Sun Inspiration

Morning Inspiration with Pastor Merritt

A brand new word was introduced into the English language in the year 2000, which symbolizes one of the greatest inventions of the 21st century. It is a word that not only was unknown until just a few years prior, but also has taken such a life of its own today that it has become a verb we use every day. It is the word “Google.” It has its own entry in the dictionary. It means to search for information on the web, particularly by using the Google search engine. Two young men, Larry Page and Sergey Brin did not realize that when they started tinkering with a computer idea in their garage, they would invent, discover, and give to the world a sea of information as deep as the ocean, with just the click of a button. Google is the world’s most popular internet search engine. Recently, in just one week, a billion new websites were added to the service. It has now become a touchtone of American culture. The average Google search takes about a half-second, driven by 10,000 interconnected Google computers. If you are computer friendly at all, there is hardly a day in your life that you don’t Google something.

What if you could Google God? What I mean is - what if you could Google how to have a relationship with God and receive God’s own personal website on how that can happen. What do you think you would find? Believe it or not, I am 100 percent certain I know that if you could indeed Google God Himself and ask the question, “How can I have a relationship with You?” this would be the next thing you would see on your computer.

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them (Ephesians 2:8-10).
There are three words in those three verses, which believe it or not, totally explain how anyone can have a relationship with God and what that relationship with God would mean. They are the words “by,” “through,” and “for.” If you will remember those three words you will never get confused on how a person can have a relationship with God, how a person can go to heaven, and how a person can (to put it in biblical terminology) be saved.

The truth of the matter is once you establish a relationship with God, that is, once God saves you He isn't finished with you. He is just started with you and He has great things for you to do. He's got good works He has prepared beforehand so that you would walk in them.

The world has it all backwards. The world says you've got to work so you can make something out of yourself. God says, "I've got to make something out of you so you can work." Here is the point and I am going to make it very easy to remember. A person does not have a relationship with God because he does good works. He does good works because he has a relationship with God.

You can keep it straight if you will just remember those three words, and keep them in order. BY grace, THROUGH faith, and FOR good work.