One of the reasons we do Grace Place is because we want to touch even more people with God’s grace, mercy, love, forgiveness and restoration.  This is not just words on a page, this is a major part of our purpose, a big time reason why we do a lot of the things we do.

Last Sunday, I shared a message on this very thing and all this week we have been talking about the different components of touch that allow us to experience, share and grow in God.  Today, I want to focus for just a few moments on an ultimate part of the goal:  Restoration!

Restoration is the hard work of repairing that which has been broken, fitting that which has become unfit, framing that which has become unframed and mending that which is coming a part.  Restoration is hard work, but there is good news:  God has already done most of the heavy lifting!

Galatians 6:1-5 gives us our instruction:  “Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. 2 Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. 3 If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves. 4 Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else, 5 for each one should carry their own load.”

Restoration is not about putting things the way you want them or think they should be.  Restoration is about putting things the way God intended them to be.  God’s amazing grace gives us what we could never earn or deserve.  God’s mercy keeps us from getting the punishment and separation that we have earned and do deserve.  God, Who is love, shares Himself and all that He is with me and gives me the ability to participate in the divine by giving to others this most precious of gifts.  This gift of love allows me to forgive which not only gives freedom to others, but allows me to experience the power of living unhindered and unrestricted.

We all have a choice to make.  Will we live for selfish reasons or for supernatural reasons?  Henery Drummond gives us some advice:  “Let man choose life; let him daily nourish his soul; let him forever starve the old life; let him abide continuously as a living branch in the Vine, and the true Vine life will flow into his soul, assimilating, renewing, conforming to type, till Christ, pledged by His own law, will be formed in him.”

God wants to take us to a place that we could never take ourselves.  Open your heart, spirit and mind, enjoy the gifts God has given you and as you live in the power of restoration, let your restored life give Him great glory.

This week we have taken a look at grace, mercy and love.  We have discovered that these are amazing gifts that God has blessed us with.  We also have come to realize that we do not exercise the use of these gifts near in the way we could or should.  Today we are going to look at another of the amazing gifts that God gives to us – the gift of forgiveness.

Forgiveness is the act of pardon or release into freedom as if nothing ever happened.  Forgiveness is all about freedom.  Freedom for the one who gives the forgiveness and freedom for the one who receives the forgiveness.

Forgiveness can be given without someone asking for it.  For forgiveness to have power in our lives, we have to first be willing to receive the forgiveness that God has given to each one of us.  The receiving of God’s forgiveness, sets us free to live in relationship with Him.

After we have received forgiveness from God, then we are ready to give forgiveness to others.  We did not get forgiveness because we earned or deserved it.  We got forgiveness because God gave and we received.  We do not give forgiveness to others because they have earned or deserved it.  We give because God gave to us and we have learned that forgiveness is the key that unlocks the door and sets us free from our self-imposed prisons.

1 John 1:5-10 teaches:  “5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.  8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.”

Remember:  Forgiveness is about freedom for the one who gives and the one who receives.  Lewis B. Smedes writes in “Forgive And Forget:  Healing The Hurts We Don’t Deserve”:  “Forgiveness is God’s invention for coming to terms with a world in which, despite their best intentions, people are unfair to each other and hurt each other deeply.  He began by forgiving us.  And He invites us all to forgive each other.”

Receive forgiveness, give forgiveness, experience freedom and let the grace, mercy and love of God flow – you will be glad you did!

Love is one of the words that gets tossed around in such an easy and often flippant way.  We say “I love you, I love this or I love that” and often apply it to all sorts of different things, when what we really should be saying is “I like”, but it’s more than like, so it must be love right?  Wrong!

Love is the action of sacrificing for and being committed to another for nothing in return.  Love is much more than a word, it is action.  Love is much more than feeling, it is commitment.  Love is much more than emotion, it is divine.  Love is not about what it can get, but what it can give.

I Corinthians 13:4-8 describes it this way:  “4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  8 Love never fails.”

When we think about what it means to love, we need to think about how God loves us. Listen close to the birds as they sing to one another and you will hear the wisper of God’s love.  God out of His great and amazing love for us has an ongoing conversation through what we see, hear, feel, taste and smell.  God communicates with us even when we are not paying attention, because He loves us and in that love He is waiting for us to hear it, get it, experience it.

Our way of loving Him back is by being attentive, by paying attention, by hearing what it is that He is saying.  The world that we live in is alive with God’s presence, power and love.  Through His great love for us God can and will take even the bad and use it for our good as we love Him back.

Love is an amazing gift of God.  Receive it and give it!  Dr. Kent M. Keith gives us some great advice on receiving and sharing the love of God with the actions of our life, when he teaches us in “The Paradoxical Commandments” that:

“People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.

If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.

The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.

People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.

People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway.”