WEBVTT 00:00:00.902 --> 00:00:04.908 Good morning, trinity. 00:00:04.908 --> 00:00:06.331 It's good to see you this morning. 00:00:06.331 --> 00:00:10.625 I'm so glad to be here Before we get into our word this morning. 00:00:10.625 --> 00:00:34.432 And just something the Lord brought to my mind and we've been thinking at least I have, and I think many of you have is that in this season, there just seems like there's something boiling beneath the surface that God is doing, and we don't really know what it is, but we can sense it and you know, listening to Caroline today, we're hoping that it's some kind of a revival of God's people. 00:00:34.432 --> 00:00:42.509 And so, as I was on the TV this past week watching a video, it's like just God seemed to quicken my thoughts. 00:00:43.200 --> 00:00:51.060 You know, if you think about the land of Israel, at the northern part of Israel there's a body of water called the Sea of Galilee. 00:00:51.060 --> 00:01:02.247 It comes out of the mountains and it flows down into the Sea of Galilee, and that Sea of Galilee has an outlet, that's the Jordan River, and that Jordan River is all fresh water. 00:01:02.247 --> 00:01:09.126 It flows down into the very south of Israel into another body of water and it's called the Dead Sea. 00:01:09.126 --> 00:01:13.911 And the thing about the Dead Sea it's called dead for a reason, because it has no outlet. 00:01:13.911 --> 00:01:22.153 And you know, it was interesting that nothing grows there, nothing, no life, anything, it's just dead. 00:01:22.153 --> 00:01:32.251 But I was watching the video and one of the tours with this gal that was on the video had a private tour of a guy who said I want to show you something. 00:01:32.251 --> 00:01:35.849 So he took her, he said we've just discovered this. 00:01:35.849 --> 00:01:43.769 And he had her walk down into the northern part of that body of water called the Dead Sea and he said look below the surface. 00:01:43.769 --> 00:01:49.646 And she came up and she said there's fish in the sea. 00:01:49.646 --> 00:01:59.971 And he said we found that, after discovering and looking down and exploring this, we found that there are fissures that are breaking open in the Dead Sea. 00:02:01.060 --> 00:02:06.468 Now, what a great analogy for what God might be doing in his church. 00:02:06.468 --> 00:02:16.429 And that's what my prayer is today that this would be something even today, as we hear God's word, that he would quicken your spirit to hear. 00:02:16.429 --> 00:02:22.110 What we have to hear today and the scriptures is John 1, 14 through 17. 00:02:22.110 --> 00:02:26.911 And if you'll grab your Bible, we'll read it together and see what God has for us. 00:02:26.911 --> 00:02:30.606 Okay, john 1, 14 through 17,. 00:02:30.867 --> 00:02:33.748 It says and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. 00:02:33.748 --> 00:02:40.007 This is John speaking and he says we have seen his glory. 00:02:40.007 --> 00:02:47.653 Glory is of the one, the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. 00:02:47.653 --> 00:03:10.360 John, that is, john the Baptist, bore witness about him and cried out this was he of whom I said he who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me, for from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace, for the law was given through Moses. 00:03:10.360 --> 00:03:14.268 Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 00:03:14.268 --> 00:03:20.002 No one has ever seen God, the only God who is at the Father's side. 00:03:20.002 --> 00:03:22.265 He has made him known. 00:03:22.265 --> 00:03:31.949 Father, we're so grateful that we have your word today, because it leads us into your presence, lord, it reveals to us your mind and your heart. 00:03:31.949 --> 00:03:42.424 Lord, I pray today you would just remove the clouds of confusion that might be there as we consider what it is to be beneficiaries of grace. 00:03:42.424 --> 00:03:51.931 Lord, we ask you to open your word to us, holy Spirit, open our minds, open our understanding, and we pray for this in Jesus' name. 00:03:53.275 --> 00:03:57.066 You know the great literary scholar and theologian CS Lewis. 00:03:57.066 --> 00:04:02.465 Maybe you've heard some of his works, like the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Screwtape Letters. 00:04:02.465 --> 00:04:15.463 He was once invited to a meeting in England of comparative religions and the guys, the scholars, got there a little bit before he did, and they began to discuss the question. 00:04:15.463 --> 00:04:20.362 And so one of the questions that came up was what, if anything, is unique about Christianity? 00:04:20.362 --> 00:04:26.841 And so a lot of things were thrown around, a lot of ideas, ideas and CS Lewis was a little bit late when he arrived. 00:04:26.841 --> 00:04:28.607 They they said here's what we've been talking about. 00:04:28.627 --> 00:04:33.103 We talk about what is it in Christianity that makes it unique, if anything? 00:04:33.103 --> 00:04:37.269 He said, oh, that's easy grace. 00:04:37.269 --> 00:04:46.072 Grace and when we think about the gospel, we talking about the gospel, we're talking about the gospel-centered life and the gospel-centered community. 00:04:46.072 --> 00:04:53.553 Right at the center of our community we call the church, should be a person whose name is Jesus. 