How Grace Gets You to GO: A Study of Ephesians 3:1-13

Pastor Josh opened with The Lord of the Rings, his favorite trilogy of all time (and The Return of the King his favorite movie of all time). What makes stories like that so compelling is a group of weak, fallen people who don't always get along, sent on a seemingly impossible mission to face the evil in the world and to suffer so that there could be a better future. We love watching stories like that. But even more compelling than watching one is living one — and that is exactly what God invites us into. He does not call us to settle onto the couch of comfortable Christianity. His grace is meant to get us moving.

In our verse-by-verse series through Ephesians, Grace for You, we come to Ephesians 3:1-13. The big idea is simple but life-changing: the same grace that saves you also sends you. Here are three ways grace gets you to go.

1. Grace gets you to go even if it means suffering

Paul wrote Ephesians from prison. He had been jailed, stoned, and beaten for sharing the gospel, and eventually gave his life for it. Yet he never recanted. Why? Because he understood that his calling was pure grace, and that calling was worth any cost.

"For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles... I ask you, therefore, not to be discouraged because of my sufferings for you, which are for your glory." (Ephesians 3:1, 13)

Notice the reversal: the prisoner is the one doing the encouraging. Paul tells the church not to be rattled by his pain, because his suffering is for their glory — so that people could come to know Christ and share in the hope of heaven. He had a heavenly mindset: heaven is real, hell is real, and forever is a really long time. So he shared the gospel like people's lives depended on it, because they do.

Here is the honest truth: sharing Jesus widely is impossible without a willingness to suffer. Our impact for the kingdom is limited by our threshold for pain. The gospel runs against the grain of the culture. The world says truth is whatever is true for you; Jesus says, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6). Swimming against the current isn't easy, and sometimes going against the grain leaves a splinter. But when eternity is at stake, that cost looks small. God doesn't call us to be comfortable. He calls us to be faithful.

2. Grace gets the worst sinners to go share the Savior

After a challenging first point, this one is a little more comforting.

"Although I am less than the least of all the Lord's people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ." (Ephesians 3:8)

Of all the people God could have made His leading messenger, He chose Paul — a man who, before he became a Christian, had Christians killed. In Pastor Josh's words, Paul was "a religious terrorist." If we are honest, we might struggle to trust a person with a past like that. The early church did, at first. It took Barnabas vouching for him, and some time, before they welcomed him. But this was God's guy.

That raises the first of two questions Pastor Josh answered: why can the worst sinners share the Savior? Because grace is about His love, not your worthiness. God does not choose people because they are worthy. He chooses by grace, and grace is getting what you do not deserve. If you've ever thought, "How could God use me? I'm not good enough," Pastor Josh's answer is: "Friend, it's not about you... it's about God and His grace choosing and forgiving unworthy people." He admitted that one of the things he wrestles with most is Sunday morning, when he thinks about the ways he has fallen short that week and asks God if he is really qualified to preach. And normally, he said, God tells him something like this: "Josh, it was never about you in the first place. It's by grace. Go and do it." God specializes in taking broken, imperfect, sinful people, filling them with His grace, and sending them out to pour it into a world that desperately needs it.

The second question: why should the Savior be shared? Because the Savior is boundless in riches. And what a grace it is. Paul calls it the "boundless riches of Christ." Boundless means limitless. We all live with limits: physical, emotional, financial. Even credit cards have limits. But God's love has none. No sin is larger than His grace. That is not just good news to receive — it is good news to share. Paul later wrote that Christ saved him, "the worst of sinners" (1 Timothy 1:15-16), as an example so that others would believe. Even your sin can become some of your greatest material, because you can say, "If God could save me, He can save you." Your testimony is what God wants to use. You don't need every answer to share the gospel; you just need to know how God saved you.

3. By grace you can go to God freely and confidently

Before grace sends you out, it draws you in.

"In him [Jesus] and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence." (Ephesians 3:12)

Why do we so often avoid this? Sometimes we are simply too busy. Other times we have put limits on God's love and assume He will reject us at our worst. But through Jesus you are forgiven, fully known, and fully loved — which means you can come to God with total honesty. You can bring Him your deepest fears, your darkest failures, and your most distressing doubts, without pretending.

And you can come not just freely but confidently. Pastor Josh said that if he knocked on the King of England's door at 1 a.m., he wouldn't expect a welcome, because he isn't family. But one of the king's own children could knock with confidence. Through faith in Christ, the Creator of the universe is also your Father. The writer of Hebrews puts it this way: "Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need" (Hebrews 4:16). That confidence isn't reserved for your good days after a quiet time and a cup of coffee. It is especially for your darkest days, when you've done what you knew you shouldn't. In those moments, you can still run to Him, because you belong to Him.

