Elements of Church being a Family

This message was preached at Word Of Grace Church on April 2nd 2023  by Colin D Cruz. For the audio & video please click here. To listen to the worship please click here.

The church as a family

1. Loving 

John 13:34-35 - A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.  By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.

Rom 12:10 - Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honour one another above  yourselves.

2 Corinthians 13:12 - Greet one another with a holy kiss.

Rom 16:16 - Greet one another with a holy kiss

1 Thessalonians 5:26 - Greet all God's people with a holy kiss

1 Cor 16:20b - Greet one another with a holy kiss

Dream with me

What would a loving church look like?

As you walk in people warmly greet one another and catch up with you. If it is your birthday or wedding anniversary you get wished appropriately. 

Some want friends to come in at midnight, and others would love a cake.

When you are unwell, you get calls, maybe a visit or a meal.

What do you do when you want these things to happen to you? 

The solution is in Matt 7:12 - So in everything do to others what you would have them do to you for this sums up the Law and the Prophets

2. Forgiving

Col 3:13 Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

Eph 4:32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

Matt 18:21-22 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?

Jesus answered, I tell you not seven times, but seventy-seven times.

Mark 11:25 And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.

We must forgive completely, unconditionally, repetitively, continually how Christ forgave us

Forgiveness and trust are different issues. Trust is earned and forgiveness is always given.

3. Accepting

Associate and relate with people different from us.

Rom 15:7 Accept one another, then just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.

1 Cor 12:22-25 - 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 

The poor, the slaves, the disabled, and those with mental illnesses or learning disabilities. Though despised in the world they should be given greater honour in the church.

Special emphasis must be on the poor and the different.

4. Disciplining/maintaining healthy boundaries

Rev 3:19 -  Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. 

Heb 12:8 - If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. 

Heb 12:11 - No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

Gal 6:1 - Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently.

Matt 18:15-17 - 

v15 If your brother sins (against you), go and show him his fault just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over.

v16 But if he will not listen, takes one or two others along, so that ever My matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.

v17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.

Titus 3:10-11 - Warn a divisive person once, and then warn him a second time. After that, have nothing to do with him.

v11 You may be sure that such a man is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned.

1 Cor 5:4 - When your are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, hand this man over to Satan, so that the flesh may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord

1 Tim 1:20 - Some have rejected these and so have shipwrecked their faith. Among these are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme.

Job 2:6 - The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, then, he is in your hands; but you must spare his life.” - to put the professed believer out of our fellowship, to excommunicate him,

Satan is the ruler of this world, and turning a believer over to Satan, therefore thrusts the believer back into the world on his own, apart from the care and support of Christian fellowship. The word "handed over" is a strong term indicating the judicial act of sentencing, of handing over for punishment.

1 Cor v9-13 - But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat.

Expel the wicked man from among you.

In Rev 2:14 Pergamum tolerated sexual immorality

Eph 5:25-27 - 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing[b] her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.

We are Jesus' bride being made holy and spotless.

Word of Grace is an Evangelical (Born Again),  Spirit-filled (Charismatic), Reformed, English-speaking church in Pune that upholds the Bible as God's inspired Word for life. We are a church community that has people from every part of India and parts of the world. We are here to put the Great Command and the Great Commission into practice by equipping and releasing every member into works of service.  Word of Grace is part of a wider international family of Churches called RegionsBeyond.To know more about us please log onto www.wordofgracechurch.org.  
 

The Scariest Passage in Scripture

 

This message was preached at Word Of Grace Church on March 26th 2023  by Colin D Cruz. For the audio & video please click here. To listen to the worship please click here.

The Scariest Passage in Scripture

Matthew 7:21-23 ²¹ “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. ²² Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ ²³ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

The is the scariest portion of the scripture. Isn’t it?

Mathew 7:24-27 - ²⁴ “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. ²⁵ The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. ²⁶ But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. ²⁷ The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

We’ve all heard sermon on the mount. This is the greatest sermon preached by the greatest person. Towards end of this sermon, Jesus tells us about 2 things –

Matthew 7:21-23 and Mathew 7:24-27

1.   Matthew 7:21-23:

Matthew 7:21 - ²¹ “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

In this verse, we see “Lord, Lord”. The word “Lord” is said twice. The meaning of this is that the person using this has a deep intimate connection with the other person. The person saying to Jesus had a deep intimate connection with Jesus. But how did Jesus respond to this person? He responded saying not everyone who calls him “Lord, Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven. Isn’t that scary? Only those who do the will of God enter the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 7:22-23 - ²² Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ ²³ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

Many may explain things which they did. Things like prophesying, performing miracles etc., but if they haven’t done the will of the Father, then Jesus would say that He never knew them and he would call them evildoers.