00:04:53.553 --> 00:05:07.074 And so we look and we see in these scriptures that the thing that we want and we need the most, the thing that saves us and the thing that gets us through our Christian life, is this thing called grace. 00:05:07.074 --> 00:05:10.208 So I want to talk about that this morning. 00:05:10.721 --> 00:05:12.408 And first I want to begin with this question. 00:05:12.408 --> 00:05:21.891 We talked last time, if you remember, about what it is to be a person of truth Derek shared with us, about being honest and speaking the truth in love. 00:05:21.891 --> 00:05:27.925 And today, as I say, we're talking about grace, having a grace-filled community. 00:05:27.925 --> 00:05:30.211 So I have a question for you. 00:05:30.211 --> 00:05:36.880 Are you let's take a poll, you don't have to raise your hand Are you more of a grace person or a truth person? 00:05:36.880 --> 00:05:40.545 Are you more of a grace person or a truth person? 00:05:40.545 --> 00:05:43.730 Do you live with a grace person or a truth person? 00:05:43.730 --> 00:05:48.375 So you got an answer there. 00:05:48.375 --> 00:05:53.610 Well, I will tell you that's a little bit of a loaded question because it's not either or. 00:05:53.610 --> 00:05:56.161 Really you need both. 00:05:56.161 --> 00:05:59.930 You have to have both, and we see it in this person we call Jesus. 00:05:59.930 --> 00:06:02.704 You know, the thing is by personality or upbringing. 00:06:02.704 --> 00:06:07.074 There's a whole lot of factors that kind of contribute to where we might land. 00:06:07.180 --> 00:06:18.754 We might have a bias to being a grace, truth or a truth person, but when we look at Jesus, we see that Jesus walked in a perfect balance of grace and truth. 00:06:18.754 --> 00:06:21.906 It's seen in Scripture here. 00:06:21.906 --> 00:06:23.189 As we read it John 1,. 00:06:23.189 --> 00:06:32.461 It says and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. 00:06:32.461 --> 00:06:37.387 And in verse 17, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 00:06:37.387 --> 00:06:45.382 So we see in this person the model what grace ought to be, no matter what we have in our minds, we see the great example of what grace is and be, no matter what we have in our minds. 00:06:45.382 --> 00:06:50.754 We see the great example of what grace is and should be and must be if we're going to have grace in our lives. 00:06:50.754 --> 00:06:53.721 So we have to hold grace and truth together. 00:06:53.721 --> 00:06:55.507 That's incredibly difficult. 00:06:55.567 --> 00:07:03.834 I don't know if you think about that, but you're either typically a grace person or a truth person, and Kevin Young talks about this. 00:07:03.834 --> 00:07:08.687 He says without grace, telling the truth can become an excuse for belligerence. 00:07:08.687 --> 00:07:10.653 You know anybody like that. 00:07:10.653 --> 00:07:16.168 If you're a grace person, you are most concerned about being loved. 00:07:16.168 --> 00:07:23.327 If you're a truth person, you are most concerned about being right, even if it means being unloved. 00:07:23.327 --> 00:07:25.892 Both have their dangers. 00:07:25.892 --> 00:07:32.509 Something is wrong if everyone hates you and something is probably just as wrong if everyone loves you. 00:07:32.509 --> 00:07:45.305 And I think, as we consider what Jesus went through and the things we see in the Gospels, we can see that he had to decide that he was going to be both, and it wasn't always easy. 00:07:45.305 --> 00:07:46.990 He did it perfectly. 00:07:47.860 --> 00:07:49.185 You know, I don't have a. 00:07:49.185 --> 00:07:50.488 I think I've told you this before. 00:07:50.488 --> 00:07:51.865 I don't have a green thumb. 00:07:51.865 --> 00:07:57.190 Sometimes I'll go to the grocery store and I'll buy something to add to my sandwiches. 00:07:57.190 --> 00:07:58.173 It's called basil. 00:07:58.173 --> 00:08:05.752 So I'll buy a basil plant there at Walmart, bring it home and I'll sit it down on the table and I'll say there, grow. 00:08:05.752 --> 00:08:07.983 And you know what? 00:08:07.983 --> 00:08:11.052 It always commits suicide, always. 00:08:14.360 --> 00:08:19.190 And my daughter comes over and she said well, dad, you know it's not hard. 00:08:19.190 --> 00:08:21.944 And I said well, yeah, you think it's not hard. 00:08:21.944 --> 00:08:29.767 She said, oh, you have to have the right ingredients, you have to have sunlight in the right amounts, you have to have sunlight in the right amounts, you have to have water in the right amounts and you have to have nutrients in the right amounts. 00:08:29.767 --> 00:08:37.288 And I thought, well, I know that I just don't really care to do any. 00:08:37.288 --> 00:08:40.505 I don't want to cultivate this plant. 00:08:40.505 --> 00:08:50.964 So I'm glad you're here, but how like that we are when it comes to cultivating grace, so we just don't think about it. 00:08:51.065 --> 00:09:07.634 You know so much that it's something we have to cultivate, and I've been in the ministry long enough to see that there are a couple of things that kind of stick out to me in just every church I've ever been in that really hindered grace is two things fear and pride. 00:09:07.634 --> 00:09:09.883 Fear and pride. 00:09:09.883 --> 00:09:12.587 Fear and pride are grace killers. 00:09:12.587 --> 00:09:17.302 In the body of Christ, in our pride. 00:09:17.302 --> 00:09:20.650 We don't just want to be accepted, you see, we want to be right. 00:09:20.650 --> 00:09:27.254 And our pride reveals itself really when we have this false sense that we have to be right. 