People of Grace: The Reach of Grace - May 18, 2025

It is my privilege to invite you to today's sermon podcast.

I have made the Apostle Paul's prayer request my own.

When he states in Ephesians 6.19, Pray also for me, that whenever I open my

mouth, the words may be given to me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel.

May today's sermon come alive to you and aid you in your understanding of God's plan for your life.

Hope you know that the Holy Spirit is near at this moment.

Near in your hearts, near in this room, near. We are in his presence today.

This morning, I want to start by reading from the book of Ephesians chapter

Ephesians 2:1–10

2, verses 1 through 10, as we talk this morning about the reach of grace.

If you're able to and willing, would you stand as we read this passage together?

Ephesians chapter 2, As for you, you were dead in your trespasses and sins,

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the

ruler of the kingdom of the air,

the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.

All of us who lived among them at one time were gratifying the cravings of our

flesh and following its desires and thoughts.

Like the rest, we were by very nature deserving of wrath.

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy,

made us alive with Christ.

Even when we were dead in transgressions, it is by grace you have been saved.

And God raised us up with Christ and seated us up with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,

in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his

grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

For it is by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not from yourselves.

It is the gift of God, not by work so that no one can boast.

For we are God's handiwork created in Christ Jesus to do good works which he

prepared in advance for us to do.

Father, thank you for your word. May it build us up, God.

Lord, may it impact our hearts. Lord, may it encourage us to go and share this

message of the good news Because of your grace with others Lord,

be glorified today, we pray in our lives In Jesus' name we ask, amen.

You've no doubt heard the story of the ship captain who was a slave trader many,

many hundreds of years ago, who was not out of the reach of God and the grace of God.

You see, this ship captain became a Christian. He followed Christ.

Not only that, he became a pastor.

No doubt know that you've heard the name John Newton because he has written

the song that is in our hymnal that we sing very often known as Amazing Grace.

And it was God's amazing grace that so captured his heart, transformed his life,

that really led to a revolution of sorts in the end of the slave trade,

at least in England and no doubt other places as well.

I want you to know this morning that no one is out of the reach of God's grace. Nobody.

Even the ones maybe we are tempted to give up on. even the ones we might count

out, even the ones we might consider enemies, who God tells us to love anyway.

In all of that, no one is out of the reach of God's grace, which extends to all of us.

This morning, I want to quickly, for the sake of time, just look at four facets of God's grace.

You know, facets are interesting. I remember the first time in a school book,

I saw a diamond, a rough diamond that came out of a mind.

And I'm like, what's the big deal with people wanting diamonds?

It's just a rock. And here it is, the one in the biology, or excuse me,

it was a geology textbook.

It was ugly, man. You had to clean that thing up. And then you turn the page

and then it shows the sparkling diamond on a ring.

And I'm like, oh, that's the secret. There's something that has to be done to

this rough piece of rock in order for it to become valuable,

in order for it to really show its worth, and that is all these little cuts

need to be made, these little facets,

these little perspectives on a piece of rock that will shine or,

excuse me, reflect the light, make it sparkle as it should.

And last week, I talked about we need to be people of grace. We need to be sparkling.

Man, we need to be shining, reflecting the light of Christ. But I know some

of us are like that rough diamond, and God's got some work to do on us.

Well, I want you to know God does that work through his grace.

If we could define grace this way, and we'll all bring it up again time and

time again through the sermon series, but God's grace, or grace I should say,

is God's no-strings-attached gift of forgiveness,

of relationship, and of kindness that he offers to us.

No strings attached. He's freely going to give it to you.

I know it's hard for us to believe because everything has fine print these days.

Everything has strings attached. And for us to comprehend a free gift,

especially a gift of this magnitude, it just blows us away.

I want to first talk about God's seeking grace. Luke 19.10, for the Son of Man

came to seek and save that which is lost.

Aren't you glad for God's seeking grace that he comes a-looking for those of

us who were far off, who were out what we thought maybe out of the reach of

God, but God came and he found us anyway.

We call this in the Nazarene theology, and not just Nazarene,

but Wesleyan theology, prevenient grace. Now, I mentioned this last week.

I said it's not convenient grace, but it's prevenient grace.

It's the grace that precedes our acceptance of Christ.

It's God extending his grace again, that undeserved favor to us.

