The Issue: Does grace give us a license to rewrite what God wants us to do and not do?
June 05, 2016
We talked about this weekend's teaching at Ada Bible Church while eating supper last night at a Subway near Ada and then talked about it this morning after eating breakfast.
My wife and I have been talking about the teaching from the Bible's book of Jude in the New Testament. It's just one chapter and barely over twenty verses. We've been talking about the "so-what" of the sermon. Why is it important to us living in the heart of contemporary United States and at this stage of our lives?
Jude was writing about people in the early church who believed in Jesus as their savior and then took that as a license to sin, the things that God says we should not do. The logic is that "hey, I'm already forgiven. Why not?" Any of that sound familiar? Personally, it does to me. Have I used that as an excuse to sin? Have I been affected by other believers who use that as an excuse to turn away from God's will? Yes, I have.
I want to retain what I learn in church. I want to keep what I've learned the past two weekends from Jude. I've learned that I can't just go listen to the teaching, take a few notes, walk out and expect to gain much. I need to run it through my brain and my heart more than once.
I hope to pass on this challenge to my kids and grandkids about processing sermons and making them a part of their lives. This is a start, maybe a re-start.