Kay started off Session 6 with a little review.
1. "Sin will take you further than you ever expected to go; it will keep you longer than you ever intended to stay, and it will cost you more than you ever expected to pay." Kay reminded us that according to Numbers 32:23, "your sin will find you out". I loved this quote from Kay: "God is so holy that He doesn't try to protect His reputation by covering our sins". In other words... because God is Holy and cannot look on sin or endure it, He will allow the consequences of our sins to play out... even if it makes Him "look" unjust, mean, or unkind.
King David's sin with Bathsheba had huge consequences. In 2 Sam 12:10-14, Nathan the prophet reveals to David just what his sin will cost him (which as we've learned is more than he expected to pay). He was told that the sword would never depart from his house (vs 10); rebellion would come within his household in public view (vs 11); this would happen in broad daylight (vs 12); David understands the severity of his sin yet Nathan assures him God has forgiven him (vs 13); but Bathsheba's child will die (vs 14). As you continue to read David's story in the subsequent chapters, you will find that all of these consequences came to be.
Yet, despite the devastating consequences, David at this crossroads, where he could have been tempted to turn his back on God, he chose to go "deeper still" into the grace of God by confessing his sin (vs 13). 1 John 5 tells us "there is a sin unto death". Kay told us that when we mess up in sin that we can give up or we can embrace God's grace and move forward to be used of God. He won't remove the consequences, but He can make something of our past sins. It is through this type of awakening and realization of his actions, and his acceptance of God's grace, that King David wrote Psalm 51, one of our most beloved Psalms.
2. What is grace?
Kay told us that grace is what saves us through faith, but it doesn't end at salvation.
3. Grace is favor (benefit, kindness)
Charis is the Greek word - it means free, unearned, in contrast to something you would earn or something you would work for. How freeing to know we don't have to earn God's grace. He freely gives it to us!
4. Grace is available because God is gracious
This is part of His nature. It's Who He is! Grace and Truth come through Jesus Christ. Psalm 84:11 tells us that God has always been gracious. So when we find ourselves in sin, are we going to go into depression, anxiety, self-pity or are we going to tap into God's grace?
1 John 1:9 tells us what we can do with our sins. It assures us that God is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from ALL unrighteousness. Kay told us He bathes us... scrubs us clean. She said, "you mention everything you know (sins) and He covers what you don't because He knows your heart". She went on to ask us, "Are you moaning/groaning about past sins? (that is a sin!). If God has forgiven us, that is enough. We don't have to "forgive" ourselves".
5. Grace is power (2 Cor 12:7-10)
God's grace is powered through the Holy Spirit and He gives us the power not to sin. He gives us the power to take us through anything and everything. His power is perfected in our weakness, Paul tells us in 2 Cor 12:9. His grace will get us through any situation and God won't give us anything we can't handle.
6. Grace is previous. (Eph 1:3)
Kay explained this point by saying, "If we stop groaning about our past, He'll use it to help others not want to go where we've been." God is our Redeemer! That's why Kay shares her testimony, sins and all. In Eph 1:3, God knew we were going to sin before the foundations of the world and He planned our redemption right from the start. He is going to redeem our sin! We can't change the past. We can spend our lives long for what could have, might have, should have been, but we can't move forward in that. We need to "forget what's behind and press forward" (Phil 3:13)
In King David's life you can see how God's grace is previous clearly. In 2 Sam 7, David was promised by God a "house/dynasty". He was told that his anointed son would build the temple. This was told to him previous to his sin with Bathsheba. The son God was calling to this task of building the temple was Solomon, a son given to David and Bathsheba after their sin, after that first child was dead and buried. That, my friends, is grace! Because of David's sin, he himself was not able to build God's temple due to the bloodshed at his hand, yet God allowed David to plan the temple details and allowed his son, Solomon to be the one to build God's home. Grace indeed.
God wants you and I, no matter our past sins, to be His instruments of sharing His truth and to act in His image. We have been bought with a price. I Cor 15:10 tells us that by grace "I am what I am".
Joy truly does come in the morning, if we will believe God and if we will appropriate and walk in His grace. Will you do so today?
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