00:09:27.254 --> 00:09:31.385 And our pride reveals itself really when we have this false sense that we have to be somehow better than the person right next to us. 00:09:31.385 --> 00:09:34.780 We have to be one up on them, and so we have to be right. 00:09:34.780 --> 00:09:40.988 We don't want them on our level or fear. 00:09:40.988 --> 00:09:51.888 We resort to hiding and disengaging ourselves from the very people that would heal us and we get offended and run away. 00:09:51.888 --> 00:10:00.331 Fear and pride, you see, they have root sins and these root sins manifest themselves in a number of ways. 00:10:00.331 --> 00:10:02.927 In fact, this is in your book, if you've got the book. 00:10:02.927 --> 00:10:09.067 But to make this practical for us here, I wanted us to kind of see how this might apply in our church. 00:10:09.067 --> 00:10:12.133 So brace yourself right. 00:10:12.214 --> 00:10:19.961 Okay, if you learned from the lesson last week on honesty and truth, I appeal to you to be truthful to yourself today. 00:10:19.961 --> 00:10:21.524 Tell yourself the truth. 00:10:21.524 --> 00:10:23.245 Do any of these things apply to you? 00:10:23.245 --> 00:10:24.467 Let me give you. 00:10:24.467 --> 00:10:29.375 These are specific ways that our pride and fear hinder community. 00:10:30.441 --> 00:10:32.466 Here's the first one favoritism. 00:10:32.466 --> 00:10:57.101 Favoritism, it's the saying that I show preference toward those I like or those who can help me, and so this means that if I have some kind of list of people that I prefer more than me, I defer to, I respect more or I listen to more than others in the church, that might describe you and I will tell you. 00:10:57.101 --> 00:11:04.787 I'll be honest, I had to work through this list too, so this was no fun for me this week, but it'll help us. 00:11:04.787 --> 00:11:06.671 Here's the thing. 00:11:06.671 --> 00:11:11.889 The truth is, god shows no partiality with us, and we can't afford. 00:11:11.889 --> 00:11:23.811 To be partial to each other Doesn't mean we don't have close friends, but how we treat one another, how we honor one another, how we respect one another, ought to be all the same across the board. 00:11:25.076 --> 00:11:28.206 Here's a second one not only favoritism, but control, control. 00:11:28.206 --> 00:11:34.186 Control says I exert my power to control or manipulate people or situations. 00:11:34.186 --> 00:11:43.062 Control, you see, has to do with fear, because we're afraid what might happen if things get out of control, and typically it has to do with something in our past. 00:11:43.062 --> 00:11:45.375 Why do we need to feel? 00:11:45.375 --> 00:11:53.323 Why do we have the need to feel that we have to control a situation or a conversation so that whatever that bad thing is won't happen again? 00:11:53.323 --> 00:11:57.052 So we control things to be safe. 00:11:57.052 --> 00:12:02.182 Here's another one, and we'll just go through these quickly Avoidance. 00:12:02.182 --> 00:12:08.961 Avoidance says I flee or avoid when relationships get difficult, so let me. 00:12:08.961 --> 00:12:09.705 Here's another. 00:12:09.705 --> 00:12:10.769 You don't have to raise your hand. 00:12:10.879 --> 00:12:12.687 Who enjoys a good conflict? 00:12:12.687 --> 00:12:18.451 Well, if you do, I would say you've got more serious problems. 00:12:18.451 --> 00:12:23.851 No normal person enjoys conflict unless you're in the MMA or something right. 00:12:23.851 --> 00:12:29.722 Person enjoys conflict unless you're in the MMA or something right. 00:12:29.722 --> 00:12:32.989 So you know, wherever there are people listen, you know this there's going to be disagreement. 00:12:32.989 --> 00:12:41.125 We don't all agree on everything and we often reason it's just easier to look the other way or to move on. 00:12:41.125 --> 00:12:52.649 And tons of people to move on, and tons of people, because they don't want to deal with what's going on, will move on A sign of immaturity. 00:12:52.649 --> 00:13:02.253 So, as believers in Jesus, we should seek instead to work out our differences while we can and to land where God lands on everything. 00:13:02.253 --> 00:13:03.440 And that's all in the Scriptures. 00:13:03.440 --> 00:13:11.136 I was thinking about how God treats us in this and he says, in more than one place come, let us reason together. 00:13:11.136 --> 00:13:12.260 And he's talking about it. 00:13:12.260 --> 00:13:18.072 It's almost like an invitation from him to say can we talk, can we have a dialogue? 00:13:18.072 --> 00:13:22.405 Before we separate, we need. 00:13:22.426 --> 00:13:26.472 That Avoidance is one of the things that hinders grace. 00:13:26.472 --> 00:13:30.466 And then peacekeeping you say I thought that sounds good peacekeeping. 00:13:30.466 --> 00:13:32.660 Well, we're not talking about peacemaking, that's different. 00:13:32.660 --> 00:13:37.471 Peacekeeping basically says I'm hesitant to confront the sins of others. 00:13:37.471 --> 00:13:40.765 You know, we're called blessed when we are peacemakers. 00:13:40.765 --> 00:13:44.173 But peacekeeping, as I say, is different. 00:13:44.173 --> 00:13:48.481 Peacemakers, but peacekeeping, as I say, is different. 00:13:48.481 --> 00:13:55.024 Peacekeeping means we ignore the sins of others and we don't want to face rejection, we don't want to make waves and so we don't talk to anybody about anything. 00:13:55.024 --> 00:13:55.605 That's wrong. 