Are you trying to earn what's already yours? /// Heaven & Earth: Part 4

We're so glad you've chosen to listen to our online experience! Here at Plum Creek, we’re all about changed lives, changing lives; and what that simply means is that what Christ has done in us is not just for us, but it’s for us to share with others in our community and around the world.

///

If you're using this teaching for a Home Groups setting, we've included discussion prompts to help guide your conversation:

1. Where are you most tempted to perform instead of simply receiving God's grace?

2. What voice do you hear when you think about God's expectations of you?

3. Which is harder for you to believe: that God loves you on your best day or on your worst day?

4. How has God's grace changed the way you see yourself?

5. What "speech" do you find yourself wanting to give God before coming to Him?

///

Wondering what Plum Creek Church is all about? Watch this video.

///

Links

Home: https://www.plumcreek.church/

Next Steps: https://www.plumcreek.church/next

Ministries: https://www.plumcreek.church/ministries

Give: https://www.plumcreek.church/give

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Welcome to the Plum Creek Church Podcast. We're so thankful that you're listening along with us in this way. Now, if you're a returning listener, welcome back. But if you're new or newish, we'd love to become part of your listening rotation. So be sure to subscribe and follow to be notified when new episodes are available. Now, before we get into the message, we want to remind you of one thing. We really believe that if Jesus is right about God, about life, about the soul, then it only makes sense to rearrange our lives around what he says is true. Because when you choose to follow Jesus like that, it really does change everything, including the lives around you. Okay, let's posture our hearts for what God has in store, this message.