A takeaway to carry with you

God loves you exactly where you are — and He loves you far too much to leave you there. So the question for this week is simple:

• Who is grace calling you to go to?

• What is grace calling you to go and do?

Maybe it's going to Arroyo's Connect Class and starting to serve, asking forgiveness from someone you've wronged, inviting a coworker or neighbor to church, or sharing the gospel with someone in your life. Maybe it's going to God for the first time. You don't have to earn it or deserve it; go to Him and He will freely forgive you. Or maybe it's taking the step of baptism (five people were baptized after this message). Whatever your next step, take it by His grace.

If you're anywhere in Livermore or the Tri-Valley and looking for a church family to take that step with, we would love to welcome you at Arroyo Church. Come as you are — this can feel like home.

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What Is Grace and What Does It Mean in the Bible?

You have probably heard the word grace before, maybe in church or in an old hymn. But many people have heard about grace without ever knowing what it really means. Some, even faithful church members, think that if you believe in Jesus and you are a good person, God will accept you. It sounds right, but it misses the heart of the Christian faith.

So what is grace? Here it is in simple terms. Grace is God's free gift of love and forgiveness in your life. It is everything God gives you when you don't deserve it. You cannot earn grace. You can only receive it.

The gospel of grace is the central theme of the Bible. I preached a whole message on why grace is the greatest gift you could ever receive, from the first chapter of Philippians.

In the Bible, grace is a gift you could never earn

Think about it like this. If you work an hourly job and put in zero hours, you get paid nothing. If you work eight hours, you get paid for eight hours. You earned that paycheck. A birthday present is different. Nobody asks how many hours you worked before they hand you a gift. You simply receive it.

The Bible puts it this way: "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 6:23, NIV). Notice the two words, wages and gift. Wages are what you earn, and what our sin has earned is death. Eternal life can only come to you as a gift.

That is why Paul says "it is by grace you have been saved, through faith" and "not by works, so that no one can boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9, NIV). Grace is often called God's unmerited favor, and that is a good definition. Unmerited simply means you did not earn it. Grace means God does not treat you according to your sins, but according to His love.

Why can't anyone earn it? Imagine standing on a California beach and being told to swim to Hawaii. Some people would not last five seconds. A strong swimmer might make it five miles. Some of us would get farther than others, but nobody would make it all the way. That is our situation before God, because "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23, NIV).

You cannot work your way to God. The good news is that God worked His way to you! Jesus left heaven, lived a perfect life, and died on the cross to pay for your sins. Then He rose again three days later. When you place your faith in Him, you receive His grace as a free gift. If you are afraid your past is too much for grace, read why God can forgive you after everything you've done.

Here is the best part. You can never do anything to make Him stop loving you, because you never did anything to make Him start loving you.

The grace that saves you keeps changing you

It is easy to think grace is how the Christian life starts, and that after that it is up to you to become a good person. However, grace is not just how your faith starts. It is how your faith keeps going. The same grace that saves you is the grace that strengthens you.

You will never graduate from grace. Grace is not the ABCs of the Christian life. It is the whole alphabet. You need grace when you get out of bed, when you go to work, and when you deal with your family. The strength you need to say no to temptation comes by grace too.

Paul wrote, "For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say 'No' to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age" (Titus 2:11-12, NIV). Notice what grace does here. It teaches us. God's grace is the very fuel that makes you more like Jesus.

Maybe you have thought, "I don't know if I could keep this up for the rest of my life." You're right. You can't. But here is the good news: you don't have to!

Picture yourself at the bottom of a pit you dug with your own sin, with both of your legs broken. God reaches in and pulls you out. But He does not set you down and say, "Now walk to the hospital by yourself." He carries you there, He heals you, and at the end of your life He brings you home. God finishes what He starts.

So how do you grow? Not by clenching your fists and gritting your teeth. You grow by resting in and receiving God's love for you. The more you know His love, the more loving you will become. "We love because he first loved us" (1 John 4:19, NIV). That is what it looks like to keep in step with the Spirit instead of religious striving.

Grace is not permission to keep sinning

You might ask, "If God's grace covers all my sin, why not just keep doing whatever I want?" Paul saw that question coming, and his answer was clear: "Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means!" (Romans 6:1-2, NIV).

God's forgiveness is not a get-out-of-jail-free card that lets you go right back to the very things that got you locked up. Rather, His forgiveness is the fuel that helps you get free from the sin you keep falling into.

You can see this in the way Jesus treated a woman who was caught in adultery. The religious leaders brought her in front of a crowd and said the law commanded them to stone her. After Jesus challenged them, they walked away one by one. "Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin" (John 8:11, NIV).

