Ever feel like you’ve done too much wrong for God to use you? Have you ever felt like you’ve done too much wrong for God to forgive you? Satan wants you to think you have to be perfect before God can use you.
- If you wait til you’re perfect to step up and do something for God, you’ll wait forever.
- Do you ever feel like you’ve done too much or strayed too far for God to save you?
- Isaiah 59:1 – “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy that it cannot hear.”
- Satan wants you to think you have to straighten out your life before you can be saved. But how could you do that?
- Do you ever feel like you don’t deserve salvation?
- Or course you do! Of course you should!
- How could you deserve what God has to offer you?
- Thanks to Grace, I get what I don’t deserve. Grace = Undeserving favor of God.
- One thing I’m sure of is that every one of us has a past and every one of us is undeserving of God’s love and forgiveness.
- But thanks to grace, the undeserving favor of God, I get the forgiveness I don’t deserve.
Verses from Sermon
- Romans 5: 8-21
- John 8:1-14
- Romans 8:1
- Galatians 1:13
- 1 Timothy 1:12-16
Story of John Newton
John Newton was a man in the 1700s that, in his youth, became the captain of a slave ship. It’s reported that at times, he would get so drunk that his crew regarded him as a little more than an animal. His willful disregard for all that is right led him into a life plagued with dispair, dangers at sea, abuse, public flogging, and depression.
Over time, he became more wicked. Once, after being at sea for several months, his ship and crew ran into a violent storm. The crew tied themselves to the ship. The sailors rationed their food and pumped water out of the boat.
During this experience of his life of hitting a storm of life and hitting his rock bottom, John Newton accepted the Lord’s gift of salvation. He then went on to write a poem in his journal.
“Amazing grace how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I’m found. Was blind but now I see.”