GRACE FOR GOOD WORKS --OFFERING ACCEPTABLE SERVICE TO GOD WITH DEEP REVERENCE

GRACE FOR GOOD WORKS --OFFERING ACCEPTABLE SERVICE TO GOD WITH DEEP REVERENCE

GRACE FOR GOOD WORKS --OFFERING ACCEPTABLE SERVICE TO GOD WITH DEEP REVERENCE



In our last fellowship meeting, we discussed the topic: Offering Acceptable Service to God with Deep Reverence.



Hebrews 12:28 says, ". . . Let us have GRACE, BY WHICH WE MAY SERVE GOD ACCEPTABLY WITH REVERENCE AND GODLY FEAR.



Notice the above verse of Scripture reveals that we offer acceptable service to God with deep reverence by God's grace. This means grace empowers, inspires, enables and energizes us to worship and serve God acceptably with deep reverence. We may render service to God in our own strength and power, but it will never be pleasing to the Father for the flesh profits nothing.

We must, therefore, depend on God's grace-- His ability that works within us--to serve Him and His children acceptably.



What we all need to understand is, each one of us has received gift from the Lord to serve one another. The Bible compares the church to a vibrant healthy human body. And just as it is critical that all parts of the human body be present to function for the healthy growth of the body, so it is in the life of the church. The church is made up of people with different gifts --skills and abilities--who have been entrusted with grace to fulfill every call of God on their lives.



1 Peter 4:10, reveals that we have not only received gifts, but also become stewards of God's manifold grace to minister to one another. We need to tap into the grace of God, and render well-pleasing service to God and His people. In line with this, the Spirit through the Apostle Peter provides this admonishing in verse 11: "lf anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God.lf anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies."



God wants us to depend on Him for us to speak by His Spirit. He has promised to give us a mouth and wisdom-- Luke 21:15. Graciously, this promise was fulfilled in the Apostles and in the life of Stephen who served at tables in the Early church.The Bible says, the opposers of the truth could not resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which Stephen spoke--Acts 6:10.



We can all depend on grace to speak as if God Himself speaks through us. Again, we can render service with the strength and energy that God supplies. In all these, the Father would be glorified as we offer acceptable worship and service to Him.



We explained that though grace empowers us to fulfill the call of God upon our lives, we have to WORK HARD AS IF IT ALL DEPENDS ON US. Paul depended on the grace of God in the area of service, but had to work hard in order to present believers complete in Christ --Colossians1:28, 29. The New Living Translation renders the verse 29 as, "That is why l WORK AND STRUGGLE SO HARD, depending on Christ's mighty power that works within me."



Further in 1 Corinthians 15:10, Paul claims to HAVE LABOURED MORE ABUNDANTLY than all the apostles. Grace does not make us lazy; it inspires us to work hard.



Also in our teaching, we mentioned that ministry is not what we do for God, but what we do with God. Yes, we have received gifts from the Lord to serve, but He works together with us --2 Corinthians 6:1. We may receive the grace in vain, if we fail to depend on God in whatever service we render to Him. Again, we need be conscious of Lord's presence with us as we serve Him in any area of our assignment, and accord Him the reverent respect and honour.



We indicated that grace empowers us to serve God with reverence and godly fear for the Spirit to demonstrate or bear witness with signs and wonders. We emphasized that reverence is the key to the supernatural, and provided these Scriptures to show:



Acts 2:43-- Then FEAR (reverent respect or a sense of awe) came upon every soul, AND MANY WONDERS AND SIGNS were done through the apostles



Acts 5:11,12--So great FEAR (reverent respect or a sense of awe) came upon the church and upon all who heard these things. AND THROUGH THE HANDS OF THE APOSTLES MANY SIGNS AND WONDERS WERE DONE among the people...



1 Corinthians 2: 3,4---l was with you in WEAKNESS, IN FEAR (reverent respect or sense of awe), AND IN MUCH TREMBLING. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in the DEMONSTRATION OF THE SPIRIT AND OF POWER.



In each of these instances, we observe the connection between reverence and the demonstration of the Spirit. It behoves on us to draw from God's grace to serve Him acceptably with reverence and godly fear.



As God's workers, let us consider His awesomeness, the great things He has done and the mighty works He continues to do through the Church and serve Him with deep reverence.



Then the Lord will work in our midst to manifest His glory. He will testify to our acceptable worship and service we offer to Him with signs and wonders for Him to be glorified, and for us to be glorified in Him.



We will continue.



GRACE COVENANT GLORY FELLOWSHIP



RAISING A NEW GENERATION OF BELIEVERS FOR HIS GLORY



Make time to be with us every Saturday between 8am and 10 am.



GOD'S servants: Peter Collins Obeng and David Tsibu-Darko