Just because they are different from you doesn’t mean you shouldn’t share and circulate and give grace! We need to be able to break the barriers! We need to be sharing barrier breaking grace!

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Tonight was an incredible message by Pastor Larry (@sermon8tor).

Barrier Breaking Grace

Acts 11:1-18

My Notes…

• God’s made a way for everyone to be saved
• Barrier breaking…
  • In 1954 Roger Bannister broke the barrier 4 minute mile barrier in 3:59.4, since then it has been broken many times
  • In 1947 Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier flying faster than the speed of sound
  • In 1947 Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in professional baseball joining the Dodgers
• Compared to the barrier that is broken by Peter in Acts 10-11, these barriers are small in comparison
  • Broke through religious barriers
  • Broke through Jewish law barriers
• Barriers to what they could eat was (challenged in Acts 10 on the roof top) is described in Leviticus 11…
  • camels, rock badgers, rabbits, pigs, anything living in the water that does not have fins and scales, eagles, owls, hawks, falcons; buzzards, vultures, crows; ostriches; seagulls, storks, herons, pelicans, cormorants; hoopoes; bats, moles, rats, mice, lizards
• Law was clear on boundaries
  • not to animals alone
  • to people who were clean vs unclean
  • the temple was divided so only certain people could get to some places
    • seating area, Holy of Holies, etc.
  • ceremonial unclean and the process/ceremony of becoming clean again
  • morning prayers of the men even spoke to some of these barriers (ex. gentile, slave, woman)
• In comes Jesus…
  • Touches lepers
  • Dines with tax collectors
  • Talks to Samaritan woman
  • Allows a prostitute to touch him by washing his feet with her hair
  • Invited sinners to the table of God
  • Luke 8 speaks to this…
    • Delivers man and then sends him back as a missionary to his own community
    • Heals woman of blood issue
    • Raises Jairus’ daughter who was dead
  • Jesus reversed the process that was supposed to make him unclean by making others clean
    • He didn’t get contaminated
    • He delivered, healed, and resurrected
  • He told the truth and shared grace
  • Jesus’ GRACE is revolutionary
    • Let’s not live as though there is a limit to God’s GRACE through Jesus
    • GRACE is for everyone! Even people who are different from me
    • No limit! Limitless!
• Don’t resist! God’s GRACE is for all!!
• Our verses from Acts 11 starts with:
  • Peter being criticized
  • Notice is came from insiders? Outsiders wouldn’t criticize as they are happy to receive the love and grace of God!
  • Do you realize if we categorize clean/unclean, we are missing it?
  • Do you realize that if we put ourselves as better then we really don’t get it?
  • All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God!  ALL!!!
  • God can make us clean!
• Our verses from Acts 11 ends with no further objections and people praising God!
• The revelation of GRACE!!
• Impacts:
  • (1) Access to GOD!
    • Hebrews 10:19-22
      • 19We have, then, my friends, complete freedom to go into the Most Holy Place by means of the death of Jesus. 20He opened for us a new way, a living way, through the curtain—that is, through his own body. 21We have a great priest in charge of the house of God. 22So let us come near to God with a sincere heart and a sure faith, with hearts that have been purified from a guilty conscience and with bodies washed with clean water.
    • Hebrews 4:14-16
      • 14Let us, then, hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we have a great High Priest who has gone into the very presence of God—Jesus, the Son of God. 15Our High Priest is not one who cannot feel sympathy for our weaknesses. On the contrary, we have a High Priest who was tempted in every way that we are, but did not sin. 16Let us have confidence, then, and approach God’s throne, where there is grace. There we will receive mercy and find grace to help us just when we need it.
  • (2) How we view people whoa re different from us. Administer the GRACE of God!

If we consider the Gospel of Jesus technologically, we can see and realize it is more than just an app for the old operating system, it is a completely new operating system!