Untitled Sermon (2)

Grace Re paired By Grace

The home improvement industry is going gangbusters but let’s be honest. It's our lives we want to fix up - not just the houses we live in. Jesus came to heal the BROKEN-hearted. Do you have the guts to take on a full-life renovation?

God is in the business of fixing. The home improvement business in this country is a 300 billion dollar industry in this country alone. Do you have any idea what the average fixer upper purchase price is walking out of Home Depot, or Lowes, etc. It's around $20. 300 billion in small $20 fixes all over this country.

How is the fixing going in our lives? Think about it for a second what if we had a place where we could into and 20 minutes walk out with a $20 fix? Every time you walked in there would be a scanner, and it would buzz and locate to spot the problem areas in your life and give you the correct answer to your need. Wouldn't that be something? You go there, and within minutes you get fixed up. You know when you are tackling a project there are three different phases. There is the demo phase, the knocking down, ripping out, and hauling away. Then the building on phase. You add to, replace, redo newer, which is all fun. Then there is the fixing up, not to be confused with sprucing up or touching up. This is fixing. We take the broken parts and pieces of our lives and fix it. We trust in God and take steps to fix the things broken in our lives. Have you ever notice that many fixer ups start with an oh no moment. You walk into your bathroom, and you notice water all over the floor. You dig into it and the oh no turns into a ______ _____. It was not only leaking that day, its been leaking for a week. The floors wet, basement and ceil, is shot, the carpet is soaked. The more we dig into the problem, the more we understand the issue. We can't come up with a solution to the problem unto we understand the depth of it. Too often we try a patch, we know it not a permanent fix, it will get us along for a little longer, but we know it doesn't fix the problem. It's not addressing the root of the problem. When we understand the depth of the issue, we then can make a plan to repair the damage. How many of you wish our nation would do something to get down to the root of our problems, and together come up with a working solution. It's not just our nation, but also our families and our congregations. Last week we asked the question do we have the guts to ask the difficult, hard questions about the mess we are in. This week, can we be honest in asking ourselves those questions and dig to the root of the issues, so God can begin to heal and repair us? So, often when we don't know how to fix our problem, we often try to ignore it. So many try to bury it in the deep deep places in our mind. God gives a blueprint to make the changes in our lives. Turn to . For by grace you have been saved through faith; and not on your self, it is a gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so we would walk in them. Look at the word workmanship; Paul is talking about creation. God, in the beginning, created us out of the darkness. The order came out of Kos. In this life we live, God saves us by grace. Not by our works, but by his grace. If we look around, we can see puffed up people, look at me, I'm not like those. Stop boasting. You look foolish. Stop probing yourself up. It's not because of you. Its God who has done this or has given you the gifts, for you to us. For grace saves us. By Grace, we are saved.

Repair our life by grace. What is grace, theologist has been telling us it is unmerited favor, our blessings when we don't deserve it and when we know we can't earn it? Grace is kinda like when you go home with a headache and tired; maybe low sugar and the first word to you spouse is less than nice. You spouse doesn't snap back, by instead offers you a cold drink and some space.  You spouse response to you is not out of the flesh but from a well of goodness with mercy, love, and grace. In the heat of that moment, they respond in love she carreis for you. says God heals the broken hearted and binds up their wounds Binding like a broken bones, putting something broken back together again. Have you noticed that repair means re pair? Taking two things and putting them back together again. Broken or separate and putting them back together again. Like you and God. Favor is so hard to receive. We know we can't earn it, and we don't deserve it, yet God offers it to us. We struggle to take it in.

How often does someone get a pay raise out of the goodness of your bosses heart? In America you get a raise on hard work, you have to earn it. With God, it doesn't work that way. You and God were always meant to be together. Grace you can't earn it. It's a gift; you can enjoy it. It's not based on your human performance. It is based on the character and nature of your creator. If you are like me, life happens, you fail, you slip up, and fail, and it's so easy to slip in the flesh. So easy to lose touch with your faith and God's presence. Just know Gods grace surrounds you. God wants to do for you what you want to do in your home. He wants to repair the fractures in your life and faith. He wants to re pair your relationship with Him and in turn will come re pair your relationship with others. God wants to put your brokenness back together in a way that will be stronger than ever before. We are repaired with Grace, and then we redirect the flow of life with grace. Grace builts a new determination to do things differently in our live, which affect those around us.21:46 I'm a former police officer, I worked Criminal PaTROL and Swat, as a young adult I saw more mad and troubling this then I should have. I experience really bad people. My life was threatened more than once; I was hit, shot at, cut, beaten, spit on and called every name to could think off. Out of this, God called me to serve His church. I had learned as a child that Gods grace could change people. That God loves every one of those folks, I had to deal with. I knew that by His grace they could be saved. All of them. At the Rescue Mission, once again I experienced the worst of human behavior with the men dealing addiction. While I was not shot at or cut, I was threatened and called every name under the sun. I didn't forget, that every one of these men has a mother, and their eternal father so loves them, that he sent them Jesus. God's grace can save them. God's grace is what will heal you. As he heals you, your relationships with other begin to change. God is not only working in you, but He is working through you and your new spirit of the mind. Your new nature. I have never seen more joy, then when a mother came to the graduation of her son after one year in the recovery program. Her hopes are high; her joy is overflowing. So, much more it is in heaven when some gives their life to Christ and God grace is allowed to over come them. .