unto me who am the least of all saints is this grace given, that I might preach unto the gentiles the unreachable riches of Christ.” His grace allows us to reach others. His grace allows us to disciple others. His grace allows us to be soul winners. His grace allows us to share the gospel with others. We need to take the gospel that we learn in church and in our hearts and take it out into the world and teach others.
Let us end with that thought. Take what you learn in church and take it out into the world and tell someone about Christ.
