Grace

Today I am trying to frame my sermons on Grace. The problem is, how do you explain a gift, and how do you explain a gift of such great value? Most gifts today seem to come with a strings attached, or even chains attached, that's just the way people are.
If I give somebody a nice book, I want to take it back if they don't treat it "right". If I give my children a car, I want to take it back if they don't treat it "right" or appreciate it. If I give somebody money, I want them to treat me with respect. When most people give gifts, they don't give them to people they hang them over people.
Grace is Gods' gift. This gift is given to us when we don't deserve it and even before we knew we needed it. This gift is not forced upon us, we can reject it or accept it. This gift is not yanked away from us the moment we don't live up to its' glory, in fact its' glory transforms the way we live.
Most gifts given by parents that are truly "no strings attached gifts" are given after their deaths, the same thing is true of Grace. Grace was God's gift after a death. There is no measuring up for Grace, there is just receiving or discarding.
And if you receive such a great gift, it is like moving into a great house, it transforms you. When you lived outside, you lived like a man outside. When you lived in a barn, you lived like a man in a barn. Now that you live in a perfect house, you are learning to live differently.
It is the Grace that transforms us, we don't live differently to earn the house, the house transforms our behavior. At first I may not accept all the blessings the house has to offer, but after awhile I can not imagine life without the blessings the house has to offer, that is what Grace is like for my life. At first I couldn't accept all Grace had to offer but after discovering more of the blessings that lay behind each door, I can not imagine going back to live outside or even in the barn.

I was just thinking
In Him
J. Tom Washburn