Restoration 2012: Restoring Power

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Restoration Ministry

John Bradshaw

The Power of Grace

Father in heaven, we come to you in the name of Jesus, anticipating your blessing.

When we expect your blessing, we don't pray, I hope not at least presumptuously, but we come to you humbly, but in faith and trust, knowing that you want what's best for us.

Lord, if I can pray from my heart, I want to ask you that you'd be merciful to me, that tonight I'd be nothing other than a messenger for you.

I pray that you direct my thoughts and my words and then touch all of our hearts that the message you have for each of us, and in some ways, sometimes it's different, I pray it will come home all the way to the heart, and that we'll all be blessed and touched, and that our ears will hear and our heart will be impacted.

Let our lives intersect with your life right now, please, I pray.

We thank you, Father, for hearing and answering because we prayed in Jesus' name, please say amen.

If you will make an effort to understand what I mean when I say this, I think you might agree with me that the Bible is a curious book.

I mean, it is not like any other book that you will ever read.

That's not to say there are no other dramatic books available.

I would like you to consider the kind of book that the Bible is.

Just think of 1 story, the story of Joseph.

Joseph was raised in, really in privilege, really.

Didn't seem like he came from a poor family.

He had all these brothers, a kid brother.

Then, he was terribly treated by his brothers.

Sold into slavery, went on down there to Egypt.

Things looked up and then he was betrayed into prison.

I think actually Potiphar didn't really believe his wife's accusations if he had, Joseph would likely have been executed.

But he's there in prison and he's languishing in prison, it's not working out well.

And then those 2 characters are there, and Joseph interprets their dreams.

He says, remember me, I'd like for you guys, when you get out, to remember me, maybe put in a good word for me, and they don't.

And he's languishing in the prison, and he's amiss.

You know when they finally called him out he had to go get himself cleaned up the Bible says.

Overnight Joseph goes from being a an imprisoned slave to being the Prime Minister of 1 of the greatest nations on the face of the earth.

It's a remarkable story full of drama He's then a deliverer for his people.

He saves the Egyptians from starvation and a terrible time of famine.

It could be that God has called you Esther for such a time as this.

I can't figure out how you can be married to a fellow and he doesn't know what church you go to.

Maybe I'd be just guilty of splitting hairs.

Maybe they had a lot to talk about and she just never got around to telling him about that.

The Exodus, 40 years in the wilderness, eating bread off the ground.

Water that came out of a rock is what God gave them to drink.

Oh man, there were turncoats, there were tyrants, and there were backbiters and bickerers, and there were Insurrectionists, but Moses hung in there, you know, got him all the way to the very edge of the promised land.

Take now your son, your only son, whom you love.

Take him up there and offer him to me like you'd kill a sheep or a lamb or a baby goat.

Dramatic, gripping, powerful, but that's not what makes the Bible unique.

It's not what makes the Bible such an exceptional literary work, and think about it just in terms of its literary value or quality.

Man, those are some of the best-known, most powerful words in all of literature.

What are some other famous beginnings to books?

I mean, It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

But it's not as powerful as in the beginning God.

Incredibly powerful, but profoundly simple.

The Bible begins by laying down the ground rules.

In the beginning, God, He was here before you.

He is transcendent, He is vast, He is mighty, and He is great.

And shortly after those words are written, we are introduced to the creation of our original grandparents.

And this time, God didn't speak something into existence.

God came all the way down from heaven to earth and he scratched around in the soil and he fashioned a man and made him out of dust.

He had this inanimate man, a clay man, a dirt man.

So God got down, did something very intimate.

He performed something a lot like mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

Breathed into his nostrils the breath of life the eyes opened up the pulse started happening heart is beating blood is circulating now amazing stuff God made Adam he made Eve why all this personal project of God he didn't want to speak it he wanted to make it fashion it form it the man and the woman afterwards he took that rib he said I'm gonna I made something good now I'm gonna make something very good.

He made Eve right after he made Adam, you understand.

He made the human family so human beings might grow, develop, expand their horizons and their minds, so that they might enjoy God's companionship throughout eternity's ceaseless ages, so that the earth would be populated with happy people, fulfilled people, growing people, heading someplace, people who might show to the universe what God is truly like.

So that He could lavish His love upon us.

It's not unlike a couple, married couple, who decide they're going to have a child.

And In many cases, I'd like to think most cases, not all cases, but perhaps most cases, couples feel compelled to have children because they have this innate, inbuilt, God-given urge to shower their love upon a creature and nurture it and grow it and develop it and give it every opportunity and every blessing.

He wanted to pour his love on the human family.

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The Power of Grace

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