Saturday night we started a three-part series of summer messages called “Refresh.” This first message was called “Saved By Grace” from Ephesians 2:8-10:

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

Two simple points here: 1) Christians are saved by God’s grace, and 2) Christians are saved for good works. We spent most of the time on the idea that we are saved by grace (hence the title). I used a couple different stories to try to explain what grace is like. This one has always been helpful to me:

If a homeless guy walks by my house on a hot day and I offer him a glass of water, that a nice gesture. Polite. Neighborly. But it’s not really what grace is like. Now, imagine that while I’m offering that guy a glass of water, he notices that my house has old windows-he decides I’m an easy target. So he comes back that night and breaks into my house, steals my stuff, murders my son, sets fire to my house, and spits in my face. Then, after he is caught and arrested, I rebuild my house, drop the charges against him, and invite him to live with me, and give him the best room in the house, and let him share in my food, my money, drive my car, and so on, that would be a little bit like what the grace of God is like. That would be a small picture of how God has been gracious to us. Because each of us is more like the homeless guy than the homeowner. God shows us his grace when he invites us into his house even after we killed his Son.

Are you amazed by grace? If not, you need to be reminded about the truth about God’s grace. You need to pray the truth about grace, sing the truth about grace, and read the truth about grace. I’ll be coming back to each of these over the next couple days.

“By grace you have been saved through faith…”

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