00:13:55.605 --> 00:14:02.043 You can't do that in the body of Christ if you want to extend grace to other people. 00:14:02.043 --> 00:14:04.408 And so what does peacekeeping do? 00:14:04.408 --> 00:14:06.452 It makes us compromise the truth. 00:14:06.452 --> 00:14:10.126 So this is important. 00:14:11.620 --> 00:14:18.147 Here's another one party spirit, party spirit, and it's not like, yeah, I love parties. 00:14:18.147 --> 00:14:23.493 It means I just relate better to these people rather than those people. 00:14:23.493 --> 00:14:27.528 Some people in the old terms, call it a clique. 00:14:27.528 --> 00:14:31.029 If you were in your youth group you probably called it a clique. 00:14:31.029 --> 00:14:40.368 But this is a hindrance to grace, because we're choosing a group to the exclusion of another group, and the New Testament talks about this all the time. 00:14:40.368 --> 00:14:46.922 So when we give our time, our attention, our best efforts and our affection to one group over another group. 00:14:46.922 --> 00:14:53.653 We are basically having an issue with grace. 00:14:53.653 --> 00:14:55.115 Grace, what does it do? 00:14:55.115 --> 00:15:10.171 It crosses over these superficial boundaries that we create for ourselves and gets us out of our comfort zone to go across and mingle and mix with those who are not like us, who maybe make us a little uncomfortable. 00:15:10.171 --> 00:15:14.705 And one of the things I think is that we're supposed to be a generational church. 00:15:14.705 --> 00:15:24.187 How many people do you know that will cross those kind of boundaries and spend time with a person who's greatly different in age? 00:15:24.187 --> 00:15:32.505 But maybe we can learn something from each other. 00:15:32.525 --> 00:15:33.366 Here's the last one. 00:15:33.366 --> 00:15:37.214 It's maybe the most significant one unforgiving spirit. 00:15:37.214 --> 00:15:42.443 It says I just can't forgive this person or these people. 00:15:42.443 --> 00:15:46.072 Their offenses against me are too willful, too consistent or too hurtful. 00:15:46.072 --> 00:15:52.033 And I said this may be the most dark one, because the enemy gets involved in this. 00:15:52.033 --> 00:16:02.714 Unforgiveness hinders the flow of grace in our fellowship and it can lead to a bitter spirit in the body so that we are at odds with each other. 00:16:02.714 --> 00:16:05.749 Sometimes we hold on to that so tightly. 00:16:05.749 --> 00:16:14.470 We have to forgive each other Because why we all were forgiven in Christ. 00:16:16.740 --> 00:16:21.150 A lot of times, you see, these barriers to grace, I just think, are so. 00:16:21.150 --> 00:16:31.350 They're unseen, they're below the surface, and so we dismiss them as being not that important, but their effects on the community are devastating. 00:16:31.350 --> 00:17:00.138 So we want to become a grace-filled community, and so what can happen is we may look spiritually healthy on the outside, but below the surface or maybe inside, we can be spiritually unhealthy, even sick, and so, as I say, it's interesting how the enemy gets in there and works his little things to get us to hinder grace. 00:17:00.138 --> 00:17:07.055 So with that, I want to just kind of give you that idea that we've got some things we need to maybe look at. 00:17:07.055 --> 00:17:18.309 See, when we grow in the grace of God toward us in Christ, our fear and our pride they're put to death and we are brought to life spiritually by the Spirit, by God's Holy Spirit. 00:17:19.275 --> 00:17:21.949 Becoming a grace-filled community isn't easy. 00:17:21.949 --> 00:17:27.694 It will require each of us to identify our tendencies toward pride and fear. 00:17:27.694 --> 00:17:30.489 Are you willing to do that? 00:17:30.489 --> 00:17:35.512 Look to Jesus to be freed from your pride and your fear. 00:17:35.512 --> 00:17:43.492 He's the only one who can allow us to have the grace and give us the freedom to learn to love each other as we should in the body. 00:17:43.492 --> 00:17:45.076 And how do you do that? 00:17:45.076 --> 00:17:51.416 Well, before we see how to do that, I want us just to look and see how essential it is to understand this idea of grace. 00:17:51.416 --> 00:17:52.430 You hear that term. 00:17:53.587 --> 00:18:04.660 We throw around terms in our church like, well, everybody knows what it means, and we might think, well, we know what grace means Heard that before just like love and peace and all those other things. 00:18:04.660 --> 00:18:08.970 But grace actually is very comprehensive in the Bible. 00:18:08.970 --> 00:18:18.536 In the New Testament it's like mentioned over 125 times, 124 times a lot and especially in the letters of Paul. 00:18:18.536 --> 00:18:21.454 Paul is actually even called the apostle of grace. 00:18:21.454 --> 00:18:23.509 So what is grace? 00:18:23.509 --> 00:18:33.789 And let me give you this definition Understanding or undeserved favor given as practical help in time of need. 00:18:34.871 --> 00:18:38.753 Undeserved favor given as practical help. 00:18:38.753 --> 00:18:41.174 Let's break that down. 00:18:41.174 --> 00:18:49.240 It's undeserved favor, meaning you didn't deserve it, you couldn't earn it, there's nothing you could do. 00:18:49.240 --> 00:18:56.715 It's a gift, god's gift to you and that's most significant as we come to Christ. 00:18:56.715 --> 00:19:02.212 The thing that we have to have before we come to Christ and know Christ is we have to be recipients of his grace. 