Pastor Aaron Sutherland
June 8, 2014 - W1423

We talk a lot about grace. We read about grace, sing about grace, blog about grace, and decorate our houses with things that remind us of grace, but in our daily lives, do we actually “live” grace. For grace to be real, it has to hit home.

When Paula was pregnant with Ethan, our first son, we prepared ourselves by reading a lot of magazines and books on parenting and took birthing classes; however, when we had Ethan, we had a hard time implementing everything that we learned.   Because people told us that natural birth was best for the baby, Paula and I decided to use no drugs during her labor; however after 22 hours of labor pains, we changed our minds and called in an anesthesiologist to administer an epidural. So the next time around, when we had our son Isaac, Paula had an epidural- in fact I was telling everyone in the waiting room to get an epidural. This made us realize that talking about kids and having kids are two different things. The same is true for grace. We can talk about grace, but unless we have it in our lives, it is not powerful and doesn’t’ affect us. I hope today’s message will prepare you to live a graceful life.

When Jesus was preaching on the mountain he said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Matt. 5:17-20

If we are going to live grace, we must first understand that

1. GRACE IS MADE POSSIBLE IN SACRIFICE.

The people listening to Jesus sensed that Jesus would remove the burden of these laws from their lives because it had been so hard to keep them; however Jesus told them that He did not come to abolish the law of God, but to fulfill it. Jesus said that He was not lowering the bar, but raising it.

When I was a little kid my mom enrolled me in gymnastic classes. One day the coach told me to do the high rings. I stood under those 8 foot high rings; they seemed like 20 feet high. As I waited for the coach to bring the rings down to me, the coach told me to jump up and grab them. So I jumped, and my coach put his hands under my hips and lifted me to the rings.

The people listening to Jesus had hoped for God to lower His law standards down to them, that He would adjust His law to them; however, God’s plan was to lift them up to His law. Jesus’ plan has always been to lift us past what we can do on our own. We often live our lives hoping that God will adjust to us; but Jesus is saying, “No-don’t live this way. Instead, let Me adjust your life to God’s.”

Jesus did this for us through His sacrifice and closed the gap between the ideals of the Gospel and the flaws of His followers.

While driving in Eugene, Oregon, I noticed a homeless person with mental illness struggling on the sidewalk. So I prayed to God to help this man. Well, in the midst of my prayers, God interrupted me and asked me, “Do you think that you are so different from him? I speak over him just as I speak over you”.

Because of his challenges, maybe that homeless man can only jump one foot towards God; however because of different challenges, I may be able to jump two feet towards Him.   God has not called us to jump towards Him because none of us can leap across the chasm to God. God is like the distance from here to the moon. Therefore, we need grace to do that. This was made possible through what Jesus did for us on the cross.

A graceful life starts with a grateful life. Gratefulness is the key.   When other’s don’t measure up to you, think that you could never measure up to God. Jesus offers His grace to me; therefore, I can offer that grace to others.

2. GRACE IS MADE PERSONAL IN APPLICATION.

The Bible says, “Therefore, whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” Mathew 5:19

Kingdom greatness is tied to doing and teaching. It is not only doing, and not only teaching.

At the end of His sermon on the mountain, the Bible said, “And as Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.” Mathew 7:28-29

Note that the word authority has to do with the concept of “saying and doing”. Jesus had the ability to accomplish was He was saying. Jesus was able to walk in authority because He lived His life according to what He preached.

Why do I sometimes feel like people do not listen to me, or that I am not as effective as I should be? Could there be a difference between what I say, and what I do? God wants to meet us in that gap.

For grace to be effective it must be personally applied. When we do that, we can teach and become mature followers of Christ. However, we do not become mature overnight. When I first got married, we had our fights. During that time, I thought that I had to win a percentage of them. So one day when I was in the bathroom I found Paula’s long hair in my brush. Wanting to win this fight I told her, “Sweetie, did you happen to use my hair brush?” She responded by saying, “Yah, I couldn’t find mine.” I then said, “I am offended that you did this and my feelings are hurt”.   She then looked at me and said, “Is this about you trying to win a fight?” After several attempts at denying it, I finally replied, “I’m sorry, you are right, it will never happen again.”

Twenty years have passed and we have learned and grown. We do not have these conversations anymore because I know how our arguments will end. This is maturity. Jesus wants us to walk in that kind of relationship with Him. Maturity says, “I may not know how You will do this God, but I know you will do it.” Maturity says that I know that God will give me what I need.

When we lack maturity, we lack grace for each other. For example, if someone gives us a weird look at church or offends us, we may have an attitude that we are never going back to our church again. This is immaturity.

Grace is made personal in application and

3. GRACE IS MADE POWERFUL IN FAITH.

The Bible says, “For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Mathew 5:20

Jesus was saying that your righteousness has to exceed what the Pharisees did. It’s like after you see Mother Teresa’s work for the poor; someone tells you that you have to be more compassionate then that.

Jesus made the law impossible to keep; however, he charged us to keep it. Jesus recognized that our righteousness is not enough. Therefore, He gave us His righteousness– now that’s grace.   “God made Him who had no sins to be sin for us so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” 2 Corinthians 5:21

Salvation is not about our perfection. It is about our proximity to Christ and being connected to Him.   I grew up in Redmond, Oregon, which has a cowboy culture. It was classic to see men driving around town in classic Ford 150 trucks with seats that spanned 5 feet wide. Couples would sit close together, while friends and relatives would sit wide apart. The same scenario is true with Christ. Our relationship to Him is defined by our proximity to Him.   Jesus said, “Apart from Me, you can do nothing.”

I can do everything with Christ that surpasses the righteousness of the Pharisees, but it requires faith. I have watched Him replace anger with peace, lack with provision, hatred with love, brokenness with restoration, and death with life. This is what Jesus does but it requires your faith in Him.

I want to conclude with this story because it reminds me of how He meets our needs when we ask Him in faith. Several months after the death of my father, my family was reeling from the effects of it. Therefore, some people from my church offered to send my family and me to a beach house along the coast of Oregon.

We wanted to do a family activity. Therefore, we decided to collect sea shells at the beach. Before embarking on this outing, we discussed the type of shell everyone wanted to collect. Paula said she wanted to find a white shell that had many ridges on it. Ethan wanted an orange shell because orange was his favorite color. I wanted a whole sand dollar because it reminded me of my childhood years when I went to the beach with my father. Going out to the beach, we discovered that all of the shells were broken. Therefore, we headed over to the science museum, which was an hour drive away. However, the museum was closed for renovation. Wanting to do something, we headed down to the dock where we found a captain sitting next to his ship and doing something in the water. As we moved closer, he motioned to us to join him, and we saw him feeding a huge sea lion. He then told Ethan, “You can pet him if you want.” Ethan then had a great time throwing fish to the sea lion while my wife and I enjoyed watching. After this feeding and conversing with the captain, we thanked him and walked away. However, as we walked away, the captain gave Ethan a bag. Upon inspecting its contents, we found a white shell with ridges, an orange shell, and a whole sand dollar.

That day, God wanted us to take home more than seashells - he wanted us to take home His grace. That’s what we took home. Today, I invite you to take home grace for your household. It is a grace that is made possible through sacrifice. It is a grace that is made personal through application. It is a grace that is made powerful in faith. Let God’s grace find you, and let others find God’s grace in you.

Questions:

• What is grace?

• How do we start and have grace in our lives?

• Think of examples of God’s grace in our lives. What was/is the effect of His grace?