God's Good Gravy

God’s Good Gravy

8.26.05

I. Introduction

Barney wore coke-bottle glasses and a perfect bowl haircut. He knew the answers to everything and was the teacher’s pet. This really ticked everybody off.

One day, after an uncharacteristic absence from school, Barney showed up in class with a big grin on his face, wearing a goofy-looking Mickey Mouse hat. The teacher asked Barney where he got the hat.

“I went to Disneyland yesterday!” he said excitedly.

“Oh really,” said the teacher. “Why don’t you tell us about your trip to Disneyland.”

“Okay! Well, I got to Disneyland and the first thing I saw was the parking lot,” Barney said. “That parking lot must hold about a million cars! I got on a tram that carried me around the parking lot until I got to the place where you buy the tickets. So I got off and stood in line. I bought a ticket and I also bought this cool hat!”

“And then what did you do?” asked the teacher.

“Well, I got back on the tram and rode around the parking lot some more,” said Barney. “That was really fun! I rode that tram all day!”

“All day?” asked the teacher. “Did you go through the turnstiles and under the bridge to Main Street USA, Adventureland, Fantasyland, Tomorrowland, and the rest of the park?”

Barney thought for a moment and said, “No. Was I supposed to?”

When a lot of people get saved, they don’t understand all that’s included in the ticket. A lot of people know that when you get saved, you get to go to heaven when you die. What a lot of people don’t know about is the gravy.

Tonight I’m going to talk to you about “God’s Good Gravy.”

The word “gravy” used in a slang manner refers to something extra, an extra bonus and there are many extras included in this experience called salvation.

II. It’s All Gravy

Psalm 103:1-2 1 Praise the LORD, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. 2 Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits-

In other words, verse 2 could say, “Praise God and don’t forget about His good gravy.” The Bible tells us about all the extras that come along with following God. Many people accept Christ as their Savior because they’d rather not face the alternative to heaven. This is commonly referred to as “fire insurance.” Someone will get saved just because they don’t want to go to hell, but they’ll continue living their life without knowing about the added benefits. Sure they’ll go to heaven when they die, but their life may be a living hell. God wants you to experience heaven when you die, but He also wants you to have an abundant life here on earth. And that’s one of the reasons you get the gravy.

Psalm 103:2-6 2 Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits- 3who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, 4 who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, 5 who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. 6 The LORD works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed.

Here’s the gravy. In addition to getting to go to heaven when you die, God does a number of extra things for you:

A. Forgives all your sins. How many of you have ever committed a sin? OK, if you’ve sinned, go ahead and tell your neighbor the worst thing you’ve ever done. Just kidding.

Let me ask you this: How do you feel when you sin? Guilty, right? You feel horrible when you know that you’ve messed up and you’ve done somebody so wrong.

Well, how do you feel when you’ve been forgiven? You feel all better. You feel super.

This passage not only says that He will forgive your sins, but later on in that passage it says He blots out your transgressions as far as the east is from the west, meaning that He chooses not to remember your sins.

Isaiah 43:25 25 "I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.

You see, if you did me wrong, I’d most likely be able to forgive you, but it would probably be very hard for me to forget it ever happened. And every time you’d see me it could have the potential to make you think about that thing you did and you’d have all those feelings of guilt all over again. But God forgives AND forgets. And the enemy may try to remind you of your sin, but you can rest assured that once you confess, God has forgiven and He has forgotten.