00:19:02.212 --> 00:19:07.886 Grace is the thing that saves us and it saves us by our faith, by grace. 00:19:07.886 --> 00:19:10.153 We are saved through faith and it's a gift. 00:19:10.153 --> 00:19:14.296 It's not of ourselves, so that nobody can boast about it. 00:19:14.296 --> 00:19:23.055 Practical help in time of need. 00:19:23.055 --> 00:19:27.674 Undeserved favor given as practical help in time of need. 00:19:28.305 --> 00:19:31.258 You know, several years ago I was gosh. 00:19:31.258 --> 00:19:39.239 This was when our kids were small and we had two or three and my wife was pregnant and I had to be at the hospital. 00:19:39.239 --> 00:20:01.250 I remember during this period of time when she went to, I think, lowe's that day with all the kids, piled up the kids in the van and carrying a baby still not delivered yet, just on the way, and I was at the hospital with my dad who'd had a recent heart attack, and one of the things they said is you can't leave him, somebody's got to be here all the time. 00:20:01.250 --> 00:20:07.296 I was the only one there with him and I got a phone call from my wife and she said she's at Lowe's. 00:20:07.296 --> 00:20:09.472 She walked out and she said my water just broke. 00:20:09.472 --> 00:20:12.150 Can you come get me? 00:20:12.150 --> 00:20:15.508 And can you come get me? 00:20:15.508 --> 00:20:16.590 And I kind of paused. 00:20:16.590 --> 00:20:17.714 I was like, oh no. 00:20:17.714 --> 00:20:19.632 It's like oh no, this is happening. 00:20:19.632 --> 00:20:22.153 And oh no, I can't leave. 00:20:22.153 --> 00:20:28.075 And I said we'll figure it out, I'll call you back in a minute, as soon as I can. 00:20:28.075 --> 00:20:30.373 It's like, okay, this is totally not good. 00:20:30.373 --> 00:20:31.810 I don't know what's happening. 00:20:33.546 --> 00:20:45.454 As soon as I got off the phone, my uncle walks in and he says to me he said I just felt like I needed to come over here for a reason. 00:20:45.454 --> 00:20:49.299 That's grace, that's grace. 00:20:49.299 --> 00:20:53.595 So here's what the Bible invites us to. 00:20:53.595 --> 00:21:00.895 He says in Hebrews the writer of Hebrews says let us then, with confidence, draw near to the throne of grace. 00:21:00.895 --> 00:21:07.836 We do that through prayer that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. 00:21:07.836 --> 00:21:12.076 And I almost picture that like as okay, here's the throne room of God. 00:21:12.076 --> 00:21:16.184 We've been given all the grace that's available. 00:21:16.184 --> 00:21:17.550 It's available through Christ. 00:21:17.550 --> 00:21:28.693 And I almost like picture myself by faith, I can walk into the throne room and, by prayer and faith, grab hold of the things that I need. 00:21:28.693 --> 00:21:31.231 They're available to us. 00:21:32.585 --> 00:21:35.125 And so let's go back now to our opening text. 00:21:35.125 --> 00:21:37.252 We read it from John 1 this morning. 00:21:37.252 --> 00:21:43.650 The gospel tells us our greatest need was to be rescued from sin, and that's so wonderful. 00:21:43.650 --> 00:21:51.156 So, through faith, we're recipients of his grace, and I want us to think of this as a divine rescue from ourselves. 00:21:51.156 --> 00:21:53.250 It's a divine rescue. 00:21:53.250 --> 00:21:56.414 It gives us what we need when we need help. 00:21:56.414 --> 00:21:59.611 But it wasn't just when we came to Christ. 00:21:59.611 --> 00:22:01.674 It's now for us, as a church. 00:22:01.674 --> 00:22:04.888 Whenever we need help, we have grace available. 00:22:04.888 --> 00:22:08.416 Verse 16 specifically gives us an explanation of how. 00:22:08.416 --> 00:22:15.817 Listen to this, for from his fullness we have all received nobody left out grace upon grace. 00:22:17.246 --> 00:22:21.436 I read over that really fast this week and I thought there's something more here. 00:22:21.436 --> 00:22:31.115 And as I began to look at it I saw that phrase grace upon grace literally says grace instead of grace. 00:22:31.115 --> 00:22:34.893 Yeah, you got the look that I did. 00:22:34.893 --> 00:22:36.180 It's like what? 00:22:36.180 --> 00:22:37.945 What in the world does that mean? 00:22:37.945 --> 00:22:40.009 You say I don't understand. 00:22:40.009 --> 00:22:40.892 And I didn't either. 00:22:40.892 --> 00:22:51.829 And in fact, the question of what does this mean has been the subject of some discussion, and there are a couple of ideas of what grace instead of grace can mean. 00:22:51.890 --> 00:22:56.578 Instead, grace Instead of grace could mean that it's the grace that we need today. 00:22:56.578 --> 00:22:59.094 It may actually be different tomorrow. 00:22:59.094 --> 00:23:10.417 I need grace for today for the thing I'm going through, but tomorrow I may need a whole different grace for whatever struggle I'm going through. 00:23:10.417 --> 00:23:23.108 So we get up and we need grace for one thing, and then it's supplied to us, and the next day we put our heads on the pillow, wake up and we've got a whole new problem facing us and there's grace for that too. 00:23:23.108 --> 00:23:28.298 So we need that kind of grace grace instead of grace. 