Message Start

SPEAKER_00 1:02

If you haven't uh listened to the last three messages, chapter one, two, and three, you can go back on our podcast. But in essence, Pastor Tommy, Pastor Doug, they've been walking through this letter from the Apostle Paul, where the Apostle Paul uh, in essence, lays out God's big vision for us, the church. Um, we talk about who we are in Christ, how God brought us into his family, uh, and and why that family matters to the world. We were reminded of this verse, Ephesians 2, 8, for by grace you've been saved through faith, and this is not by your own doing, it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that nobody may boast. So, this weekend, I'm gonna pick up in chapter 4. Now, if you were to describe chapters one through three sort of as the theology of the Christian life, honestly, chapter four, this is like, this is where the rubber hits the road. This is where we begin to learn. Okay, what does this look like? What does this mean? So if you have your Bible, pull them out. If you didn't bring a Bible, no problem. It'll be on the side screens. You can pull it up on your phone. But I'm gonna journey you through the first 16 verses of Ephesians chapter 4. And we'll start in verse 1. The apostle Paul says this. He says, I therefore, a prisoner of the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you've been called. It was interesting, um, it was just a few weeks ago, I was at a graduation party, and uh I was talking to somebody that I didn't know, and he asked me invariably, you know, what do you do? And I said, Well, I'm a pastor. And um, as is the case often, uh people get a little bit uncomfortable, right? And he said it didn't take him five seconds. He looked straight, looked me in the eye, and he goes, Well, Pastor, I just need you to know I am a real sinner, you know? And I said, Yeah, well, me too. Um, but but but I thought a lot about his response to me. And and the truth is, I didn't know this man. We were sitting at this party, a drink in his hand, a man who maybe's never read Ephesians, but in that moment he was actually quoting word for word the apostle Paul. He was standing there telling me that maybe he wasn't living a life worthy of his calling. I mean, isn't that sort of what he's getting at? That maybe this life that I'm living isn't exactly the life that God had planned for me. And here's the truth. I think that's the water we're all swimming in. Every single one of us, right? Every single one of us is tempted to believe the exact same thing that that guy, he had a theology. And and and and it sort of breaks down this way that all of this is just we're performing for God. That the Christian life is just one long audition. And if we get it just right, if we follow the rules just right, if we behave, if we clean ourselves up, then maybe, just maybe, God will finally let us in, or he'll be happy with us or pleased with us, maybe we'll be called worthy. And the apostle Paul in this very verse is laying out a different vision, and truthfully, he's doing it in a single word. That if you miss the word, you miss the point. And the word is therefore. Let me explain, maybe by telling you a little story. Um, so I grew up in this little town right next to St. Louis called Granite City, Illinois. And uh I lived on this block where there was probably 15 homes, kind of row homes, and it all backed up to a pretty large uh cornfield, sometimes soybean, but it was a farmer's field. That field stretched for miles, and oftentimes in these fields, the farmer would leave certain plots of um dirt to allow sort of natural trees to just grow in there. You see it all the time, and they're like work as windbreaks and such. And there was one particular plot of land that um he had let just grow. So there was, I mean, these trees had to be a hundred years old. It was big giant bushes, and then it was sort of like a collection spot for trash, too. Like there was all kinds of garbage in there, which when you are 12 years old, a spot like that is like gold, right? There's like wooden, those big wooden spools that were just in there. And of course, my parents said, look, Eric, here's the deal. Told me at a young age, it there's too much like junk in there. I just don't want you to play in there. It's off limits. And parents, as soon as you say it's off limits, you know you're inviting your kid to go into the field. So that place became the place that we hung out almost every day. Me and Billy McCormick and Eric Lewis, we loved that little forbidden forest because it was overgrown, you couldn't really see in it. Over the years, we built little forts that turned into big forts that had multi-level pieces to it. I mean, this place was awesome, and it was our secret. It was so much a secret that uh we we would we would steal stuff from our home and bring it into the fort, and then my mom would be like, Have you seen those pillows? And I'd be like, I don't I have no idea what you're talking about. Um so one afternoon, it was in the fall, it's kind of a chilly day, we decided, you know, we we should we should like cook a meal out here. Like we were like sixth grade. So I stole some hot dogs. Uh buddies brought some baked beans. We had a little pot and we built a little fire out there, and we cooked our hot dogs and had the baked beans, and it was sort of a deal. And then we went home and had dinner because we had to sort of like fake it that we weren't out there making a meal. And I was about halfway through dinner when um we heard what sounded like an ambulance that was kind of coming through our neighborhood, and my mom was like, Oh. And then then we heard another come rushing through the neighborhood. My mom was like, huh. And then within five seconds, you heard like what sounded like four or five ripping through the neighborhood. My mom turned and said, Eric. Her and my dad got up from the table and they went out to the side window that framed that forbidden forest. And I'm I'm not kidding, there wasn't a little bit of smoke coming out of the forbidden forest, the whole thing was engulfed in flames. Oh, yeah. See, when we built the