God's Grace

God's grace is amazing. One of the Pastors at my church preached a sermon. In fact he preached it three times. I heard it twice so I think God really wanted me to hear it. I thought I would share what I got from it. Look up the verses. I'm not going to write out the verses. So when you see a reference next to a sentence know that the sentence is what my pastor said, not what the verse says.

Don't Count Score

Matt 6:3
When you do something good, don't count score.

Luke 15:11-32 The Parable of the Lost Son
The older brother was keeping score.
He compared score with his brother.

Luke 18:9-14
The Pharisee was counting score.
The tax collector moves the heart of God, he depends on mercy alone.

Breakthrough depends on mercy and grace alone.
The secret to humility is to forget score and fix your eyes on God's grace.

How I do on judgment day depends on my understanding of grace.

Reasons it is dumb to keep score:

1. Keeping score keeps us from understanding grace.
If you count score you will fall from grace. Gal 5:4

2. Keeping score will leave us offended at God. Matthew 20:15-16
If we think God owes us we are keeping count.

3. Keeping score will keep you from being able to fully love God. 1 John 4:19

4. Keeping score leads to envy and strife. Rom 2:11, Eph 6:9, 1 Peter 1:17
We are on the same team. We are part of the body. All success, breakthroughs, and victories are yours, mine and Jesus'.

5. When you keep score you will no longer be motivated by God's love. 1 Cor 15:9-10

6. Keeping score is a waste of time and energy.

7. Keeps you from receiving from God.
We can receive from God if we have faith. People who have faith believe in God's grace.

Do we understand grace? If we want to know how we understand grace we can look at how we respond to offense. How do we respond when someone hurts us?

If we miss grace, we miss the gospel.