Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] I can continue to explain how overwhelmed we are by the goodness of God and the generosity of this church.
[00:00:09] I have a confession to make. I work in the finance office, so I see the bills and when something breaks in the church, it's not usually like a twenty dollar bill or a five hundred. It's like thousands of dollars. And we see how much it costs to fund everything. And we're saying, God, we can't do this without you. We, we can't feed all these kids, we can't do all these services, we can't have all these beautiful buildings. But God shows up again and again and again.
[00:00:37] God overwhelms even my doubts again and again and again. And this church shows up and gives generously. In church, wonderful things are happening and we just want to say thank you. Thank you for trusting God in this adventure.
[00:00:53] Thank you for saying yes when it's a little bit hard or a little bit uncomfortable. Thank you for showing up again and again and again and being the light of Jesus Christ in this world. Let me pray for us. Dear Father, I'm just overwhelmed by your goodness. I'm thankful that you are a God who has an abundant measure of grace to share with us. I pray that in our hearts we would be comforted, strengthened and encouraged by the grace we find in Jesus Christ.
[00:01:21] I pray, Father, that you would call us out by name today, lift us up to be the champions for good. You've created us to be in this world. And I pray this all in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:01:32] Hope everybody had an amazing Christmas. This is like that weird time of year, like between Christmas and New Year's, where, like, what day is it? Right? Like, thank goodness you remembered, it's Sunday, you're here. We're so happy. But it's like this in between time. And there's so much beautiful things happening in the holidays. And it's lovely when it all works right and it's a little hard and stressful when it doesn't. Did anybody have to travel for the holidays? Any flying, Driving again? It's lovely when it works. We have planes and highways and it makes life so much better.
[00:02:05] And when it doesn't work, you realize how much patience you have or don't have.
[00:02:11] Very quickly we went out of town for Thanksgiving and we were driving home from South Carolina and everything started great. Like, we hit the road, we were cruising along and then we hit traffic.
[00:02:24] And not just like a little bit of traffic, but like an hour of stopped traffic. You ever been in stopped traffic for that long before?
[00:02:31] It feels like, your entire life, bumper to bumper, not moving. You might move, like, an inch, but then a car darts in. So you're like, no, I have to like, bumper, Bumper even tighter because no one's going anywhere. So we started moving again. We're like, great. We're through it. We're cruising again. I kid you not. We got stopped in traffic again.
[00:02:51] Bumper to bumper for another hour.
[00:02:55] It's that feeling. Like, kids, I hope you're comfortable because we live here now. Like, this is our home. We're not going anywhere.
[00:03:03] And I went to go take the exit, and do you ever, like, I'm following gps and it said, take the exit, but it was the next one.
[00:03:10] And I went on this one. And then it rerouted me and rerouted me and rerouted me again. And I am in, like, middle of nowhere. Virginia could not. If I had to find my way out of that on my own again. Kids get comfortable because this is our home. We just live here now. And it took stinking forever. And have you been there? You're lost and you're trying to get home, and it's taking hours longer than it's supposed to be, and it's stressful and it's frustrating and it's uncomfortable, and thank God for gps. But gps? Come on, help me out here. We could do better than this, right? You've been here. I'm not the only one. Okay?
[00:03:47] It's one thing when you're driving and you're in a car and you've got directions and you feel lost and trying to find your way. It's another thing in life when this happens.
[00:03:57] Maybe you've been here before, you're going along and everything seems to be working great.
[00:04:03] You're coasting along, life is moving, things are working until suddenly they're not.
[00:04:08] And all of a sudden, things aren't working the way that they're supposed to be working. And you're like, how did we get here?
[00:04:15] How did this happen?
[00:04:18] How did life end up like this?
[00:04:20] It's not where I wanted to be.
[00:04:23] It's not where we're supposed to be.
[00:04:27] I had dreams, goals, plans, visions, ideas, right? 2000, we start the year, and we vision, plan and board and. And things were going to be a certain way, and now they're not.
[00:04:40] Sometimes we get lost in our regrets, right? We wish we could go back and do the thing different or say things different, maybe make a different choice.
[00:04:52] Sometimes we get lost in pain.
[00:04:54] Just hurts too much. And we're stuck, and we don't know how to get out of that feeling.
[00:05:01] Sometimes our bad decisions get us off track, or fear overwhelms us and we get stuck there.
