God of Grace

This is basically what my outline was for my Sunday preach....give or take a bit. Your thoughts/comments would be very welcome! ~A.

God is a god of grace. Do you believe it?
Too often we try to shut God into some kind of a "box of our own understanding" so that we don't have to change who we are in the process of understanding our Creator.

The greek (Charis) and hebrew (Chen)words for grace can be translated into 'goodwill' or 'favour'. The Meriam-Webster dictionary defines grace as "the unmerited GIFT of DIVINE FAVOUR which brings about the salvation of a sinner".

What I love about grace is that it is favour that is unmerited. There is nothing you can do to deserve grace. It is a gift that is given, not a prize that has been earned. What I especially love about the grace of God, is that he so often extends it to people who you would least expect it.

God extended grace to Ninevah.
He extended grace to Rahab, a prostitute who protected Jewish soldiers during battle...not only was her life spared, but she is included in Jesus' family line as one of his ancestors.
To a woman caught in adultery, facing a crowd of people waiting to stone her to death, Jesus spared her, not because she wasn't guilty or deserving of that punishment, but because extending grace was more important than carrying out the letter of the law. Imagine what their lives must have been like after experiencing this grace-full God...being given a second chance to start fresh.

I think of my mom, who if you have heard her and her sisters' story of abuse, you would say she has every right to be angry and bitter at the world, but she's not. I have friends who were once drug addicts, witches, prostitutes, and violent men and women, become gentle, peaceable, loving individuals. It is not through self-help books, or anger-management courses, that they experienced this change of character, but engaging with a God of grace, who changed their hearts and lives in a real, tangible way.

We sing songs like "To be like Jesus"...but do we really mean those words? Are we willing to step outside of ourselves and extend grace to the person beside us? Our neighbors? Our co-workers? What needs to change to make us a people of Grace? Have we even experienced this God of Grace for ourselves, or is He always in our minds this legalistic monster shaking a finger at us for every wrong we have ever committed? If there is grace for a prostitute, why not grace for me? If I have experienced Grace in my life, doesn't it make sense for me to extend grace to those around me as well? I want to be a people of Grace. The church has tried shaking it's finger long enough. Maybe it's time we tried grace.