00:23:28.664 --> 00:23:29.949 There's a second way of looking at this. 00:23:29.949 --> 00:23:53.526 Grace instead of grace could also mean that grace is kind of like have you ever driven through the mountains or walked on a mountain trail and you're walking along, say it's on a hike, and you're up, say you're at one of the beautiful places in the Smokies, and you get around the corner and you stop and it's like, wow, this is beautiful, couldn't get any better than this. 00:23:53.526 --> 00:23:56.576 I might hang around here a little and you have to walk on because you're not. 00:23:56.576 --> 00:24:02.298 So the next corner, you turn the corner and it's something else. 00:24:02.298 --> 00:24:04.913 It's like, wow, this is better than where I was. 00:24:04.913 --> 00:24:08.493 And that's kind of like grace is for us. 00:24:08.605 --> 00:24:12.111 We have new views of what God's grace is for us. 00:24:12.111 --> 00:24:19.428 In every time that we have needs, we see something else of the person, of Jesus. 00:24:19.428 --> 00:24:31.998 So we have what we might call healing grace, or maybe financial grace, or maybe relational grace, and all these things that we have need of God supplies. 00:24:31.998 --> 00:24:37.587 Things that we have need of God supplies. 00:24:37.587 --> 00:24:49.095 God will supply them in practical ways to meet our deepest needs, not because you deserve it, but because he loves you more than you could ever imagine, for from his fullness we've all received grace instead of grace. 00:24:49.095 --> 00:24:54.534 So, from the overflow of God's nature, we're all given what we need. 00:24:54.534 --> 00:25:00.198 Let's move on now and look and see how do we become, as believers, strong in grace? 00:25:00.198 --> 00:25:05.805 Because this is what we're talking about being a community full of grace, becoming strong in grace. 00:25:06.406 --> 00:25:08.273 That comes from 2 Timothy 2.1. 00:25:08.273 --> 00:25:12.476 Paul is telling his young protege, timothy he calls his son in the faith. 00:25:12.476 --> 00:25:21.538 He says you, therefore, my child, in 2 Timothy 2.1, you, therefore, my child, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. 00:25:21.538 --> 00:25:31.715 So this is a command that Paul is giving to Timothy, his son in the faith, and he suggests that Timothy, by saying that, could indeed be weak in the faith. 00:25:31.715 --> 00:25:38.934 If you know anything about Timothy, he was sort of a timid fellow and Paul had to encourage him to be more than he thought he was. 00:25:38.934 --> 00:25:47.957 But he's telling Timothy he could be weak in grace if he didn't take advantage of the resources that were already his in Christ. 00:25:47.957 --> 00:25:51.373 So the same is true for us. 00:25:52.746 --> 00:25:58.357 We have everything the Bible says we need everything we need for life and godliness. 00:25:58.357 --> 00:26:03.914 Do you really believe that the gospel gives us everything we need for life and godliness? 00:26:03.914 --> 00:26:15.464 And so here in this verse, you, therefore, my child, the you there is emphatic In other words, you, timothy, it doesn't matter what anybody else does, you be strong in grace. 00:26:15.464 --> 00:26:23.351 And he's telling all of us personally to be strong in grace in our walk with the Lord, and we need to understand it. 00:26:23.351 --> 00:26:25.653 It wasn't in Timothy for him to do this. 00:26:25.653 --> 00:26:35.259 It wasn't in Timothy to supply what he needed, but by faith he could experience God's amazing grace simply by ready obedience to what he knew. 00:26:35.259 --> 00:26:52.894 We think that the little things in obedience don't matter that much, but we're going to find out that there's more to our passing off those little things that the Spirit of God tells us than we might know, and this is why I'm saying we're tweaking grace here. 00:26:54.567 --> 00:27:01.137 Let me give these things to you, seven biblical truths that will help us to become strong in the Lord's grace, and number one is this. 00:27:01.137 --> 00:27:10.957 Number one the source of grace is always from a holy God, a holy and perfect God, towards sinful and imperfect man. 00:27:10.957 --> 00:27:13.449 You have to begin here. 00:27:13.449 --> 00:27:33.185 In fact, the very first mention of this idea of grace is found in Genesis 6a, where Noah, who is hoping to escape the flood of God's judgment by building the ark you remember it says there in Genesis 6a Noah finds favor in the eyes of the Lord. 00:27:33.185 --> 00:27:35.987 That's the very first time in scripture that you see that. 00:27:35.987 --> 00:27:42.587 And I'll just give you a tip for Bible study Look for the times that things are mentioned first in the Bible. 00:27:42.587 --> 00:27:45.314 It may lead you to some grand truths. 00:27:45.914 --> 00:28:02.397 So when we think of grace, we should think of a rescue from danger or trouble or disaster, or even judgment, and this idea sort of plays out through Scripture when we think of things like election and salvation and mercy and forgiveness. 00:28:02.397 --> 00:28:04.664 These are all expressions of grace. 00:28:04.664 --> 00:28:09.176 These are all linked to what God has done for us in Christ. 00:28:09.176 --> 00:28:17.138 Grace is always God's unmerited favor toward us in a time of need. 00:28:17.138 --> 00:28:29.275 So we think, even though we know we can somehow earn God's favor Every time you sin, what is the tendency? 00:28:29.275 --> 00:28:32.553 I've got to get back in God's good graces? 00:28:32.553 --> 00:28:34.349 Right, that's a lie. 00:28:34.349 --> 00:28:38.250 You are accepted in Christ. 00:28:38.250 --> 00:28:42.554 Say it again you are accepted in Christ today. 