Overview
Rev. Rico Magnelli opens the Living and Sharing God’s Grace conference by presenting grace as God’s divine favor without merit. Like sunlight actively sustaining life, grace is continually present and working. The teaching calls believers to recognize grace, experience its relevance in Christ, resist judgment-based thinking, and share that same favor with others.
Transcript
Grace Is God’s Divine Favor
Well, God bless you wonderful hearts in the name of Jesus Christ and we sure are thankful for you being here at this living and sharing God's grace conference. Please turn to the gospel of John. The Gospel of John Grace is his divine favor without merit and it has relevance to our lives that cannot be measured by any metric. Man can comprehend grace is necessary to life. Take for instance the sun as an example. We know the sun is there and we register its effects. But to fully grasp the magnitude of the sun's life giving energy to the earth and its inhabitants can only be approximated and not fully grasp. The sun is an active life-giving superpower necessary to life.
The sun is not static but actively engaging with all of life. On earth. It quietly goes about its business working day by day incessantly engaged. Whether we see it or not yet, like grace, we often go about our day not even giving the son a second thought. My point is like the son, we often do the same with grace. Grace is there all the time active. We just need to recognize it. Grace was present before God set in motion. His creation. Grace cannot be unpackaged and fully comprehended in this life. It's gonna take all eternity. Though all life cannot exist outside of his grace. Still there are forces that still resist this grace. Free will.
The right to choose grace or not has been granted. And it truly is remarkable that God would give his divine favor to mankind without requiring merit work or effort on our part. Grace. God's favor without merit is beyond the ability of darkness to comprehend it. The adversary, our spiritual adversary cannot understand grace. And the reason why is because to understand grace it requires experiencing it and he will never ever experience God's grace. When we walk in his light, we will see that grace because experiencing grace, as I said, is the key to beginning to grasp its relevance to our lives. That's right how it applies specifically to you and to me, God shows each of us the relevance of grace every day.
If we want see it, he will open the eyes of your understanding to it. He will direct your focus to it if you wanna see it, he's the one that opens our spiritual eyes to it as we live it and share it. We find ourselves in an imperfect world for sure. So how do we overcome an imperfect world where these dark and satanic forces seem to be everywhere, blinding and distracting Christians to this grace? What can we do when we are limited to our own abilities and resources and they just don't seem to be enough? Well, God has provided a perfect solution in an imperfect world and that solution is embodied in grace. And the greatest way to understand God's grace is to accept Jesus Christ and follow the path he initiated here in the gospel of John.
Are some great truths to begin as we understand this concept of living and sharing grace in the gospel of John chapter one in verse 16 and of his fullness and speaking about Jesus Christ who was full of grace and truth out from the center of his fullness, out from the center of his fullness have all we received. And grace for grace for the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Wow. Out from the center of Jesus Christ who was full of grace. And truth is what we've received. This grace for grace and this grace for grace is a little bit of a difficult phrase to wrap our minds around.
But in the Greek, the word for FOR is actually instead of, or it could be rendered in place of. So what we are understanding here is grace instead of or in place of grace. That's right because the grace that Jesus Christ came to bring to deliver was of a larger mad magnitude. And the reason why that is, is because he resolved the Adam issue. See, in the Old Testament we see anyone associated with the Christ line. We see individuals, even the nation of Israel, were given grace God's favor. But it was limited because it did not resolve the Adam sin problem Jesus Christ did. Now the whole world has access to this grace and God the Father is the author and the prime mover of grace.
And Jesus Christ, his son, is the agent that delivered it. Look at Acts chapter two, please Acts chapter two. It is this grace that we're talking about, that Jesus Christ came to deliver by way of his accomplished work that elevated the early Christians to God given justification through the faith of Christ. Now let me stop there. You hear the word justification, you might think, well what does that mean, Rico? Well, justification vacation is to be legally declared innocent by God from Adam's disobedience and the consequential curse that he Adam passed on and that curse carried a death sentence. That means everybody born into the world after an Adam, Adam and Eve, everyone carried a death sentence in their life and it was handed down by Adam.
And the only one that resolved that death sentence was Jesus Christ. That's pretty powerful. This justification. When they understood it, these first Christians, it released their hearts from judgments and fears as these first Christians lived and shared this magnificent grace with others, they set an example that we can follow. This is the grace we wanna consider and most significantly how to live it and share it. And here in Acts chapter two, on the day of Pentecost, there was an amazing awakening spiritually because God delivered on what Jesus Christ accomplished and the Holy Spirit was given the gift and it began with the 12 apostles and moved from there. And there is a verse in chapter two that encapsulates so much of this truth.