[00:05:07] Sometimes it's disappointments or anger or bitterness. Sometimes we don't even think we're lost. We're just struggling and stuck and nothing we do makes it better.
[00:05:19] Or sometimes, especially when it's times of year like this, the losses just seem to add up.
[00:05:26] All feels like just a little bit too much.
[00:05:29] And we feel lost in this feeling of it's never going to get better, it's never going to be different than this.
[00:05:36] This is just how it's going to be.
[00:05:39] And I don't know what life looks like for you, but I want to remind us of something. Today God does some of his best work. In our most frustratingly lost moments of life.
[00:05:51] We aren't in the dark, trying to find our way. We have this incredible God who shows up and leads us in the way that we should go.
[00:06:03] And as we've been studying, studying these incredible attributes of God, we're going to wrap up today, bring it together, and we're going to look at what we know about God through Jesus Christ.
[00:06:13] Jesus Christ gives us our most clear understanding of who God is, what God does, and how we can know him better.
[00:06:21] And Jesus was an incredible storyteller. He used parables to tell us ideas that we could hold up as comparisons for how we think about God. Parables were a way of teaching a story with a meaning, and they were familiar to the people and they helped bring into everyday imagination big concepts that are really, really hard for us to understand.
[00:06:46] And In Luke chapter 15, Jesus tells a series of parables in about lost things. If I had three hours, I would tell you all of them.
[00:06:54] I don't have three hours.
[00:06:56] It's not that long. I'm going to tell you what it starts at, verse 4. So Jesus tells a story. He said, if a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won't he leave the 99 others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that's lost until he finds it? When he's found it, he'll joyfully carry it home on his shoulders.
[00:07:17] When he arrives, he'll call together his friends, his neighbor, saying, rejoice with me, I have found my lost sheep.
[00:07:24] In the same way, there's more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over 99 others who are righteous and haven't strayed away.
[00:07:36] So we have to ask ourselves what Does a story about a shepherd going after his lost sheep tell us about God?
[00:07:44] What does Jesus want us to understand about God that maybe we haven't understood before in right ways?
[00:07:52] When we hold up this image of a sheep, what does this comparison tell us about who God is and what he does?
[00:08:01] It's simple and hard all at the same time. Here's the simple part. It shows us the heart of God. It shows us the grace of God. The sheep matter to the the shepherd. They're valuable. When one gets lost, he doesn't write it off. It's not a tax deduction. He goes after the sheep to find it. He cares enough to bring it back and celebrate when the sheep is found.
[00:08:27] And right up front, Jesus wants us to know you matter to God.
[00:08:33] You're valuable to him.
[00:08:35] No matter where we are in this lostness of life, he cares enough that to come looking for us.
[00:08:43] And at the very heart of God, how he feels about you and I, is this idea of grace. We've heard the word grace before. We know people named grace. It's thrown around in, like, Christian ways or Christian songs, but it's one of those words that if we don't give it some traction, it just becomes a word with no meaning. So what does that actually mean?
[00:09:09] If you look up, like, the definition, it's undeserved merit, undeserved favor. But sometimes we know something better by remembering what the opposite of it is.
[00:09:19] So grace might be something we're not, like, really able to dig in yet, but we know the opposite of grace, which is shame.
[00:09:25] A lot of us have felt shame before.
[00:09:29] You're bad.
[00:09:31] This is your fault.
[00:09:33] You deserve this.
[00:09:34] Has something ever happened in your life, like, completely unexpected, and you didn't see it coming? And you're like, this is my fault. If I hadn't done that one thing, if I would have just done that other thing. And we instantly feel that shame, and we put it on ourselves.
[00:09:50] Some of us experience this shame feeling through culture. There's this ideal of how you're supposed to look, how you're supposed to act, what your life is supposed to look like. And it's a constant reminder of how you don't measure up. You don't look a certain way, you're not good enough. You don't have a certain job, you're not good enough. You don't believe a certain thing. Clearly you don't fit here.
[00:10:15] Some of us have experienced shame through graceless religion.
[00:10:20] We heard about the rules, right? We heard about what to do and what not to do.
[00:10:26] We heard about the standards. And if you don't follow the rules, if you don't follow the traditions to the exact letter, you don't measure up. And sometimes there's an extra bonus of hellfire thrown in just in case you didn't feel it really enough.
[00:10:42] Now start to fear for your immortal soul. Right?