00:28:42.554 --> 00:28:48.009 You don't have to earn his favor, you already have it, you just have to live in it. 00:28:48.009 --> 00:28:53.257 And so our salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone. 00:28:53.257 --> 00:28:58.407 Our salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone. 00:28:58.407 --> 00:29:00.212 Grace, you see, is an expression of the love of God towards sinful man. 00:29:00.974 --> 00:29:03.382 And I think of the song, and we sing it sometimes here. 00:29:03.382 --> 00:29:07.092 I think of that song by Corey Asbury what is it? 00:29:07.092 --> 00:29:10.719 I couldn't earn it, I don't deserve it. 00:29:10.719 --> 00:29:13.671 Still, you give your life away. 00:29:13.671 --> 00:29:25.795 So this is an essential truth, an essential truth to know and believe that the source of all grace is found in a person and his name is Jesus Christ and not you. 00:29:25.795 --> 00:29:30.075 So stop working like you had to earn something. 00:29:30.075 --> 00:29:32.573 You've already been given what you need. 00:29:32.573 --> 00:29:42.438 So this divine favor overflows to us in powerful, practical ways, helpful to us in our daily lives, transforming grace. 00:29:42.478 --> 00:29:47.693 And if I want to experience God's amazing grace, I have to look to Jesus alone. 00:29:47.693 --> 00:29:50.546 I can't ever think that I can do it without him. 00:29:50.546 --> 00:30:03.249 I have to be cultivating this dependence on him every day when I get up For my job, for my marriage, for raising my kids, for whatever it is. 00:30:03.249 --> 00:30:04.814 I can't think I can do this. 00:30:04.814 --> 00:30:08.349 God, I need your help, help me, help me and pray that. 00:30:08.349 --> 00:30:12.311 Jesus said, apart from me, what you can do everything. 00:30:12.311 --> 00:30:18.506 Is that right? 00:30:18.506 --> 00:30:21.351 Apart from me, you can do nothing, nothing. 00:30:21.351 --> 00:30:22.031 Did he mean that? 00:30:22.031 --> 00:30:22.992 I think so. 00:30:22.992 --> 00:30:26.358 He is called, in fact, the God of all grace. 00:30:26.358 --> 00:30:31.546 Well, let's move on. 00:30:31.586 --> 00:30:33.471 The second thing grace is strongly associated in Scripture with the ministry of the Spirit. 00:30:33.471 --> 00:30:34.997 Grace is strongly associated in Scripture with the ministry of the Spirit. 00:30:34.997 --> 00:30:37.525 Grace is strongly associated in Scripture with the ministry of the Spirit. 00:30:37.525 --> 00:30:38.728 In Hebrews 10.29,. 00:30:38.728 --> 00:30:42.517 The Holy Spirit and the grace of God are closely linked together. 00:30:42.517 --> 00:30:44.752 In fact, he is called the Spirit of grace. 00:30:44.752 --> 00:30:48.513 Grace is dispensed by the Holy Spirit. 00:30:48.513 --> 00:30:56.571 But I would say to us that we have to be careful here, because if I want to be led by the Spirit, I have to what I have to live by the Spirit. 00:30:56.571 --> 00:30:58.590 It means I have to do what he says. 00:30:58.590 --> 00:31:07.355 I have to pay attention to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, and we learn this as we walk the Christian life. 00:31:07.355 --> 00:31:15.414 The Scripture says that the Holy Spirit is willing and able to work in us if we'll simply obey Him and cooperate with Him. 00:31:16.164 --> 00:31:18.611 Do you know that you and I can offend the Holy Spirit? 00:31:18.611 --> 00:31:22.618 In fact, in numbers of ways. 00:31:22.618 --> 00:31:27.481 The Holy Spirit, you see, is not a thing, he's not a shadowy force, he's a person. 00:31:27.481 --> 00:31:29.588 As a person, he can be offended. 00:31:29.588 --> 00:31:35.163 And so we're warned in Scripture about offending Him in three different ways. 00:31:35.163 --> 00:31:35.965 Let me give them to you. 00:31:35.965 --> 00:31:39.473 The first is we must be careful not to resist Him. 00:31:39.473 --> 00:31:42.747 That's Acts 7.51, if you want to reference it. 00:31:42.747 --> 00:31:45.152 We must be careful not to resist Him. 00:31:45.152 --> 00:31:50.228 You can't resist the Spirit and have a life of abounding grace in God. 00:31:50.228 --> 00:31:54.194 Here's a second we must be careful not to quench him. 00:31:54.194 --> 00:31:56.419 1 Thessalonians 5, 19. 00:31:56.699 --> 00:32:08.678 You see, the Holy Spirit is like a fire, and if he begins to do his work, what we can do is suppress everything he's doing, question everything he's doing, instead of going okay, lord, show me the truth here. 00:32:08.678 --> 00:32:11.652 This is what has happened a lot of times in revival. 00:32:11.652 --> 00:32:12.976 It's like there's a question mark. 00:32:12.976 --> 00:32:17.009 What has happened a lot of times in revival. 00:32:17.009 --> 00:32:17.750 It's like there's a question mark. 00:32:17.750 --> 00:32:18.131 What is this? 00:32:18.131 --> 00:32:18.811 Is God or not? 00:32:18.811 --> 00:32:23.626 Sometimes it's shut down, and so we can't do that and still expect grace to flow unhindered. 00:32:23.626 --> 00:32:27.558 We can quench him, we can resist him. 00:32:27.558 --> 00:32:32.857 And then the third way is we have to be careful not to grieve him, and this may be the most serious of all. 00:32:32.857 --> 00:32:45.511 This means the Holy Spirit can literally be heartbroken over us because of our sin, whenever we choose to live in sinful attitudes and actions and just ignore those things. 