Pastor Jon Burgess
September 23, 2018 - W1838

Grace is a word you hear a lot around church, and you feel good when you hear it; but it’s difficult to define if someone were to ask, “What does grace mean?” So I want to spend some time today learning about grace and how to freely give grace to others.

The root word of grace in Latin is gratis: it is used when leaving a gratuity for the waiter who served you a meal, or congratulating someone for doing a good job or someone who graduated high school or college. For instance, when someone did a great job of hosting, we say, “They were a very gracious host.” The word grace works itself into even musical notes called grace notes, which add a flourish to music. One of the worst things we can tell a person, or a parent to a child for example is, “You're a complete disgrace.” In other words, there is no grace found in you!

We see these terms used in all kinds of secular environments; yet, we, the church, are the ones who should know how to display grace in a world that is desperate to find what it really means to live it—and show it! We should let it invade and infuse every relationship and conversation in our lives in the way we treat each other—Grace is unmerited favor!

I love how James Dobson puts it. He says, “Justice is when we get what we deserve. Mercy is when we don't get what we deserve, and grace is getting what we don't deserve.” What we don't deserve is what we have been given freely—forgiveness and love! It’s by grace that we can approach the throne of God and worship.

Grace means that we're all on the same level—there’s no stage, podium, or pedestal in the Christian life. Not a single one has risen above the other. We’re here only by grace: Grace is getting what we don’t deserve—Unmerited Favor!

Last week, we looked at the hymn It Is Well With My Soul, and what it means to have a song to sing, even in the most difficult times.Today, we will look at what it means to have that song lived out in our words and actions—it’s the song of grace!

Colossians 3:16-17 KJV says, “ ¹⁶ Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. ¹⁷ And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.”

The man who wrote Amazing Grace, John Newton, needed a lot of grace when he wrote: "Amazing grace! How sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now I'm found, was blind but now I see." He wasn't exaggerating:

John Newton’s Christian mother raised him until she passed away when he was 11; his father took him and put him on a boat, and John became a very arrogant and disrespectful salty sailor. He described himself “as sitting with a high hand, tempting others to do the same,” and had nothing but contempt for God!

John Newton experienced every vice that you could think of, and ended up running slaves for a living. At one point during his life of sin, his ship was tossed in a tempest and hit a rock that caused a massive hole in the side of the hull that water rushed in to where he and the men were below deck, taking shelter from the storm.

The men began escaping up the ladder. As he got up the ladder, he watched the man just before him being washed away by a huge wave—never to be seen again!

When he saw men perishing in the storm, he humbled himself and cried out, "God, help me! God, save me!" Soon after he cried out to God (this wretched man who had lived a horrible life, selling people into slavery, and had turned away from God) now turned to God and was indeed saved! In fact, just after he prayed, a bunch of the cargo in the ship shifted and filled the hole inside the ship, so it could make it to shore!

It was a slow process of sanctification for John Newton, learning how to follow the God he knew had saved him in the storm, when he wrote, Amazing Grace. This song was used by William Wilberforce to inspire the Abolitionist Movement (in England) to set slaves free. The man who ran the slaves, the man who was a slave to sin himself, would pen a song that God would use to inspire others to set slaves free!

Grace is getting something like mercy we don't deserve. And that's what is so beautiful about it. That's what's so amazing about it, and that's why we, as the church, should be enamored by it and should be known for it, because there is literally no other religion on earth that offers what we celebrate here—grace! Every other religion says that the only way we will get whatever their version of heaven is will be by working our way through self-righteous acts—you must earn it! But God says, “I freely give it!” This is grace! We have the mandate in Colossians that the church is supposed to be known for grace and we’re…

1. Bringing Amazing Grace Back To Where We Wake (Home)

Sometimes the people that we love the most are the most difficult to show grace to because we know all their faults, and they know ours. So, isn't it interesting that after Paul says we are to live a life singing the song of grace, he then gets painfully practical and says in…

Colossians 3:18-21, “¹⁸ Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. ¹⁹ Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them. ²⁰ Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. ²¹ Fathers, do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged.”

Marriage is simply two imperfect people who refuse to give up on each other. They recognize that it is God’s grace that brought them together, and it is the same grace that will keep them as one with each other. 