Notice the order. Jesus did not make her leave her sin first so that He would stop condemning her. He took away her condemnation first, and then He called her to a new life. True transformation happens after being touched by Jesus.

So if someone uses grace as an excuse to live however they want, something is wrong. Either they do not understand grace yet, or they have never truly received it. We are not saved by good works, but we are saved to do good works.

That does not mean you will be perfect. You will still fall short, and that is exactly why you need grace. But the deeper the roots of your faith grow, the more fruit of obedience you will see. You are not saved by how much you have changed. But when you are saved, you will change.

How to live from grace this week

Knowing about grace and knowing the God of grace are two different things. It is one thing to know a lot of facts about a famous person. It is another thing to actually know them. Growing in what you know about grace takes time, and it takes being intentional with that time, just like any close relationship.

When you place your faith in Jesus, Paul says you gain access "into this grace in which we now stand" (Romans 5:2, NIV). You do not step into grace once and then move on. You get to stand in it every single day, even if you have followed Jesus for years.

Standing in grace also frees you from needing everyone else's approval. The more you experience the acceptance that comes from the gospel of grace, the less you will feed your addiction to the acceptance of people.

So let me ask you a question. Have you received this gift of grace? You do not have to earn it, but you do have to receive it. Imagine I handed you a birthday card with a check for $100,000 inside, and you threw it away without opening it. The gift would be real, but the money would never reach your account. Today, you can open the gift. If you are ready, place your faith in Jesus and receive His grace right now. If you are not sure how, read how to become a Christian and accept Jesus.

Daily Practice: Each morning this week, read a few verses from Philippians 1:1-11, the passage from the message above. Then pray something like this: "Jesus, thank You that You are a God of grace. Today, I open the door of my heart to Your grace."

What Does It Mean to Be Saved? A Study of Ephesians 2:1-10

Think about the last time someone said, “You really saved the day.” It feels good to hear it. But flip it around: how do you feel when someone says, “I really saved your skin today”? Suddenly it stings. That little reaction reveals something true about all of us: in our pride, we don't like the idea that we need to be saved. We would rather be the one doing the saving. Yet the central message of Christianity is exactly the opposite: you are not the Savior. You are the one who needs saving.

In our series Grace for You, we are walking through Ephesians verse by verse. This week we landed on one of the clearest passages in all of Scripture on what it actually means to be saved: Ephesians 2:1-10. If you want to understand salvation, this is the place to look. The passage answers three questions—what we are saved from, what we are saved by, and what we are saved for.

Saved From Sin

Before we can celebrate the rescue, we have to be honest about the danger. Paul does not soften it:

“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.” (Ephesians 2:1-3)

Two words here help define sin. “Transgression” means crossing a line, and “sin” means missing the mark. Picture the limit line at a red light. That line is there to protect you and preserve your life. God has drawn limit lines for our lives too, and the command is there because He cares. Sin is seeing the line God has drawn for our good and saying, “God, I know what You say, but I don't care. I'm going to cross it anyway.” It is also missing the mark, missing the bull's-eye: anything short of perfect is sin. That includes the good we fail to do, and even sins we commit without knowing it, because every one of us has blind spots.

Why do we sin? Paul points to three forces that surround us: the world (“the ways of this world”), the devil (“the ruler of the kingdom of the air”), and the flesh (“the cravings of our flesh”). The world is the value system pressing in on us. The devil is a real, personal spiritual force seeking to separate us from God. But the greatest enemy is not the devil or the world. It is you: the flesh, your own sinful nature. You are the one with the freedom to make your own decisions. You can move across the country, but you take yourself with you. The result of sin is sobering: we are spiritually dead, separated from God, and unless we turn to Him and are forgiven, deserving of wrath—a death that does not end here on earth but lasts forever. You don't need a life coach to fix that. You need a Savior to raise the dead.

Saved By Grace

Then the whole story turns on one word. “But.”

“But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.” (Ephesians 2:4-5)

This is the unexpected twist that changes everything. We were dead; He made us alive. Paul keeps going:

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)

Grace is God's unearned love in your life. It means He loves you because He loves you, and He is loving toward you even when you do unlovable things. This is where Christianity stands apart from every other religion. Other systems say, work your way up to God and maybe He will accept you. The gospel says God worked His way down to you. You don't climb a ladder up to heaven; He came down the ladder to you.

