My home church, Grace Bible Church, offered me the privilege of speaking at the ladies Christmas Tea this year. Here are my notes from my 20 minutes talk to the room of 40+ women, representing several churches.
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The Miracle of Good Works: Part One
I was in the store, buying a dust pan, when the lady ahead of me seeing mine in my basket, remembered she also needed one. As it happened, because of the way the items are displayed, I had picked up two by mistake because they were snapped together. So I just handed her my extra one.
Another woman in the line commented, “There, you’ve done your good deed for today.”
To which I replied, “I hope I get to do more than that one good deed today.”
I really hope as Christians we don’t quantify our good deeds like that.
Oswald Chambers teaches that if we’re a born again believer in Jesus, we’re supposed to do good deeds without conscious thought.
The Scripture I’m beginning with is Ephesians 2:8-10 "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”
And that last part is the most special—“Which God prepared beforehand”
Both grace and faith are gifts from God. Our faith originated in Him first. I didn’t wake up one morning and suddenly realize “Oh, I have faith, now I can believe in Jesus.”
God has placed our faith to believe in Him inside every human being. Unsaved people have faith that God gave them, they just don’t use it for the right reason.
We who are born again have been lifted up to the higher plain of the faith that God gave us. Jesus spoke of when he told the woman at the well The Father is seeking those who will worship in Spirit and truth.
And to add to this, Our faith is in our good works.
James says that we show our faith by our works. (James 2:14-20)
When we are created a new person in Christ, meaning God has placed us before His throne in the same place as His Son—we are in Christ Jesus, is because God’s grace has given us the faith to believe in that fact. Can we see it right now? Can we see the place where we stand before the throne?
No, not today, not physically. But God has placed us there. We have no right to be there except God has chosen to love us, save us and place us there.
1 Peter 1:8&9, says this “whom having not seen you love though now you do not see Him, yet believing you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith---the salvation of your souls”
That is Grace multiplied beyond human brain capacity—but God has done it!
Born again believers have the grace privilege of being adopted into God’s family.
And God guarantees us that when He says in Scripture: “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God” Romans 8:16
Once we learn how awesome that one fact is--THAT grace should motivate us to good works. And it’s a privilege.
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