Where the spirit of the lord is there is freedom. You are welcome to worship freely in this space however you feel led. Stand up, sit down, kneel - whatever is meaningful to you - you’re free to do it. You’re also welcome to try something new you’ve never done before.

We’re honored and grateful that you are here to worship God and to worship God with us today.

Children are welcome in worship. We value their presence. For all children (big and small) we have metal baskets on the tables with fun stuff in them.

Children can also attend Children’s Worship. If you’re interested in that, a First Impressions Team member will meet you in the back and escort you and your child to the Children’s Worship area.

We've established a handful of ways for you to stay connected with The City Worship Movement throughout the week.

First: Head over to www.ComoCreatesHeaven.com and join our email list! You'll receive updates on all news and events happening within The City.

Second: Like us on Facebook to stay plugged into the ongoing conversation. https://www.facebook.com/TheCityMVMT/

Third: Check in, share posts, or tag us (#TheCityMVMT) on Facebook.

Fourth: Add @TheCityMVMT on Instagram for active updates on all City happenings! https://www.instagram.com/thecitymvmt/

Fifth: Complete the connect card on the clipboards. It’s a great way to indicate your next step, your desire to serve, and more

Welcome to The City. If you’re new to TC, welcome We’re glad you’re here. Our vision is to Form Community. Uncover Purpose and create a li’l bit of heaven of earth.

The City is more than church as you might understand it. We started because God said I want you to turn church on its head. Get back to the days when the people who had faith were unstoppable in living lives of faith that permeate everything they did and because of it, others begin to see and ask to join the movement. The movement is empowered by the gospel, the Good News and at the center of the Movement is Jesus. In Jesus’ life on earth he turned the world upside down and gave permission to live differently than the custom of the day. Living he showed us how to love. Dying he made it known that love had no limits. Rising in the resurrection he gifted us power and purpose to be like him.

So, we believe that as The City Worship Movement we are here as a people. A place and a movement.

First we are people who meet in a place and live empowered by the Holy Spirit in our daily life to impact change and transformation in our relationships, friendships and every door we walk through.

So we're not here to teach you how to do church (don’t get me wrong we want to see you here but not for our sake). We're here to love you, to share good news with you and equip you to BE the church. To BE the people who help each other live and love like Jesus from the inside out.

And this, in case you didn’t know is the message time. I invite everyone to make two agreements doing the message. The first there are no rhetorical questions and second you matter. If you agree to agreement say amen.

Purpose of this series is two-fold:

1. Set a foundation of Wesleyan grace, which is rooted in scripture and based on the leader of Methodist movement John Wesley

2. Help you identify transformation in your life so that you can answer the question what difference has Jesus, made in your life?

Since we can’t get to everything, if you want to question something or add your input:

Take this # down 573-321-9213

You can text or email with questions or statements that arise for you.

You may really want to see the YouVersion of the message for specific wording.

Last week we explored prevenient grace.The grace that comes before you ask, seek, or know. God’s ways of being with us always and already. This week we’re looking at Justifying grace.

Justification Defined

Reconciliation:

Justification grants us a right and restored relationship with God through Jesus.

Pardon:

Justification acknowledges that we all dishonor God in thought, word and deed.

Restoration/Made Whole or New:

Justification frees us up.Wesley also spoke of conversion as part of justification.

Looking at the threefold definition we’ll explore justification.

1. Justification grants us a right and restored relationship with God through Jesus.

In this understanding of justification we say yes and accept God’s desire and invitation to be in relationship with us. That prevenient grace has been seeking and pursuing us and our yes to grace, yes to God’s invite.

We receive a gift by saying yes and thank you.

Yes is courageous, friends. Yes, isn’t perfection and having answers. A yes to Jesus is gratitude. It is faith that God sees and loves us and wants to work in and walk with us.

Because of our yes, we begin to experience a new relationship with the one whose always and already been around. You can know of someone but not know someone. You live and love and thus get to know Jesus.

We say yes and God lifts guilt and shame.

We say yes and God sees us even more full as God’s own. God sees Godself in us.

In the black church there is Dr. Watt/ old time song that the elders of the church lead us in singing. And the main word is Yes. If you’ve seen The Color Purple it’s part of Shug Avery’s song of reconciliation with her preacher father.

2. Justification acknowledges that we all dishonor God in thought, word and deed. And therefore justification feels like assurance of forgiveness.

The year was 1738 and Wesley was burned out and somehow couldn’t understand the concept of justification by faith alone. He asked a friend “How can you preach to others if you don’t have faith yourself?” John asked his friend if he should stop preaching. His friend replied, “By no means.”

Then Wesley asked, “But what can I preach?”

His friend answered, “Preach faith till you have it; and then, because you have it, you will preach faith.”

In that same year, Wesley reluctantly attended a group meeting on the evening of May 24th on Aldersgate Street in London. As he heard a reading from Martin Luther's preface to the book of Romans, he felt his "heart strangely warmed."

Wesley’s Aldersgate experience, “while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given me that Christ had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.".

There is a comfort knowing the person who started a movement that still exists today, did so as a person unsure of their faith and yet he didn’t stop sharing good news, learning the faith-. Eventually, he was confident of his faith, assured of God’s love and forgiveness.

Perhaps you’ve experienced a moment when your heart was strangely warmed.

3. Restoration/Made Whole or New: Justification frees us up.Wesley also spoke of conversion as part of justification.

Conversion is a turning around, leaving one path/direction for another. It may be sudden and dramatic, or gradual and cumulative. But in any case, it’s a new beginning.New life, new freedom

New beginnings have been a blessing to me.

Getting to and through them, however has been wrought with hard lessons, honesty of heart and speech, healing overtime and ongoing.

Metamorphosis: the way of grace is an ebb and flow between justifying grace and sanctifying grace.The way of grace is not linear. It is grace upon grace. Our role in justifying grace is to have faith to say yes, we accept you Jesus. We accept your presence in my life. We receive assurance of forgiveness even when we are still unsure of our faith. We say yes to moving in a new direction.

What has justification looked like for you?

Reconciliation.

Pardon or Assurance

New life

If you’re new to The City and feel like we might be a good fit, use the connect card on the clipboards to say hi and we will follow up for coffee.

Maybe today God has moved on your heart and you desire to take a next step. We’ve listed next steps on the connect card or you can write a message. Place that in the bowls coming around.

We give financially to support the city. Our offering no matter how small or large or ways in which we acknowledge that God is at work in us and in the world and even in The City. We have many ways we give: comocreatesheaven.com, by text, or in person when the bowls come around

God bless you and keep you,

God smile on you and be gracious to you,

May God look into your face

and give you peace.

Amen.