Matthew 7:20 - ²⁰ Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.

Jesus is saying that if you really want him to be the Lord of your life, then there must be some fruit. Anybody can say, “I Love Jesus, I follow Jesus”. That’s not enough. Jesus says that the proof of our faith in Him is our fruit.

In John 15, Jesus talks about obedience to His commands. He says that if we really love Jesus, we will obey and keep His commands.

2.   Matthew 7: 24-27: 

This is a parable of 2 men who have a few things in common, a few in contrast and a conclusion. Let us call them Rocky and Sandy.

Both the men heard the Word of God

Both built houses.

Both houses were tested

Both the houses looked the same. When we see some nice building, do we say, “Wow! What a great foundation!”?

Let us look at the foundation on which these men built their houses.

The first man, our Rocky –

Matthew 7:24 - ²⁴ “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 

Rocky was called wise by Jesus. He heard the Word of God and put them into practice. He is like a house built on rock.

The depth of the foundation determines the height of the building. Digging is hard work. He kept digging till he hit the rock and that’s where he started building the foundation. 

The second man Sandy –

Matthew 7:26 - ²⁶ But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.

Sandy was called foolish by Jesus. No effort is required to build a house in sand. He heard the Word of God but did not put it into practice.

We are all building something – our lives, marriage, families etc. What is our foundation? Without the foundational principles, it may not withstand.

Both the men faced the same storm.

Some people say that when you come to Jesus, all your problems will be gone. But what does the Bible say? 

John 16:33 - ³³ “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

When we give our lives to Jesus, we will face storms in our lives. But what’s the difference? The difference is that Jesus is with us in those storms. He is with us in the same boat.

Storms are very important in our lives. Either we have just come out of one, entering one or very much going through one.

Storms reveal the foundation on which we’re being built. People may say that they’re facing storms because they came to Jesus. Others may say that even amid the storm, Jesus is with me and I will not waver.

Storms can be minor, or major or sometimes they are just consequences.

Just rain could be minor. But rain, wind, and floods all three together are major.

Some people mix up storms with consequences.

For example, suppose you went on a vacation, came back and found that everything inside the fridge is rotten because of no electricity.

If the electricity had gone for some valid reason, then that’s a storm. But if the electricity had gone because you didn’t pay the electricity bill, then that’s a consequence. 

Why do these storms occur?

1 Peter 1:6-7 - ⁶ In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. ⁷ These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 

Verse 6 says that there will be grief. But verse 7 says why we go through storms. During storms, our faith is tested. It depends on how we respond.

Storm is an opportunity to glorify God. During this, we dig deep into and reconcile.

During a financial crisis, do we stop ourselves from giving our tithes and offerings or be generous in our giving?

Every time we are in a storm or a hard situation, we must always think about how God wants us to respond. God wants us to become like His Son Jesus. We build our lives little by little with God’s Word.

People who obey God’s commands are like the person building his house on a rock. Storm came and it did not fall. People who don’t obey God’s commands are like the person building his house in the sand. Storm came but it fell with a great crash. 

John 13: 17 - ¹⁷ Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

You will be blessed if you do what you hear.

Word of Grace is an Evangelical (Born Again),  Spirit-filled (Charismatic), Reformed, English-speaking church in Pune that upholds the Bible as God's inspired Word for life. We are a church community that has people from every part of India and parts of the world. We are here to put the Great Command and the Great Commission into practice by equipping and releasing every member into works of service.  Word of Grace is part of a wider international family of Churches called RegionsBeyond.To know more about us please log onto www.wordofgracechurch.org.  

Chosen - A People Kept in God's Love

This message was preached at Word Of Grace Church on February 26th 2023  by Navaz. For the audio & video please click here. To listen to the worship please click here.

 CHOSEN - A People Kept in the Love of God

 INTRODUCTION

We have looked at a commonly preached topic the last two Sundays but from a different angle. We looked at how we are a unique people set apart for the glory of God. You are a chosen people a royal priesthood –a Holy Nation.

And herein lies the problem. The Church/the chosen people are slowly getting diluted and beginning to look like everyone else. We are chosen to be image bearers, glory bearers, a light to the world, the culture and world changers.

