Pastor Jim Hammond | May 16, 2021

Recap:
The sacrifice that Jesus made for you is enough to cover your every sin. There is nothing you can do that will make you unworthy to receive God’s grace. God does not look at you through the lens of all of your actions. He sees you as He saw Jesus, sinless before Him. This past weekend, Pastor Jim reminded us that the less we focus on ourselves, the more we can focus on Jesus and what He did for us. When we are more occupied with Christ than anything else, we’ll see healing, peace, and God’s grace manifest in our lives.

Dive Deeper:
Too many times, we get caught up in what we have done wrong and why God can’t heal us or forgive us. Then, we focus on what we need to do in order to receive healing from Him. However, there’s nothing we can do that will change our standing in heaven. When we enter into God’s kingdom, God views us through the shed blood of Jesus. He sees us as He saw Jesus: sinless.

You see, our focus is key. When we are more focused on our sins, we forget about the price Jesus paid so we don’t need to wallow in sin. When we focus on Jesus’ sacrifice, we become occupied with the amazing gift of grace that He provided for us.

We need God’s grace every day; that’s why we should make it a habit to remember Jesus. Remember the price He paid. Remember the sinless life He led. Remember the blood He shed. Remember that He has forgiven us.

The blood of Jesus canceled every right the enemy has to make you sick, so take your healing. Take God’s grace and receive it into your life. Don’t let your faith be preoccupied with your lack of ability to receive from heaven. Sin awareness keeps you from having faith in God’s grace. Focus instead on the perfection of the obedience of Jesus, for you are the beneficiary of His sacrifice.

Read More:
2 Peter 1:2 Amp.
May grace (God’s favor) and peace (which is perfect well-being, all necessary good, all spiritual prosperity, and freedom from fears and agitating passions and moral conflicts) be multiplied to you in [the full, personal, precise, and correct] knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
 
2 Peter 1:5-9 Amp.
For this very reason, adding your diligence [to the divine promises], employ every effort in exercising your faith to develop virtue (excellence, resolution, Christian energy), and in [exercising] virtue [develop] knowledge (intelligence), and in [exercising] knowledge [develop] self-control, and in [exercising] self-control [develop] steadfastness (patience, endurance), and in [exercising] steadfastness [develop] godliness (piety), and in [exercising] godliness [develop] brotherly affection, and in [exercising] brotherly affection [develop] Christian love. For as these qualities are yours and increasingly abound in you, they will keep [you] from being idle or unfruitful unto the [full personal] knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One). For whoever lacks these qualities is blind, [spiritually] shortsighted, seeing only what is near to him, and has become oblivious [to the fact] that he was cleansed from his old sins. … So I intend always to remind you about these things, although indeed you know them and are firm in the truth that [you] now [hold].

Ephesians 1:7-8 Amp.
In Him we have redemption (deliverance and salvation) through His blood, the remission (forgiveness) of our offenses (shortcomings and trespasses), in accordance with the riches and the generosity of His gracious favor, which He lavished upon us in every kind of wisdom and understanding (practical insight and prudence).

Ephesians 1:7-8 NKJ
In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence,

Romans 14:23 Amp.
But the man who has doubts (misgivings, an uneasy conscience) about eating, and then eats [perhaps because of you], stands condemned [before God], because he is not true to his convictions and he does not act from faith. For whatever does not originate and proceed from faith is sin [whatever is done without a conviction of its approval by God is sinful].

Titus 2:11-12 Amp.
For the grace of God (His unmerited favor and blessing) has come forward (appeared) for the deliverance from sin and the eternal salvation for all mankind. It has trained us to reject and renounce all ungodliness (irreligion) and worldly (passionate) desires, to live discreet (temperate, self-controlled), upright, devout (spiritually whole) lives in this present world,

Romans 6:14 Amp.
For sin shall not [any longer] exert dominion over you, since now you are not under Law [as slaves], but under grace [as subjects of God’s favor and mercy].

Romans 5:17 Amp.
For if because of one man’s trespass (lapse, offense) death reigned through that one, much more surely will those who receive [God’s] overflowing grace (unmerited favor) and the free gift of righteousness [putting them into right standing with Himself] reign as kings in life through the one Man Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One).

Discussion Questions:
1. When do you find yourself feeling unworthy to receive God’s grace and healing in your life?

2. What can you do to remind yourself of God’s grace and Jesus’ sacrifice rather than your actions and pursuit of perfection?

3. How do holiness and God’s grace intersect in our lives?

4. How do our words play a part in creating our focus? How can confessions remind us of who God has made us to be?

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