Join us for our monthly UK, Ireland & Nordics Service 11am Sunday Service.
Welcome to our UK & Ireland church service! We will be singing songs of worship together, taking Communion and will be having a message on the subject of ‘Saved by Grace… To Work?’ by Mike Taliaferro from the Bible.
Message Summary & Reflection
This sermon addresses a tension often expressed in the Christian faith; if our rescue is a gift and is not conditional on what we do, why are we always going on about doing work? Often Christian writings and talks focus on one aspect of this topic. There is usually little enough time to cover either in any depth so one side is assumed or ignored.
People either major on understanding grace, without making changes in our lives or we plan and arrange lots of action without being graceful. Paul, in this instance, expresses the appreciation he has for God’s grace in saving him and shows how that gratitude motivates him to change continually, to listen to God, to the Word and to the Spirit so that his life and work is a testimony to God. Of course this applies to the churches he wrote to and to us by implication.
Mike covers this in his three main points, that (i) He wants us to be saved; (ii) that we are saved by grace and (iii) that we are saved to do his work
1. He wants us to be saved [59:00] – Ephesians 2:1-20
God’s message through the Bible is a story of love for his creation. He wants us to know him and experience deep love and joy. He wants to rescue us from our selfish and short-sighted goals. He wants us to be changed, not to punish us for our misdeeds.
Receiving our salvation is the big step in this change, it should be transformative and it truly gives new life. Mike relates how the hope offered by vaccinations against Covid-19 gives us the chance to return to a more normal life with human contact and travel. But this change is only a transition, a temporary phase. Our salvation is even more than that, we are dead in our sin and need more than a vaccine to save us. Being saved by God changes us to become a better version of ourselves – permanently if we stay with God.
Religious words (salvation, redemption and the like) can confuse and hide the good news and the promise that God offers. As a comparison, Mike notes that he has no clue what bitcoin is about but that doesn’t mean that it is not worth knowing about or any less true. The gospel message is worth getting to know, it’s worth investigating. Being saved is worthwhile! As we journey through our life we have times that are good and times of challenge; they all add to our experience and often the view back on our journey provides magnificent views.
2. By Grace [1:09:38] Romans 3:24, refs to Corinthians, Acts etc
God’s forgiveness is done by his grace, we do not have to achieve a score on a test or carry out tasks to achieve it. But best of all, it is eternal, it does not change, it is continuous. Knowing that we always receive forgiveness can nudge us to dare to make steps to change, to try new things and not to let fear stop us from trying. Mike suggests an analogy of a safety net – once applied during the building of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco the fear of death was removed and productivity soared.
3. To Work [1:16:36] Tit 2:4, Eph 2:10, 2Cor 9:8, 2Tim 3:16-17, Jam 2:26
Having received our salvation by grace, a Godly attitude is to refocus our lives to carry out the acts of service, to love, to be graceful as God demonstrated to us. With new lives, new hearts, new attitudes we have new purpose and strong faith in him who did this work. Indeed, it is healthy for us to get up and do work rather than sit down and do nothing.
Mike reflected how Lazarus (the poor man) is named in the parable whilst the rich man is not. There is a connection that comes from knowing someone personally and Mike encourages us to go and help the poor, to make an effort to get to know them. It is such acts that continue to change us, to make us more loving and more graceful.
We all have gifts, small or large, but if we use our gifts in love we are making a difference – we fulfil our purpose.
God sent angels to proclaim his message and his good news, as Mike notes that is what he asks us to do – to proclaim Jesus’ resurrection and God’s saving message – his good news (the gospel). The offer of rescue has been made, if we accept it, reflect upon it and act upon our new life we can have fulfilled lives and love others along the way too – just as God always wanted!
Scriptures Shared In This Message
This message will focus on the scriptures featured below:
- Ephesians 2:1-20
- Romans 3:24
- Titus 2:4
- Ephesians 2:10
- 2 Corinthians 9:8
- 2 Timothy 3:16-17
