"Favored"

"Favored”

“Touched by Grace”

Introduction of Self. Engr by Education, An IT professional by trade and a pastor by God’s calling.

Thanks to Greg. Also to Pastor Henry. - A person I look up to in ministry.

For my message today I want to invite you to turn to your Bibles to...

Luke 5:12–13 ESV

12 While he was in one of the cities, there came a man full of leprosy. And when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged him, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” 13 And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately the leprosy left him.

Let me yell you this morning that You are favored!

(NIV)

In many ways you are favored because you live at such a time of a) comfort and b) innovation.

Many Filipinos pursue the American dream, a life of comfort in the States (i-steytside).. will give or sell everything to come to America.

12 While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy.[b] When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”

But comfort in the U.S. comes with a price.. my story,,, when I was riding a car on the streets of New Jersey, I looked around and wondered. “Where are all the people?” People worked, walang sari-sari store, you need a car,, you have to start somewhere - makikitira ka

I felt a deep longing for life here, where there is closeness of family, the atmosphere of community wherever you are (asking directions, limang poste lang yan, it’s ok! merong understanding)

In America, you have to find new connections. Eventually if you work hard you will move up in your status in your life. You will own a nice house, a car, you will send your kids to college. But that too come with a price.. you only get these things, unless you hit the jackpot in the lottery… you only get these things by getting into debt. You pay your house for a standard mortgage of 30 years.. you keep working until you get to the age of retirement, the age of retirement keep moving up, now it is at 67 years old SS. In between now and retirement, people have fear of getting laid off, the stock market crashing, the dollar’s value going down (the US dollar has no true wealth backing it — they just keep printing and printing..)

Dito sa Pilipinas, people may not have a big house, but I find life is much simpler. You need to buy something, normally you’ll just pay in cash. May pangagailangan ka meron ka laging matatakbuhan. Wala dito yung pasiklaban, pare-pareho walang unahan, walang “keeping up with the Joneses”..

You see, what we think of comfort of life in the states, is something we must qualify — that is only material comfort.

Do you know that here you also have comfort, we live in a time when we no longer have to go to the payphone,,, library to research,, go to the ATM to check the balance..

You are favored to live in such a time of comfort and innovation.

So.. the word “favor” depends on your perspective.

If material wealth is the most important thing in your life - you would think those in America are most favored.

If heritage, culture, family roots are most important in life - I would say to you this morning that you are most favored here in the Philippines.

If what is most important to you is your spiritual journey and your relationship with God, I will submit to you today that you are already favored by a loving God.

You are Already Favored!

I found that out, .. I had a call from God when I was 15, but I pursued a worldly dream of success, eventually the American dream, but God did not stop pursuing me until one day in a hospital in Denver, dying of a disease I did not know I had, I decided to stop running from Him and decided to serve Him. My life is never the same again, God’s grace allows me to have a full time job and also serve Him as a fulltime Pastor. Pastor Ramon paano yun? Kaya nga may Diyos. That is why I consider myself and my family favored.

It is a matter of perspective. I consider myself favored by God first and foremost because He saved me. Secondly, because He called me to be a minister, pastor and preacher. I am favored because of my beautiful family. I am also favored to live in the US and have a secular job so that God can provide for my family and ministry.

It’s a matter of perspective. Even now, you are already favored and God can use you as a blessing to His Kingdom.

13 Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” And immediately the leprosy left him.

Sometimes..

We understand God’s favor in our lives better if we have personally experienced it.

Feedback:

An object’s worth is seen by the price someone is willing to pay for it.

We understand God’s favor in our lives better if we have personally experienced it.

The Bible says in that we were purchased at a price. Since we have been purchased for a price, we are a valuable. It is the value Christ placed in us that made us God’s favored people.

From the sermon last week which touched on doctrine with big words around why we are a favored people, there were concerns from a sister that though she personally understood it because she has experienced grace, a lot of those who were here may not have totally understood the teaching. The teaching last week was not intended to increase our knowledge. Remembering all those concepts on why we are highly favored does not help us understand it. We understand God’s favor in our lives better if we have personally experienced it.

We miss to see God’s favor because we seek the greater miracle in our lives and miss the fact that God has already touched you.

The word “Grace” has become a Christian buzzword. We hear the word grace so much from many places including this church. We sing a lot of songs about grace. We sing amazing grace arguably the greatest song ever written.

But the danger is for grace to become too common a word and so misunderstood that it ceases to be amazing. We need to really understand grace to live as God’s highly favored people.

As a people favored by God we should live in His grace. Until we experience grace we will never understand it.

While the Apostle Paul mentioned the word grace over 100 times, the Lord Jesus did not mention it at all.

In Jesus, we see a lot of stories of grace. Jesus showed grace by His actions and He made grace the story of the lives of those who encountered Him!

From the story that we read today about the leper that Jesus healed. The focus a lot of times is on the miracle of healing of the leper.

Jesus showed grace by His action all over scripture. , in , the woman at the well in .

From the story that we read today about the leper that Jesus healed. The focus a lot of times is on the miracle of healing of the leper.

One thing we have to remember is that during Jesus’s time, having leprosy was like a death sentence. You can no longer live a normal life, by normal I mean you can’t live with people. Nobody will ever touch you again.

In this story from the Bible, you see this man with leprosy ask of Jesus:

“Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”

What did Jesus do next?

13 Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” And immediately the leprosy left him.

What was the first thing that Jesus did after the leper approached him?

Well Jesus healed him. No.

Jesus said “I am willing”. No.

