Let The Grace Begin | Omar El-Takrori | City Light Church

Ephesians chapter two. Paul writes to the church in Ephesus and prior to what we're about to read, he's essentially reminding the church, "Hey, you used to be dead in your sin. You used to follow the ways of this world. You used to give into the flesh and the desires of your flesh. This is where you were and this is how you were." And then Paul, we find ourselves in verse four. He says, "But because of his great love for us, God who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ, even when we were dead in transgressions. It is by grace you've been saved." Everybody say, "By grace." And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus in order that in the coming ages, He might show the incomparable riches of His grace. Expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus, for it is by grace you've been saved. Everybody say, "By grace through faith." And this is not from yourselves for it is a gift of God, not by works so that no one could boast, no one could take credit. I wanna read real quick Ephesians 2.8 in the message paraphrase written by Eugene Peterson, the paraphrase, I just love how it reads. He says, "Saving is all his idea and all his work.

All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. God's gift, it's God's gift from start to finish, from start to finish." If you're taking notes, the title is, "Let the grace begin, let the grace begin." Let's pray. God, we just thank you for these moments. Would you speak to us? God, I thank you that for the season's sake and for the persons never heard this message before would we receive it freshly today? I thank you that by the spirit, it could be a fresh receiving. And we just thank you that we would leave here different, challenge us, convict us, change us from the inside out in Jesus' name, amen, amen, amen. One more time, you excited for the word? Come on, let's go. Three things we must know about the grace of God. Number one, we must recognize that grace is God's initiation. Recognize it's grace is God's initiation. Our walk with the Lord, your faith, this, what you're in right now, hinges on the phrase we just read. No other religion, which by the way, Christianity is not a religion. That's just the label we slap on that word. Christianity is a relationship. But our walk with God hinges on this phrase by grace, by grace you've been saved.

We couldn't save ourselves. We can't help ourselves. And you must know about this grace. If you're gonna walk with Jesus, we must know about grace. From start to finish, what is grace? I'm glad you asked. Grace is the unmerited kindness of God. Unmerited, you can't do anything about it. Sorry. It's the undeserved giving and doing of God, undeserved. Grace is also God's power in us. You ever do something, you're like, that wasn't me. That's grace. And I'll say it this way, let's just boil it down to this. Grace is God's yes. To you, before you could say yes to him. Come on, are you grateful for the grace of God today? What we can't do for God, God did for us. Grace is God's initiation. Grace is God went first. Grace is God goes first. Grace is God stays first. What we could do nothing about, God did something about. You know, in 2020, there was something going around in 2020, and I got bit by this thing. It was November of 2020, and I got invited to play my first round of golf and all it took was one good hit and I got bit by the golf bug. Come on, somebody.

So when November rolls around, it's a special month, not only is it my daughter's birthday month and we love to celebrate that, but I celebrate my golf birthday. So this will be six years as a golfer, self-taught, YouTube golf, let's go, mid-80s. Last year me and my wife, we were talking about it, I think it's time. I think it's time we join a country club. You didn't know a country club is a private course that you get access to if you decide to join it by paying an initiation fee. Now these initiation fees, they range. There's actually a course next to where we live right now and the initiation fee is $250,000. That's just the start. And it's like the Holy Spirit was reminding me. Although Christianity is not a country club, make no mistake, there's an initiation fee to experience this relationship with God and we couldn't afford it. A dead man, a dead woman cannot buy something. Are you grateful Jesus paid it all? Jesus redeemed us, we were dead and now we are made alive because of the grace of God. Is there anybody here today that would say I would not be standing here today if it hadn't been for the grace of God? I'm not strong enough. I'm not smart enough.

I'm not good enough. By grace, Jesus paid it all. Grace is God's initiation and what started with God can't end with us. But why? Why would God initiate? I thought I had to do something. Exactly. Grace is getting what we don't deserve and I'll just be straight up. It doesn't make sense. It doesn't make sense. That's why it takes faith to receive it. If it made sense, we'd probably try to pay for something that was a gift. Salvation is a gift. Salvation is a gift. You know what also doesn't make sense? What also doesn't make sense is is trying to pay for something that someone said is a gift. If you paid for a gift, it no longer, you disqualified it being a gift because it's a payment and we can't experience this gift if we think we could do something about it. You can't experience the gift of salvation if you believe you did something to earn it. This is grace and I know it in our Western eyes, corporate, climbing, achieving, culture, hustle, grind. It's hard to accept this but the kingdom is upside down.

The work doesn't begin with us. The work begins with God. We, you and I, a friend, we need the grace of God. Who's the grace of God for? The grace of God is for everyone. The grace of God is available for everyone. The grace of God is available for the person that knows they need it. That some of you are here today and you are on your last strand. You're like, I don't know how this is gonna work. There's grace. I don't know how I'm gonna do this. There's grace. You're in this place and you would say, I need great, you can acknowledge that you need the divine intervention of God. But grace is also for the person who doesn't know they need it. For the religious, you can't talk about grace without bringing up Luke chapter 15. Jesus tells the story about the prodigal son and we read this story about a son who was rebellious and leaves his father's house with the inheritance and he squanders the wealth and then he comes back home and the father goes out and gets the son. That's grace, but make no mistake. There's a second son and this father throws a party because of the younger son came back home. He says he was dead and now he's alive.

