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Today's Grace Experience Sermon Notes

"The Fundamentals to Finish [the Race]"
Sermon and Sermon notes provided by Pastor Theo Schaffer 
Sunday Grace Experience, March 5th, 2023

Introduction to March's Teaching Series
This month's discipleship and teaching series at Grace is entitled "The Faith and Legacy." The Faith is concerning not only the Gospel (i.e. The death, burial and the Resurrection of Jesus Christ), but our Christian belief system, our foundation of it and how we move forward in this assignment God has commissioned us with. 'The Faith' you see, is how the Lord our God started this, and His legacy, through us, is how we end it.

Scripture Text and Background
John 14:1-4 and Hebrews 11:32-12:1-2. In St. John's gospel of Jesus, the Lord is sharing with His students, His disciples the necessity of Him leaving them here, where He is going and why He has to go there. (This is also called 'eschatological' teaching ... 'the study or preparation for the End Time.) Here it is important family to understand and make the distinction that although everything written in the Bible was not directly written or said to us, it is inspired by the Holy Spirit and therefore it is for us. In Hebrews, Paul (or a possible student of his) wrote the Epistle to the Hebrews to encourage Jewish members of the Church to maintain their faith in Jesus Christ and not to return to their former ways (see Hebrews 10:32–38). Here he elaborately reminds them of those in the 'Hall of Faith'. The 'Hall of Faith' are our forerunners and legends of the Faith. (History is so important; you may find a legend in the faith and yourself having something in common.) Paul reminds them of the Hall of Faith's sacrafices and how many were persecuted or even martyred (killed and persecuted because of their belief). Morever, the Apostle Paul reminds the Jewish believers this because it was important for them to understand that the entire host of Heaven is watching them rooting for them (and us) to finish the race they started.

Why is that important to us?
For the exact same reason. We believe everything we believe no? Since we believe, then we are not doing this for nothing ... their is a prize called Heaven, waiting for us. We will get tired ... very tired. We will want to walk away. We will feel like giving up and quitting this race. But we can't. Because us quitting The Faith (the race) affects not just us. It's too much at stake. And those who ran the race before us would have ran for nothing. We are the fulfillment of the promise God made to them. We are the completion of their race. We will win, if we do not quit. 

Why is that important to us, the family and mission at Grace?
Our mission at Grace is to develop relationships (i.e. you, your family & others) with God (discipleship) and others (those God has called you to impact, mentor and/or serve) to impact lives. Knowing why we are fulfilling the mission (history) helps motivate and clarify what we have to do in the mission (purpose.) You see, we are all in a race, that none of us started. Heaven is not just a prize we win just for participating ... no no. God doesn't believe in participation trophies. 😅 No this race will cost us. It's also important to our specific mission and purpose at Grace, because we simply do not have time to be distracted. Most of the potential distractions will not come from the world, or sinners ... but the Enemy of our souls--Satan, Satan's little devils and other Christians. (Yes, other Christians). 

Why is important to know, teach and sing the old hymns like 'Amazing Grace', Jesus Loves me this I know, Love Lifted Me, Great is they Faithfulness, At the Cross etc.? We need to sing … not just as a family but singing reminds us of where we come from in the Faith and in our personal walk with the Lord Jesus Christ (i.e. all of the things the Lord has done and brought us through.) Back then, when hymns were written there were no fancy technological advancements for music … all people had was a testimony. What connects us more to Kingdom is having nothing .. we’re more connected to our brothers and sisters in other countries because they don’t have equipment most of them just have their memory. It’s important to know these songs because these songs weren’t just based on feelings but the words had meaning. We don’t know who we are and where we are going unless we be reminded that we stand on who we were and know where we started. Let your memory be your music — Pastor “I don’t know any songs …” no problem. Go to your Facebook photos — find a memory of where the Lord brought you from. I'm sure there are plenty. 😂 

Read Revelations 7:1-9
After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” 11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”
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An overview Fundamentals of the Faith as we believe Jesus Teachings to express at Grace and what that means for you:
Below are the fundamentals of the faith outlined and categorized. Remember: different Christians who have not yet been delievered from the man-made restraints of denominationlism (denominations) still argue and debate these things. First you must understand what a denomination is. A denomination (i.e. Baptist, Methodist, Pentecostal, Lutheran etc.) is small turns are simply, a large group of Christians who use the same name, the same sort of organisation and have the same (or very similar) beliefs. But when you study the etymology (study of the origin of a word) denomination, simply means to divide. Division was never apart of what Christ established but I digress. 

Now that you understand that, before you continue, let me share PT's disclaimers.

  1. Do not argue with other believers and Christians. It is pointless. 
  2. Our interpretation and expression of the Faith's fundamentals align with Jesus' teachings exclusively and without motive as we understand the purpose of why Jesus would teach, what He taught. 
  3. Fundamentals must be repetitiously practiced so you can move on to new levels within your faith. 

