Every person is the recipient of God's ongoing expression of love and grace. Farmer uses nine biblical characters to tell surprising stories of God's grace and the unusual situations in which God's grace is extended. Through the lives of these sometimes unsavory, and often unsettling, characters, we witness God's graciousness in action. By examining the unusual circumstances in which God extends grace and the sometimes startling recipients of God's grace, Unmerited Favor teaches us the true meaning of God's loving and abundant grace.
Divine grace means that God brings human beings to wholeness, a new chance, or a new start. In Unmerited Favor: Teaching Sermons on the Love and Grace of God, the first volume in the Teaching Sermon Series, David Albert Farmer uses biblical characters to tell some surprising stories of God's grace. Each sermon emphasizes the pervasive nature of God's grace, the persons to whom God extends grace, and the unusual situations in which grace is extended to God's people.
Unmerited Favor illustrates God's love and grace to: the mentally ill, the arrogant, a murderer, an unwilling servant, the physically ill, the dishonest, the sexually irresponsible, and one who is in difficult circumstances. Unmerited Favor: Teaching Sermons on the Love and Grace of God will give special guidance to preachers who like to put together a teaching program of sermons.
Table of Contents
FOREWORD
INTRODUCTION
“This is some of the best preaching I have encountered.” -- James W. Cox, Senior Professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and editor of Best Sermons series
"In David Farmer’s gentle voice, we hear the testimonies of some unlikely saints, see pictures of lives changed, and explore the depth and breadth of Scripture." -- Jana L. Childers, Associate Professor of Homiletics at San Francisco Theological Seminary and editor of The Abingdon Women’s Preaching Annual
"In his usual clear, cogent style, David Farmer has explored dimensions of grace I had not even thought about. Turning the subject in his hand like a prism, he has cought refractions that will color and enhance this topic for years to come!" -- John Killinger, Minister of The Little Stone Church in Mackinac Island, Michigan, and author of Fundamentals of Preaching
"What do we need to learn about the grace of God? In these sermons based on biblical stories about women and men who encountered God’s 'unmerited favor,' David Farmer challenges our notions that we already know enough. And, in the end, we begin to believe that if there is enough divine love and compassion for these . . . perhaps there is enough even for us." -- Mary Donovan Turner, Carl Patton Assistant Professor of Preaching at Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley, California
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