Amazing Grace For Fruitfulness In Life And Ministry

Colossians 1:10-11; 4:12, 17.

 

We need God’s amazing grace to become born again and when we are called into the ministry. We cannot do either in our strength and power.

 

1. AMAZING GRACE FOR THE SALVATION OF PENITENT SINNERS

GRACE: GREAT REDEMPTION AT CHRIST’S EXPENSE

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• Pardoning Grace for Penitent Believing Sinners – Isaiah 55:6-7; Lk 7:47-50; James 4:6-10; Micah 7:18-19. When we are penitent, we are sorrowful and sorry for what we have done in the past as we come to God with that sorrow for sin, believing that He will forgive as He has promised. When we are penitent and repentant, we come to Jesus and believe in Him as the only Saviour, knowing that the works of our hands cannot save us. “Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.” (Isaiah 55:6-7). As sinners, we went away from the Lord and forsook Him, but we must return to Him when His amazing grace comes upon our lives. When we return to the Lord, He does not just pardon us in a little way, but abundantly. God does not pardon like men who claim to pardon but still find revenge through others; when God pardons, He pardons with all His heart, cleaning away all your wrong deeds from His records. “Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy. He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.” (Micah 7:18-19). God pardons iniquities from generation to generation until the end of the world. God is still a pardoning God, and He does that by grace. When God forgives, He does not come back to punish you for the sins He has forgiven you. When we are born again and receive God’s grace, we accept His forgiveness and freedom and can offer the same kind of forgiveness to others.

 

• Propitiating Grace for Pleading Broken Seekers – Romans 3:24-26; Psalm 51:17; 1 John 2:1-2; 5:18-19. God does not use what is not broken, just as the Alabaster box had to be broken for it to anoint Christ. Your heart, soul, mind, and personality must be broken for God to use you. We must be broken as we seek the Lord for His propitiating grace and plenteous mercies. Our original, Adamic nature will make it difficult for God to use us when we are not broken. Brokenness helps us surrender our all to God and plead with the Lord for the godliness that comes through His grace. “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.” (Psalms 51:17). In your work for God, are you broken or so firm and unbendable to your hurt? If you are going to continue in ministry, there are times to bend, be broken, break up our fallow ground, and break off anything that will deny us the progress we ought to have. “Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;” (Romans 3:24-25).

 

• Purposeful Grace for Poor, Beseeching Souls – 1 Timothy 1:14-16; 2 Corinthians 8:9; Hebrews 2:9-10; 4:15-16. God has a reason for granting us grace. Whatever God gives us, we need to find its purpose in our lives, family, and ministry and use it purposefully. The poor present themselves before God as having nothing, and Jesus said He came so that such poor people would be rich in Him through His sacrifice. “And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.” (1 Timothy 1:14-16). Paul understood that the purpose of His salvation was to be a pattern to all who will believe in Christ through him. We receive God’s grace to shine the light of God’s grace so that others can see and get saved. As we serve God by grace and share testimony of what God has gone through us and for us, we encourage others to experience the same. “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.” (2 Corinthians 8:9). Through Christ, we become rich in faith, grace, fortitude, and ministry because of purposeful grace. We need to realise that Christ came from heaven to earth to take those on earth to heaven, and He came with grace, abundance, and gifts to give to His children on earth.

 

2. ABIDING GRACE IN THE STEADFASTNESS OF PURIFIED SAINTS

GRACE: GODLINESS RECEIVED AFTER CHRIST’S EXCHANGE

 

When Christ came to the world, He took all our sins and gave us His salvation, took our unrighteousness and gave us His righteousness, took our fall and the effect of the fall and gave us the result of His exaltation, and He took our vice and gave us His victory.

