Grace

[00:00:05] Speaker A: Merry Christmas, you good looking church. I am so glad to be here with you tonight. My name is Sarah Berger. For those of you who don't know me, and I am the campus director here, and it is an honor. Let's pray. Dear heavenly father, you are a mighty God. And I think so often we can get confused and lost with the pressure of life. [00:00:26] Speaker B: Us. [00:00:27] Speaker A: But you are Emmanuel. You are God with us. And tonight and these next couple of days, father, I pray that we sit and just live in the grace that you have given. In your mighty son's name, I pray. Amen. Okay, so about 14 years ago, my sister and I, we worked upstairs in the children's ministry, and we were kind of like partners. So she led the older kids, I led the younger kids, and we were just doing life together. And she was doing her very best to try to get pregnant. And her and her husband were, like, believing against all odds that they were going to have this baby. So we made a deal, and the deal went like this. If Katie got pregnant, I would go on the mission trip and lead the trip for the kids. Now, here's what you need to know. Your girl is not a mission trip kind of girl, okay? I wish I was more religious. I wish I could say I couldn't wait, but I do not like mission trips. I wish I had a holier opener, too, but it is what it is. I do not like mission trips. Your marriage is in trouble. I am your girl. You need, like, pumped up. I'm your hype girl. I can do that. You need to be courageous. I've got you. You want to go fix stuff and sleep on the ground? Katie and Jeremiah, they're your people. Okay? So I had three young kids, and two of them were really young, and I had never left them this long before. And the night before I left, guys, I had an attitude. I was crying. I mean, it was ridiculous. It was ridiculous because I was going to go. I just didn't want to. So I went on this trip. God did something awesome. He was all over it from beginning to end. But I got home and I said, one and done. You hear me? You know what I'm saying? Have you done things like that where you were done with the experience and you're like, I'm good. Never again. And then Katie gets pregnant again. But we'll save that for another story right around the mission trip time. So your girl had to go again. So I get back from this mission trip, I'm like, one and done. A couple weeks later, I get a package on my doorstep. Now, Jacob and I were dirt poor. I am talking. We didn't have money for anything. So a package at the door. Those days was a little different, okay? It just never happened. And I got this package. And inside was the most beautiful pair of brown leather cowboy boots you have ever seen in your life. And I knew there was only one sender that those cowboy boots could come from. And it was my dad, the cowboy loving boot man. And I call him, and I say, dad, you got me boots. And he was like, I was thinking of you. And I just wanted you to know that I loved you. But, guys, all I could think was, this is attached to the mission trip. He felt bad for me. I had such a bad attitude. I don't deserve it. I can't accept this gift. And I was telling dad, I was like, this is too much money. I still have the boots. I was going to wear them tonight, but they didn't match my outfit, but I still wear them. The sole is almost wore out. They're scuffed. But they're beautiful to me because there is this gift that I just felt like I did not deserve. And my dad said to you, you are my daughter, and I am giving you these boots because I love you. I felt grace in a kind of way that it's rare to feel. This world doesn't offer a ton of grace. Amen. And grace. We're going to define it tonight as this, like, undeserved favor. This unearned, unearnable favor. That is how we're going to talk about Grace tonight. And I just feel like sometimes in life, we are stuck feeling like we have to have the pressure of proving it. Everywhere we go in our workplace, we have to prove it. To earn the spot in our home, we've got to prove to my husband and my kids that I love you. And we're left almost everywhere we go. Even with the safe spots of this pressure to perform, this pressure to earn it, this pressure to somehow, some way deserve it. And what happens is sometimes we can feel like total failures because it's a hard gig to live up to. But tonight, with all my heart, I believe you are here on purpose. I don't know if it was hard for you to get here, if you planned for weeks to be here, but I believe you are here because your heavenly Father, the God of the universe, wants to remind you who he is. He wants to remind you that you are loved. He wants to remind you that there's nothing you can do to earn it or prove it. Or deserve it, but you can just sit and rest in the grace that he has to offer tonight your heavenly father wants to remind you that he left heaven on earth, that he is God with us. And I want to look at Ephesians because it shows this beautiful image of who God is. Ephesians two four. But God being rich in mercy because of the great love which he has loved us even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved. And he raised us up with him and he seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of work. So that no. 1 may boast, look