So they throw this party and they turn it up. But he's the dad's, where's the older son? He goes outside, grace. Son, come inside, let's celebrate. Your brother is home. (gentle piano music) The older son in his immaturity didn't know he needed grace. He says, I've been slaving for you and you throw him a party. I've been doing all this stuff for you and this is what you do. He says, I've been slaving. The father says, son. I've been slaving, the father calls him son. You are not a slave, you're a son. And the father says, everything you have is mine. Or everything I have is yours and every, I'm with you forever. [MUSIC PLAYING] I love the devotion. I love the prayers. I love the baptism. I love the fasting. I love the serving, but make no mistake. We do it in response. God's the initiator. We respond by faith. Amen. Come on, somebody. Are you grateful for the grace today? When you get it backwards, you get religion. And religion is dead. What started with grace cannot end with works. And I love how Eugene Peterson, he would say it is a gift from start to finish. Sometimes we could start our walk by grace and then we can get to a place of works, get to a place of effort, get to a place of initiation. Our two-year-old son Russell, this summer we would swim a time. We love going to the pool. And so he doesn't ought to swim. And so his loving parents put a life jacket on him. And the way the level of confidence this guy has in the water, he thinks he's swimming.

He's like, "I got this." The life vest is keeping him afloat. There was one of these moments this summer, he took off the life vest. Me and Amanda looked at herself, we're like, "Where's Russell?" Bro was in the middle of the pool, made no noise, and he was just like trying. And so we jumped in. Amanda did, actually, I didn't do it, Amanda. And we got Russell, and he, Grace was putting on the jacket, and he was great there. But then he got a little bit confident in his own abilities, and he started drowning. And so Grace doesn't just put it on. Grace comes and gets when we fall short. Grace will grab you in the pit. Grace will grab you when you fall short of the glory of God. Are you grateful for the grace of God today? Everybody say, "By Grace, if you didn't earn your way in, you can't earn your way out." So we recognize today that grace is God's initiation, amen? Number two, respond to God's invitation. We respond to his grace by faith. Ephesians 2.8 says, "For it is by grace you've been saved through faith," which, by the way, that's not your faith. God gave you the ability to believe. It's all God. So we respond through faith. This is not of yourselves for it is a gift from God. The response to the finished work on the cross is believing by receiving. How do I get saved? You believe. And in your believing, it's how you receive. So you're not reaching. You're just opening up your hands to receive the gift. This is the faith part. And I believe God wanted to initiate this moment and intervene this service and give someone an opportunity to receive his grace. With every head bowed and every eye closed, the Holy Spirit is at work. You can feel like God is knocking on the door of your heart right now. So with every head bowed and every eye closed, the Bible says, "If you just believe in your heart," that's the receiving, "and confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, that you will be saved." So if you are in this place, and you'd say, "I need the forgiveness of my sin. I need to be made right with God, not by you doing, but by you receiving." At the count of three, I'm going to ask that you would just lift up your hand, just slip up your hand in the air. If that's you and you're in this place, hands already going up. I see that hand is. I see that hand. At the count of three, one, two, three, go ahead and lift your hand. I would like to receive the grace that is found in Christ Jesus, the forgiveness of my sin. Hands all over the room. I see those hands. I see that hand, sir. I see that hand. Praise God. I see the hands up in the rafters. I see your hand, man.

I see that hand. I see that hand. Beautiful. Keep your hand up. Our team is actually coming to give you something. This is a holy moment. I am in no rush. Go ahead and slip your hand down. The Bible says, "Church, all of heaven rejoices when one gets right." I don't know, there was probably 25-30. Can we give Jesus some praise and welcome those to the family of God? So beautiful, come on. So I want to acknowledge something. What just happened and how you just responded, all those hands, don't leave that. Stay right there. Stay in that place of desperation and knowing that you need God. And just allow God to do a work in your life by the power of the Holy Spirit. I believe that crosses over a hundred people so far and we still got one more service to go that have received Jesus as our own Lord and Savior. Come on. Can we give God some praise for that? God's doing a work today, this weekend. Thank you, Jesus. Number three, we then relay it in sanctification. Somebody say, "Relay it." Ephesians 1 and says, "In him," this is Paul writing, "in him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace, which he has lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight." This is for my seasoned saints. This is for my people who've been walking with God a long time. If you've received the grace of God, you've received an abundance of it. You received more than you needed, but there's a purpose for that. He lavishes his grace on us, lavish, that's a Bible word. This word lavish in the Greek is pronounced perisuo and it literally means to exist or to be provided in quantities that exceed a fixed measure or need.

To be left over, above, or to furnish someone so richly that they possess it in an abundance rather than just the minimum amount. How do I know you have the grace of God in your life by your ability to release it? By your ability to relay it. Come on, somebody. You can always tell the level of your revelation of grace by your ability to release it. You got it from God? Now someone's going to get it from you. You become the initiation. I don't need more information. I don't need an apology. I don't need an explanation. You can just get what I've already freely given. Spiritual maturity looks like that that you can just release what you've been given. Now, when we say this, when I say this, I believe the Holy Spirit is bringing a person in your mind. I believe the Holy Spirit is bringing a family member in your mind. I believe the Holy Spirit might be bringing a people group in your mind. They always, they never release it, relay it, give the grace that you so freely have received. I'm so glad Jesus didn't make me pay for it, so I'm not going to make someone else pay for it. Amen. Let the grace begin in you and flow through you. [MUSIC PLAYING]