little fire for our little hot dogs, we never put the fire out. It caught the whole thing on fire. I don't even know how many alarms it set off in Granite City, Illinois, but my my mom's face turned white. She's like, tell me you didn't have something to do with that, right? And what are you gonna say? I mean, you basically are just like, well, walk up to your room. My my dad, he was absolutely furious. He's like, What have you done, son? And the truth is, this thing really had the potential to burn down the entire neighborhood, right? I mean, it really did, seriously. This was like really, really bad. All of the fire trucks from Granite City, Illinois were heading to this spot that I had caught on fire. Me. I set it on fire. And so my dad, he pointed to my room, and I'm walking up the stairs to my room, and I I mean, at 12, you know you did something wrong, right? It's not like it's lost on you because you're like, I'm probably either going to die today or go to jail, right? And so my heart is just like so heavy because I know whatever comes next, I deserve every bit of it. I just set the field on fire. That there's people everywhere, the whole neighborhood is out. I burned down the field, therefore I am going to die, right? It's just math. And here's the strange thing this is the very word that Paul uses at the very beginning of Ephesians chapter 4. He says, I therefore urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you've been called. I therefore urge you. And what this means in this moment is everything in chapter one, in chapter two, chapter three, everything in front of that word, it is grace. All of chapter one through three. We because you remember, we've been chosen, we've been saved, we've been brought near. Every blessing, every ounce of grace, all of it becomes before the word therefore. And then this word, therefore, it like turns everything around and it points back to all of it and says, Because of that, walk this way. Because of that. See, my therefore, as I was walking to my bedroom, pointed to my crime and forward to my punishment. This, therefore, is different. It points back to grace and forward to your life. Same word, opposite direction. The apostle Paul never once, never once, says, walk worthy of your calling so that God will finally love you. He says it the other way, every single time. You are already loved, you are already chosen, already saved, already brought near. Therefore, walk according to that. See, worthy was never this bar that you had to clear to get into the room. Like you're already in. Like worthy. It's just a word for what it looks like when we live like all of one, two, and three. It's true. Grace isn't a wage that you earn, it is the ground that you already stand on. And somewhere along the way, we take an all of the Christian life and we've just sort of diluted it down to a few simple things that like Christian behavior, things that we do and things that we don't do. It's like a little bitty checklist. And we've turned the whole thing into a code of conduct that we've been quietly grading ourselves on for years. And this is the same scorecard that that guy at the party's referring to. He said, Well, I'm not living up to some Christian scorecard. And so I probably could never get in your club. Now hear me. Now hear me. As your pastor, hear me. Hear me carefully say this. We're not gonna get to verses 17, 18, 19, the second half of Ephesians 4. And I'm not standing up here on Father's Day telling you that behavior doesn't matter because it does. Paul thinks so. In fact, later on, he's gonna say, Tell the truth, don't let your anger run your house. Watch what comes out of your mouth, be kind, forgive, right? He's gonna say these things. But look at where it starts, where the behavior starts. The apostle Paul says, Look, all of our life should be lived out of this reality that we've been given something that we could never earn. And then I think it's so beautiful. He then describes for us what your life, when lived that way, should look like. He picks it up right in verse two when he says this. Now, and he's describing what a life worthy of all this grace that has been dispensed upon you looks like. He says this he says, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. Like when Paul finally sits down and describes what a life worthy of this calling looks like, do you notice it's not a rule book? It's not, it's a posture. He says, This is what it looks like. These are marks of a worthy life. We live with humility. Now, humility honestly is just sort of like the reality knowing that you don't deserve any of the stuff that you have, right? That's it, just being honest. But he doesn't end there. He says, look, when you live worthy, you're really humble because you know you don't deserve all this stuff. And then he says, then we live gentle. And gentle, I want to be clear, it's not weakness. I actually think it's strength that is agreed to be led. See, Jesus, Jesus was the strongest man who has ever lived, and he was gentle. Why? Because he let his father lead him. And then the apostle Paul's, when we live worthy of our calling, we're humble and we're gentle, and then he says, We're patient. The old-fashioned word for that is long suffering. We're able to suffer a long time, right? We're able to just stick with it. And then then he says, a life marked by love. The word he uses is agape. This is a kind of love that gives, doesn't put its hand out to be paid back. He says, This is what it looks like. This is what the life looks like. When we understand all that God has done for us, and these four marks, this is what's so cool to me. This isn't just the way in which we live in private. Every one of us, every one of us that are followers of Jesus, it reaches out beyond us. That's why we say change lives, changing lives. And then listen to what he says, and this is so key in verse four through six. Listen to this. He says, There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called, the one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. And I know it's like, man, there's a lot of words and a lot of one. What