Please come join us on Sunday Mornings for our new series on the Book of John.
First a quick update of things going on: Over the last few weeks we’ve seen the Lord at work in many ways. We had a great turnout for VBS, we hosted the Associational Fish Fry last Friday and it went great. We had Steve Chapman speak. We had Greg McCoy from the Tennessee Baptist Children’s home bless us with a Sunday morning message and Dr. Rob Burdette speak to our church family on a Sunday Night. We are so thankful that God is moving and we are continuing to see His work among us.
This past Sunday we learned about Grace and Truth in the person of Jesus.
A few notes from Sunday:
Welcome/Visitors – We welcome you. If you don’t know Jesus we want
to introduce Him to you today, if you do know Him we want you to leave knowing
more of Him.
John 1:17
17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus
Christ.
“Particularly, grace and truth marked the glory of God that Jesus manifested.
Grace in this context refers to graciousness (i.e., goodness, Heb. hesed), and
truth means integrity (i.e., truthfulness, Heb. yemet, cf. v. 17). The Incarnation
was the greatest possible expression of God’s grace to humankind. It was also the
best way to communicate truth accurately to human understanding. Nevertheless
many people who encountered Jesus during His ministry failed to see these
things (v. 10). Neither grace nor truth is knowable apart from God who has
revealed them through Jesus Christ.” – NETBIBLE NOTES
In scripture Jesus is teaching us His way. The law is His way of acting best for us.
Grace and truth are His way. Jesus is the way, the truth, the life. This is what’s
best for you, for me, for us. It’s the only way. No other way will succeed. It may
seem like it. It may seem like there’s other ways to get things done. It may seem
that the world is winning. It may seem that way, but it’s not truth. It’s an illusion,
it’s a lie. If you know truth you know that. You know that when all is said and
done that grace and truth win.
“Sin always begins with the character assassination of God. We believe that God
has put us in a world of delights, but has determined that he will not give them to
us if we obey him. This is the lie of the serpent, the original temptation of Satan
to Adam and Eve that brought about the fall.” – Tim Keller
Grace and Truth should constantly flow from the Christian. It should flavor our
thoughts and our actions.
If you are an employer don’t you want your employee’s to have grace with
customers and tell you the truth?
If you are a husband don’t you want your wife to have grace with you and also tell
you the truth? Or no grace and lie?
How about your kids? The world is lying to them. The world has this window
through media to them that speaks to them all the time. What’s their mind being
fed with? What’s yours? How do we combat that?
“Satan promises the best, but pays with the worst; he promises honor, and pays
with disgrace; he promises pleasure, and pays with pain….he promises life, and
pays with death. But God pays as he promises; all his payments are made in pure
gold. –“
Thomas Brooks
So our lives are to be filled with Grace and Truth, how do I do that? How do I get
there? I don’t want to be the other way filled with malice, revenge and lies, right?
Grace
disposition to or an act or instance of kindness, courtesy, or clemency
Truth
sincerity in action, character, and utterance
How do you want to be? Who do you want to be like? If it’s Jesus. Read your
bible, pray, be kind, love people, change your ways, repent, go to church, hang
around Christians, be part of Sunday School, don’t grumble, don’t complain, be
thankful, serve with the children, go serve the homeless, give to missions, go on a
mission trip. Let the hard lessons that life has already taught you to change you.
Do repeat the same mistakes. Get help, get counseling, turn to the Lord.
John 1:14
[14] And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory,
glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
You are always welcome at Oak Grove,
Bro. John
