Acts 11:19-30

“SEE THE GRACE OF GOD”

***The Antioch church is the pattern for every church to follow
***The church @ Antioch had the heart of God
***How can you see the grace of God?
(1) THE GRACE OF GOD IS POWERFUL – Romans 5:20
a. do not emphasize sin.  Emphasize grace…
b. the culture
-the environment (culture) made no difference to the Antioch Christians
***Invade the Culture
***It was a pluralistic culture
-this is many ways to heaven or to reach out to GOD
***It was an eclectic culture
-a little bit of every religion – coexist…
Romans 5:20
– Much More – this is the picture of water overflowing to cover an area
1. GRACE IS MORE POWERFUL THAN THE SIN NATURE —
*before we are saved we are dominated by our sin nature
*the symptoms of the sin nature are what we dwell on
*the core problem of humanity is the sin nature
*dwell on the power of grace which breaks the power of the sin nature
2. GRACE THROUGH FAITH + NOTHING = SALVATION – Ephesians 2:8-9
-the power of grace and the Holy Spirit breaks the power of the sin nature
-you do not have to give up anything to be saved
-at salvation, issues and sins start to fall off
-as we grow, sins and issues continue to fall off of our lives
-people sin because they choose to sin – they do not have to sin once saved
*******YOU COULD SEE THE GRACE OF GOD @ WORK @ ANTIOCH…
-People were being saved by grace
-Stuff and sins were falling off of people by the power of God’s grace
-People loving people even though they still have stuff to work through – this also reveals the power of the grace of God
(2) THE GRACE OF GOD EMBRACES INDIVIDUALITY – 2 Timothy 2:20
-every believer and human bring are totally different
     2 Things To Remember About Embracing Individuality
1. Accept people just the way they are –
-this is what the Lord does
-do not try to change anyone
-love, accept and mentor them but leave them alone
-God brought them to save them and clean them up
2. Acceptance of people does not include the acceptance of sin
-Gods grace does not give the believer the attitude to continually sin
-God’s grace gives us the power to sin less and less and to not sin at all