[00:10:46] Some of us have felt shame through people in our life that we could just never please.
[00:10:52] Maybe it was an adult when you were younger and you never could get their approval.
[00:10:58] You heard things like, aren't you ashamed of yourself?
[00:11:02] Why can't you be more like?
[00:11:06] Or we've heard things like, you're not good enough, you don't do enough this, you don't do enough that. What's wrong with you?
[00:11:14] And these subtle digs have created this shame bubble in our life.
[00:11:20] And it's without even thinking it, we've absorbed it as truth without ever really even challenging it or second guessing those things, those words that run through our head.
[00:11:32] We are left feeling like, yeah, you're right, this is my fault.
[00:11:35] There's something bad in me that will never be good.
[00:11:38] This is an area I'm just never gonna measure up. I can't be that. And we're left feeling just like garbage.
[00:11:48] None of these places feel good and we get lost in this place and none of us want to feel this way. Some of us can't even say why we feel this way, but it's accumulated to get us where we are.
[00:12:02] And we were never meant to be defined by shame.
[00:12:05] We weren't created to be defined by the mistakes, the faults.
[00:12:13] Instead, grace shows us there's such a better way.
[00:12:19] And I want us to use this image that Christ gave us of the shepherd going after the sheep to really understand grace, so that you can poke holes in some of those shame narratives you've lived with your whole life.
[00:12:34] Because, friends, they're not true.
[00:12:37] They're just not true. But here's what grace says instead. Look at what Jesus showed us. Number one, grace is active.
[00:12:45] The sheep go. The shepherd goes after the sheep. Grace pursues us, we don't pursue it. Grace finds us, we don't find it. The shepherd leaves behind the flock to go find the one lost sheep. And let's be clear, the sheep absolutely needed to be rescued. I wish I had, like, some farming knowledge.
[00:13:10] I'm not a farmer. I've heard really good people talk about this in smart ways and how sheep are and all of these things. But here's what we need to know at the end of the day. The sheep on its own was going to die and it needed the help of the shepherd. It could not have found its way on its own. It absolutely needed to be rescued.
[00:13:28] And friends, like sheep, we all need our good shepherd to come after us.
[00:13:35] We all have a longing in our hearts to be rescued.
[00:13:40] We all have problems that we can't solve on our own. You've been trying. You gave it your best effort. I know you did. You've worked hard to make that better.
[00:13:49] And it hasn't changed. It's not going away because we need a solution that's greater than us.
[00:13:58] We need help that is beyond us.
[00:14:01] We need hope that we can't muster on our own in the darkest of moments. And we find this all in Jesus Christ.
[00:14:10] Here's how I know that God pursues us with grace.
[00:14:15] While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
[00:14:20] See, the gospel doesn't teach us that we get good and then God finds us and then we're saved.
[00:14:27] The gospel teaches us that before I even knew I needed help, God was actively pursuing me.
[00:14:36] Before you even knew God existed, God was actively at work pursuing you with the very best of himself.
[00:14:47] And see, it's not in my best, most cleaned up moments that God finds me and elevates me and rescued me. It's in my mess.
[00:14:55] It's in my brokenness, it's in my sorrow.
[00:15:01] That's where God meets us and loves us in a way that we can never be loved by anyone else.
[00:15:09] In fact, let me show you how far God went to find you. He sent Jesus Christ into the world to find us, rescue us, and make sure we know just how loving the grace of God is.
[00:15:25] I wish I could sing like Bobby Dylan. I tell you about how there's nothing he wouldn't do to make you feel his love.
[00:15:31] Anyone?
[00:15:32] Adele? Okay, what did God do to make sure we knew his love? He went to the ends. Not just of earth, but of heaven. To send Christ into this world and find us that we might know him. I can't do that on my own. I can't even drive home from South Carolina, really. Well, guys, how am I going to find my way to God?
[00:15:57] I can't do that without the help of Jesus Christ.
[00:16:03] But God sent Christ to step in and cross a divide I could never cross on my own.
[00:16:10] And he finds us.
[00:16:13] He reaches us with joy. He carries us to where he always intended for us to go.
[00:16:21] God has historically and eternally made the first move towards us, maybe the very place you feel the most Stuck in life, the very place you feel like God. It wasn't supposed to be this way.
[00:16:41] What if God's grace is already working there in ways you don't even know?
