HOW TO ACCESS GOD’S GRACE

How to live the Extraordinary Life

Part 9

…we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. Romans 5:1-2 (NIV)

We received the same promises as those people in the wilderness, but the promises didn't do them a bit of good because they didn't receive the promises with faith. Hebrews 4:1-2 (TM)

THE PIPELINE TO GOD’S GRACE IS GOD’S FAITH

1. GOD GIVES THE FAITH TO LIVE IN HIS GRACE

FAITH – Believing that God will do what He says.

Faith produces actions of obedience.

Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians 6:23 (NASB)

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God. Ephesians 2:8 (NIV)

We conclude that a person has God’s approval because of faith, not because of his own efforts. Romans 3:28 (GOD’S WORD Translation)

2. THE PROOF OF FAITH IS LIVING LIFE PLEASING TO GOD

Anyone who doesn't breathe is dead, and faith that doesn't do anything is just as dead! James 2:26 (CEV)

Abraham didn't focus on his own impotence and say, "It's hopeless. This hundred-year-old body could never father a child." Nor did he survey Sarah's decades of infertility and give up. He didn't tiptoe around God's promise asking cautiously skeptical questions. He plunged into the promise and came up strong, ready for God, sure that God would make good on what he had said. That's why it is said, "Abraham was declared fit before God by trusting God to set him right." But it's not just Abraham; it's also us! The same thing gets said about us when we embrace and believe the One who brought Jesus to life when the conditions were equally hopeless. The sacrificed Jesus made us fit for God, set us right with God. Romans 4:19-25 (TM)

VERB It's what you do

3. FAITH IS A VERB

It is something we do; it is an action word - it involves action.

Don’t you remember that even our father Abraham was declared good because of what he did, when he was willing to obey God, even if it meant offering his son Isaac to die on the alter? 22You see, he was trusting God so much that he was willing to do whatever God told him to ; his faith was made complete by what he did , by his actions, his good deeds. 23And so it happened just as the Scriptures say, that Abraham trusted God, and the Lord declared him good in God’s sight, and he was even called “the friend of God.” 24So you see, a man is saved by what he does, as well as by what he believes.

James 2:22-24 (LB)

It's impossible to please God apart from faith. And why? Because anyone who wants to approach God must believe both that he exists and that he cares enough to respond to those who seek him. Hebrews 11:6 (TM)

JESUS LOVES YOU

Bottom line: I was trying to live a godly life without the power of God’s grace, and it just can’t be done