If you are a believer, hear this: you are just as loved on your worst week as on your best. If you start to think that even one percent of your salvation is based on your works, it will crumble you and wreck your soul. It is one hundred percent His grace and zero percent your works. And grace is received through faith—not achieving, simply receiving. Faith is coming to God with empty hands, trusting Him and saying, “I believe that You are Lord, that You died and rose again. I need You. I'm a sinner who needs a Savior, and I'm giving my life to You.” Imagine throwing away a plain-looking card that held a million-dollar check inside. That is what happens when people never truly place their faith in Christ: the greatest gift ever offered gets thrown away unopened. This grace gives you a confidence and a humility, at the same time, that you could never have any other way—confident because it is finished and you are God's child, humble because you were a dead, lost sinner deserving of wrath, and apart from God you would be completely lost.

Saved For Good Works

Grace does not leave us where it found us.

“For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:10)

A lot of Christians love verses 8-9 and quietly erase verse 10. But good works are not the root of your salvation—they are the fruit. Trying to save or change yourself by your own power is like cutting the tops off the weeds in your backyard and hoping an orange tree full of fruit sprouts up. The weeds just grow back. God does something deeper: He uproots the old, plants His Spirit within you, and over time produces real fruit. The motivation is not fear or obligation. It is gratitude and trust. Picture a boss who loaned you a billion dollars, money you could never pay back, and who then forgave the whole debt freely and offered to let you work for him for the rest of your life. You would never want to work for anyone else. Out of gratitude you would want to be the best employee you could be, and you would trust that whatever he wanted for you was what's best for you. That is how grace reshapes a life.

A Closing Reflection

In Batman Begins, young Bruce Wayne falls into a deep well, hurt and unable to climb out. The movie's famous line asks, “Why do we fall?” and answers, “So we can learn to pick ourselves up.” That is essentially what every other religion teaches. But the irony is that Bruce did not pick himself up. His father had to come down and lift him out when he could not save himself. We fall so we can learn that only our Father can lift us. So wherever you are today, the question is simple: have you reached up an empty hand of faith to the One who has already come down for you?

If you are near Livermore or anywhere in the Tri-Valley, we would love to welcome you in person and talk more about what it means to be saved by grace through faith in Jesus.

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How Do I Become a Christian and Accept Jesus Into My Life?

Everybody has received an invitation, maybe to a wedding or a birthday party. Some invitations get an instant yes. Others get a maybe, or no answer at all.

There is one invitation that matters more than any other, and it comes from God Himself. Jesus is inviting you into a relationship with Him.

Maybe you grew up around church, but you are not sure you have ever said yes to Jesus for yourself. Or maybe you have heard people talk about "accepting Jesus" and wondered what that really means.

The good news is that becoming a Christian is really quite simple, and you do not need to have all the answers first. I preached a message about the day Jesus invited His very first followers, and I would love for you to watch it.

Being a Christian is not about being a good enough person

Many people think becoming a Christian means trying harder to be a good person. You show up to church on Easter, pay your taxes, and try to be nice to people. Then you hope it is enough to get you into heaven.

Or maybe you think, "I'm not that bad. It's not like I've hurt anybody." But the standard is not being better than the worst people you know. The Bible says, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23, NIV).

Notice that Paul does not say we fall short of our own standards. We fall short of the glory of God, His perfect holiness, and next to that standard, every one of us misses it by a mile.

You see, sin is like a pit you cannot climb out of on your own. You are not the hero of this story. Jesus is. He died on the cross in your place for your sins, and He rose again three days later so that you could be made right with God.

That is why the Bible says we are saved "not by works, so that no one can boast" (Ephesians 2:9, NIV). Being a Christian is not about religious performance. It is about a personal relationship with Jesus, who came looking for you long before you ever went looking for Him.

So the question is not whether you know about God. The question is whether you know Him.

What it looks like to say yes to Jesus

So how do you actually become a Christian? When Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and his brother Andrew fishing, and He gave them a simple invitation:

"Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will send you out to fish for people." At once they left their nets and followed him. (Mark 1:17-18, NIV)

Jesus gives you that same invitation today. Here is what saying yes looks like.

Firstly, turn to God. Following Jesus always means leaving something behind, just as those fishermen left their nets. The number one thing all of us have to leave behind is our pride. It is waving the white flag and saying, "Jesus, I'm done calling my own shots. I'm following You." The Bible calls this repentance, which simply means to change your mind.

Secondly, trust Jesus. To have faith is to trust. Think about it like this. When you board an airplane, you may not understand how the plane works, and you may never see the pilot. Still, you trust the pilot to get you where you need to go. Take that same trust and place it in Jesus.

Real faith is more than agreeing with the facts about Jesus. It starts in your head, but it goes to your heart. It means putting your whole weight on Jesus and trusting Him to save you. The Bible puts it this way:

If you declare with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:9, NIV)

Notice the words "you will be saved." It is a promise, not a probability!

Thirdly, receive Him. Salvation is a gift, and you do not pay for a gift. You simply receive it. That is what it means to accept Jesus. John tells us, "Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God" (John 1:12, NIV).

