Saved by Grace: Glorious Grace

SERMON TITLE:   “Saved by Grace:  Glorious Grace”
SERMON TEXT:    Ephesians 1:3-14
PREACHER:           Rev. Kim James
OCCASION:           August 14, 2022, at First UMC
 
 
INTRODUCTION
 
                Yesterday I read an article that indicated that longevity is correlated to balance and strength.  The article said that three good indicators of how much longer we’ll live are our ability to 1) rise up from the floor to a standing position, 2) balance on one leg for 30 seconds with one eye closed, and 3) walk at a brisk pace.
                Unfortunately, I’ve never been very coordinated.  My body just doesn’t always do what my mind tells it to.  When I was a kid, growing by leaps and bounds, my body was even more awkward.  When I would bump and bumble around, my mom would sometimes say to me, “Kim, we should have named you Grace.  Maybe then, you’d have been less clumsy.”  Yes, it would have been nice to have been born more poised and nimble, to have inherited more athletic competence and confidence.  Fortunately, though, gracefulness isn’t completely determined by our physical aptitude.  As I grew from childhood into adolescence, I learned about a kind of grace that comes not from our bodies but from the heart of God.  I learned that I could be saved by God’s glorious grace.
                Since I’m probably not the only one who could use a bit more gracefulness, I’ve decided to focus our attention on this foundational concept for the rest of this month of August.  Since grace is such a basic factor in our salvation, it seems like we ought to spend a few weeks trying to understand it.  So, let’s start today by defining and describing what Ephesians 1:6 calls God’s “glorious grace.”

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