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The Journey of Faith - New Fall Worship Series PDF Print E-mail
Written by Pastor Dan Drew   
Sunday, 04 September 2011 05:54
John Wesley (1703-1791) was not only the founder of a new movement among the followers of Jesus; he was an outstanding theological thinker.

From his sermons and writings he expanded, for many people, the understanding of God and His love for us as His creation. John Wesley’s theological explorations and explanations were enhanced and made memorable by the hymns which his brother Charles wrote to underscore and uplift the basic theme and tenets of faith!  As we journey through this fall season, I would like to explore with you what Wesley called:

“The Order of Salvation”

It was how Wesley saw our faith being developed and strengthens as we mature in our Christian journey; so I am going to give it a slightly more modern title and call this sermon series

“The Journey of Faith”

Wesley began by defining the “Grace “ of God that Paul refers to throughout the New Testament, specifically in Ephesians Chapter 2 verse 8. “For it is by God’s grace that you have been saved through faith.” In Wesleyan theology we recognize three forms of God’s grace; prevenient, justifying, and sanctifying.  In fact our current hymnal has a section of hymns for each of these three defined understandings of grace. The sections are identified in the upper left corner of the page. As you have time, read and meditate upon the hymns for each section as I illustrate them here.

Prevenient Grace
God loves us before we can know who God is. The summary statement would be, “I love God, because he first loved me!” in the hymnal, from No. 337 to 359 you will find a body of hymns on Prevenient Grace, or God’s invitation for us to love Him!

Justifying Grace
The action or activity of admitting our acceptance of God’s love. We understand this to be our conversion experience when we change our lives out of response to God’s love for us. Hymns number 361 to 381 particularly embody the concept of Justifying Grace.

Sanctifying Grace
The ongoing work of the Holy Spirit in our lives from the time of our conversion until the time of our resurrection. This form of Grace continues to purify and cleanse us, and takes us from being “whole” to becoming “Holy”. This idea is encompassed in the largest section of hymns, numbers 382 to 536 to help us live as people who have accepted God’s love for us and are trying now to live as Jesus’ disciples.

I look forward to exploring these theological concepts with you as we worship in this fall season.  See you in church.

Pastor Dan, the Preaching Man!