Grace United Methodist Church - Franklin, IN
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  • About Us
    • Staff
    • What to Expect
    • What We Believe
    • Calendar
    • Upcoming Events
    • Institutional Partners
  • Classes & Small Groups
    • Adult >
      • Classes and Spiritual Formation Opportunities
      • Small Group Locations & Times
    • Youth
    • Children
  • Missions
    • Service Opportunities
    • Ministry Partners
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    • Giving
    • Ways of Giving
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  • Preschool
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Spiritual Fitness: Doing Good - Ephesians 2:8-10

8/26/2019

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I cannot remember where I was but I overheard someone make the comment that he thought a particular person was a “piece of work.” I don’t it was meant as a compliment. 

The whole notion of calling someone a “piece of work” is typically meant to highlight a lack of good behavior. If I call you a “piece of work,” I am probably not being kind. 

The apostle Paul, however, has another way of using the phrase a “piece of work.” In Ephesians, Paul says that we are God’s handiwork (2:10). He writes: “We are God’s handiwork designed to do good deeds” (2:10). This is the very purpose for which God created us: to do good work, or to act in ways that are uplifting. To be a “piece of work” in God’s hand is to be a “special work” of God’s new creation, of God’s grace. It is to be fashioned as one who demonstrates the very characteristics of God as loving, generous, merciful, kind, faithful, joyful, patient (Galatians 5:20-22); it is to display a power, in union with Christ, which moves us toward sharing in God’s own life (Ephesians 3:16). 

Indeed, a whole new character is brought into existence (Colossians 3:12-15). Other persons can actually see in us a discernible difference in how we live. The old ways are gone: the new ways are evident (2 Corinthians 5:17). Moreover, we act in ways not expecting a reward where we can take all the credit, but as a response of gratitude for the gift we have received in Christ (2:9). 

Do we do what we do to gain a prize, or do we respond out of gratitude for the gift of God’s grace? What motivates us to act the way we act? How is grace growing in us? What are we doing to stay spiritually fit?
​

Pastor Andy Kinsey
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Spiritual Fitness: Prayer - Ephesians 3:14-21

8/19/2019

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We cannot imagine the Christian life without asking Jesus himself to teach us to pray (Luke 11:1b), for we all need to learn how to pray. No one is an expert. Indeed, Paul himself in Romans said he had forgotten how to pray (8:26). And I have a feeling that there are times in our own lives when we do not know how to pray either. There are times when we come to prayer without knowing what to say, or even what our deepest needs are; we sometimes don’t even know what we are doing (Romans 8:26a). 

It is a reason why we are humbled in prayer, for we know that we cannot have access to God apart from God’s own gracious self-giving. We cannot fully pray unless we realize that the Spirit is also praying for us (Romans 8:26b). 

There is humility in knowing this: we are not the ones who control the outcome of God’s ways. God is not at our beck and call as some kind of cosmic bell-hop. If this is our image of God, then prayer has ceased to be prayer. It has become more about our presumption than our humility. 

Hence, the challenge and the invitation to pray: to ask, how am I going to grow in prayer? What do I need to be doing to cultivate prayer in my life? What will help me to mature? What practices do I need to develop? From morning devotion to table blessing, from meditation to praying for others, from silent-listening to the Lord’s prayer itself: there is no one way to pray, but there is the way Jesus himself taught us to pray; that is, there is the way that Christ himself provides for us the example of prayer, reminding us that he is with us always (Matthew 28:20).

What first steps do we need to take in prayer? How may we do so to become spiritually fit?
​
Pastor Andy Kinsey
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Schnadenfreude - Jonah 3:10-4:11

8/6/2019

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​The primary role of a prophet in Israel was to know God and to communicate that knowledge in ways that would help the people of Israel flourish, to return to God and stay in love with God. The primary role of a prophet was to announce this knowledge so that people would also know God and love God (Deuteronomy 6:4-9). The problems came when the people would forsake this knowledge of God and forget God and God’s ways.

And that is what made the prophets so upset. Not that God had changed God’s ways, but that the people had changed their ways and left God!    

This is what makes the prophet Jonah so unique: the role seems to be reversed. Jonah is the one who doesn’t want to change; he is the one whose heart is far from God, angry with God because God is doing what God does – act righteously – and angry with God for who God is – merciful! 

It is a role reversal. Not to mention the fact that Jonah is preaching to a foreign country, to Israel’s enemy: the Assyrians in Nineveh. 

Now, a word we sometimes use to describe this anger or resentment in Jonah is a good German word (perhaps you have heard it). It is the word Schnadenfreude. Jonah reeks of Schnadenfreude. His whole demeanor is dripping with it. And what that means is that Jonah has this attitude problem, this kind of outlook upon others, wanting to see them ruined or destroyed or wanting them to get what he thinks they deserve.

Indeed, it is a deeply spiritual problem, and it is a problem that can corrode the soul, as does Jonah’s.

How may we allow our resentments and angers to get the best of us? How may bitterness poison our relationships with God and each other? How may there be a Jonah in us all? 
​
Pastor Andy Kinsey
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Grace United Methodist Church
1300 E Adams Dr,
Franklin, IN 46131

Phone: 317-736-7962
grace@franklingrace.org

Weekend  Worship Services
Saturday: 5:30pm 
Sunday: 9:00am & 11:00am

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