God will never force His gift on you. The question is not, "Does God want me in His family?" The question is, "Do you want to be in His family?" The moment you believe in and receive Jesus, you become a child of God, no matter who you are or what you have done. If you are wondering whether God can forgive you after everything you have done, the answer is yes.

You do not need a big faith to take the first step

Do you want to believe, but still have doubts? You might be afraid that your faith is too small to count.

I love the prayer of a father who brought his son to Jesus for help. He said, "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!" (Mark 9:24, NIV). Jesus did not turn that father away. He helped him.

Your faith does not have to be faultless, fearless, or famous. It just has to be genuine.

Think back to that airplane. Picture two people on the same flight. One is relaxed, and the other is nervous the whole way, but both land in the same place because both got on the plane. So do not put your faith in your faith. Put it in Jesus, the One who has the power to save you.

And do not wait until you feel completely ready, because to not decide is to decide. If you never answer an invitation to a party, you still miss the party. Jesus is still inviting you, and it is the greatest invitation you will ever receive.

You can pray something like this today

The words of a prayer are not what save you. It is your heart believing in Jesus that saves you. But prayer is a simple way to tell God you are trusting Him, and you can pray it quietly in your heart.

If you are ready to say yes to Jesus, you could pray something like this:

Lord Jesus, I come to You admitting that I have sinned and fallen short. Thank You for dying on the cross for my sins and rising again. Right now, I trust You, and I give You my life. I am turning from my old life, and I choose to follow You as my Savior and my Lord. Come into my life and change me. Thank You for inviting me into Your family. Amen.

If you just prayed that prayer as a way of placing your faith in Jesus, you are now a child of God. Welcome to the family!

Jesus said that "there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents" (Luke 15:10, NIV). Heaven is celebrating you right now, and so are we. We would love to pray for you and cheer you on, so please tell us you prayed this prayer.

Your first steps as a new follower of Jesus

Becoming a Christian happens in a moment, but following Jesus lasts the rest of your life. To follow Jesus means to learn from Him and live with Him, so that over time you begin to live like Him. Here is how to start.

Read God's word. The Bible is how you learn from Jesus, and it is where He speaks to you.

Talk with God. The moment you trust Jesus, the Holy Spirit comes to live in you, so you can talk with God anytime. Be honest with Him, because being candid with God creates closeness to Him.

Find a church family. It is vital that you join a Christ-centered, Bible-believing church so you can keep growing in your new faith. Read why followers of Jesus still need the church.

Get baptized. Baptism is simply an outward expression of an inward confession. It is how you go public with your faith in Jesus, and it is your next step after you believe.

And expect some bumps in the road. Everyone who follows Jesus fails, but He does not leave you behind. He forgives you and puts you back on the right road. I have never met anyone who began following Jesus and regretted it years later.

Today, you can say yes to Jesus and take your first step in following Him.

Daily Practice: Start reading the Gospel of Mark, the shortest of the four Gospels, one chapter a day. Before each chapter, ask Jesus to help you get to know Him better.

Is It Too Late to Come Back to God After All These Years?

I'll never forget the first time I tried to run away from home. I was seven years old, and I do not even remember why I wanted to leave. What I do remember is packing my backpack with my favorite snacks and shirts, then walking down the sidewalk away from my house.

Then my dad called my name, and in a kind voice he asked, "Josh, do you want to play catch one last time before you leave us?" I loved playing catch with my dad, so I agreed. After a handful of throws, I began to cry. My dad threw off his baseball mitt, ran across the lawn, and gave me a big bear hug. He told me he loved me, and I told him I did not want to run away anymore.

What changed my mind? Experiencing my father's love.

Maybe you did not run from God all at once. Maybe you slowly drifted. You used to pray and go to church, but then life got busy, or you walked away on purpose. Now years have gone by, and you wonder if it is too late to come back.

If you have been running from God or slowly drifting from Him, I can tell you this. It is not too late. There is no place you could fall that is outside of His reach. Peter is proof of that, and I preached on his story here.

Jesus came looking for people who are lost

When Jesus passed through Jericho, a chief tax collector named Zacchaeus wanted to see Him. Zacchaeus loved money so much that he cheated people to get more of it. He was short, so he climbed a tree to see over the crowd. Out of that whole crowd, Jesus looked up, called him by name, and invited Himself over to his house.

In Jesus' day, sharing a meal in someone's home was a way of saying you accepted them and wanted a relationship with them. The people started to mutter about it, but Jesus cared more about Zacchaeus than about His own reputation. He said this is exactly why He came: "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost" (Luke 19:10, NIV).

Notice the order. Jesus came to Zacchaeus before Zacchaeus changed a thing. You do not have to earn your way back before God comes looking for you.