is he getting at? Here's what he's getting at. See, here's the truth about us. Too often we get, we, we, we get that God loves us, has forgiven us, he's not judging us, and he's wrapping us in. But sometimes we don't do that for each other. You know? Like, I want the grace for me, but I want judgment for you, right? I don't want to get a speeding ticket, but I'm fine, the guy that blows by me. If he gets one. See, he's saying, listen, don't you understand? You guys are all serving the same God. You've all been dispensed, this same grace. So cut each other some slack. If I'm not judging you, what are you doing judging you? He's saying, look, you're all part of one family. This floor sits underneath all of you. And every person sitting next to you this morning, guess what? You all share the same father. You were all given the same thing. Which is exactly where Paul goes next. He says, so let me be clear on this. This is a gift. He lays it out, a gift in Ephesians 4 7, when he says this. He says, But grace was given to each of you. Each of us, according to the measure of Christ's gift. And then he says, Look, and this gift costs something. Just so you know, this isn't one of those gifts that he picked up at the Dollar General store. Like this is a real deal. He went to Nordstrom. You know? He says, Here it is. In verse 9, Jesus descended into the lower regions. And he who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens. This caused something, it means something. Which brings me back to what was the worst day of my life? So I'm sitting on that bed, and um, I don't know if you know this, but all of us have a speechwriter in our head. And usually that speechwriter gets activated when we've messed something up. You know what I mean? Forgot a birthday, forgot an anniversary, speechwriter starts going. You start thinking about the scenario because I'm sitting there on the bed and I'm thinking, listen, I gotta play this just right. Because honestly, what this goes one of two ways. I'm either grounded from television for the rest of my life, and I will have no idea what's going on in the world, or my dad is gonna kill me. So I've got to, I've got to come up with a speech that really works. And so, you know, I'm really trying to prepare all of the mark uh remarks. I'm like 12 years old, I'm at the um uh side of my bed thinking, all right, so I need to first own everything, and then I need to call myself every name in the book. Because if I call myself an idiot and that I need to grow up and I've been a real dummy, then my dad won't have anything to call me, right? So you're working through the whole scenario in your head, and um, I'm thinking, okay, and at one point I'm gonna have to cry. But I gotta cry at the right spot, right? I gotta hit this note just right. And so I hear my dad start coming up the steps, and at this point, like my heart's racing. Because, guys, this is the worst thing I'd ever done. I mean, for real, like you you end up in juvenile detention for burning down neighborhoods. So I'm literally thinking, this is the worst thing that a 12-year-old could do. Well, I gotta get this right. My dad's walking up the stairs. I see the door handle turn, and as he opens the door, man, I'm prepping myself like this is a presidential debate. Like I am ready to go. And the door swings open, and uh, before I get a word out of my mouth, I sort of notice that my dad in his left hand is carrying what looks like a bat bag. Now, those of you that don't know what a bat bag is, it's a bag that you carry bats in. So my first thought was he's gonna hit me with that. So he takes the bat bag and uh he he he doesn't say anything to me. He just slowly moves over to the bed and he puts it on the bed. Now, I have no idea what this man is doing. What he should be doing is yelling at me, right? He should be saying, Hey, dummy, you you're about to burn down the whole. I told you not to go into the forest. I told you not to do this stuff. You did it, you deserve everything. He should have really ripped into me. He put a bat bag on my bed. And then he said, I want you to open it up. So I walk over to this bat bag and I unzip it. And sitting inside the bat bag is a brand new baseball glove. Now listen, baseball to me was everything. My dad was a prospect in the uh in the major major leagues. We grew up. I went to the World Series in St. Louis in '82 and 1987 and 1987. Like, dude, I loved Jack Buck. I mean, I bled baseball, and that glove, that was the Holy Grail glove. Like back in the day, guys, you couldn't order a glove online. You had to go to a sporting goods store. And every time I went to the sporting goods store, I saw that glove and I called it out to my dad. I said, Dad, that's the glove I want. And you know what, Dad? You can give it to me for birthday and Christmas. Which, by the way, parents, that's a trick. You end up buying them two gifts anyway, right? So I I saw this glove in the bag. This Nakona glove, the one that I wanted. And I I could not, for the life of me, understand what in the world was happening. What Jedi mind trick was this man up to? What was he doing? And what seemed like an eternity, my dad did say something, which I'm gonna get to in just a minute. But this is seems to me a little bit of what's happening as the Apostle Paul moves through this passage. In verse 11, he says, and he gave, right, a gift to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, for building up the body of Christ until we all attain to mature manhood, to the measure of stature, the fullness of Christ. He says, look, he's giving, he gave us a gift we didn't deserve. He gave it to all people, he built this church, and the goal of it, the goal of all of this, is so that you and I become. In fact, this is what he says, so that you may no longer be children. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we may grow up in every way into him who is the head into Christ. No longer children. That we would grow up. And here's the thing about growing up that we forget is that when you're growing up, man, a child really doesn't earn very much. A child is fed, it is carried, it is taught, it is corrected, it is raised, right? Growing up takes another person. You can't do it by yourself. And growing up takes time. Right? Like you don't just, you're not five one day and the next day 15, right? You you you you grow up over time. And you are growing into something. It's that phrase that I often like to say. You're you're you're being grown up into the person that God thought of when He thought you up. Like this is the goal of all of this, that we would grow into that person. And I want to say something about the phrase because I realize that sometimes you read these phrases, and depending on how you grew up, is how you frame that word grow up. Because for some of us, those two words, they're actually not good news. Like when you hear the word grow up, you hear a voice that says, Hey, why don't you suck it up? Why don't you be a man? Like God's standing over you, like with his arms crossed, disappointed in you again. And it if that's what grow up sounds like to you, I have a few things I want to say. Because some of you, you don't have to imagine that voice. You grew up with that voice, you grew up with that man that said that over you over and over and over. Why don't you grow up? And it was not an encouragement, it was a weapon. But that's not, that is not how God sounds. I was thinking about because um I can't believe this. I am so close to being, Chrissy and I are so close to being empty nesters, right? Like, where did it go? Um and our last, like our gift to Harry, Harrison, uh was a trip together. That's what we just got back from. Ten days. All we did was hang out together, drive little Vespas around, sit on the beach, like just together. And it was really beautiful. Ten days just hanging out with that kid. And so often I caught myself, I was reading this throughout the entire time that I was gone, this passage. So often we would be sitting at the table, and Chrissy and I would catch each other's eyes, and we would look at this kid and marvel at him. Like this kid we created. Like, look at him. And you know what we never did on one of our dinners? Pull out a checklist of all the ways that he screwed up in the last 18 years. There are plenty of them. We didn't have a checklist, we didn't go through some sort of speech about where he wasn't measuring up and how we'd been keeping score. We were undone by that kid. What a cool kid growing into a man, and we get to see him grow up. And that's how I see God looking at you. Like at this dad sitting across the table, man. Not a sergeant, but a kid that's marveling at you, not a not a God tapping his foot, waiting for you to get it together to approve of you. He already delights in you. He's just glad he gets to watch you become. This is what he means by grow up. And that's at the heart of all 16 of these verses. That we would understand what God's done for us, and it would motivate us in such a different sort of way so that we could become what God intended us to become. And I told you my dad said something to me, and I will never forget it. I was 12. I'm 53. And he put that bag on my bed, and I pulled that glove out. I was so dumbfounded. I just looked at him and he said, Son, I need you to hear me. I said, Okay. I need you to understand what grace feels like. Do you understand? He said, Don't ever forget it. And he walked out. That was it. I didn't get grounded. I didn't, I was still alive. And not only was I still alive, he gave me a glove. Now you need to know. He never, he never let me give my speech. He didn't want it. And I'm here to tell you that neither does the Father God want yours. I mean, here's a God who's kneeling down on the worst day of your life, putting a gift in your hand. And so many people have asked me after the story what happened to the neighborhood. Well, it's it's fine. Uh but that glove, that glove. I carried that glove with me until three years ago when it got stolen out of my car. Um, I hope that blesses somebody, but um that glove, I had that glove on my hand all the way to college. When I pitched a no-hitter, I wore that glove. When I was all East Texas, I had that glove. And there were so many times I had to tell you that I'd be on the mound and I knew I had to make a pitch like it felt important. And I literally would look at that glove and I'd remind myself, bro, bro, it's gonna be fine. Whatever happens, it's gonna be fine. And then my dad never missed a game. And so I'd look at my glove and then I'd find my dad sitting up in the stands, and you know what? I wasn't looking at him like to perform for him. It just for me, it's like whatever happens next. I got this guy who loves me. How do I know? Because on my worst day, he gave me a glove, right? What can I how can I screw up whatever happens next? I knew at the deepest part of me that man loved me. He saw something in me on my worst day, and this is what the apostle Paul's saying. Therefore, I urge you, walk in a manner worthy of the calling of that gift I have given you. Walk worthy. No, I love you, and you know to this day, man, when you have a gift like that and you realize it, you know that's what grace does. It doesn't make a performer out of you, it makes you a son and daughter, it makes you want to do more, not less. And so I tell you, Plum Creek, walk worthy of this gift that has been handed to you. Know who you are and whose you are. This gift is yours. And know this: there is a father who knelt down on your worst day and he put a glove in your hand. Will you pray with me? Father, may you help us in this season understand that you have given us a gift that far surpasses anything I've ever received. And may you help us walk out every day a life worthy of that gift. May it be so in Jesus' name. Amen. Thanks again for listening. Our prayer is that this message encouraged and challenged you in your journey to follow Jesus. If you'd like to learn more about our church, please check us out online at plumcreek.church or if you find yourself within driving distance of Castle Rock, Colorado, we would be honored to see you in person on a weekend. So until next time, grace and peace in the name of Jesus.