So we're not wiped out because of our sins and trespasses, but we have a chance.

We have a chance to turn around and to see that God has been pursuing us time after time after time.

You know, often we talk about coming to Christ. Yeah, I came to Christ when I was a kid.

Yeah, I came to Christ in high school or, you know, when I met this Christian group.

But really, it's not us coming to Christ. It's turning around and seeing God.

Involved in our life the whole way.

I mean, maybe you've taken the time to think back on your life,

how God saved you from some things that you really didn't think about at the

time, But later on, you're like, oh, God, you saved me there.

Lord, you saved me from this stupid decision over here. God,

you helped me when I thought I was on the top and successful,

and I only needed myself.

In all these ways, God, you've been right there for me.

It's this prevenient grace, this grace that goes before, this enabling grace

that enables us to recognize our sin, our trespasses, and that we need a Savior.

1 John 4, 19, we love because God first loved us.

That is the capacity. That's the way that we know we can love others because

God first showed his love in this gracious way to us.

I mean, Jesus even talks about it in Luke 15 when we think about the parable

of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and even the parable of the prodigal son or the lost son.

We see that God is always pursuing those which he finds valuable.

And guess what? that he finds all y'all valuable.

He finds all those that aren't in church this morning valuable.

He continues to seek and to seek out, to say, turn around. I'm right here.

I've been pursuing you the whole time. I've been chasing after you with my love,

with this gift that I want to give you. I saw a video earlier this week.

A lady drops her wallet and a guy picks it up. And it's an attractive lady.

And the guy, maybe not so attractive, but he picks up the lady's wallet and he begins to pursue her.

And chasing after her. Ma'am, ma'am, and the lady turns around,

I have a boyfriend! And she takes off running, and the guy's still chasing her.

Well, they end up all the way to almost her house, and finally she turns around

with some mace in her hand, and he says, I've just got your wallet right here.

You dropped this, and I wanted to give it to you.

I don't know if you've been the kind of person that God's pursued where you've tried to put him off.

You know he's chasing you, but you want to find your mace, and you want to get

God out of there. That's not going to stop him.

He's going to pursue you. That's his grace chasing after you.

One author put it this way, the pervenient grace of God knows no boundaries or barriers.

The love of God relentlessly reaches even the most difficult,

resistant, and hostile persons.

They may never respond in obedient faith, but they cannot escape the pervasive

presence of God who will not stop loving them and drawing them.

That's the first facet of God's grace. God will pursue you.

God goes before that grace that goes before. We know another facet of God's

grace, which I think most all or many of us all have experienced as God's saving grace.

Romans 6, 23, for the wages of sin is death.

But the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ, our Lord.

You know, there was a Pew Research study done last year, and it was a study

done on, you know, how many people believe there's something after this life?

There's an afterlife, whether it was heaven or something else.

And so they did this big study throughout the world, really.

And surprisingly, according to this study, 70% of people in the United States,

according to this poll, of course a sample, believe that there is a life after this earthly death.

Many imagine the possibility of heaven or something like that.

70%. You wouldn't think that by looking around.

I had the big survey. I can't find the chart now, but there were some countries

that were higher, even upwards to 80%. This is an increase over the past years

that they've done a similar study.

So things are trending in the right direction. I mean, you look around and you've

got to say, man, there's got to be something better than this.

We think about God saving grace. We believe that we can't save ourselves.

That's the scripture that we read today, that there's nothing we can do to earn

God's grace, that there's nothing we can do to deserve the salvation that God

freely offers because of his grace.

We can't save ourselves through good deed.

We can't save ourselves through church attendance. We can't save ourselves by

the kind words that we share with our family and friends and maybe our enemies.

We can't save ourselves through thoughtfulness toward others.

None of those works can save us. It's only because of God's grace.

Again, that no-strings-attached gift. That God gives us a forgiveness.

That God gives us in relationship with Him and an expanded relationship with

others. and the kindness that God has shown us, that though we are deserving

what we said, the wages of sin is death.

God shows us the way to have life and to have that life most abundantly in the

fullest extent of what life is supposed to be.

We know that Jesus, when he had a meeting with Nicodemus at night,

he talked to Nicodemus about, in John chapter three, about being born again.

Now that may be an old fashioned saying, and it's as old-fashioned as John chapter 3, but Jesus was right.