Jesus told a story like this in Luke 15. A shepherd with a hundred sheep loses one, and Jesus asks, "Doesn't he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?" (Luke 15:4, NIV). God is a running God. He does not stand still when you run away. Rather, He runs after you, just as any father would run after a lost child he loves.

And when the shepherd finds that sheep, "he joyfully puts it on his shoulders" (Luke 15:5, NIV). God not only gives you joy when you are with Him, but He gets joy out of being with you. He is still looking for you, and His invitation to you is still open.

God's kindness is what leads you home

It was my dad's love that changed my mind that day, and God works the same way. The Bible says:

"Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?" (Romans 2:4, NIV)

Repentance is a word that makes many people picture a screaming preacher on a street corner. However, repentance is not a negative word in the Bible but a positive one. To repent simply means to change your mind. You once thought one way about God and your life, and now you think the right way.

Notice that it is God's kindness that leads you there, and the verse talks about the riches of His kindness. Meaning, God is never sold out when it comes to the supply of His love for you.

His kindness is seen most clearly on the cross, where Jesus was killed for our sins so that we would not have to be. His arms are always open wide toward you. That is what makes it safe to come back home, even after you packed your bags with a plan to leave and never return.

Jesus restored Peter after his worst failure

Peter was one of Jesus' closest friends. The night before the cross, Jesus told His disciples they would all fall away. Peter said, "Even if all fall away, I will not" (Mark 14:29, NIV). That same night, Peter denied knowing Jesus three times. When the rooster crowed, he remembered what Jesus had told him, and he broke down in tears.

Now look at what Jesus had said just before that: "But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee" (Mark 14:28, NIV). Galilee is where it all started, where Jesus first called Peter to follow Him. Jesus knew Peter would fall, and He still planned to meet him there.

After Jesus rose, He met Peter by the Sea of Galilee. Peter had denied Him three times, so three times Jesus asked Peter if he loved Him.

Jesus was not ignoring the wreckage, but like a good surgeon, He put His hand right on the wound so it could heal. Then He gave Peter the same call He gave him at the beginning, telling him to feed His sheep and to follow Him.

The same man who denied Christ three times became the leader of leaders in the early church. There is restoration after the wreckage!

If you are in the family of God, you are in the family of God forever. God promises to never let go of you, even when you feel like letting go of Him. He does not start working on you and then give up halfway, because "he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus" (Philippians 1:6, NIV).

What about the unforgivable sin?

Some people stay away from God because they are afraid they have committed the unforgivable sin. If that is you, start with the promise Jesus gave: "people can be forgiven all their sins and every slander they utter" (Mark 3:28, NIV).

Right after that promise, Jesus warned about blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, and it helps to look at why He said it. Religious leaders had watched Jesus drive out demons, and they were saying, "He has an impure spirit" (Mark 3:30, NIV). They saw God at work right in front of them and called it evil. I believe the unforgivable sin is the demonization of Jesus that comes from a hardened heart.

That is not the same as doubting Jesus or not believing in Him. The whole point of the gospel is that Jesus saves people who doubt Him and disbelieve in Him.

And if you have placed your faith in Jesus, you cannot commit it. When you trust Him, you are not just forgiven, but you are filled with the Holy Spirit. God "has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come" (2 Corinthians 5:5, NIV). Even if you have done something really bad, that is not the unforgivable sin. Jesus is the friend of sinners.

You can come back to God today

When Jesus was crucified, a criminal hung on a cross next to Him, and that man admitted he deserved his punishment. As he was dying, he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom" (Luke 23:42, NIV). Jesus answered, "Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise" (Luke 23:43, NIV). It is never too late for anyone to come to Christ.

Your story may not be one big fall, but a slow drift away from your Heavenly Father. Either way, do not try to change on your own, because you cannot create change within yourself. Only God's love can. That is why coming home is about surrender over self-reliance.

God's hand is reaching out to you right now. Grab it by faith, and He will do all the heavy lifting.

Today, you can recommit your life to Jesus. If you are ready, you could pray something like this:

Here I am, Lord. I know You have reached out Your hand to me, and I want to grab it right now. I have drifted, but I am coming home. I want to experience Your grace, Your forgiveness, Your healing, and Your restoration. Amen.

Daily Practice: Read all of Luke 15. Afterwards, take some time to reflect on whatever truths stood out to you.

Can God Forgive Me After Everything I’ve Done?

When we were kids, we would drive past a group of pigs on our way home, and we always loved to look at them. Those pigs were always covered in filth. Why? Because they are pigs, and that is what pigs do.

There are times in our lives when we feel completely covered in filth. We feel covered by our sin, our struggles, and our shame. Maybe that describes you right now.