It’s by God’s grace that we have been entrusted as parents, to raise young men and women to be strong men and women of God. He says to dads, specifically, don't be so harsh. Do my children feel crushed, do they want to give up, or do they feel encouraged to grow up in the things of God after I'm done with them? You see, grace is a two-way road, and we tend to expect grace in abundance, but give grace with resistance.

Affirm what your spouse and children are doing right. Avoid criticism and anger clothed in sarcasm. Affirm your part of the problem and seek forgiveness for confession is good. If our home is not filled with grace, and all we do is focus on what everybody is doing wrong, who would want to be there? Grace is not about finding fault. Grace is about finding the way forward.

Be more sensitive. Avoid absolutes and ultimatums. Use "I" statements. Instead of you, say "I" should work on this. "I" need to be more sensitive to this. "I" should have listened when you were talking...

If you've gotten to the place where the only way that you can work with your children or spouse is through threatening or bullying, then I really want to encourage you: Don't try and fix this on your own! Go to our New Hope Counseling Center if you keep circling back to the same thing over and again and repeating the same mistakes—you need an outside perspective to speak to you with grace.

Grace runs after you. Think of the prodigal son: when he comes home after squandering his wealth, the Father doesn't stand there saying he is not allowed to come home. He does not accuse the son in this situation. No, the Father was there, waiting with his arms open. He runs to the son, embraces him, throws a feast and says, “Welcome home!” Grace threw the feast; mercy welcomed him home. That's what it looks like to have a home filled with grace!

2. Bringing Amazing Grace Back To Where We Work.

Paul is not endorsing slavery, but in those days, slavery was a part of the Roman economy, more like an employee than a slave. He is saying change can come even to those who were slaves or bondservants. We can effect a change from the inside out if we remember for whom we are working. As in Colossians 3:22-25; 4:1…

^“22Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to curry their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord. ²³Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, ²⁴ since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. ²⁵Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for their wrongs, and there is no favoritism…Masters, provide your slaves with what is right and fair, because you know that you also have a Master in heaven.” 

Colossians 4:1 shows there's no favoritism because grace is a two-way road. He doesn't just talk to the employees; he says, "Masters, provide your slaves with what is right and fair, because you know that you also have a Master in heaven.”

How hard do I work when no one is looking? Is my focus on self-promotion, or am I promoting God in everything that I do? Am I stepping on people to climb the ladder, or am I trusting God who says he is the one who brings promotion?

Do we pursue sincere conversation or is it just flattery? Do we just use flattery or the right words in the right places to advance our position at our workplace, or do we pursue sincere conversation even when there's been false accusation? We need to represent Jesus, that’s what grace looks like at work. When we respond to our family and friends, our employees and our employers with grace, we represent Jesus who died for the whole world!

3. Bringing Grace Back To The Whole World.

Colossians 4:2-6 NIV says, “² Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. ³ And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. ⁴ Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should.⁵ Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. ⁶ Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

“Devote yourselves to prayer" is the first place to start when angry, frustrated, bitter, or have been salty with your language. Have you heard the idiom, “That guy's a little salty; that girl is a little salty?” It means someone with a bitter attitude, rude, and makes people cry salty tears.

Paul writes, “Pray for us…that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains." He is praying for grace for the world while he has been falsely accused and chained up.

Paul is asking for prayer that God would give him opportunities to share the Gospel even while chained in prison. We who are not in chains have opportunities to be full of grace, where we wake, and where we work, to show our worship of God. The only chains holding us back are bitterness, unforgiveness, rudeness and sarcasm by the way we talk and relate to each other. We need to stay salty, not with bitterness, anger, rage, or unforgiveness—but with grace!

Ask yourselves: Do I only show grace to those who are gracious to me? Do people know me more for what I am against than what I am for? Must they agree with my political position to have a relationship with me? Am I gracious with somebody who sees things from an entirely different perspective than I do?

STUDY QUESTIONS:

1. What can I do to show more grace at home and at work?

2. How do I overcome the temptation to only dispense grace when everything is fine?

3. How do I honor Jesus by living a grace filled life?