[00:16:46] What if God's grace is already moving in ways beyond what you could ever hope for or imagine?
[00:16:53] God pursues us with grace, doesn't pursue us with shame.
[00:16:59] The shepherd doesn't find the sheep and say, what were you thinking?
[00:17:03] How stupid could you be? You had it made right here. This was good.
[00:17:08] And you went over there instead.
[00:17:10] God doesn't pursue us with guilt and be like, now, don't you feel bad? Look at what you've done.
[00:17:16] He doesn't pursue us to embarrass us or beat us down or load on us a burden we'd never been able to carry on our own. He pursues us actively, persistently, with grace.
[00:17:31] And he does it to free us, to rescue us, and to love us.
[00:17:37] Grace is active. It moves toward you, but it's also a gift.
[00:17:44] Grace is a gift.
[00:17:46] When the shepherd brings the sheep back, there's no bill to be paid. There's no detail of service. Well, this is how much it costs me in travel and food and, you know, overnight stays. There's no bill to be paid because grace isn't a paycheck to be earned. It's a gift to be received.
[00:18:06] And that sounds so good, but I'm afraid this is where most of us really, really miss God. Because we understand the work and the paycheck side of life, right? We have a job, we put the hours in, we get the paycheck, we pay the bills, we do what we need to. I like that system because I mostly can control that system, right? If I work, I get paid. I can do the things I want to do in life. Now, there's always disruptions and all of that stuff that's outside of our control. But most.
[00:18:34] I'm in control of that scenario.
[00:18:36] And because I'm in control of it, I like to be in control.
[00:18:41] I like things to work a certain way the way I want them to work. And so we take this attitude in with God, God, I worked really hard here. Now you owe me this.
[00:18:52] But, God, I followed the rules.
[00:18:54] I did all the right things.
[00:18:57] You said, do this, I did it.
[00:18:59] You said, do this. I did it.
[00:19:01] Now, God, here's what I want you to do for me. See how that works? I feel like I can hold up my work to God and be like, now, God, you owe me.
[00:19:11] God, I deserve this.
[00:19:14] God, it's only fair for you to do this.
[00:19:18] I never realized what an unfair person I was until I had kids. Anybody else? Do you ever hear that? All the time. It's so unfair.
[00:19:27] And I'm like, you don't even know.
[00:19:31] You have no idea. I worked for this paycheck to pay. The things that now you're telling me about are unfair, right?
[00:19:39] But I do the same thing to God.
[00:19:43] I say, God, I get that you're sovereign.
[00:19:48] I get that you're in control, that you have this plan in history, you have this plan for the world and where it's all going and what it's all going to end up being.
[00:20:00] But I deserve this, God. It's not fair that you're not doing this.
[00:20:06] God. When I look at their life and my life, why not me?
[00:20:12] And see, we understand the work and the deserve and the paycheck. And we misunderstand what grace means when it comes to the heart of God.
[00:20:23] Thomas Odin, a theologian, in his transforming power of grace, said, grace is an overarching term for all of God's gifts to humanity.
[00:20:33] Grace is God's favor shown to sinners.
[00:20:37] When we say unmerited, undeserved, what we're saying is God shows us goodwill even when we don't deserve it.
[00:20:49] It's not earned, it's received.
[00:20:52] The gift of grace we find in Jesus Christ.
[00:20:57] Paul reminds us, for by grace you've been saved through faith. This isn't your own doing. It's the gift of God, not a result of work. So that no one may boast. See, I'm in control of works. I'm not in control of grace.
[00:21:13] And that makes it so much harder because I think God should do what I want him to do.
[00:21:19] But I'm not God and neither are you.
[00:21:25] I don't know what God's doing five years from now.
[00:21:29] I don't know what God's going to do ten years from now. I don't know what God is going to do a thousand years from now.
[00:21:38] But I am challenged to trust him with that.
[00:21:42] And I understand him better when I connect with him through the idea of grace and not works. Because as long as it works, I'm saying to God, I'm in control and not you. And faith cannot live until you relinquish control and say, God, on my own, I can't.
[00:22:02] You need to show up here or nothing good can happen.
[00:22:06] Faith can't flourish until we say every good gift is from God.