Maybe you fell back into a habit you thought was behind you. Maybe you did the one sin you thought you would never do. Nobody else may know about it, and you might even be telling yourself, "I shouldn't tell anyone about this. God could never forgive me."

I want you to hear this before anything else. You are a sinner, but God is a better forgiver. I preached a whole message on this from Exodus 34, where God shows Moses what He is like.

Your sin is not bigger than the grace of God

You might say, "You do not know how bad my sin is, or how many times I have done it!" You are right, I do not know, but I do know this. There is no sin that is more powerful than the grace of God.

Paul puts it this way: "where sin increased, grace increased all the more" (Romans 5:20, NIV). Notice that he does not say grace increased just enough for you to barely be forgiven. It grew even more than the sin did.

Think about it like this. Say you get pulled over for going 100 miles an hour in a 30 zone. The officer tells you he still has to write the ticket, but he is going to pay it for you. Then he hands you enough money to buy the nicest car you could ever want. That is grace: God does not just cover the cost of your sin, but He gives you far more than you need.

The Bible also says that "love covers over a multitude of sins" (1 Peter 4:8, NIV). The love of Christ shown on the cross does not cover only a few of your sins, but a multitude of them. How often you have sinned does not scare God away from you. Rather, He runs toward you with a love that can cover all of it.

God is a better forgiver than you are a sinner

In Exodus 34, God met Moses on a mountain to give him the Ten Commandments on tablets of stone. God knew His people would break those commands, so He told Moses up front who He is: "the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness" (Exodus 34:6, NIV). He is the God who forgives "wickedness, rebellion and sin" (Exodus 34:7, NIV).

Notice those three words, because the Bible uses different words to describe different sides of our sin. Sin is missing the mark, like an arrow that misses the target. Wickedness is the problem inside our own hearts. Rebellion is when you see the line, you know you should not cross it, and you cross it anyway. We have all sinned in all three ways, and God forgives all three.

You might wonder how a just God can simply forgive. He does not ignore sin, because sin has to be paid for, and that is what the cross is all about. Your sin is like a debt of $50 million that you could never pay off. Jesus paid that debt in full with His own blood, so you do not have to.

You may have been walking on eggshells with God, waiting for Him to give up on you. However, He is slow to anger, and He loves you just as much on your bad days as He does on your good days.

God does not despise a broken heart

King David fell hard when he committed adultery and then had the woman's husband killed. Afterward, David wrote a prayer we now know as Psalm 51, and in it he says, "a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise" (Psalm 51:17, NIV).

You see, being brokenhearted over your sin is not a bad place to be. God does not despise your brokenness. He takes your brokenness and forgives you, so your life can be made into something beautiful again. That means the best thing you can do after you sin is bring your broken heart to God!

But not all guilt is the same. Overwhelming guilt is the voice that says, "Nobody else has ever messed up like this before," or "My future is ruined." It hits your soul like a hammer and nails you into a frame of shame. That is an ungodly kind of guilt, because it keeps you away from Christ.

Godly guilt is different. It is like the jolt of pain you feel when you touch boiling water. It helps you see your sin, but it also helps you see your Savior, whose love for you is bigger than your sin. "Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death" (2 Corinthians 7:10, NIV).

So do not act like the mess is not there. Hiding your sin only causes more hurt, and healing is not possible without revealing. God did not reject David when he came to Him with a broken heart, and He will not reject you if you come to Him openly and honestly. Here is His promise:

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9, NIV)

In Christ, there is no condemnation left for you

Carrying your sin can feel like wearing a heavy backpack, with every failure loaded into it, and you carry it everywhere you go. You try to take it off, but it keeps ending up back on your shoulders. You cannot take that weight off by yourself. Only Jesus can.

Think about the heaviest guilt you have ever felt after the worst sin you have ever committed. On the cross, Jesus carried the weight of that sin, along with the sins of the whole world.

Here is the good news: "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1, NIV). No means none, not even a speck. Jesus was condemned on the cross in your place, so if you have placed your faith in Him, there is none left for you.

That promise does not go up and down with how well you are doing. On your best days, no condemnation. On your worst days, no condemnation. When God looks at you, He does not see your sin, but He sees you as if you have lived the perfect life of Christ. You are no longer defined by your sin, but by your Savior!

You can bring it to Jesus today

The question is not, "Can God forgive me?" The question is, "Will I receive His forgiveness?" God will not force it on you, because forgiveness is a gift, and a gift is not something you earn but something you simply receive.

You do not need a big faith to receive it either. You are not saved by the size of your faith but by the size of God's grace. Take whatever small faith you have right now and place it in Jesus. He does not love you because you are lovable, but because He is loving. That is why grace is God's greatest gift: it depends on Him, not on you.

