My Grace Is Sufficient For You.

In the beginning when Adam and Eve sinned and they were banished from the Garden of Eden, they wer so filled with guilt but God said, 'My grace' is sufficient for you. We know that God promised Abraham and Sarah that they would have a child but Abraham lied and Sarah did not believe - they laughed and they felt so guilty about their lives but God said, 'My grace is sufficient for you' and he blessed them. When Moses killed the Egyptian he felt so guilty that he fled to the desert region and there, when he was tired and weary from running he heard the voice of God telling him, 'My Grace is sufficient for you'. Joseph was sold as a slave and jailed for the crime he did not do and in the midst of all the pain and the fear he was going through he cried out to God and he could hear the voice of God from heaven, 'My Grace is sufficient for you'. Today in our lives we may go through many difficulties and challenges. We may feel weak and powerless but we can hear a voice from heaven even today. God is looking at all of us and God is willing to say to all of us, 'My Grace is sufficient for you'. 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 7 To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. Here Paul is praying to God about some thorn in his flesh. We don't exactly know what it is, but when he was going through a tough time, when he was going through some challenges in his life, when he felt weak he prayed to God and he could hear the voice of Jesus saying, 'My Grace is sufficient for you'. And Jesus also tells him, '..my power is made perfect in weakness'. Today, in our lives we all have challenges to face, we have struggles. Sometimes we feel weak and powerless but the Bible says that when we are feeling weak God's power is made perfect through our weakness because He can heal us and He is able to bless us to get back our strength. When we look at God, he is willing to shower his grace on us. He's willing to say, 'My grace is sufficient for you' and when we value that grace, our lives can change. When we got baptized we looked at our heart. We didn't look at others, we looked at our sins and we went to God. We were broken by the cross of Christ, we were moved by God's love and we surrendered to God. And God looked at us and said, 'My Grace is sufficient for you'. We felt that that was enough for us. 'My sins are forgiven and that's enough for me. I've received salvation and that's enough for me'. Life was very simple. But now... Let's look at our own hearts. Is the grace of God sufficient for us or are we looking for something else? Are we searching for something that we may not get? The reason for that is that we've stopped valuing the grace of God. 1. Let us value the grace of God 2 Corinthians 6:1 As God's fellow workers we urge you not to receive God's grace in vain. Today have we received God's grace in vain? How can we say whether we have received it in vain or whether we are valuing it? To see what we'll be doing if we value the grace of God and what we'll do if we show contempt. Romans 6:1-5 1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. 5 If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. But the question is, are we willing to change? Are we fighting? Are we willing to renew the new self we got when we were baptized? Are we willing to recommit to God? If we are not fighting against sin, that means we are not valuing the grace of God. When we keep sinning we are not valuing the grace of God - we are showing contempt for the grace of God. But how should we show value for the grace of God? How can God's grace be sufficient for us? Titus 2:11-12 11 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. 12 It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age. God's grace teaches us to live a self-controlled, upright and godly life. We must lead a self-controlled life. Is it easy for Satan to get you or is he really struggling to trap you into sin? Is Satan walking in and out, whenever he pleases? Or are we leading a self-controlled life? Romans 2:4-6 4 Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness leads you toward repentance? 5 But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. 6 God "will give to each person according to what he has done." 2. Let us be gracious towards one another One thing when it comes to grace is that we want to be so gracious to ourselves and our mistakes. When somebody else makes a mistake, sometimes we have no grace. Ephesians 4:32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. We must learn to forgive one another as Christ Jesus forgave us. That is a very important virtue of grace. When we are gracious towards one another, forgiveness is a part of it. Accepting one another is also a part of it, respecting one another, valuing one another. For us to be united with God, God was willing to be gracious to us, he was willing to forgive us, accept us, respect us, value us and receive us as his own child. If we want to be united with our wives or with our children we should show grace to them. We are so often in the spot where we are so gracious to our own anger, our own mistakes. When others make a mistake we take the rod of judgement and point out a hundred things which are not right with them. Colossians 4:6 Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. That is how our speech should be - full of grace. It's not just with others but also with our family members. Let us be gracious to one another. God has given us his grace freely. Ephesians 1:6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. We need to freely give to others what God has freely given to us. We must not forget that there are so many people in and around the city, in and around our house, our neighborhood, our office who don't know about the grace of God. It's very important for us to help them receive that grace which we have received. We need to think about our lives. Are we willing to point people towards God? Are we willing to let others receive the grace of God? God looks at all of us and says, 'My grace is sufficient for you'. Let us be content with our God Almighty. Let us love God with all our heart, with all our soul and with our entire mind. Let us love our neighbors as ourselves, let us love others more than ourselves. As we continue the journey, let us understand the grace of God is sufficient for us. Let us value the grace of God and let us be gracious to one another.