[00:22:13] No matter how hard I work, no matter what I think I deserve, no matter where my Sense of fairness feels disrupted. If God really is holy, righteous, just, and good, then can I trust him here? The gift of grace is I did nothing to earn it, but God still freely gave it my life. When we're being honest, I know we have our very lovely Sunday church faces we put on, and you look amazing, but if we're really being honest, I have a lot of flaws and mistakes in my life that have added up over the years. Do you?
[00:22:51] I know.
[00:22:54] This is how our sense of fairness works. Do you ever get pulled over for speeding before?
[00:22:58] I've never got pulled over and be like, you're right, I was speeding. It's totally my fault.
[00:23:03] I'm going, no, no, no, no, no. I wasn't really speeding. I was doing this. Or I've gotten cut off in traffic and people are like, you jerk. What are you doing? Meanwhile, I'll cut somebody else off in traffic and be like, no, no, no, no, you don't understand. I have somewhere I need to be, right? There's an extenuating circumstance here. That's our sense of fairness.
[00:23:23] But that's not God's sense of fairness.
[00:23:26] His grace is better than what we deserve. At the end of the day, deserve isn't even in the equation. My life is filled with flaws and mistakes, things I've done wrong, choices I shouldn't have made. There are so many of them in you and I that Jesus Christ had to die to pay that debt.
[00:23:49] That bill is so high, we never could have paid it. But Christ stepped in and he did.
[00:23:55] Yet I'm so loved, we are so loved and valued, that Christ willingly stepped in.
[00:24:05] Christ lovingly stepped in and honored a debt paid a price we could never pay on our own.
[00:24:15] This is the image Jesus gives us.
[00:24:17] The shepherd stepped away from the 99 to find one.
[00:24:22] If you've taken any business or any finances or any economics, what you're saying is, buddy, your treasure's in the 99, not the 1.
[00:24:31] But that's what Jesus wants us to see. Yes, his treasure was in the riches of the sheep, but the one lost sheep was so valuable to him, He. He stepped away from his riches to find the one.
[00:24:45] Christ stepped away from the riches of heaven to find you and to find me.
[00:24:51] You matter to God. You so matter that Christ came into the world to find you, to love you, to solve the problems you can't solve on your own, to show you love and grace and hope that we don't have to get lost in life. We don't have to live in the struggles we have this incredible gift that God wants us to receive.
[00:25:19] You don't have to earn it.
[00:25:21] You don't have to work for it.
[00:25:23] You don't even have to prove to God you're worth it.
[00:25:27] I know in a lot of relationships you've had to prove that you're good enough, but that's not how your relationship with God is.
[00:25:34] God says, I already proved how worth it you are through my son, Jesus Christ.
[00:25:39] Now you believe in him.
[00:25:42] Now you receive it.
[00:25:44] Now you just let it live in your heart.
[00:25:48] There's nothing that you can do to make God love you more.
[00:25:52] But, friends, there's nothing you can do to make God love you less.
[00:25:59] Grace is a gift.
[00:26:01] It doesn't get returned, it doesn't get exchanged.
[00:26:05] You don't have to pay for it. You just receive it and live in its blessings.
[00:26:11] And this grace that God freely gives us, it's sufficient.
[00:26:17] I just. I finished a class earlier this month, and it's probably one of the hardest classes I've ever taken in my life.
[00:26:24] Simply did not know what I was doing.
[00:26:27] Thank God for living in the era of Google.
[00:26:31] Thank God for living in the era of. You can say what you want about AI, but sometimes it's a sister's best friend.
[00:26:38] And I was very aware of how much I was lacking while I took this class.
[00:26:43] Very aware.
[00:26:45] I would sometimes just print off notes to show people. So I'm like, it's not just me, right? I'm not crazy. You've never seen these words or symbols before, right? Like, I'm not the only one. It was what felt very impossible to me. Things I didn't know, things I couldn't do, what I didn't have to give. Have you been here before? Something like, hey, I'm going to fix this. And then you go to fix something and you're like, I really don't know what I'm doing.
[00:27:09] But now I'm like, knee deep in it and I don't have anywhere else to go.
[00:27:15] Have you ever tried to help a teenager with homework before?
[00:27:19] Look, I passed geometry. Grace of God. I pass geometry. I don't know what I'm doing. I'm very aware of how much I'm lacking. Life is constantly showing us where we are lacking.
[00:27:33] Life is constantly making us aware of where there are gaps and where I come up short, I am reminded of where I don't have enough.