When we forget the creator and the WHY of why we have been created we forget the purpose and intent of our design.

E.g.: using a fridge as a cupboard. 

The root of the problem is the heart- We have lived compromised lives. We looked at some of the idols of the heart.

Feel Good – give into every sensual pleasure because we do not trust God to meet our needs the legitimate way.

Look Good – We hide, lie, cover up and live in deception and deceit because keeping up appearances is more important than living with integrity before God and man Eg) Ananias and Sapphira. King Saul. People pleasing is a big one here.

Be Right – Because of poor identity, we cannot accept a mistake, or a fault so we lie, cheat, cover-up, and play the blame game rather than take responsibility for our actions.

Be in control – Will not submit to authority, will question decisions, and be your own person for fear of losing control.

We then asked ourselves how we get out of this mess.

Two things that will keep us from having idols of the heart are The Fear of the Lord and the Love of God. Both are needed.

KEPT IN THE LOVE OF GOD

Today we are going to look at being kept in the Love of God: who does this and how?

Jude 21: keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.

Jude 1:24-25

To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— ²⁵ to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore!

Jude was encouraging the Christians to contend for their faith amidst ungodliness and faithlessness. People were drifting away from the truth.

The chief danger that confronts the coming century will be religion without the Holy Ghost, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration, politics without God, heaven without hell.” ― William Booth

The greatest battle you may fight is the fight of perseverance. Jesus says in Revelations 3:21 To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne.

What is a doxology?

A Doxology is a short hymn of praise to remind us to lift our eyes to God. Jude ends his message to the church with this.

But before this in verse 21:  

Keep: to watch over, to guard.

Keep is an active verb. We must do something. Keep and keep on keeping yourself in the love of God.

Keep: Why and what? - Because the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking whom he can devour. (1Pet 5:8)

 Agape love: not any other love. Not any other affections or your old boyfriends. Keep yourself in agape – the unconditional, never-ending, never-failing love of God.

We must keep ourselves – because it is easy to get distracted by other loves. What can we lose? We can lose the joy and fruit of abiding in Jesus and that is a terrible thing.

The Christian life is an amazing life with the opportunity to lay hold of the promises of God. There is something we must do.

All the promises in Jesus are YES and AMEN BUT a lot of the promises are conditional. If you abide by His word the promises will prove true in your life. You might argue with that and says it’s not fair!!!  What is fair is that we pay for our sins.

Everything we have and enjoy is the sheer MERCY & GRACE of God. There are conditional promises in the Old Testament and the New Testament (a total of over 8000).

Jesus says If you love me you will obey my commandments. If any man will take up his cross and come after me. There are many such “Ifs” in the Bible. The curse is self-inflicted - God is not going to violate His character for your sake. If you live in disobedience, you will reap the fruit of that – that is a curse and not a blessing.

1. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." - 1 John 1:9 (NIV)

2. "If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer." - Matthew 21:22 (NIV)

3. "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink." - John 7:37 (NIV)

Modern Christianity is preaching another Jesus, another gospel (where heaven, hell and sin are not mentioned) and this is what Jude was warning the people about 2000 years ago!!

“Now unto to him who is able to keep you from falling.”

Keep to guard, watch.

This passage tells us who is worthy of praise and what qualifies Him for this praise.

It is like saying I have put Mr. X in charge of your protection. Now, why should you trust Mr. X. When you know Mr. X’s credentials you will gain confidence to trust him. If I told you he is part of India's elite Blackcats, the best hand-to-hand combatant and marksman, you will have full confidence in his ability to protect you.

You may say so it is my effort that keeps me in God’s love. Not at all. The only reason you are standing is that HE has kept you from falling

So, does that mean you sit back and relax? No, refer to Jude 21. Here you see two truths in tension working together. No, we work out our salvation with fear and trembling and recognize that it is God’s power that is the fuel behind our efforts.

“present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy…”

Without fault or Blameless – without blemish. Anyone born after Adam was automatically blemished. We have all fallen short of the glory of God therefore how can we be presented to God? Jesus the ultimate sacrifice, the unblemished lamb died in the place of blemished people. You are now clothed in His righteousness. God did a prophetic act with Adam and Eve, A symbolic act with the Levitical priests clothing and then the actual act of Jesus shedding His blood and covering us with His righteousness.