at who your God is in verse four. Your God is rich in mercy. Oftentimes I can overwhelm myself because I can feel like there is a God who wants to judge me. There's a God sometimes that he can be angry in my mind and when I don't live up to the things that I have set for myself or I don't live up to what other people standards other people have set for me, I can feel like I'm going to have a God of judgment. But church, that is a misunderstanding of who God is. He is rich in mercy. John tells us that it's grace upon grace that he has no limits his mercy. It's rich. My son in law play pickleball. Actually our whole clan plays pickleball but I decided that we were going to do campus versus campus, Christchurch competition. Campus versus campus. Who's going to win pickleball tournaments? Okay. West campus, old Brooklyn. We're coming for you baby. So here's how it works. Our staff has to pick someone on you're in your campus and then we're just going to be last team standing is winner. I am competitive, I am a trash talker. I am like all in. But here's the problem. I have no skill to back it up. Okay? So I have been practicing and practicing pickleball and somehow I'm actually getting worse. I didn't know this was possible but I'm getting worse. And so I chose the best player possible, Mr. Jeremiah Turner. If you saw him, he looks like a greek God made for sports, made for competition to ensure that I would be on the winning team. Okay, you know what I'm saying? And Jeremiah being rich in mercy, he's been looking with me and he's been like, okay, let's get you better. Last night he had, in our garage, he set up a little dink station. That's pickleball terminology. Okay. And he was just helping me dink so that I can get better. Your heavenly father, he has got a rich mercy that when we attach ourself to him, he helps us become something better. And it is not a judgment, it is not a scolding. It is a rich mercy. But why? Look what it says. Because of the great love, which he loved us. Oftentimes I feel like I can get in the lens of, have you ever disappointed someone and you see that look on their face? Sometimes I can get in the lens of, like, I don't really want to go to God. I feel hesitant because I feel like I've let him down. I feel like I've somehow failed the list of what I was supposed to be. I feel like the pressure of getting it right, and I didn't. And now I hesitate to go to the safest spot because I know what it feels like to disappoint someone. But our heavenly father is different. He is good. He loved us not just with a normal love, but with a great love. He sees you, and you are loved. In Verse eight, it says, for by grace, you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing. It is a gift of God. Church, when we feel like we have to earn this or we have to prove it or we have to strive, we never just have a second to just sit in the gift that he's given us. I think back to those boots, and I just think about how poor Jacob and I were. And I think to myself, like, what if I was to try to buy those boots because I felt like I didn't deserve it? Like, what if I went to my dad and I drove to his house and I just said, I don't deserve them. I love them. I love them. I love wearing them. I love you, and I'm going to do everything I can, and I just give him my pennies, and every week I'll come back and I'll just try to give you more. What if I just try to buy the boots? My dad would be like, that's ridiculous. It was a gift. I gave them to you because I love you. But church, this is what we do with God. We say, here's my pennies. I was a good girl today. Will you love me? I went to church on Christmas Eve. Does something count? We give God our pennies and we just try to earn something that we can never earn, something that there is no possible way of earning. And I believe with all of my heart that if we just sit in the gift of what our heavenly Father is giving us, then we would be able to realize that the king of the universe, the God in heaven, who loved us so much that Christmas isn't about striving and proving. Can I tell you? I'm wiped. Any mamas out there have an amen? Any dads have an amen? That was weak. You know what I'm saying? Women. I feel that I got all the presents, I got them all wrapped, I did all the things and I'm like, okay, I guess we're ready for Christmas. You know what I mean? And then I'm like, the pressure of, like, don't lose the meaning of Christmas while you're shopping and trying to make everybody happy. And then you wrapped the presents and you've got it wrong because now one kid has way more than the other and now your husband's mad. I heard this can happen. And I'm like, don't lose the meaning of Christmas. Sit in the meaning of Christmas, Jesus. Let's celebrate Jesus. But, man, this year I'm doing it different. This year I am not striving to prove something. This year I am going to sit in the gift that our heavenly father gave us. This year we're looking for peace. There's so much going on. And I think about the hearts and the lives in this room. I think about some of you. It's beautiful. And your families are in town and it's going to be wonderful. Some of you, your families are fighting for their life. We have a friend who's in hospice and we just found out and it just