Grace Is Active and Life-Giving
And in Acts chapter two verse 47, we read Praising God and and having favor. And the word favor is the Greek word for grace. So having grace with or toward all the people and the Lord added some texts don't have to the church daily such as should be saved. So the culmination, the result of sharing that grace that we're living is gonna be app praised towards God. That's tremendous because when our lives are living and sharing grace, what ends up happening is we lorded God, we praise God, we honor God. And it doesn't mean that you walk around saying those words, praise God, you know, honor God. That's nothing necessarily wrong with that. But it's the heart of praising and honoring and magnifying and glorifying God.
The result of active grace in our lives, just like these first century Christians, was outward facing praise, applauding, magnifying, glorifying God and honoring God. See, the world is designed to turn you and I inward and certainly that's what the law did. It turned us inward and made us mankind sin conscious. But grace turns us outward facing towards Christ. And that's one great indication to let you know that you're walking in that grace because you're outward facing. You're not kind of internalizing and kind of soul searching day in and day out. Right? You know the end of the Book of Acts records, the great apostle Paul and God records so much of what he was doing in Acts chapter 28 verse 31, kind of like a summary and it says in Acts 28 31, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence or boldness, no man forbidding him.
See he was preaching the kingdom of God. To preach the kingdom of God doesn't mean standing in the street corner and saying, God, God, God. It doesn't mean that. It means that you're preaching that he is sovereign over all things. That his care and concern never leaves humanity, that he is on the throne. So no agendas of man, no concepts and ideas and imaginations of man can uproot this truth or override this truth. That's what preaching the kingdom of God is. God always provides a solution for us that would be in the category of preaching the kingdom of God. It says praising God and sharing favor, sharing grace with all the people. And what's so interesting here, it says that the Lord added when we praise God in our hearts, when We elevate him, magnify him, glorify him and we share this grace one with Another.
The Lord adds. And you know what he's adding? He's adding Growth from within to the individual. He's adding illuminated eyes from the inside out. He's opening the eyes of people's understanding be trait. It's a partnership embedded right here in this Verse. Now let me ask you a question. What led to continually praising God and sharing grace with Others? What caused the change in the people? It was about 3000 people That changed their lifestyle. What caused this one word Change they were willing to change. The change was to face outward looking to Christ, not inward because the law of Moses that they had been under for 12, 13, 14 centuries just told them about sin and what makes what?
What happens when you tell people about sin? What do they think about? They start looking inward and sin and then they look at everybody Else's too. But grace doesn't do that. Grace actually actually causes us to look outward towards Christ. See the law of works cause man to be conscience of Sin And look inward And grace turns us outward. When we look inward, we become self-centered. When we look outward to Christ, we become Christ-centered. Let's look at this in the same Chapter, verse 36, it says, Therefore let all the house of Israel, no assuredly, This is Peter in the apostle, The other apostle speaking that God had made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ.
That's right. He made him both Lord and Christ. This was a cold bucket of water For these devout judeans. Another way of understanding grace that They began to recognize is grace is having a death sentence On you removed by someone Who freely takes your place. That's grace. 'cause All mankind had a death sentence and Jesus Christ took that death sentence to the cross for you and for me that's grace. See, Israel had Christ in person and still did not see who he was. The reason why is because there were listening to the wrong people, not the right ones. Who are you listening to on a consistent basis? And I don't mean what preacher, what church, what podcast necessarily all those.
I'm not talking about that. But what are you listening to that goes into your heart? We listen to a lot of things, music, podcasts, so forth and so on. But what are you listening to that you're allowing in your heart? That is the key. Well these individuals, were listening now to the right people and it did get to their heart because we can see this in verse 37. Now when they had heard this, they were pricked in their heart. You know what pricked in your heart means? It means it actually gets to you. That's what it means. Some people say that you don't really get to people until you get to their wallet. That is not true.
The Bible doesn't teach that. It teaches you really get to people when you get to their heart. 'cause God doesn't look after money, he doesn't follow the money trail, he follows the heart trail. That's what he's interested in. And they said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? That is the right response. Oh my gosh, I did not realize, help me. What do we need to do about this? I'm ready to change. And Peter tells 'em verse 38, then Peter said unto them, repent. And this word repent doesn't mean feel bad sometimes. That's what we think it means. It actually means just your to change your old way of thinking.
Experiencing Grace in Christ
Change it and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. And you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost or the Holy Spirit. Wow. For the promises unto you and to your children and all and to all that are far off. Even as many as the Lord our God shall call. So we know that this was the beginning of an understanding that both Judean and Gentile were gonna be called 'cause that's who the far off are. Sometimes you and I feel far off, don't we? We feel that God has kind of maybe abandoned us or certainly ha uh is not looking our way because of something we did.
