#1 Prevenient Grace

Funny Duck...

Not living as God had created him to live.

My Name is Gary Priddy, and the title of this talk is PREVENIENT GRACE.

___________________ will you pray for us please.

Just like old funny duck, we were created by God…only

We were created in God's image to be in relationship with God.

In the beginning it was good

Male and female in relationship

God’s goodness was before our sin…but we sinned anyway.

How can we ever get back to the relationshiip we were created for?

God makes the move. We call it prevenient grace.

Define Prevenient Grace

Grace is God’s undeserved favor.

Grace is God’s undeserved favor.

Grace is God’s gift.

Ephesians 2:4–9 NIV84

4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 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. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.

As unique as our lives…Prevenient, Justifying, Sanctifying.

It’s one grace…just as there is one God, he has one love to share. but we are in different places in life when we experience them…so they produce different effects in our life.

You are going to hear a lot more about this over the weekend, but I want you to hear this.

Wesley explained these as parts of a home…I would love to have a log cabin one day, so Here is my grace house.

2 Corinthians 5:18 NIV84

All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:

As unique as our lives

Inside the house is God's sanctifying grace…where we grow up in our faith. WE get in the house by going through the door…which is justifying grace. And Wesley referred to Prevenient grace as the porch.

On the porch...

Prevenient grace refers to God's grace at work in our lives before we know God. From the moment of our conception…all the way to conversion.

Prevenient grace comes before you know to ask for it or are aware of it.

PRevenient grace is seen in those stories of searching for the lost coin or the

It is the love of God wooing us

The will of God drawing us

The desire of God pursuing us

The gift of God freeing us

The activity of God empowering us

DTR

Prevenient grace calls us to Define the Relationship.

I don’t know if you have read the book Not a Fan or not, but the premise of the book is asking us to define our relationhsip with Jesus…that’s what prevenient grace does. It leads us to DTR

The story of the bible is clear,

In the beginning it was good

Male and female in relationship

God’s goodness was before our sin…but we sinned anyway.

Human sin

How can we ever get back to the relationshiip we were created for?

God makes the move. We call it prevenient grace.

God’s offer of a relationship with him is consistent…and constant.

God desires a relationship with us more than we want one with him

Jeremiah 31:3 NIV84

The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness.

The nature of God’s relationship with us is that of constant…consistent love.

Jer 31:

God takes the initiative to seek us; it is not up to us to seek God

Genesis 3:8–9 NIV84

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”

How do we experience prevenient grace?

My dad raising me in the church

Through events, both positive and negative

Positive - I remember experiencing God’s grace in the birth of my kids.

Negative - I remember experiencing God’s grace when my wife shared with me the effects of my emotional neglect.

Through the care and sacrifice of others who embody God’s love toward us

Mrs Henroe…boxes of cookies.

Through the body of believers, the church

Through the Holy Spirit awakening our conscience and convincing us that we can never reform ourselves or earn a place in God’s family.

Through the Holy Spirit courting us, not forcing us

Through our words, attitudes, and actions toward others.

Tying a bag to the cat to see it run…all the cat had to do was stop running. IF he just stopped running for just a minute, he would realize that nothing was after him.

IF he would just have slowed down for a minute, he would have seen the thing he thought he had to run from was actually nothing at all.

The question for each of you this weekend is, will we open our hearts to God and accept the relationship God offers us in Jesus Christ?

For us this weekend, to stop, slow down. Maybe come to experience and respond to God's grace…realizing that the things that keep us running; keep us too busy to experience God’s grace, fall away in his presence.

The question for each of you this weekend is, will we open our hearts to God and accept the relationship God offers us in Jesus Christ?