We are the apple of His eye. God delights over us.

 TO THE ONLY GOD OUR SAVIOR

To what kind of God are we being presented? The ONLY GOD!! At the time Jude was writing his letter to Jews that had come to faith there were two dangers that the church was facing: The grace of God was being changed into a license for immorality (v4)

License or liberalism says you are free to sin because Jesus has forgiven all your sins.

Legalism -The Galatian church needed to be reminded of the freedom for which Christ had set them free: they were in danger of legalism which says, “you should not...”

Freedom in Christ or Grace says you are free not to sin anymore because you are no longer a slave to sin, it shall not have dominion over you.

The second danger that was already doing the rounds is the thought that Jesus is not the only way. The incarnation and deity of Jesus were already being challenged. And Jude is telling them to contend for the faith.

ONLY GOD – there is none like Him.

No one can be compared to Him. Unbelief makes you believe that He is one of the many gods out there. That is what idolatry is

So sexual sin is not just based on lust but because they want comfort, and they believe this sin will give them the comfort they desire. (the feel-good idol) Only God!!

OUR SAVIOR  

We have been saved from the wrath of God. Salvation is found in no other name other than the name Jesus. This is a foundational doctrine of the Christian faith. You are free to believe in anything else but that would not be the Christian faith.

OUR

Yes, He saved you, but he also saved the US. Don’t forget this communal nature of our faith. One of the ways you can look like God is when you are in a community.

BE GLORY

God’s glory is revealed when sons and daughters of God walk in the light and reflect His light and Christlikeness.

Our natural tendency is to take the glory for ourselves. But we now want to give God glory as a miracle of a changed heart.

Majesty, power, and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord,

V25 – God is majestic and, ruler and king over everything. While the world may seem out of control, we do have a king that is completely in control. He is always reigning.

Dominion/power– speaks of the extent of His power which is over everything.

Authority speaks of his sovereign rule over all things and legitimate power. Because all power and authority belong to Jesus, we are kept from falling. John 17 Jesus prayed that non would be plucked from His hand.

So, it is He who will keep us from falling and we need to keep ourselves in the love of God.

 We will do well to submit to His majesty, dominion, and power. Many people in the church do not want to live under the authority. This idol of the heart is the need to be in control and self-will. Also, they do not believe that God is good. When your view of God is of your view of submission is off.

Now and Forever

Jude gives a time frame for the praise. How long? He is the one deserving of praise now and forever. It is an eternity perspective.

Amen – yes or so be it. It means that we can be certain it will happen.

CONCLUSION

We have been meditating on a very sober topic for three weeks.

It is easy to take the milk of the word that soothes and ignore the meat of the word that provokes change. - (Bill Johnson)

We said you need two things in your life to keep you from falling back into old ways of doing things: The Fear of the Lord and the Love of God. Two sides of the coin, bookends if you like – that keep us together and strong till the end.

Word of Grace is an Evangelical (Born Again),  Spirit-filled (Charismatic), Reformed, English-speaking church in Pune that upholds the Bible as God's inspired Word for life. We are a church community that has people from every part of India and parts of the world. We are here to put the Great Command and the Great Commission into practice by equipping and releasing every member into works of service.  Word of Grace is part of a wider international family of Churches called RegionsBeyond.To know more about us please log onto www.wordofgracechurch.org.  

Chosen - A People Who Fear the Lord

This message was preached at Word Of Grace Church on February 19th 2023  by Lasya. For the audio & video please click here. To listen to the worship please click here.

The Fear of God 

Q. What is the fear of the Lord? 

The word fear refers to reverential awe. Reverence is defined as a feeling or attitude of deep respect, love, and awe, for something sacred. It is a heart posture. 

It is NOT being afraid of God. In fact, being scared to come into his presence generally indicates a guilty conscience (E.g.: Adam and Eve) and is not the outworking of a reverent awe of God. 

This fear of the lord is not the fear which drives us away from him but the fear that instructs us on how to rightly draw near to him. 

Every good parent trains their child in 2 things with regard to their relationship:

• To know that they are deeply and unconditionally loved 

• To honour them with a reverential fear. 

An imbalance in either direction is detrimental (not to the parent) but to the growth of the child. God is a good father and belonging to him requires us to know these 2 things - that we are unconditionally loved and that he is wholly holy and worthy of our reverential awe. Today we don't have a dearth of messaging - in culture or in the church - that you are loved and worthy of love. But the fear of the Lord is avoided and that’s what we are going to address today. 