But that's not true. God calls through the murkiest fog. God calls through the bleakest night and he reaches, and what he's looking for and reaching for is your heart. Then this great verse verse 40 and with many other words, did he testify And exhorts saying, save yourselves from this untoward, which is a funny word, it actually means warped or crooked generation. It says, and with many other words, the word other is a great key to understanding this because it means when there's only two involved other means when there's only two involved. Now we set up the spiritual competition right on the day of Pentecost, we're setting up the words from God about Jesus Christ and the grace of God and we're setting up everything else.
God makes it really simple. He does not complicate things. Now sometimes religion and religious people complicate things and they're, they don't necessarily do it, do it wittingly sometimes unwittingly because that's what they were taught and they just pass it on. But there's basically a dichotomy between God's word and then everything else. And that's what that word other means. That's right. Because they were listening to the wrong people. Because in Acts chapter two, same chapter, I'm just gonna read it to you. When Peter first stands up after the Holy Spirit was given and they began to speak in tongues, there were mockers there and the mockers were saying in verse 14 or verse 13, these men are full of new wine, they're drunk that there's no way that's what was happening, right?
God had just delivered his Holy Spirit. But Peter standing up with the 11, lifted up his voice and said unto them, ye that said unto them, ye men of Judea, watch this and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you and Hearken, listen to my words. Listen to my words, huh? And with many other words, did he testify and exhort, now they're listening to the right people. You know who and what we listen to Ask yourself a question. Does it align with grace? Does it? Well it's a good question. It's a good test. The word testify is also very interesting because the word testify actually means It. It carries great Emphasis. It's A witness done with a high level of self Involvement.
It's a witness with a strong personal interest. That means Peter was giving everything he had that was nothing left. He left everything on the field. He left everything on the court, on the pitch In, in an athletic way of looking at It. He gave everything to reach these people. And it has nothing to do with his Personality, But he testified with a strong personal interest. Perhaps he even recounted some of the times that he was with Jesus. Perhaps he recounted specific conversations he had with the master that just altered the course of his soul when he heard them in those settings. Perhaps he even recounted when he had departed from Jesus had told him he would stand with him to the death and then ran.
Perhaps he recounted those things, I don't know. But we know he testified. And it was a witness that carries great emphasis of self involvement and a strong personal interest. You gotta want to Win people to Christ. And it says and exhort, which means to encourage saying save yourselves from this crooked or perverse Or Warped generation. That's Right. This is not talking about salvation, this is talking about living Your salvation. That's what that's talking about. Look at two Corinthians 12 please. Two Corinthians 12. You know, Sometimes we Find ourselves in a situation or situations where we've exhausted our ability, we feel we've Exhausted Our prayer bank, We've cashed in every Prayer check we have and our our, our account is empty.
There are times when we Feel that we Have Depleted all of our sah. That's the time when humility has to step in. That's the time when we must get truly humble before the Lord our God and reach up to him because we've access through Christ. And that's at times we as human beings get the answer. Not always that way, But there are times. And here The apostle Paul recounts his experience in two Corinthians chapter 12. It says in verse seven, unless I should be exalted above measures, who through the abundance of the revelations that that was given to me a thorn in the flesh. Now it didn't come from God, it's the messenger of Satan to buffet me lest I should be exalted above measure.
Buffet means to hit like with a fist. It means to punch in the face. You ever feel spiritually that that's what you got? You got hit in the face spiritually. It's like boom, gets your attention, doesn't it? For this thing, I besought the Lord thrice three times and it might depart from me, but God was trying to teach him something. God was trying to teach him that I have enveloped you in my grace. Actually he is covered the entire earth inhabitants in his grace. At this point, Paul didn't understand and verse nine says, and he set up to me, my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength that has made perfect in weakness. And weakness here is in the sense of having the lack or the ability or the resources in any situation to resolve it, to bring it to closure.
Freedom From Merit and Judgment
See there are times where we just don't have the ability. Sometimes we, we feel our emotional strength is depleted. We have cried and cried and cried. We have pleaded and pleaded and pleaded. We've just exhausted ourselves. Well that's the time that humility has to step in because when we do the strength of the Lord, God will guide you and uplift you. And it may come in a variety of ways, but it will come in the way that you need it. That's right. Relying on ourselves like Paul was doing is at times rejecting grace to rely on ourselves certainly as a lifestyle is to reject grace. Look at second Corinthians chapter 12, I mean chapter 10, excuse me, chapter 10.
