Desert Church of Christ Pahrump, NV We welcome you to our assembly! Our assemblies: Sunday morning Bible study: 10:00 AM Sunday morning worship: 11:00 AM Sunday evening Bible study: 5:00 PM Wednesday Bible Study: 6:00 PM Evangelist: David F. Sims

God’s Abundant Grace “abundant grace was upon them all” Acts 4:33

What God Wants From Us (And What He Was Willing To Do To Get it!) Please open your New Testament & follow along in Acts 17:24-27 God’s Abundan t Grace Acts 4:33

God wants a relationship with you (Acts 17:27) – For you to know Him and seek Him – There is something special about you to God! – God has gone to great lengths to draw you to Himself God wants to be a Father to you (2 Cor. 6:16-18) – To be with you, to call you His own – To welcome you as His own son or daughter God wants a covenant with you (Heb. 8:8-12) – Better than the covenant of the Law of Moses – A covenant of real mercy and forgiveness God’s Abundan t Grace Acts 4:33

What kind of relationship? – Not just “acquaintances” – Not just intellectual knowledge about Him – It is one thing to know about God, and an entirely different thing to know God! – God wants a relationship characterized by genuine, personal, heart-felt love and understanding. Consider: which is the greatest commandment of the Law of Moses? (Mark 12:28-30) “If anyone loves God, he is known by God” (1 Cor. 8:3) God’s Abundan t Grace Acts 4:33

God wants you to know Him, and God wants you to love Him. There is one more thing God wants from you… God wants you to be like Him! What does it mean to be like God? God is holy and wants us to be holy (pure). – Israel was commanded to be holy (Lev. 11:44-45) – Christians are called to be holy (1 Peter 1:15-16) God’s Abundan t Grace Acts 4:33

This sums up what God wants from us and for us: – To know Him. If we truly know Him, we will believe and trust Him. – To love Him. If we love Him, we will obey Him. – To be like Him. To be like God, we must be holy. You must be really special and valuable to God! But we have three problems, corresponding to these three things, that hinder us… God’s Abundan t Grace Acts 4:33

Problem #1 – God wants us to know Him – But God is a Spirit (John 4:24), and in heaven, while we are in the flesh here on earth. God is invisible (1 Tim. 1:17). – By our own power or doing, we have no way to know about Him, to see Him, to reach Him, or to know Him! – Agnosticism, which admits the possibility of a Supreme Power, says this problem is insurmountable. – Deism is the belief that God has no dealings with this world at all. God’s Abundan t Grace Acts 4:33

Problem #2 – God wants us to love Him – But we do not know how to love Him! – Should we bake Him a cake? Build Him a monument? – Even our sincerest expressions of love, when contrived by our own standards, are inadequate…vain worship. – Love is manifested in obedience, yet we constantly disobey even His simplest commandments. – A dire strait: how to love when we don’t know how? God’s Abundan t Grace Acts 4:33

Problem #3 – God wants us to be holy like Him – But we all sin and fall short of His holiness! – Nothing we can do to undo a single sin – We are incapable, on our own, of achieving holiness – We all stand guilty, condemned…UNgodly! – A perilous plight: how can a sinner become sinless? How can the unholy be holy? How can we ever hope to give God what He wants when we have these obstacles? God’s Abundan t Grace Acts 4:33

God is aware of our predicament. – Before God created the world, He foresaw and planned accordingly to make it possible for us to overcome those problems. – God planned to do, and has done, for man, those things that man is incapable of doing for himself. – God didn’t have to do those things, but because He loves us, He chose to do them. This is the very essence of grace! – God has offered us abundant grace as a solution to make it possible for man to know Him, love Him, and be holy like Him. Let’s see how… God’s Abundan t Grace Acts 4:33

Problem #1: that we cannot know the invisible God Grace’s solution: God has revealed Himself! – Adam & Eve, Noah, Abraham, Moses, prophets God spoke to all of them! – God reveals Himself in nature (Rom. 1:19-21) – God revealed Himself through His Son Hebrews 1:1-3 Col. 1:15 1 John 5:20 Abundant grace: God makes Himself known & knowable God’s Abundan t Grace Acts 4:33

Problem #2: we know not how to love and obey Grace’s solution: God taught us how to love – God demonstrated His love as an example John 3:16 Rom. 5:8 1 John 4:9-12 – God directed us to express our love in two ways: By obeying His commandments (John 14:15,21) By loving other people (John 15:12; 1 John 4:20-21) Abundant grace: God taught us how to love God’s Abundan t Grace Acts 4:33

Problem #3: we are unholy sinners Grace’s solution: a Savior – Titus 3:3-7 – Ephesians 2:1-10 – John 1:29 God makes godliness possible! (2 Peter 1:3-4) Abundant grace: God sacrificed His own Son to take away our sins and make us holy God’s Abundan t Grace Acts 4:33

Summary – He didn’t have to do any of this, but He did! – He wants a relationship with us, so He revealed Himself to the world. – He wants us to love and obey Him, so He taught us how to love and sent His Son to demonstrate it. – He wants us to be holy, so He sacrificed His Son to take away our sins. – All of these are acts of grace! God’s Abundan t Grace Acts 4:33

God wants you to know Him, love Him, and be like Him. But what God really wants is YOU! There must be something really special about you for God to have gone through so much effort to draw you to Himself! You were created in His image. He made you, He put the spiritual you into a fleshly body, and He wants you back! God wants you so much, He has done for you everything that you can’t do for yourself. Not what you won’t do, but what you can’t do. Choose for yourself whether or not to answer His call, for the grace of God is available to you today… God’s Abundan t Grace Acts 4:33

The few things God has left for you to do are not difficult, not burdensome…certainly not impossible! And He has given us instructions: “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age” (Titus 2:11-12) God’s Abundan t Grace Acts 4:33

Would you like to receive God’s grace today? To know Him, hear His Word. To love Him, obey His commandments. To be like Him, be washed in the blood of Jesus. Believe His Word…that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who died for our sins and was raised up. Repent of your sins…commit yourself to holiness. Confess your faith in God to save you. Be baptized into Jesus for forgiveness of your sins. Continue in the blessed relationship of His favor by remaining faithful in holy conduct. God’s Abundan t Grace Acts 4:33

God’s Abundant Grace “abundant grace was upon them all” Acts 4:33