[00:27:45] But this sufficiency of grace in God is. There is nothing lacking in his grace.
[00:27:53] It is sufficient.
[00:27:56] There's no gaps.
[00:27:58] There's no Place that it can't reach.
[00:28:03] God has enough grace to meet the needs of every single situation we face in life.
[00:28:10] God has enough grace to meet us in every area where we feel lacking.
[00:28:17] Where I feel my weakest.
[00:28:20] God has more than enough strength to lift me up no matter where I am lacking. God never is.
[00:28:30] He will always. Please hear this. He will always be more full of grace than I will ever be of sin.
[00:28:37] I cannot deplete the amount of grace that God has to give.
[00:28:43] We've lived in history. Some people have tried.
[00:28:46] We've seen some of the terrible things that exist in this world. God's grace is always going to be greater than my worst day.
[00:28:58] God's grace is always going to be better, more enriching, more filling than anywhere in my life I could ever be.
[00:29:09] Please.
[00:29:10] There is no point in time, no point in history, no point in all of eternity that God's grace will not be enough.
[00:29:25] You're standing in front of something that's too hard and it's more than you can carry.
[00:29:31] It's not too much for God.
[00:29:35] You're bearing something up on your own and it feels like you're going to buckle under the weight of it.
[00:29:41] Please.
[00:29:42] God's grace is sufficient for that.
[00:29:47] God's grace will fill every gap that exists in your life.
[00:29:53] It's always more than enough.
[00:29:56] It bridges every divide and it clears every path. And it restores everything that needs to be made new.
[00:30:05] God's grace actively pursues you. It's a gift. You don't work for it, you receive it. It is sufficient to fill every need you have in your life. Everything you've been trying to fill your life with that hasn't worked is because it doesn't fit.
[00:30:21] Only the grace of God will.
[00:30:24] But there's one more thing we need to know about grace.
[00:30:27] Grace makes community better.
[00:30:30] Every relationship is better with grace.
[00:30:35] Every community is better with grace.
[00:30:39] See, before we existed, God already existed in the community.
[00:30:43] The Trinity loved and celebrate and found joy in each other. God didn't create us because he needed us. He created us to share that community with us.
[00:30:53] To share that joy, that love, that celebration with us.
[00:30:59] Grace isn't how good I am. Grace is. Look at how good God is.
[00:31:06] Grace isn't. I'm right, you're wrong. I'm better than you.
[00:31:11] Grace is there before the grace of God go I Look how truly loved I am that God would save a girl like me.
[00:31:21] When we know this grace, when we experience this grace, it leads to humility, not pride.
[00:31:28] When we experience this grace, it makes us better.
[00:31:34] Better not just in what God is doing for us, but better in how we treat one another.
[00:31:41] Because it turns out we aren't the only ones struggling.
[00:31:46] We aren't the only ones who get frustrated with life.
[00:31:49] We aren't the only ones who feel lost and without hope. There's a whole world of people around us fighting this fight every single day.
[00:32:00] And they know the shame, but they don't know the grace.
[00:32:03] They know being told they aren't good enough, but they don't know that God's grace is for them.
[00:32:09] And what the world needs more than anything else is the loving grace of Jesus Christ.
[00:32:18] Friends, if you hear nothing else about the church, we are called to be a community of grace.
[00:32:24] To take the grace that God has shown us and show it to other people.
[00:32:29] The church is called to be a light in a dark world.
[00:32:34] And we shine light on every time we choose grace over shame.
[00:32:41] When we reach out and we show compassion and love in the goodness of God, grace shines and the community is better.
[00:32:51] Can you please hear me? We get it wrong every time we define ourselves by rules, religion and tradition.
[00:33:00] Here's what sets us apart. The grace of Jesus Christ.
[00:33:04] And what did our friend Christ tell us? If the world is going to know who you follow, they're going to know it through how you love one another.
[00:33:15] That's who we're supposed to be as the church.
[00:33:17] It's the grace of God that defines us. It's the grace of God that makes broken lives new.
[00:33:25] The church should be the safest place to go when life gets hard. It's. It should not be the place where you feel like you can't show your face.
[00:33:32] The church should be the place where you struggle through life and a community of people who are there to support you and lift you up and encourage you. They're not waiting around the corner to shame you and make you feel bad.
[00:33:46] Grace leads to a humbling, humbling love of God that he found us and saved us.