00:32:45.511 --> 00:32:48.246 What the Holy Spirit is telling us and he's convicting us? 00:32:48.246 --> 00:32:51.508 You need to look at this and we go ah, it's just a little sin. 00:32:51.508 --> 00:32:54.369 Look at this and we go ah, it's just a little sin. 00:32:54.369 --> 00:33:04.657 So we can resist him, we can quench him, we can grieve him and therefore offend the spirit of grace That'll shut down grace in a community. 00:33:04.657 --> 00:33:07.138 As I say, these things are subtle. 00:33:08.820 --> 00:33:17.229 Pastor Chuck Smith, in his book why Grace Changes Everything, gives us a great example of how this ministry of the Spirit works. 00:33:17.229 --> 00:33:26.113 In his book he shares that a friend of his one time had left his wife and his wife called Chuck to ask him can you go talk to my husband? 00:33:26.113 --> 00:33:28.317 And he tells a story. 00:33:28.317 --> 00:33:29.266 I'll just read it to you. 00:33:29.266 --> 00:33:36.419 It says I agreed to go and found my friend living in a shabby garage apartment on the bad side of town. 00:33:36.419 --> 00:33:41.696 When I saw his filthy little home I was struck by how much he had lost. 00:33:41.696 --> 00:33:49.696 As I looked around at my friend's new life I thought, oh God, how could he give up so much for so little? 00:33:49.696 --> 00:33:53.555 My heart was breaking because I loved this man. 00:33:53.555 --> 00:33:57.865 The side of what he had fallen into tore me apart. 00:33:57.865 --> 00:34:05.739 I found myself unable to conceal my feelings and, much to my embarrassment, I began to weep. 00:34:05.739 --> 00:34:10.451 I finally got so embarrassed I said I'm sorry, I just can't talk right now. 00:34:10.451 --> 00:34:14.117 I got up, left and went home feeling like a fool. 00:34:14.117 --> 00:34:17.628 Here's my good friend's wife here. 00:34:17.628 --> 00:34:27.054 My good friend's wife wanted me to visit him and make an appeal for reconciliation, and all I could do was sit there and cry. 00:34:27.054 --> 00:34:31.626 The next morning I received a phone call with news that left me in shock. 00:34:31.626 --> 00:34:37.438 My friend had returned to his wife and family just hours after my visit. 00:34:37.885 --> 00:34:42.097 What did God use to achieve this miraculous healing of a fractured relationship? 00:34:42.097 --> 00:34:45.034 Not a holier-than-thou attitude, to be certain. 00:34:45.034 --> 00:34:52.074 His spirit had created in me a spirit of meekness and brokenness that led to a joyful reconciliation. 00:34:52.074 --> 00:35:03.737 I thought I'd blundered this terribly, but I discovered that whenever we choose to walk in the Spirit, god delights to work powerfully in stunning and unexpected ways. 00:35:03.737 --> 00:35:07.427 You see, what the Holy Spirit was doing through Chuck was. 00:35:07.427 --> 00:35:18.208 He was weeping through this man, this pastor, and sometimes God can use that in ways we could never have imagined when we walk according to his spirit. 00:35:18.889 --> 00:35:25.588 Here's a third one how grace can help us be strong, for we can be strong in God's grace. 00:35:25.588 --> 00:35:28.958 Grace is always distributed according to God's purposes. 00:35:28.958 --> 00:35:32.909 Grace is always distributed according to God's purposes. 00:35:32.909 --> 00:35:42.516 Ephesians 4, 7 tells us that grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. 00:35:42.516 --> 00:35:47.137 Now, that word measure means a specific portion. 00:35:47.137 --> 00:35:49.532 God gave you what he wanted you to have. 00:35:50.385 --> 00:36:00.219 And so I think about this when I cook, when I sometimes will cook a meal, something I will never use, a recipe. 00:36:00.219 --> 00:36:04.635 This irritates my wife to no end. 00:36:04.635 --> 00:36:06.409 It's like why don't you just use it? 00:36:06.409 --> 00:36:07.273 You're going to mess it up. 00:36:07.273 --> 00:36:16.335 And so when I cook, I just throw a little bit of this in there and a little bit of that in there, taste it a little bit, and anything can happen. 00:36:16.335 --> 00:36:22.215 And sometimes good things happen, sometimes bad things happen and I can't even eat it. 00:36:22.215 --> 00:36:35.715 So, but see, a recipe ensures that the right ingredients and the right amounts blend together for a good result every time. 00:36:37.485 --> 00:36:44.871 And Paul, you see, is calling the church to blend together so that Christ might be present in all his fullness. 00:36:44.871 --> 00:36:45.974 Is this what we want? 00:36:45.974 --> 00:36:48.403 Christ's presence in all his fullness? 00:36:48.403 --> 00:36:52.195 Grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. 00:36:52.195 --> 00:37:03.666 So, in order for the body of Christ to become all that it's meant to be, we must follow the recipe, which means every joint must be working properly. 00:37:03.666 --> 00:37:11.371 We're not flying by the seat of our pants here and just hoping things work out and church is just kind of like, well, we can do whatever. 00:37:11.371 --> 00:37:17.708 No, there's a recipe we follow is just kind of like, well, we can do whatever. 00:37:17.708 --> 00:37:18.331 No, there's a recipe we follow. 00:37:18.331 --> 00:37:20.561 It does matter what you throw into the mix, and so we want to follow the recipe. 00:37:20.561 --> 00:37:21.505 You say, well, what's the recipe? 00:37:21.505 --> 00:37:22.367 Here's the recipe. 00:37:22.367 --> 00:37:24.251 Are you ready? 00:37:25.215 --> 00:37:34.795 God gives gifted men to equip gifted believers to become mature believers, to build up the body of Christ in love. 00:37:34.795 --> 00:37:54.996