rips my heart apart. Like sometimes there is the pain. And I want to think about Christmas not as all this trying to do and get done, all this what we can earn and what we can't. But I want to think about it as a breath of God loved us with a rich mercy. He loved us with a great love and he brought heaven to earth. He said, I feel the pain of this world. I see the separation in our hearts and I want to do something about it. And he looked and he said, who could I find to give birth and to love and have the courage to carry my son? And he found Mary. He looked and he was saying, who will protect Jesus in this? We think about Jesus as this grown man, but he's an infant. He's a baby. And who will protect him while he is here on earth? And he found Joseph. And I just hear this call tonight. Christmas is about God with us. It's Emmanuel, God with us that he broke through time and space to give us a hope, to give us the peace that we are so longing for. And man, sometimes we have lost our way. Sometimes we have just lost our way because we're trying to earn it. We're trying to prove it. We're trying to fathom and just feel the pressure and the pain of life, and we have lost our way. My mom and I were going on a trip a couple of years back and we were going to see my brother. And we were driving for about 45 minutes, an hour and I could see the Cleveland skyline, but the problem was we were going to Columbus. My mom and I are fun, but we are not good at direction. Okay? Mom looked at me, we're chatting, chatting, chatting. We see the Cleveland skyline and she's like, oh, no, hon. I think we've lost our way. I think we're not going in the right direction. And I think sometimes we need that whisper of we're all moving. We're all moving in one way or another. But would you let Christmas be the time when you truly feel his grace? Would you let Christmas be the time when you feel like you have lost your way? Would you let Christmas be the time where you go to your heavenly father and you say you came to earth for me? Will you show me your way with my wife? Will you show me your way with my husband, with my relationship? Will you help me see my way forward with my kids? Will you show me your will for my life so that I can follow you? I don't know why he loves us. Sometimes it's easy for me to see why he loves my grandbaby because she is so fat, chunky and delicious. But when I think about my heart, I think I'm undeserving. But the grace of Christmas is God knew. He knew and he chose us anyways. [00:18:25] Speaker B: Out of so many songs have been sung, how could I praise you? And here's another one. Why I love me like you love me never know why you love me like you love me. Love is better than silver, better than gold, better than anything I've ever known. I never know why you love me. Never know. Close dy doesn't always feel like laughter. Blessings don't always come from the places I thought they would. Your love doesn't look anything like it does in Hollywood. You don't walk out when it's over and that's when I need you the most. I'll never know why. You love me like you love me. You love it better than silver, better than gold, better than anything I've ever known. I'll ever know why. I love me like you love me. You'll never know why I. Why. Even when I turn my back. Love me. Even when I curse your name. You love me. And even when I broke your heart, you love me, you love me, yes, you love me. And when I make my bed in Hell, you love me. When I don't even love myself. Love me. You're not the kind to cut and run. You love me, oh, you love me, yes, you love me. Why I love me like you love me. I'll never know why. You love me like you love me. Your love is better than silver, better than gold, better than anything I've ever known. I'll never know why. You love me like you love me. I'll never know why. I love me like you love me. I'll never know why. Love me like you love me. I'll never know. Oh, come let us adore him. Oh, come let us adore him. Oh, come let us adore him. Christ the Lord. Thank you. [00:23:29] Speaker A: There is an author in the Bible and his name's Paul. And he wrote 13 of the books and in each and every one of them he writes. In the opener grace and peace, he connects these two ideas. Church. If you are looking for peace, it will only be found by accepting the grace that Jesus Christ offers. Some of us long, I think we come in here with a smile. But inside of our souls, there's a longing to be seen. There's a longing for purpose. There is a longing to know that you are fully loved and to truly experience the peace of Jesus Christ. Tonight, tomorrow, the next couple of days, I want you to sit in and accept the grace that he is so freely and so fully given. Dear heavenly Father, I pray that you bless us. I pray that our hearts can sit and accept. I pray those hearts that are broken and longing that you will fill. Father, because you are a God of great love and deep mercy, rich mercy. Father, I thank you for the gift of Jesus Christ. And I pray that we will rest in it, that we will take a breath. We will sit in the goodness and the gift, and that we will accept it this year fully and with the great joy. Father, I pray we will experience your peace in a way we've never felt it in your mighty son's name we pray. Amen.