[00:33:54] It reflects itself in love, not hate.
[00:33:57] It shows up when we choose kindness over cruelty.
[00:34:01] It expresses itself beautifully in gentleness, not harshness.
[00:34:08] What if we became a church that committed ourselves to being a community of grace?
[00:34:15] Just ask yourself. Think about your life for a second.
[00:34:20] Even when you think you're right and somebody else is wrong.
[00:34:23] I know, I know. You're so smart, and the thing you're going to say is, so right, you guys, if they could just hear you say it.
[00:34:33] But it's still not gracious.
[00:34:36] So what if you don't say it.
[00:34:38] Maybe your act of grace is not saying that thing that you feel like you want to say, even when you disagree politically, even when something makes you uncomfortable morally.
[00:34:52] What if the greatest act of grace you could show is what you choose not to say in how you treat people, even when it doesn't feel fair?
[00:35:05] Some things just aren't about me.
[00:35:08] Some things aren't about you.
[00:35:11] Some things, the stakes are higher than you proving how right and how smart you are.
[00:35:17] And every time you choose to show grace, the light of Jesus Christ shines in the world.
[00:35:25] What if you shared grace in your home, with your spouses, with your kids, with your friends?
[00:35:35] What if you shared grace at work?
[00:35:39] And instead of arguing every detail and arguing every point, you let this one go and you just treat somebody really, really well.
[00:35:46] You show respect and dignity in kindness.
[00:35:50] See, really, here's what the world sees about God. They see you in me.
[00:35:56] And if I'm saying God is so good and gracious, I'm overwhelmed by it. And then I'm a jerk to you.
[00:36:04] People don't think God's good and gracious.
[00:36:07] They think it's hypocritical and judgmental.
[00:36:11] If I'm saying God's grace is greater than anything else, but I harp on every detail in every point and won't let anything go, where is the grace of God in that?
[00:36:25] Look, none of us are going to be perfect, but every one of us could do it better.
[00:36:33] Think about your life.
[00:36:35] If God's grace moves towards us and he pursues us with grace and not shame, am I pursuing people with grace?
[00:36:45] Am I going after people not to make them feel bad, but to lift them up and make them feel better?
[00:36:51] If God's grace is a gift, how much of my kindness feels like a gift to other people?
[00:36:57] Or like a bill that's gotta be paid at the end of the day, how much of my compassion am I holding over other people's head? Well, I did this for you, now you gotta do it for me.
[00:37:08] Or is it just seen as a gift accepted because God's already been gracious to me?
[00:37:17] How many gaps are we filling in life for other people?
[00:37:20] If God's grace is sufficient to fill my gap, what of that grace can I share to fill in the gaps in other people's life?
[00:37:29] Listen to how Jesus wrapped up the story.
[00:37:32] He said, in the same way, there's more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over 99 others who are righteous and haven't strayed away.
[00:37:45] You know what I love about this?
[00:37:48] The celebration happens in a community.
[00:37:52] The shepherd brings the sheep back to a community and the celebration isn't padding on the back and how right we are and how smart we are and how good we are and how much better we are than anybody else. The celebration is the good shepherd valued the sheep so much, he went across the ends of the heavens and earth to find that sheep and bring it back.
[00:38:17] The celebration is God's grace is good, it's perfect, it's sufficient. And it's more than enough for you and for me.
[00:38:28] And we celebrate every time God finds somebody new.
[00:38:32] We celebrate every time a heart is changed, a family is restored and lives are healed.
[00:38:41] We celebrate that the same God who found you and I, he isn't done yet.
[00:38:47] His grace is still actively pursuing those who don't know him.
[00:38:53] He is at work finding and saving those he values and loves. And every time we see what God can do, we celebrate the goodness, the love and the grace of Jesus Christ in him.
[00:39:09] Dear Father, I pray that you would help us. I pray that you would encourage our hearts by your good grace today.
[00:39:16] I pray, Father, where we are lost, struggling or lacking, you would fill us with your grace.
[00:39:24] I pray that we would recognize the sufficiency, the goodness of your grace to be the men and women you've called us to be. Dear Father, I pray that the light of Jesus Christ would shine here in Christchurch across all our communities because of the grace that you've shown us, that we would be known as a church who loves, who serves, who shares the grace of God that he has so richly shared with us. Help us. I pray in Jesus name, Amen.