John 3 · chapter mention

There's got to be a transformative experience in your life where you say yes

to God, and it is like being born again, spiritually quickened, awakened to his power.

We know as we study the book of Hebrews, especially chapters 4 through 10,

that we see how the author of Hebrews lays out that Jesus has completed the

Old Testament sacrificial system in its fullness.

One complete final sacrifice, which he made, Jesus made upon the cross once

and for all for all people everywhere.

You don't have to kill an animal to be able to have your sins pushed back.

Those sins have been taken care of by the blood of Jesus Christ.

And for that, we say, Jesus, thank you. And we say praise and thanks be to God.

Christ made possible Our salvation Because he represented us in our place He

died in our place on the cross We identify him With him through his death His

burial and resurrection We accept that free gift of salvation.

Folks, salvation is in Christ alone. I hope you understand that. It's not by your works.

I like it when you do good things. I like it when you show up to church to worship together.

I like when you come to Bible study, you give your tithe and your offering.

I like it when you serve and you help out, but none of that saves you.

What you do and all that stuff I just described is a result of what Christ has done in your life.

He makes you, transforms you that, Boy, you want to be here.

You want to serve. You want to love. Outside of this building,

you want to do the same thing.

You want to continue to worship God.

Even if you're one of those crazy people going down the road,

singing at the top of your lungs the hymns or the songs, that's great.

Worship God wherever, through the singing or through serving.

We receive the gift of saving grace by believing in God, by believing in Jesus Christ.

We throw ourselves on the mercy of God, and we put our faith in Christ alone.

Not Christ plus, only on Jesus.

That leads me to our third facet this morning, and that is God sanctifying grace.

We read the scripture at the beginning of the service for the invocation,

but let me read it again. 1 Thessalonians 5, 23 and 24.

May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through.

May your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.

Well, I got to tell you, in saving grace, God delivers us from the act of sinning.

We're delivered from that. We don't have to sin anymore.

But guess what? It's in God's sanctifying grace that God deals with the inward

nature, the old sinful nature, the bent towards sin.

And he compels us to turn away from demanding our own way, from saying it's

my way or the highway, from it's all about me, I'm number one.

God calls us away from that in his sanctifying grace. He calls us to submit.

To leave our pride, to leave our selfishness, to leave what we consider our

comfort, to lay ourself at the foot of Jesus and say, God, here I am.

I know I'm saved. I know you've forgiven me of my sin, but I want to be delivered

from this bent within me that always wants me to go to this other side, not to the dark side.

It's not Star Wars day. That was a few weeks ago.

But to go back to that selfishness, to revert back to the old way.

We know that if we are in Christ, we are a new creation. The old has gone. The new has come.

We know, especially those of you who are parents, even grandparents,

that kids are just born with that inward bent.

If they can get away with it and do it, they're going to do it.

If there's a rule to be broken and your last name's Curry, you're going to find a way to break that rule.

Sometimes those Currys, even when they're adults, continue to do that.

Not my Curry family, but yeah. I want to clarify that.

By faith, we accept God's forgiveness for sin. We really do.

We consecrate ourself. That means we dedicate ourself or we separate ourself

from the world and we separate ourself fully to God. We think about Romans 12, 1 and 2.

We're that living sacrifice, the living sacrifice that's not strapped down to

the altar, but willingly stays on the altar.

And says, God here, I'm giving myself to you completely, 100%.

I didn't grow up in the Church of the Nazarene, and so my concept of sanctification

wasn't all in line with kind of how we believe, but there was an experience I had.

I was sharing this with the Andersons earlier today in our membership class

there, and it was the summer before my freshman year.

I was at Free Will Baptist Camp there up near Haley, Bellevue,

and I felt God Tug it on my heart I was saved When I was like Seven or eight

years old I distinctly remember When and where,

But it was at this time There was a drawing And it Not a drawing Like you win

something I guess I guess I kind of won something The grace of God And.

But I was in the back with my buddies, and the invitation was given.

And I said, Lord, what's going on? Hey, I'm a Christian.

I asked you to do my heart. And I remember the sense that God didn't have all of me.

I still had admiration of things maybe I should have had admiration for.

I still had plans that, yeah, I hope God blessed, but I really didn't say,

God, is this what you want me to do?