Before Jesus replied I am willing to make you clean. Before He commanded be clean. The Bible said, Jesus touched the leper.

Don’t you love Jesus? You see, you have touched and shook hands with more people in the last hour here in church than this man had felt a touch from someone in his whole life.

2. Grace is not just a concept to be learned. It is a loving touch to be experienced.

Don’t you love Jesus? You see, you have touched and shook hands with more people in the last hour here in church than this man had felt a touch from someone in his whole life.

All Jesus had to do was to say the word, actually he commanded the man to be healed. He could have healed the man from a distance.

There is something that the touch of Jesus did to the man that His healing did not do.

The man saw that he was unconditionally loved and favored by God.

Jesus first touched the man. I think that the man’s life was already changed immensely by the touch of Jesus. Just to experience that close connection and love from someone was more than enough for him.

He misses that touch from his family when he was still well, maybe he had a wife and children and because of this dreaded disease he was taken away from them forever. Beneath the physical brokenness of the leprosy was a broken heart. This man was yearning and crying out for love!

Then Jesus came. Before He healed the man. He touched him first.

A lot of times you ask God and wait for Him to fix your brokenness and miss out on the fact that He has already touched you.

God loves us in spite of our brokenness.

Yes we are saved by grace through faith. It is only by grace that we are going to heaven to be with our Savior for all of eternity. But truth be told, we remain to be broken people!

Ramon, what do you mean?

That God’s grace is not enough to fix our total being - body, soul and spirit?

I have been in church long enough to tell you that the church is full of broken people. It’s true!

Imagine if we advertise our church with a tag line: We are a church of broken people, Come join us!

We probably won’t do that but isn’t that the truth?

“Hey I’m broken I need to be fixed! Oh let’s join this church of other broken people!”

There are some of us who still need healing from wounds wrought upon our lives by our past, by people and even our present circumstances.

But that is where God’s favor is seen most in our lives, although we are still broken God’s grace remains in us.

We have grown in churches believing that we cannot experience God’s favor until I get delivered from my situation. I cannot really serve the Lord until I get healed. I cannot live life in the goodness of God until I settle my issue with someone.

This is what is so unhuman about grace. As people we are always required to finish one requirement before we can get to the next best thing in life.

Grace does not require so much from us before we experience it.

Today let me present to you the paradox of grace: We are broken, yet we are favored.

Now, I am not encouraging you to stop praying that God fix our broken lives, to heal our wounds and our sickness, Jesus can do all that with one command.

In the meantime, don’t let your brokenness stop you from living life under God’s goodness, Jesus has already touched you.

You are a favored people. Note: favored does not mean perfect.

You may not be perfect, but you are favored by a perfect God.

Let me say it again. God loves you, Jesus died for you but there are times when His loving touch is all you need for that situation. We can experience God’s favor even in our brokenness.

How do we get out of our brokenness.

We respond to the favor of God by being gi

Now, to truly live life as God’s favored people, grace should come full circle in our lives.

When we talk of God’s grace we always think in terms of being on the receiving end of it. As recipients of God’s grace we have to be givers of grace.

Now we are going to flip the coin of grace over.

4. We also have to be givers of grace.

We also have to be givers of grace.

We love to be on the receiving side of grace but when we talk about giving grace, it becomes a little bit difficult.

God forgive us when we don’t give grace. Grace is always good when we are at the receiving end but to fully live as God’s favored people we have to be grace givers too.

Grace is such a great concept, we have to give it.

Grace is a great concept, until we talk about the father who let you down, that co-worker that stabbed you in the back, that person that cheated on you, the close relative that used you and abused you, the loved one who betrayed you.

Grace is great, because it thrives in our brokenness, but here’s the deal - grace can also help bring about healing by addressing the root of our brokenness.

Can you give grace to that person who in many ways broke you?

We are broken people saved by grace, but until we can give grace to the person in our lives who least deserves it we cannot live lives as God’s highly favored people to the fullest.

We have made a determination that the person who deserves grace the least are the ones who hurt us the most. A lot of times he or she is someone you love. It hurts most to be betrayed by someone you love.

It is because you give so much to people you love, you give your heart. Then that loved one took your heart and crushed it.

Now it’s hard for you to give any more, you put walls around your heart and guard it. Never to be hurt anymore.

You know you have to forgive, because the Bible tells you so but then you give that condition to God, I won’t forgive until I am healed.

Like the leper in our story, the love of Jesus has touched you. It may not have brought total healing of your wounds. But that touch is enough for you to give grace to the one who wounded you, and then full healing will come.

But God, it is hard, I cannot do it. One thing I have to let you know which you should already know, Jesus knows and understands your hurt more than anyone. He knows it is difficult to forgive, by your strength.

When Jesus said you have to forgive 77 times, it was not to affirm your claim that it is hard to forgive. It is actually a hyperbole of the amount of grace that you have already been given by God.

Here is the key to giving grace:

“The grace you need to give is always much less than the grace that you have been given”.

You have enough of God’s grace. You have been touched by the Lord and favored. Now Jesus commands you “be healed”.

Prayer:

Thank you Lord that you have made us a favored people.

That we are favored despite our brokenness.

But thank you that You have already touched us by Your grace, and that is enough.

Help us to give grace to those who least deserve it in our lives. We know it is hard, that’s why we need Jesus. Oh we so need you Lord.

A lot of times we ask for grace to forgive but neglect the fact that you have already touched us and given us favor and we already have grace which is enough. By that we should forgive, and in doing so, our wounds will be healed.

And we can move from being broken favored people to a people who are both favored and victorious.

In Your Name we pray. Amen.