The Open Word (Audio)

The common theme throughout the Bible is that God loves us, and it’s His heart that we would all come to faith in Jesus and be saved. But God is a gentlemen and He will never force someone to follow Him. We’ve all been given a free will to choose, He stands at the door and knocks. He gives us opportunities to confess and repent, but the ball is in our court. We have to decide whether we’ll live for ourselves or we’ll choose to follow after the ways of God.

God wants to use us, it’s true. It’s His desire to empower us by His grace to serve Him and others. We have to be willing, we have to be flexible, we have to be open to His continued work in our lives. We need to realize that in the process of serving that we are still growing. We need to be willing to bend. As believers, God is using every situation and circumstance in our lives to mold us, to make us into the disciples that He’s calling us to be.

The Scriptures teach us that God loved the world so much that He sent His only Son to this earth, but why? Well, He sent Jesus to take our place, so that He would bear our cross. All so that we would not perish, but that’s not all, because of what He has done we can now have a purpose. God wants to use us, He wants us to be servants in the body of Christ. He wants us to take the message of hope that set us free and share it with all we come in contact with.

In our message today we’ll be reminded that we live in a fallen world. We live in a time when good is called evil and evil is called good. Everyone lives according to their own fleshly understanding and no one regards the ways of God. But as believers, even in the midst of all this chaos, we can have peace, we can have true joy. These are things that can only come from having a relationship with the Creator, they can only come from being born again.

This world that we live in is chaotic, it’s fast paced and it never stops. There’s so many things that distract us from spending time with God, so many things that get in the way of us walking according to His ways. Instead we’re driven by man-made wisdom and understanding. But believer, we can’t allow that to happen! We need to seek our Heavenly Father, we need to pray that He reveals those things in our lives that are keeping us from following Him. If we ask, He will show us.

Before we came to faith in Jesus, we were lost. We were in sin, our hearts were dark and full of rebellion. It doesn’t matter how good we thought we were, we were still sinners in need of a Savior. That’s what Pastor David will be reminding us of today. He’ll share with us that without the blood of Jesus we would still be lost. But because of His loving and selfless sacrifice, we now have an opportunity to be cleansed and forgiven. We can have life and life more abundantly.

How does a person become righteous? How does a person become a Christian? Is it by being good? Maybe by not swearing, or enough attendance at church? Maybe it’s by tithing or volunteering your time to those in need? The truth is none of these make you righteous, none of them will save you. Our salvation isn’t determined by what we do or don’t do. It’s determined by what Jesus did, all we need to do is accept Him and He will direct our path.

Pastor David will make a very important statement in this lesson. He will explain to us that our good deeds or good works are actually a product of salvation. They come as a result of a transformed heart. As we submit to God and allow His Spirit and grace to work through us, we’ll begin to do what’s right, our hearts will be changed. We’ll begin to desire to do what is pleasing to our Heavenly Father, and we’ll be given the power it takes to walk in obedience to His word.

The Scriptures teach us that faith without works is dead. But does that mean that works will help us earn a right standing with God, does that mean that what we do will help us gain access to Heaven? Certainly not. Understand that we’re saved by grace through faith alone and salvation is completely free, offered through the blood of His only Son. However, as we allow God’s grace to work in and through us good works will come as a result of our salvation. It is His grace that enables us to obey.

It’s been said before but it’s still true today, we’re saved by grace through faith alone. Understand that salvation is a free gift from God. He sent His only Son to this earth so that we wouldn’t have to pay the penalty for our sin. So why then do we think that our salvation is summed up with grace plus works? It’s not! Our works will never save us. However, the Bible does teach us that we were created in Christ Jesus for good works that God has prepared for us to walk in.