And, I mean, I wanted to go to the Air Force Academy. of me.

I wanted to fly fighter jets, and I wanted to fly the space shuttle one day.

That was my goal, my dream.

But God called me from the back of the room to come down to the altar.

I didn't understand it as we understand it today, but I dedicated my life fully to God.

I said, God, whatever you want, I'm all in, every single part of me.

And so God began to change that heart, that desire. It wasn't a quick desire

to become a preacher, become a pastor even.

But in that submission, in that time where I consecrated myself,

where I separated myself from my own will and my own desire,

and I said, God, whatever you want, I'm yours.

And that full-on dedication to God, I believe that he wiped out that old nature.

That the reality, I don't know why it took so long, but the reality that I'm

all his, that the old is gone.

Behold, the new is here to live into that newness.

God's sanctifying grace is that moment in time where he renews our heart by faith.

And it's also a continued growth in that same kind of grace as he sets us apart

more and more for his use and from the world.

It's that growth that transforms us into the image of God more and more.

Some people think entire sanctification, well, that's just a one-time thing.

I said, yeah, there's a starting point, but you still got to continue to grow.

You know, it's like the person who gets saved and they think,

okay, that's all they got to do.

Well, you don't have to do anything, but God's got a great life plan for you,

that he wants you to live into to grow in grace and really become the person he's created you to be.

One of our general superintendents wrote this, the good news of the gospel is

not only that we will one day be with God when we die, but also that the offer

of abundant life in God's kingdom is for now, right where you are.

God's plan is that his image in us that was marred by the fall should be restored

to all of its beauty and glory, that we should become his masterpiece,

reflecting Christ's likeness in what we think, in what we say and in what we do.

That is called sanctification. And that is what we are becoming.

And it's not optional for growing Christians.

Isn't that what we want in this life is to reflect who Christ is?

We know who we used to be. We know who we were.

But just dream into who God wants you to be and who God is creating,

and I could say recreating us to be in the image of his son, Jesus.

Well, these three alone, these three facets of God's grace are fascinating to me.

God's prevenient grace, His seeking grace, His saving grace, His sanctifying grace.

But we can't leave out the last one I just want to briefly talk about,

and that is God's sustaining grace.

Jude 24 and 25, To Him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you

before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy,

to the only God our Savior be glory,

majesty, power, and authority through Christ Jesus our Lord,

before all ages now and forevermore. Amen.

Folks, our consecration, our setting apart does not sanctify us.

Me coming to an altar just didn't mean I was automatically sanctified.

Set apart, dedicated in my own words.

We cannot sanctify ourselves. Remember, this is part of the working of God's grace.

This is what God does in his grace.

This is what God does, not through our own efforts, but by his work within us.

What is our part in that? Well, it's to allow it to happen.

I've shared a story before about a time I wanted to knock a guy's block off,

and I really had justification to do so.

I had the motive, the opportunity, the drive to do it.

But it was in that instant as I was getting ready to raise my fist,

that my fist turned into an open hand.

And that the open hand turned into a hug and an embrace in public of this guy

who had hurt me, who had hurt my family.

That wasn't what I was planning to do.

But that was God's grace working in me. Amen.

Say, you're not going to do that. I've got a greater plan. And that plan is

that you extend my grace.

That plan is that you extend my forgiveness.

Last time I ever saw that guy, honestly, my kids were with me.

I won't say too much. I don't want to remind them of that experience,

but it's that sustaining grace of God that says, huh, I got a better way.

I got a better way for you.

Sometimes it's in experiences like that. Other times it's And in circumstances,

we get so frustrated, but at the end of not having our own way,

we realize, God, you're protecting me in this situation.

And had I had my own way, it would not be the beautiful thing that it is now.

You see, we know that the divine gift that was given on the day of Pentecost,

was not from the Holy Spirit, but it was the Holy Spirit of God,

his presence within the life of a believer, his power within the life of a believer,

The radical optimism of God's sustaining grace reminds us that God transforms

believers into His image, the image of His Son, and that we grow in that grace,

just like Galatians 4.19 says.

Sustaining grace is the power of God that keeps us from falling,

that causes us to stand blameless before Him.

It is this sustaining grace.

God communicates to us, and that communicates to us this truth about discipleship.