Q. Why do we need the fear of the Lord?

There are tons of cautionary tales in the bible right from Adam and Eve, Saul, Solomon, to Ananias and Sapphira. But we don't even need to go that far. We need to fear the Lord because of 2 things 

1. Because of who He is

1. In creation: who is God? Is he the mighty mountain or the blazing sun or the endless ocean? Who is 

Gen 1:1 -5: In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. 3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

Gen 2:7 “then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.”

Job 38 to 42. (excerpts)

“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
    Tell me, if you have understanding.
Who determined its measurements—surely you know!
    Or who stretched the line upon it?
Have you commanded the morning since your days began,
    and caused the dawn to know its place,
that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth,
    and the wicked be shaken out of it?

“Have you entered into the springs of the sea
    or walked in the recesses of the deep?
Have the gates of death been revealed to you,
    or have you seen the gates of deep darkness?
Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth?
Declare, if you know all this.

These questions go on for 4 chapters to answer Job and his friends saying - I am God and you are not. He is the potter and we are the clay, he is the author and we are the pages. We are His creation, the people formed for His good pleasure. 

1. Response - 

1. Awe and wonder: Wonder is defined as “the rapt attention and deep emotion caused by something extraordinary.” Awe is “the feeling we get in the presence of something vast that challenges our understanding of the world.” Our lives have shrunken down to screens- it’s all smoke and mirrors. But the psalmist says in Psalm 8:3-4 “When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?” . We need to behold him.  And when we do, we surrender. 

2. Submission/Obedience to him and to one another (Eph 5:21). When we see his majesty in creation we rightly see ourselves 1 Peter 5:6 (humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God). 

2. In redemption - Hebrews 9:12-14 ”12 he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify[f] for the purification of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our[g] conscience from dead works to serve the living God.” Millions of people have died before Jesus and after him, some have even been resurrected but not one of them could have purchased eternal redemption for us. He is the redeemer, there is no one else. 

1. Response - 

1. Repentance comes before redemption. Job 42 “ I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”, Acts 2, John the Baptist. Repentance is not punishment - it is mercy. It is a gift. 

2. Living set apart (holiness)- 1 Peter 1: 14-19 “14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” Culture can impact how we process holiness. Eg: Lot’s children gave birth to the Moabites and ammonites. So it is important to be set apart by the standard of the word of God. Egs of what the Bible calls sin and are a common practice in culture (lust, gluttony, greed, laziness, wrath, envy, and pride.) - Work related, sex-related, etc. How to recognise and act on the conviction of the Holy Spirit. (Personal example) . The fear of man v. The fear of God 

3. In glory - John referred to himself as the disciple that Jesus loved and reclined on his chest at the last supper, but on the Island of Patmos, he sees this very Jesus in his glory. Rev 1: 12-18, “2 Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. 14 The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, 15 his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. 16 In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.” “When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, "Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.”‭‭ ‭ESV‬‬ The presence of God is not a plaything - it is fearsome! 2 samuel 6:5-7 (story of Uzziah)

1. Response - Worship Rev 4:8-11  “And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!” And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying, “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”

2. Because of what it does for us 

1. It’s the beginning of wisdom - Proverbs 1:7. Wise in your own eyes- illustration - law students 

2. It is for our safety - Psalm 34:7( the angel of the lord encamps around those) Pro 29:25 ( the fear of man lays a snare but whoever trusts in the lord is safe) 

3. To turn away from evil - Job, Pro 16:6( by the fear of the lord one turns away from evil)

4. For blessing- Pro 22:4(riches and honor and life); Pro 8:14(counsel, wisdom, insight and strength); Psalm 115:13 (bless those who fear the Lord) 

We have a prophetic sense that a mighty outpouring of his spirit is coming. We don't just want a sense of the presence of God, we want him! We want to see the power of the holy spirit at work in us and in the world around us. Since we have this expectation, we need to get ready. 

Word of Grace is an Evangelical (Born Again),  Spirit-filled (Charismatic), Reformed, English-speaking church in Pune that upholds the Bible as God's inspired Word for life. We are a church community that has people from every part of India and parts of the world. We are here to put the Great Command and the Great Commission into practice by equipping and releasing every member into works of service.  Word of Grace is part of a wider international family of Churches called RegionsBeyond.To know more about us please log onto www.wordofgracechurch.org.