Speaking Notes

Here are the speaking notes that I used to present Sunday's sermon.  There was a full manuscript that I worked through a couple of times on Sunday morning.  This is what it would I had on a piece as notes:

Familiarity breeds neglect—love, compassion, peace, service.  Grace—pictures of grace—frilly lace, a red stamp “paid in full.”

Romans would cause us to rethink it. 

Bible teaching:  (Grace begins and ends with God)

p. 916, “God’s righteousness.”

Understanding 3:23. 

God created us for relationship; we only have relationship by God’s initiative. 

Paul challenged the belief that people could achieve God’s righteousness on their own. 

            Nature of Law. 

            The Effect of Law

            The goodness of law

The agency of Jesus Christ

            note a—the faithfulness of Jesus Christ.

            Atonement

Differences in our typical understanding

            Grace begins with human need. 

            Not a bad place to start. . . but . . . Grow up!

If we’re going to understand the magnitude of the word grace, we have to stem the impulse to make grace about us.  Grace is a word that stands for God’s righteousness—that is, the very character of God—embodied in Jesus Christ—the voice, presence, and power of God to reconcile people to God’s self. 

3 tendencies.  Step on toes/form a support group

-Needy

--Resume Christians

--Tragic Shrug/Cheap Grace

How respond?  The rest of Romans answers.