When we make a habit of trusting in ourselves, when we make a habit of looking inward, we are building strongholds. When we make a habit of rejecting grace that's offered on a daily basis. We are building strongholds. And those strongholds are as varied as everybody in this room and everybody that walks this earth. There is no two fortresses the same. You have your own fortress. I've had my own. You may have one now, I don't know. But people build their own fortress because what a fortress is is a place where you trust in you rely on outside of God. Right? Remember it says in the Old Testament, lest the Lord keep the city the watchmen.
Watch if in vain you can have a fortress, you can have your your the things that we use to help us in life. But the ultimate one, we never trust Those things we trust in the Lord our God. Here in two Corinthians chapter 10, Paul is trying to help the Corinthians understand this. He says in verse three, for though we walk in the flesh, yes we're human, we're physical, we're sentient beings, meaning we understand that we are alive, we're aware of ourselves, we're corporeal, we have physical bodies. We do not war after the flesh. We gotta go to a different level. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, it says in Ephesians we gotta go to a different level.
And that level is grace for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of what stronghold. And that's word strongholds is a fortress. And sometimes in the Bible these things are used figuratively of anything on which one relies on. It's used of a false argument in which a person seeks shelter. A safe place escaping reality. Well that time's over no more reinforcing these fortresses. How do we get rid of these fortresses that we don't want? Verse five, casting down imaginations and that's all they are. The world is full of imagination. What we want is truth. Imagination's not gonna get you anywhere. It's good for children, but it's not the way that we live our lives.
We need the truth of God's word. Look here it says, and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God. And there are so many things in this world that it's that are endeavoring and proclaim that they're above God. What a disgrace. We cannot put those things in our heart. We cannot agree with those things. We don't have to call them out all the time, but certainly you can't listen to him. There is only one God and he is above all. And that's preaching the kingdom of God. And every high thing that exalted itself, notice it says that exalted itself, the perpetuation of pride and ego is just astounding in a human race.
It's astounding. And we don't wanna fall prey to that and bringing into captivity. Watch this every thought to the obedience of Christ. That's how you get rid of those fortresses. That's how you get rid of those strongholds. That's how you get rid of those things that at one time you trusted. We only trust in the Lord our God. That's it. What does it mean to bring every thought to the obedience of Christ? You know what it means? Every plant must be rooted in two truths. Everything we plant in our soul that we water and want to grow, speaking about thoughts, has to be rooted in two truths. And these true, these two truths are the crucifixion and the resurrection.
That is what Jesus represents. The man is our resolved past. What Christ the title represents is our guaranteed future. And I'm speaking on a practical level. I know there's a lot more detail to it. Then when we add the Lord, which is another title that emphasizes our obedience to his accomplished work. In other words, somebody that is bringing destroying these uh, these um, strongholds, they're not living in consistent condemnation because the crucifixion has covered you. Someone who is bringing to the obedience of Christ. They're not afraid of the future because they know their future is set in glory. And that in this time God will guide you in newness of life. Wow, these are powerful truths.
Let's turn back to Acts chapter two and we'll close there living and sharing grace. We'll learn a lot more about it this weekend in practicality. But we wanted as an overview, as a 10,000 foot view, if you will. These people were your brothers and sisters. We don't know most of their names. We don't know what they looked like, but yet they accepted Jesus of Nazareth as the Christ and so have you. And we are akin. We are, we're of the same spiritual heritage. And that heritage comes from the Almighty God is your Father. And that's the truth. And Jesus Christ came to declare God as the Father. And he came to open up a relationship with him.
Living Grace Every Day
And eventually we learned that the Christians are seated at the right hand of the throne of God. At this time they didn't know that. They didn't even know about the gathering together of the church. But yet there was something about this message about Christ. There was something compelling about this message of Christ that resonated with them, that reached the depth of their heart to the end. That they changed their life, they changed their confession, they changed their loyalty, if you will. They came in for a one day feast, Pentecost. And they remained there for quite some time. And they took care of one another, which was a natural, spiritual or organic response, if you will.
Taking care of each other should be, uh, just or, or something organic that we just do because we love each other because God loves us. Look and they continued. Verse 42 and they continued steadfastly. That means unrelenting. They just continued doing it day by day in the Apostles doctrine, the teaching of the word regarding Jesus Christ as Lord and fellowship, this word fellowship means to share in common what were they sharing in common? The salvation that they had received in Christ Jesus. They were all discussing it, talking about it. And in breaking of bread, such a common activity they we all need on a daily basis. They decided that they would engage on it on a day by day basis.