 

• Foundation of Sonship in Soaring Grace – John 1:12-14,16; 2 Corinthians 6:13,14-18; 2 Timothy 2:21-22; Philippians 2:14-16. “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” (John 1:12-14). The tribe, skin colour, denominational affiliation, and background do not matter when we come to Christ and receive Him. When Christ comes to you as a guest, and you receive Him, He will take care of you and perfect everything that concerns you. When you receive Christ, you receive Him as a Saviour who will forgive your sins, as a Sanctifier who will purify your soul, as a Healer who will heal every sickness in your body, as a Financier who will give you everything you need, as a Friend who is closer than a brother who will take care of your life fully, and as the ever compassionate and merciful One who will always have compassion on you. The Christ who dwells in an individual can dwell in a family, an assembly, a denomination, a whole nation, and the entire world. The grace of God is inexhaustible; you can have as much as you need in times of temptation or in the field of ministry. God has provided all that we need; we need to come to receive His fullness. When we receive the grace of God, we must show the evidence of receiving that grace. “We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain.” (2 Corinthians 6:1). When we don’t receive the grace of God in vain, we will be able to demonstrate and reveal what the grace of God is doing in our hearts and lives. “We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain. (For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.) Giving no offence in any thing, that the ministry be not blamed:” (2 Corinthians 6:1-3). All the people who had pardoned, purified, powerful, and purposeful lives and did not offend God in anything did it by the grace of God; that same grace is available for us to make sure that our lives are not lives of offence, falling and rising, or substandard to the lives of Bible saints anymore. “If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work. Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.” (2 Timothy 2:21-22). The grace of God will prepare you for everything He has called you to do in Jesus Name. We don’t have the inner ability to flee from youthful lusts, but as we receive more of the grace of God, we will want to and will love to be free from every lust that used to catch us in the past. “Do all things without murmurings and disputings: That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain.” (Philippians 2:14-16). We cannot be harmless, blameless and perfect in our strength, but we can by the grace of God. If I excuse any flaw in my life, it is because I was not looking at the grace of God. If I excuse any recurrent sin and always fall into it, it is because I am not reckoning on the grace of God but on my strength. We can be harmless and blameless by the grace of God.

 

• Freedom from Sin Through the Saviour’s Grace – Romans 6:1-2, 6-7, 11-12, 18, 22; 1 John 3:1-10; 5:18-19. “Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.” (Romans 6:18, 22). The grace of God makes us free from sin and helps us to bear fruit of holiness, righteousness, and freedom from all sin.

 

• Fortitude with Steadfastness Through Supplied Grace – 2 Peter 3:10-14, 17-18; 1 Corinthians 15:10, 58; Hebrews 3:12-14; 1 Peter 5:7-9. The reservoir of heaven contains all the fullness of grace—grace for every task, life, and need—but it is by prayer, desire and faith that we turn the faucet and have the grace flow into our lives. Grace will bring you courage, fortitude, strength, and steadfastness to stand firm in all situations in life. “Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness.” (2 Peter 3:17-18). Adam, Solomon, and Balaam are examples of those who were led from their steadfastness and fell; you will not fall, but you will be steadfast in Jesus Name. “Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.” (1 Peter 5:9). When you think you cannot overcome something, you will not resist, but when you acknowledge the grace, greater grace, growing grace, and the undeniable grace of God in you, you will resist the devil.

 

3. ASTONISHING GRACE FOR SERVICE BY PRIVILEGED SAINTS GRACE: GOD’S RESOURCES ABOUNDING CONTINUALLY, EVERMORE

 

Now that we have the grace of God, we need to go to God in prayer and learn how to use the grace of God, the mercy, compassion, power, authority, godliness, and the abounding love of God in abundance. The Lord will show you how to use the grace he has given you profitably and perfectly in your life, family, ministry, and all your endeavours in Jesus Name.

 

• Grace and Faith in Servanthood to the Lord – 1 Corinthians 3:10-17; 15:10, 57-58; 2 Corinthians 1:9-10,12,15; 1 Thessalonians 2:7-13.

 

• Grace for Faithfulness in the Service of the Lord – 1 Corinthians 4:1-2; 2 Corinthians 4:1-2; Matthew 24:44-51; Revelation 2:10-11.

 

• Grace for Flawlessness of Sacrifice to the Lord – Romans 12:1-2; Ephesians 5:1-2; Hebrews 13:12-16; 2 Corinthians 5:14-20.