The Fundamentals of the Faith
  1. The Mission - this is not a main Fundmental of the faith but the Great Commission is the carrying out of what Jesus taught all of His students ... which includes us. It is more than just Matthew 28:19 and should be complimented with other call to actions from scripture i.e. Loving our neighbor and serving our neighbor - Lev. 9:9-18, Mark 12:30 Galations 5:13-14, we are called to all of God’s sheep to serve them - Matthew 25:33-40, the Great Commision Matthew 20:28, we should live a life of prayer, fasting and discipleship Hebrews 4:15-16 and that we are called to do greater works i.e. healings, miracles etc. For more click and see what we believe at Grace.
  2. The Creeds are important because to understand Man’s efforts at trying to unify and organize the Faith. There are two types:
    1. Apostles Creed - the apostles belief system reiterated.
    2. Nicean Creed - Countries were polytheistic (believed in more than one god and not all believed in God or the Gospels). Constatine he ruled in 325 AD saught to unify the countries under one monotheistic (belief system in one God) faith and belief system. Christianity and how it was communicated was impacted by this. Make sure you go check it out!) 
  3. The Holy Bible - although not containing all of the books written (i.e. Apocropha, Dead Sea Scrolls etc.) the 66 we have in our cannon are ample enough to carry out practically the mission of Jesus Christ. We do not argue about what was not placed in our Canon (set of texts) of 66 books (Canon is another word for set of texts or literature selected) but we focus on doing our best to apply what was taught in them.
  4. The Creation & The Fall of Man - It may be beyond us to completely understand God's why He created all that He did and also not understand why Adam’s disobediance introduced us to the spiritual cancer of Sin. But seeking to understand why is just as important as understanding what happened. Mankind fell out of God's grace or away from Him ... and everything God is doing or has done was an attempt to reconcile us back to Him. 
  5. The Torah, Pentetauch, The Law of Moses - meaning 'five'; Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy aka Be-reshit, Shemot, Va-yikra, Be-midbar and Devarim, they are everything to the Jewish faith. Why is that important to you? Because that is the foundation of why God chose to bring Gentiles in. Jews didn't obey the Torah at the heart-level; but just becasue God doesn't require us to explicitly live the Torah out today, we learned in last month's Teaching Series "The Heart" that it's important to understand God's heart behind it. It's His Law, but again it's also His Heart. The Torah is important to us too. 
  6. The 10 Commandments - You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make idols. You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Honor your father and your mother. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal.You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet. Why is this important to me? Honor. Honor the Lord by making sure His 10 Commandments are written on your heart. If you Love the Lord, then honor Him but loving what He requires, even if He doesn't fuss about it. 
  7. The Shema - Deuteronomy 6:4 - Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.[a] 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These are the commands, decrees and laws the Lord your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, 2 so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the Lord your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life. 3 Hear, Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, promised you
  8. Dispensations - age of the time that characteristically expresses how God is dealing with mankind. Again the main reason He was dealing with mankind at all was to reconcile us back to Him. 
    1. ​Innoncence - The Lord understood that Humanity was still young in trying to figure out how to serve Him. So as a good parent would do a toddler, when a toddler messes up, the parent understands that the child is still pure in trying to figure things out ... such as good vs. evil. So the Lord was very patient to work with Israel.
    2. Conscience - The season in time where man knew right vs wrong and God would deal with them according to their understanding.
    3. Authority - God undestood that humanity need government and authority to hold them accountable. Hopefully with rules and regulations, God's people would choose to love Him better. 
    4. Promise - Basically God would incentivize Israel to live right and love Him by promising them things. I.e. "Kids I'll take you to Disney World if you make straight A's." Yep. That's how it was. 
    5. Law - Humanity struggled with promises so the Lord made it extremely stringent for them regarding rules. Thought process well, if loving God and serving God was law, surely you would lose margin to do wrong. Didn't work however.
    6. Grace - the season of time we are in now. Where the Lord is more patient with us, because according to the Law, we should all be dead and killed in trespasses and sins. Jesus Christ brought the Law (truth) but He also brought grace. And His grace was amazing ... and gave us a way out of sin and back to the Father.
    7. Personal Reign of Christ - this is all the End-times stuff when the Lord reaffirms His reign over all things, Rapture takes place and a lot more other awesomingly terrifying things the Lord will do (which I personally don't want to be here when He does it. I want to be in Heaven under a tree singing with the Angels 😅). 
  9. Nature of God - understanding the different Names of God, His characteristics in totally and also His personality helps to expand your intellectual understanding of Him, thus your reverence, but also your personal relationship with Him. God is vast, as much as He allows us to know. 
  10. The Doctrinal Argument & Denominations: Trinity vs. Oneness - Understanding that this is only Man’s prideful search of definition that leads to further division in the Lord’s Body. What is most important is that God is All, at the same time and is more than likely More than that. 
  11. Nature of Jesus Christ - understanding His total Divinity and Humanity is the real revelation and the greatest understanding of His love and sacrifice for our salvation.
  12. Salvation - Jesus is the way; it is not our job to argue different interpretations of what Salvation is, but our job is to plant, water through our mission at Grace that souls would receive Him and their purpose in this present life. 
  13. The Rapture, After Life & Differing Views - a general understanding of the arguments, like Paul on Mars Hill, allows us to have versatile conversations with all Believers of different opinions for the greater good of the Body of Christ and the mission. 
  14. The Doctrine of Heaven - there is a place called Heaven and I would love for us all to meet there!
  15. The Doctrine of Hell - there is a place called Hell and I've lived in Mississippi and that's about as hot as I'm trying to get.

These are all of the things that the Faith is built on fundamentally. Now it is our turn to finish the race they started. With all of the tools given to us by the guiding of the Holy Spirit, this is a good start. 


August Apologetics Series Sermon Notes