What have you been carrying? Today, you can stop hiding it and bring it into the light. If you are ready, you could pray something like this:

Jesus, I come to You, and I know that I am a sinner. But I thank You that You are an even better forgiver. I bring You what I have done, and I place my faith in You. Thank You that Your grace is greater than my sin. Amen.

Once your sins are completely covered by the love of God, you can begin to cover others with that same love. God's love will even help you start forgiving others when you don't feel like it.

Daily Practice: Find a quiet place and pray a prayer of confession. Tell God about the sin you are broken over, and then thank Him that His love covers it.

Grace That Keeps Giving: Peace, Identity, Forgiveness

Have you ever received a gift and only later realized how much more it held than you first thought? Pastor Josh opened this message with a picture like that: being handed a book, setting it aside, and then discovering an envelope tucked inside with a check far more valuable than the book itself. You can receive a gift and still not understand or experience its full benefits. That, he said, is exactly how many of us live with the grace of God.

This message kicks off a new series called Grace for You, a verse-by-verse walk through the book of Ephesians. Written by the apostle Paul from prison to a church he had personally planted and loved, Ephesians is often called Paul's masterpiece — three chapters on who God is and what He has done, followed by three chapters on how we should live in light of it. We began at the very start, Ephesians 1:1-8, where Paul bursts into what reads like a single, breathless poem of praise about grace.

Grace gives you peace

Notice how Paul greets nearly every church: "Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ" (Ephesians 1:2). The order matters. Grace always comes before peace, because you cannot have peace with God until you first receive His grace by faith in Jesus.

So what is grace? It is God's unearned love. So much of life teaches us to earn affection — to be attractive enough, successful enough, useful enough to be loved. God is different. As Romans reminds us, "while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." He does not love you because of who you are; He loves you because of who He is. God is love. He loves you because He loves you.

And this grace, though offered to everyone, does not come from everyone. It does not come from any human founder or philosophy. Every other system says, "Do, so that God will accept you." The gospel says, "It is done — now receive it." When you do, you gain peace with God: the barrier of sin is removed, and the relationship is restored. You also gain an inner peace the Bible calls a peace that surpasses understanding — the kind that steadies you in the middle of the storm, even when nothing around you says you should be at rest.

Grace gives you a new identity

Paul keeps going: "For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ" (Ephesians 1:4-5). Through Christ you receive "every spiritual blessing" (1:3) — not necessarily material comfort, but everything your soul actually needs.

Two blessings stand out. First, in Christ you are seen as holy and blameless. None of us can claim that on our own. But Jesus lived the perfect life we never could and took our blame to the cross, so that God now looks at us through the flawless life of His Son. Second, you are adopted into God's family. We were spiritual orphans, but grace brings us home as beloved children with real access to the Father.

This changes how we define ourselves. So many of us build our identity on money, success, sexuality, or worst of all, on our own worst failures. Pastor Josh pointed to the difference between saying "I am an alcoholic" and "I am a child of God who struggles with drinking." One chains you to your struggle; the other equips you to walk in freedom. When you know who you are in Christ, it transforms how you live — not the other way around.

At Jesus' baptism the Father declared over Him, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased" — before a single miracle. Through Christ, the Father says something similar over every one of His children.

Grace gives you forgiveness

Finally: "In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us" (Ephesians 1:7-8). Redemption is the language of a debt cancelled. Our sin left us with a debt we could never repay by good behavior, church attendance, or being nice. It was paid in full — not with money, but with the blood of Jesus.

Two things keep believers from experiencing this freedom. The first is constant guilt. There is a godly kind of guilt that leads us to God and then lets us move on; it should not become a rain cloud we carry everywhere. The second is putting limits on His grace, whispering "He can forgive others, but not what I've done." Yet the passage says He forgives according to the riches of His grace, not according to how bad our sin is. You cannot outrun a God who is rich in grace. The only sin that cannot be forgiven is the sin of unbelief — refusing the gift entirely.

A gift that keeps on giving

Grace is not a one-time transaction. Lamentations reminds us His mercies are new every morning. Picture two waterfalls: Yosemite Falls can run dry by late summer, but Niagara never stops pouring. God's grace is like Niagara. You are not asked to work your way up the falls — only to sit beneath them each day and let them fill you, then overflow to bless others, just as Paul blessed the Ephesians with peace while he sat in a prison cell.

A question to sit with this week

When you look in the mirror, do you see yourself the way God sees you — holy, blameless, adopted, and fully forgiven? Where have you been living under guilt or self-made limits that grace already erased?

If you are near Livermore or anywhere in the Tri-Valley, we would love for you to join us in person and keep exploring this series with our church family.

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