And God was opening the eyes of their understanding to the beauty and really the simplicity of what it means to be in the family of God. And in prayers that communion with God, that sharing with God, that partnering with God every day. Look at this and then it says, and fear or respect or awe came upon every soul. They had a mutual respectful relationship. That respect was based on God's valuation of people. These individuals were accepting that each one of them was valued by God. Behavior is another thing. But the mutual respect we can have for every Christian is, is based on what God has done for each of us in Christ Jesus. And money wonders and signs were done by the apostles.
Absolutely. Their expectations rose because they realized the great mountain was moved. The obstacle in their way, the mosaic law that penalized them. And the dec, the declaration of a death sentence was this moved out of the way and they had a clear path to God. Now wow. And all that believed were together and had all things common. All things common means that their personal possessions were not holy. They were not sacred, they were common, like common to all people. It doesn't mean that they gave away they, they gave away everything that they had. That's not what it means. It just means their attitude toward physical possessions was that they were not sacred. That's all it means because the earth is the lord's and the fullness thereof.
We actually in reality don't own anything but our physical bodies, our Holy Spirit because it was a gift. And our decisions, we steward stuff in this life. 'cause the earth is the lord's and the fullness thereof. They got it. They understood it and sold their possessions and goods and parted them to all men as every man had need. Sure they had only those people that came in from all over the world. They only came for a one day feast. So they needed help. And the believers there locally in Jerusalem are willing to put 'em up and take care of 'em. How beautiful, how beautiful this is. And they continued daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house to eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart.
They had the right attitude in this wonderful beginning of the Christian Church. See if we really wanna get back to understanding God and our Lord Jesus Christ, why not start with how they started before 2000 years of confusion, 2000 years of politics, 2000 years of unnecessary fighting and struggling is on top of this pristine truth of the early Christians praising God and having favor with all the people. Grace and the Lord added daily as such as should be saved. That's right. When we live and share grace, our heart will praise God. It will extol God, it will honor God, it will magnify God. It will glorify God. It doesn't mean you have to say those words, but you're living within the kingdom of God as his son and his daughter.
And then from that vantage point, because you know it's grace that got you there. You share that grace with other people. And when that happens, the word tells us that the Lord adds. What's he adding? Souls. He's adding growth in the soul of people. That's right. Helping Christians claim their right of living far above the crooked circumstances of this world is our aim in this conference. Yep. We're gonna hear a lot more details about it. Beautiful expressions, personal testimonies and anecdotes, insight and heart regarding the grace of God that we can live and share. It is the free grace of God that a singled us out from a cultural decay and given us freedom to declare our spiritual worth.
You are as valuable as the work of Christ. That's how valuable you are. He God had made the truths regarding grace so clear, so evident and so undeniable that now not tomorrow. Now we can confidently live our Christian identity and faith and we don't have to apologize for it. That doesn't mean we're arrogant, we're pushy, we're combative. No but not apologetic. Why would I apologize for Jesus Christ? Realizing that we have and never are going to lose. The approval of God can elevate every aspect of our life. God esteems you. He supports you. He is partial towards you. But unless you know how to recognize these truths, your lifestyle will remain the same. And that would be unfortunate.
Sharing Grace With Others
It is time to make grace a practical spiritual reality for everyone who desires it. Are you tired of being buffeted by things you can't control? Why not find balance and community by learning how to grow in grace? God's perfect solution of grace is the answer in an imperfect world. Welcome aboard. God bless you.
Key Takeaways
- Grace is God’s divine favor without merit, work, or achievement on the recipient’s part.
- Grace is active and life-giving, even when people are not consciously noticing it.
- The completed work of Jesus Christ enables believers to experience grace rather than attempt to earn God’s acceptance.
- Living grace changes how believers see themselves and how they treat other people.
- Sharing grace means extending favor, freedom, and spiritual value rather than reinforcing judgment and fear.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is grace in this teaching?
Grace is God’s divine favor freely given without merit. It is active, life-giving, and made personally relevant through the work of Jesus Christ.
What does it mean to live grace?
Living grace means recognizing God’s favor in daily life, accepting the standing given in Christ, and refusing to return to performance- or judgment-based thinking.
How can believers share grace?
They share grace by treating others according to God’s favor, speaking the truth of Christ, giving room for growth, and replacing condemnation with love and spiritual value.
Scripture References
John 1:14–17; Romans 3:23–24; Ephesians 2:8–10; Acts 28; Corinthians 12
Verification Note
Recovered from the complete auto-generated WebVTT caption file. Caption wording, punctuation, names, quotations, and verse references must be checked against the original video before publication.
