The After Sermon /// Grace isn’t earned. So why do we keep trying?

Welcome to The After Sermon by Plum Creek Church.

This bite-sized discussion is where we get to sit down with our communicators and ask a few follow up questions connected to the weekend message, unpack it on a deeper level, and explore how it all relates to our journey of following Jesus more fully.

Why do we keep trying to earn something God has already given?

In this episode of The After Sermon, Daniel sits down with Eric Parks to unpack one of the biggest turning points in Ephesians. Together they explore why the word “therefore” changes everything, how grace reshapes our motivation, and why following Jesus is about transformation—not simply behavior modification.

If you’ve ever struggled to believe God could really extend grace on your worst day, this conversation is for you.

This conversation is also available on our YouTube channel along with the full sermon that this discussion is based on.

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@plumcreekchurch

You can learn more about Plum Creek Church by visiting our website as well.

Website: https://plumcreek.church/

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome back to the after sermon. I'm Daniel, and we're sitting down with Eric Parks. Thanks for joining us. So glad to be here. That's awesome. Best thing about the after sermon is we catch you right after the sermon.

SPEAKER_00 0:12

Is it the best thing?

SPEAKER_01 0:13

I think so because you literally just gave the sermon we're going to talk about. It's amazing. Okay. So give us a little breakdown of kind of like what you talked about, and then we'll dive into it.

SPEAKER_00 0:24

Yeah, yeah. Just we're we're walking through Ephesians, and I've been tasked with chapter four, which is the hinge of Ephesians. It moves from sort of like this theology of the Christian life into what does it mean for me? Like, how do I live it out? So I taught the basically the first 16 verses of chapter four of Ephesians.

SPEAKER_01 0:46

Okay. So you said we need to look at the therefore. Yeah. And I remember some pastor somewhere said, whenever you see a therefore, you should probably ask, Well, what's it there for? Ooh, boop boom-boom. So I love, I love that you did that because so much of what we've already talked about over the past three weeks really is important for chapter four. Yeah. Talk to us about that.

SPEAKER_00 1:14

Yeah. Well, I think sometimes, honestly, it it's actually how we read scripture is tied to this too often is we aren't reading the entire narrative, the arc of um a letter, and we're just reading verses. And when you do that, you you have a tendency to miss the overarching, like, well, what is it that Paul's trying to do in Ephesians 4? Um, and what he's really trying to do is lay out, well, what does it look like um to live out your calling based on the reality that God did all these things for you in one, two, and three, right? Chapters one, two, and three. He did all this stuff for you. And uh it is we live out of that like supreme gratefulness for all the stuff that he's done. So the therefore is like a real big pivot, it's a big hinge. It it says, Look, we sometimes I think we've reduced our faith to a few things. Go to church on Sunday, and there's some things I do and some things I don't do. There's like some behavioral checklist stuff, right? Yeah, and I'm not saying behavior doesn't matter. Paul addresses it in the second half of Ephesians 4. What I am saying is that all of it has to be based in something different. Dallas talks about it this way. He says, Look, the goal isn't behavior modification. That's not the goal of Christian spiritual formation. That is not the goal of Ephesians. He isn't laying that out. It is to become the kind of person where like humility flows out of me and gentleness flows out of me, um, where long-suffering patience flows out of me, uh, where love, agape love flows out of me, you know. So that is really the therefore is as he begins to lay out what this Christian life could look like for us, it is all predicated on everything that happened in one, two, and three. So that's the therefore. Like we live according to our calling, not to get God's attention, not because, and I think this is what differentiates us from so many other religions, where you are there's a standard to live to in order to attain something from that higher being, right? So, like whether that's you know, pick pick a faith that isn't ours, has so much is predicated on, well, like I perform.

SPEAKER_01 3:38

There's an achievement, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:39

So as I perform, well, he says, We don't, it's not that you've already been gifted all of these things, right? He says, uh Jesus has gifted you, and Jesus went down to the descended to these places, rose from the dead, gifted all believers so that we could build this community of believers that sort of gets really, really sticky. All of that was a gift, it wasn't something that you could ever earn. And so let your life then be a reflection of a gratefulness, like a wow, I got all this stuff.

SPEAKER_01 4:13

Yeah, it's the living out of that.

SPEAKER_00 4:15

Yeah, you live out of that. That's different too.

SPEAKER_01 4:17

Yes, I know absolutely. So then the the other thing that I think is really important that we need to touch on for sure is you use this phrase like uh you told a story about your dad, and like what you deserved you didn't get, and that's grace, which is amazing. How come we live in this? Sometimes we can live in the thought process of well, I'm just I know what I deserve, and I can't get past that. We get stuck in that. Well, like I can't receive this because it's not what I deserve. I deserve something worse than that. What's that? Like, is that embedded in culture? Is that more of like family of origin stuff? Like maybe your experience with your own dad? Like, what is that?