We can fall from grace, but the sustaining grace of God makes it possible for

us not to have to. We don't have to fall.

God, through His Holy Spirit, shows us a better way, gives us a better opportunity to not have to sin.

Hey, we disagree with some of our brothers and sisters, maybe even in this room this morning.

You don't have to sin every day from your own motivation of your own heart.

It's the sustaining grace of God that keeps us from doing that.

We know if we do, we know we have a remedy with the Father through Jesus.

1 John 1, 9, that if we confess our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive

us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

That's just not for the sinner, folks. It's for us to have a corrective measure

in our own spirit so that we may be presented to the Father spotless, blameless.

I just want to know this morning as I wrap it up, have you experienced the amazing grace of God?

I don't know if it was that grace of God that pursued you until you finally said, I got to relent.

Mercy, Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner.

I don't know if it was God's saving grace to where you came at an altar of prayer

and you said, Lord, I ain't much, but I need you to forgive me of my sin and

use me for whatever you want me to do.

Let me be valuable in your kingdom. It might have been for that sanctifying

grace of God where you finally got it.

You finally got to the point where I'm not a sinner. I'm a child of God.

My focus isn't no longer on my sin and where I was, but it's on who God calls

me to be, who God has said that I am, and who God is making me to be more and more.

We all know that we are sinners and that we are saved by God's grace.

But where does our focus lie? On the past or on the future where God is leading

us? Well, we've got to have a focus on the future.

If we're caught in sins, if we're dead in our trespasses, there's a remedy for

that. Let's take care of it.

Christian, if sins are still so

easily besetting you, mark where those obstacles are and go around them.

God's not likely to remove them. He can, but he's given us a way to overcome them.

I wasn't a great hurdler when I was in high school during track,

so I didn't do the hurdles.

As a matter of fact, I found a way around them. Don't follow my example in track

because you get disqualified doing that.

But in life, God will teach you how to hurdle over those things that try to beset you.

Teach you how to come to a better way of living so those temptations no longer

become stumbling blocks because they don't even matter anymore.

Finally, I hope you are living in the sustaining grace of God,

that God is the one that is getting you through every day, no matter what it

is. Hey, it's not all up to you.

It's not all up to you and your strength and your power. It's just,

it relies on your faith to trust God, to know that, God, you've got this.

I don't have to freak out.

But God, you know what tomorrow holds, even if I don't.

So just give me enough grace to get by and to trust you into tomorrow,

to know that God's grace is available to you.

We're going to break these down some more as we go through over this next month or so.

But just remember, we're not self-made saints.

We're God's handiwork. It's God doing the work.

Handiwork, God's masterpiece, his poema.

Let's live into who God has called us to be. And it's only through his grace that we can do that.

Let me pray for us. And then we're going to have a song together and have some

final instructions about the fundraiser meal.

By the way, if you've come today and you're like, man, I don't got any money, but I love tacos.

We'll take care of you. Just see me, okay? Honestly. Now, if you got money, pay for your tacos.

All right? But if you don't and you just didn't come prepared for that or you're

just our guest today, let me know.

Really let me know and we'll take care of that. Father, thank you for your grace and your mercy.

Lord, I'm just humbled and overwhelmed by your grace today.

Father, I'm so undeserving.

Lord, because of your great favor, for whatever reason, because of your love,

you looked upon me as a kid and you showed me who I was as a sinner.

And you also showed me the way to new life and eternal life through Christ.

I thank you for that, God.

Lord, you didn't leave me there as just some saved kid, but later on,

you showed me that you wanted all of me, not just the religious part of me, but you wanted all of me.

And Lord, thank you for that. And thank you for your sustaining grace that continues

to allow me mistakes so that I can step up and learn how to live the life you want me to live better.

And Lord, I think that goes for all of us.

God, we pray as we fellowship in just a little bit that you'd bless our food,

our fellowship together.

Lord, be it the youth who have cooked and made this meal for us today.

And we just ask you to bless that time. Lord, bless us now as we conclude our

worship gathering together in Jesus' name.

I want to thank you for joining today's sermon podcast. You can find a copy

of today's sermon as well as other sermons and the sermon outline from today

on our church's website,

www.mvcnaz.org,

It is my prayer also that you will seek out a church home that recognizes the authority of the Bible.