Grace

Ephesians 2:8-9.

INTRO:

Ben Wofford

Married to Allison

Roman, Camden, Declan are my sons.

Student pastor here for 10 years.

And I want you to know we are glad you are here this semester.

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This morning I want to share with you about God’s grace.

When I was young, I played soccer.

I loved the game and I still do.

The first season I ever played I was in 4th or 5th grade and our team was terrible.

We lost every game.

To make matters worse, I was the goalie.

So if you don’t know soccer, I was the guy who was standing near the goal and it was my job to stop the ball from going in the goal.

I do know we weren’t losing because of me, it was a team failure. We were awful.

I do remember I played as hard as I could and I worked really hard to be a good goalie.

I do not remember my performance. I have no idea how I actually did.

The only other thing I do remember is that I received so much encouragement.

Parents, coaches, and others encouraged me and it drove me to play harder.

I remember being so dirty after every game from diving and sliding to try and save balls from going in the goal.

But again, no matter how hard I tired to perform well for my team...

I have no idea how well I actually performed.

We still lost every game.

So why did I keep playing soccer after such a terrible season?

I think it was because of 2 things I’ve already said:

It was from all the encouragement received.

I developed a desire to love and play the game despite the doubt I’d ever be on a winning team.

I loved how dirty I got, the competition, I loved balls being kicked from the corner into the box and I get to jump up and try to punch a ball out of the air.

But here’s the best part, sometimes I’m punching people too!

It gets violent in there!

And for the moms, I know this is hard to understand, but boys love violence.

You mean to tell me, I can throw my fists at the ball flying through the air and it doesn’t matter what or who my fists hit?

I’m sold.

Let’s run it back.

If you grabbed onto one thing from that story I hope it’s this:

Encouraging from others encourages perseverance in you.

Kind words build up feelings inside of you that drive you forward.

Those same kind and encouraging words overcome the feelings of doubt that we have.

SO can I share a kind word with you this morning?

READ:

Ephesians 2:8–9 “8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—9 not by works, so that no one can boast.”

By grace you have been saved.

What a beautiful verse this morning.

Even better is the last phrase. “Not by works, so that no one can boast.”

Man we love boasting now days...

Facebook, Instagram, or whatever socials you might be on if your an adult or teen in here...

So many times we get on there and we post and make our life look like the winning team...

But in our heads, we feel like we are actually on that soccer team I was on.

Every day we wake up, we lose another game…

You know where those feelings come from?

It actually goes back to the garden of eden.

Genesis 2:16–17 “16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.””

God didn’t give Adam and Eve the 10 commandments.

He didn’t even give them 3 rules.

He gave them 1.

Don’t eat from the tree.

That was it!

The reason God gave them that choice was because He wanted them to love them, but He didn’t want to force His love upon them.

He had to give them something that would make them choose Him, not be forced to love Him.

Thus, He gave them the tree.

Notice what God says too in vs. 16…

“You are free...”

What a place.

NO shame, no doubt, no insecurities…

A perfect relationship with the God of the universe.

But then Satan enters the picture and does something very sneaky.

Look what Satan says in Gen. 3:2-5

Genesis 3:2–5 “2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ ” 4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.””

Satan deceives.

He tells them the reason God doesn’t want you to eat the tree is that you will be like God.

But you know what’s crazy?

They already were like God!

They were made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27.)

So why did Satan say that?

Satan wanted to create doubt in Adam and Eve’s minds.

“Maybe there is something God is holding back from us that we need.”

And that friends is the root of most of our problems.

We doubt.

We think God is not giving us something that we need, and so we look other places for whatever it is that we think we need.

Yet the whole time, we just need Jesus.

The sad part was, God was holding something back from them, but what He was holding back from them was exactly what the tree was.

“The knowledge of good AND EVIL.”

All they knew was good...

but the moment they eat the tree, all of a sudden now, they see their shame.

They throw leaves on themselves to try and cover up the fact they are now exposed.

And they hide.

No matter what your age in here, listen to this.

We all do this.

When we are in trouble, we hide, we feel shame, we try to cover up.

But we need to know, that all goes back to the garden.

That’s where sin started.

But here’s the good news.

God didn’t leave us there in our shame and brokenness.

Read Ephesians 2:8–9 “8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—9 not by works, so that no one can boast.”

We live our lives most of the time trying to figure out how my good works can overcome all the bad I’ve done.

But we forget this verse.

God’s grace… the good work He did on the cross was enough.

Why?

Because for us, we are saved, “not by works, so that no one can boast...”

There are no works we can do that are better than what Jesus has done.

Through Jesus, we can now return to the freedom offered in the garden.

All we have to do is place our faith in Jesus.

His death, burial, and resurrection.

He offered us new life to destroy the shame, guilt, and sin that infects our lives.

Have you done that today?

If not, I know me or one of your parents would love to talk to you more about that.

Your life is not about just performing better,

It’s actually about knowing you can never perform good enough.

We’ve got to stop, give our lives to Christ, and place our faith in Him every day.