SPEAKER_00 5:08

Well, I mean, that's a really good question, I think. We probably would need more time to explore. I do think oftentimes we live as humans in a very we've been brought up in a very merit-based culture. You go to school, you take a test, then you get a grade. It doesn't work the other way around. You don't go to school, get a grade, and then take a test. Right? That's not how it works. Everything is merit-based. We we do these things and we get this stuff. God's school doesn't work that way. He's like, Yeah, you got an A. Now, now do the work. That seems backward to us, right? You're like, Yeah, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. That's not how it works. I gotta, I gotta, I I gotta do all this work, and then I'm gonna get what I what I deserve. And so often I think that's uh what happens is like, yeah, but I don't really deserve the grace, I don't deserve the forgiveness. Um, I can't forgive myself. Um, I can't I can't move past it, and um we just don't allow ourselves uh to sit in that. And here's the truth this is why the apostle Paul in verse two of Ephesians 4 starts with the word humility. There's almost a false humility, you know, it's like sometimes when you live in that posture, you're like, I don't deserve it. There's a form of humility there, right? Humility is understanding, like, hey, I don't really deserve everything that I've been given. But what the apostle Paul is laying out for us is, well, great. Then live your life in such a way that is reflection of this beautiful gift you've been given. God already knows. Look, He already, I think too often we walk around thinking, it's like God don't look my way. Yeah. You're hiding. Yeah. And he doesn't, he already knows, right? He already knows your worst day, and on your very worst day, your worst day, he extends to you this gift. On your worst day, not your best. Yeah, and so um I mean, it takes work, you know, depending on your conscience and your personality and your disposition, all those things, family of origin, to move past mistakes. But I think that's what makes this message of Ephesians so beautiful. It's like, yeah, God already knows. He sees that you you kind of wrecked it, and he's still like, Yeah, come on into my family.

SPEAKER_01 7:51

Okay, so I think another thing that this really hits on, and we've talked about it a little bit, but I definitely want to like kind of zero in on this idea of like um fa what's that quote? I'm horrible at remembering quotes. Uh faith isn't opposed to it.

SPEAKER_00 8:08

Yeah, it isn't opposed to grace, yes, uh grace, yeah. So Dallas talks about gr effort. Uh grace isn't opposed to effort, it's opposed to earning. Right. And so the idea behind this is that no, no, I mean, that's what the Apostle Paul's saying. Yeah. Therefore, live in a manner worthy of your calling. That is effort, right? Yes, but he lays out very clearly then in the rest of the you know, 14 verses, this was a gift, you did not earn it. That's actually what makes it so beautiful, right? It's like you you you can't earn this, and that then starts to put the checklist in a different spot. Like it's like, I don't have these things that I'm checking off in order to be good, so that God says, Oh, you're really good. And here's the thing it's not just God, the truth is um we're real bad pre practitioners of grace with each other. Oh so when we're in this faith community, sometimes we're not as worried about what God's thinking. We're thinking about you know what uh Larry's thinking, and right Larry's judgment of me. And how like how many times do we look across and say, I just can't believe that they're doing that? I just can't believe we passed this judgment.

SPEAKER_01 9:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:30

Um, and that's why the Apostle Paul lays out this vision where he says, he uses one in verse six, I believe, seven times. Yes, yeah, yeah. Where he's saying, Listen, listen, listen, you guys, all of this isn't just for you. Like all of this living worthy of your calling and humility and gentleness isn't just for you. It's like all this is coming from one God. It's for this community, this family that we're building. And guess what? You are all brothers and sisters of that same God. So whatever He's passing to you, He's passing to you. Yeah. So, like who am I to stand in judgment of the world around me? Now, again, it's like, you know, people hear that and they're like, Well, are you soft on sin? Or I'm like, well, no, it's just we're all pretty broken. Yeah. And I know what I deserve. I'm gonna work my tail to live a worthy of that calling, but I'm also gonna give space for uh my brothers and sisters who love Jesus, as the apostle Paul says, to grow into that faith. And he says, the reason why he gave us the gift is to grow us up, to to transform us, and that doesn't happen like overnight. And for each one of us, the process is different. And like there's a there's a grace that almost, as I get it, I want to extend you can extend it. Yeah. Uh Chad Brugman often says the big challenge for us as believers is we want grace for me and judgment for you. And this community that we're creating is one that is just filled in that same level of like, hey, we're brothers and sisters of we're we're brothers and sisters of this beautiful God who loves us so much. And yes, I'm gonna challenge you to live worthy of that calling, but I'm give you space to grow because like a five-year-old is in a different place than a 15-year-old, and a 15-year-old is a different place than a 35-year-old, and until he takes us home, we'll be on this growth trajectory, right? Yeah, um, so yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:36

Well, and I think just that very concept resets this idea of like, you know, good, better, best Christian. You know, it's like, no, like we're all believers of the same God, and we're all on a journey. Oh, but like we all receive the same gift, we're all starting in the same place.

SPEAKER_00 11:56

Well, sometimes I think it's really easy to feel better about yourself if you can look at someone else and go, Well, yeah, but I'm not as bad as Jerry, you know. Good Jerry, he's sorry, sorry, all the Jerry's like Jerry's really got it messed up, and and so there's a temptation to look, uh, you know, and and so I just think there's so much tied into this, you can't really cover it even in this after sermon. I think we could talk for 45 minutes. This is so foundational, though, right? Like, when you think about the Christian life, this is like I think you could live in this for a while, and just like there's so much richness to these 16 verses that define everything. Because if you're it's like that, this puts the trajectory on the right course. Because if you're just a few degrees off, you get down the road and realize, wow, I've built a faith that honestly I know. Look, if you've grown up in the church, you will you know these things. Oh, it's all about faith, not works, and yet, and yet, yeah, so often the way in which we live with one another and live with ourselves is uh not that way. And so I just think a constant reminder of what the apostle Paul was challenging us to was um living worthy of this uh beautiful grace. Look, if grace doesn't make you uncomfortable, then maybe it's just not amazing enough. That's all I have to say about that.

SPEAKER_01 13:23

We'll end there. Okay, you got your tasks. Uh, read Ephesians chapter four. If you want to watch the message that this conversation was based on, you can go to our YouTube channel. Or if you want to listen to it, you can go to wherever you get your podcasts and do it that. There. Until next time, thanks so much.

SPEAKER_00 13:40

I bid you ado.