The tag line for our series "The Gospel in Life" is, "Grace changes everything". As we are the beginning of the series, let's look the word grace and how it affects us and in turn how that ought to affect how we affect the world.
From the NAS Greek Lexicon, the word Grace (Charis) is a noun defined as::
favor of the merciful kindness by which God, exerting his holy influence upon souls, turns them to Christ, keeps, strengthens, increases them in Christian faith, knowledge, affection.
The root of this Greek word is verb that simply means to be glad. So grace is that quality possessed by God and given without external provocation to you and I. It is delivered to us through the work of Christ and our surrender to it.
Grace changes everything.
I want to explain what I mean when I see without external provocation. Grace rests within God. God gives that favor (see above definition) without regard to anyone deserving it. When I look at my wife and see her eyes and I say to her, "you have beautiful eyes." The actual beauty of her eyes is an external factor that has stirred up affection in me and caused me to tell her that her eyes are beautiful. When one of my kids does something sweet or funny, I am stirred to action by telling them they are cute or smart or funny or a superstar. Those are external provocations.
God giving us his grace was unprovoked, unmerited, unearned in anyway. When we realize that we have been rescued from a broken world and been redeemed from our own brokenness and when we realize that we have been rescued purpose and deep interacting love; it must change everything.
Join us in this series (sermons, blog, community groups, vimeo) as we breathe in deeply how grace changes the way we look and and interact at work, in our cities, in our families and everything about us. We are broken, but through the grace of God, we have been redeemed. That should motivate us to live in a broken and bring redemption to it.
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