Dependance on Grace

Transcript:

Greetings in Jesus name. Welcome to this beautiful new morning. I believe that the Lord’s hand is upon your life and that everything that he allows you to go through will turn out to be a testimony. It will not just be a temporary trial that is meant to discourage you.

It will not just be a temporary temptation that is meant to just cause you harm. It is meant to be a permanent testimony. The way that the Lord deals with our lives, it can look like it is mysterious. But the way that we respond to everything that we experience in life has to be with a Godly confidence, in his will, in his plans, in his purposes for each and every one of our lives. Let’s read about what Apostle Paul wrote to the Church at Corinth in the midst of his discomfort, in the midst of his trials, in the midst of the persecutions that he was experiencing in the world around him.

This is from 2 Corinthians 1:12, We can say with confidence and a clear conscience that we have lived with a God-given Holiness and sincerity in all of our dealings. We have depended on God’s Grace and not on our own human wisdom. That is how we have conducted ourselves before the world and especially toward you. This is Paul’s testimony in all of his sufferings, in all of his struggles.

His testimony is that he has a confidence. It doesn’t mean that he didn’t have discouraging days. It doesn’t mean that he didn’t have the natural fear or the natural pain that all of us experience from time to time. He did have all of that. And yet he had this confidence because he was not relying on himself or his ability or his strength.

He was relying on God’s ability and God’s wisdom and God’s strength. And that is why he says, we can say with confidence. And the second thing that he mentions is that he has a clear conscience, that he has been living with a clear conscience. May this be our testimony when we are struggling. May this be our testimony when we are tempted.

May this be our testimony when we are tried. May this be our testimony even when we are persecuted, that we are able to keep up a clear conscience. So there are going to be times when your conscience is not clear. It is necessary that you sit at the feet of Jesus first, and then you go and make amends with whoever you have hurt or whoever has hurt you and make sure that your conscience is clear. You have done everything from your part to clear out any stains upon your conscience.

He goes on to say, we have lived with a God-given Holiness. This is not a Holiness that I manufactured by my allegiance to the law of Moses. This is not a Holiness that I have to boast about. This is a Holiness that is given by God because of his Grace and his power working inside of me. Then he says that I have not just lived with a God-given Holiness, but also with a sincerity in all of our dealings.

This is testimony that I have not just had confidence but a clear conscience. And along with clear conscience, I’ve had this God-given Holiness, and along with that I have also walked in sincerity in all of my dealings. Then he goes on to explain how he did it. He says, we have depended on God’s Grace and not on our own human wisdom. My dear friends, if we can get this correct, our life will become easy.

The reason we are not able to have confidence, the reason we fail in our conscience, the reason we do not have the God-given Holiness. The reason we struggle with sincerity in all of our dealings is because we rely on our own human wisdom, our own understanding. We trust in ourselves too much. If we would just refrain from that and begin to depend on the Grace that God-gives us, we will humble ourselves before God. The Bible says that he gives Grace to the humble.

So if our posture in this season is going to be one of humility, then we are going to get Grace beyond what we deserve and that Grace will help us to walk in confidence, in clear conscience, in the God-given Holiness and in sincerity. I can honestly admit that every time I have failed, every time I have sinned, every time I have deviated from the will of God for my life, it has been times when I depended on myself and not on his strength and not on his directions and not on his Grace that is available for me. And I pray that in this season, as a Church, as a community, as Jesus lovers, we will depend on God’s Grace. It goes on to say, this is how we have conducted ourselves before the world and especially toward you see, Paul had these two different categories of people and relationships. The first category was the world in general, and then the second category were the Church, the people of God.

And he says, in both these places, both these categories I have experienced and manifested the confidence of God, the clear conscience, the God-given Holiness, and the sincerity. We cannot just do this with the Church or we cannot just do this with the world. We need to do this with each sets of relationships that the Lord has given us, whether they know Jesus or not, whether they are part of our Church or not. We need to walk in this manner before each and every person. Let’s pray.

Father, we thank you for this Grace that we have received as we read this word, the Grace to not depend on ourselves, but to depend on you. And we thank you for this week. We will walk with confidence and clear conscience and a God-given Holiness sincerity. We receive this in Jesus mighty name, Amen.