Grace Enables

Every Sunday morning a group of people walk into this building tied hand and foot
It’s embarrassing for them, because they are very aware of people looking at them
Even though nobody says a word, they can feel the stares, sense the disapproval

It’s not only embarrassing, its uncomfortable
The ropes that bind them are painful
They make it hard to walk, hard to listen, it’s almost impossible to get comfortable

Those ropes are the ropes of their past
I hesitate to say that the ropes are not real, because they are very real to the one wearing them
They make happiness and enjoyment a distant memory
When you have those ropes around your wrists, you are convinced that you don’t deserve happiness
God can’t, won’t use your life in any significant way – you have eliminated that possibility with your past failures

I want to talk to you this morning about grace
God’s unconditional love that responds to your past with complete forgiveness
Not for a minute has he expected perfection out of you
In fact He intends to use your life for amazing things
He already is using your life for amazing things

It is hard to miss God’s habit of using people with questionable backgrounds for his purpose
It demonstrates his grace!

“But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” II Corinthians 4:7

Do you wonder if Rahab is bothered by the label “prostitute” being attached to her name?
She was a prostitute, but she was also a great woman of faith, married a great leader in the Jewish nation
Why can’t she be known as Rahab the mother of Boaz, who married Ruth

How about her buddies in Hebrews 11

Gideon – the leader who had no confidence and had to be begged by God to serve
Barak who was so timid he wouldn’t go into battle without Deborah beside him
Samson, whose sexual appetite cost him everything he had, including his life
Jephthah will always be remembered for his impulsive vow

Have you made any stupid promises, commitments?
Something that you have spent the rest of your life paying for?
Maybe you would like to stand by Jephthah when you get to heaven

I challenge you to look back through the pages of history and do the research
God has a habit of using people with questionable backgrounds for his purpose
Because it demonstrates his grace!

Grace enables
Grace takes broken people and uses them for great things
Grace gives you the ability to minister after failure
Grace finds people in life’s dumpster and puts a suit on them and places them on a stage of
incredible purpose

God redeems our past by...
Offering unconditional forgiveness

God is able to “save completely” those who come to him Hebrews 7:25
When God forgives he “remembers your sin no more” Hebrews 10:17

Heaven doesn’t keep a copy of your past sins
Those were deleted the moment you confessed and asked for forgiveness
If they still come back to mind, it isn’t God who is reminding you, it is the Devil
I saw a great T-shirt one time, maybe you have seen it as well, “The next time the Devil reminds you of your past, remind him of his future”

God replaces your self-confidence with God-confidence
Life has a way of humbling you

Every Type A personality discovers in time that
God is in control
You eventually find yourself in situations where you can’t save the day
You can’t talk your way out of the problem
You can’t work hard enough to rescue the sinking ship
God is your only hope

And it is in those dark hours that you learn that God is a very good hope
That he is able
That he always keeps his promises
That he brings you through and gives you better than you deserved

And, as miserable as our records are, he trusts us to carry his message of hope and restoration
Ask Rahab, Gideon, Barak, Samson, David, Samuel
It will never be your failures that hold you back, only your limited faith!

Faith is your confidence that God knew you were going to crash and burn and he wasn’t worried
Faith is your confidence that God had planned ahead for forgiveness – that was the easy part
The hard part would be convincing you that it was real and unconditional

I have often thought of the very public conversation between Jesus and Peter at the Last Supper
“This very night all of you will fall away on account of me”
Peter was indignant, “I would die for you”

“Simon, Simon (no Peter this time – in the next few hours he wasn’t going to be Jesus’ “Rock”), Satan has asked to sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith will not fail
After you come back, take care of your brothers”

Those words “after you come back” stayed with Peter for the rest of his life
It is near the end of his life that he writes his letters to the church

And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.” I Peter 5:10-11

Are you at an “after” moment in your life?
There is enough grace for you
Grace that redeems the past
And enables you to be a messenger of hope and restoration