Ministry of Reconciliation
Tom Shrader concludes the series by distinguishing between knowing Scripture and truly knowing Christ, warning that serious Bible students can fall into the same trap as the Pharisees—finding identity in religious knowledge rather than in relationship with Jesus. Drawing on Ephesians 2:8-10, Philippians 3, John 5, and Matthew 6, he argues that genuine faith grows through knowing and loving God, not through accumulating doctrine or constructing new religious obligations. He applies this directly to the economic anxiety of the moment, calling believers to trust God's sovereignty, resist fear-driven living, and embrace the ministry of reconciliation they have been given in their everyday world.
“We don't worship the Word of God. We worship the God of the Word.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Grace for Life, Grace for Living
Recorded: 2008 at East Valley Bible Church
Duration: 50 min
Themes: reconciliation, grace, faith, knowing god, fear, religious pride, trust, identity, struggling with financial anxiety, bible student, new believer, long-time churchgoer, feeling distant from god, navigating economic uncertainty, caught in religious routine, searching for identity
Scripture: Ephesians 2:1, Ephesians 2:8-10, Ephesians 1, John 5:18, John 5:39, John 10:22-31, John 14:6, John 17:3, John 10:10, John 4, Philippians 3:4-14, Matthew 6:19-34, Mark 4:37-41, Romans 1, 2 Corinthians 5:17-21, Matthew 23
Theological Themes: soteriology, salvation by grace, justification, sanctification, becoming holy, union with christ, works righteousness, ministry of reconciliation
Full Transcript
Grace for Life, Grace for Living
Today we close out our series titled *Grace for Life, Grace for Living*. I invite you to turn to the book of Ephesians. Your Bible should almost fall open to this now — Ephesians chapter 2, verses 8, 9, and 10. It is the theme passage for this series, and we are going to be all over the New Testament primarily this morning. Grace for Life — that is Ephesians 2:8–9: "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one should boast." As much as I would love to spend a great deal of time on that, we have spent weeks on it, so if you are new and missed that, I would encourage you to go online and work your way through it.
Grace for Life is the truth that we were dead in our sins and trespasses. That is what Paul writes at the beginning of this chapter — Ephesians 2:1: "You were dead in your trespasses and sins." But God moves, and now we are alive. We are saved by grace. The vehicle that demonstrates that saving grace for us is saving faith. So that moment when you responded to the gospel, that faith you had at that moment was a gift of God. He opened your eyes to see that truth. It was not a result of works. You did not generate that faith. You responded to the gospel because God put that in you.
But that is not the end of the story — that is really the beginning of it. Grace for Living is verse 10: "We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which He prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them." We would live in them.
A Personal and Local Word
I spent two weeks putting this message together — by that I mean simply thinking about what I wanted to communicate this morning. It occurred to me as I was sitting here very early this morning, around 4:00 or 4:45, letting this thing come together, that this message may be far more autobiographical than it is about you. I do not think that is entirely the case — it certainly is about me, but I believe it relates to you as well. If it does not, I apologize, but I am making some assumptions here.
I want to speak about the church — and in this case, not the church universal, but specifically East Valley Bible Church. I think I understand East Valley Bible Church about as well as anyone. I have been here from the beginning. I think I understand who we are, what our DNA is, and you may see nuances from your own unique position, but overall I believe I have a solid perspective on who we are as a people, as a leadership team, and how we have evolved and changed over these seventeen or eighteen years.
There are two words we use correctly and consistently as they relate to salvation, and my fear is that we either ignore them or minimize them when we get to the idea of grace for living. Those two words are *grace* and *faith*. We talk openly about saving grace and saving faith. We freely associate those words with that initial act of salvation. But what we want to emphasize today is the grace-for-living part.
Grace, Faith, and Knowing God
The more time I spend thinking about grace and faith, the more I come to the conclusion that these two words are not so much about you and me, but about God — about who He is and how He works in the grand scheme of things. We are selfish, so we naturally want to bring it back to ourselves and how He works in our individual lives. But when we talk about walking by faith and living by faith, the depth of that faith is going to depend, to a large degree, on our knowledge of God, our love for God, and our trust in God.
You are not going to trust someone you do not know. You are not going to have an affection for someone — and by affection I mean a holy, unconditional following — if you do not love them. And if you do not know them and do not love them, there is no way you will ever arrive at genuine trust. So how do we know God?
We know Him in a general way through general revelation. That is Romans 1. We can get a sense that there is a God, a higher power. God tells us in His Word that just by looking at creation — at the stars, the universe, the world around us — we understand there is a Creator. The magnitude of creation itself tells us about His power and His glory. But to really know Him, we have to get into this Word. This is how He revealed Himself to us. This is how we begin to understand His attributes and how He interacts with His people.
The Story of Reconciliation
The Bible is a wonderful story, and we have tried to illustrate it this way before. The opening section is about His creation and our sin. The rest of it is about Him fixing it. It really is a story of God and sinner reconciled. It is a story about Him creating — "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" — telling us the story of creation itself, telling us who we are, and then telling us about our rebellion in Adam. Everything after that is the story of Him reconciling sinful man to a holy God.
Our understanding of Him and our growing in Him comes primarily through the Scriptures. The Scriptures expose us to God — who He is, how He acts. They define our relationship with Him: how it is established, how it is maintained, how we grow in it. And then, as we learn about Him, we begin to experience Him in our lives. As we come to know Him intellectually and begin to experience Him, the reality of that knowledge deepens into genuine, living faith.
The Danger of Knowing Scripture Without Knowing Christ
Christ in our life grows deep. So when we say grow in faith, that's essential for us. There is going to be, by definition, some length of time involved. But I can be a Christian for 25 years and still have very little experience of reality in Him. I could be in real trouble after 25 years.
Turn with me to the Gospel of John, chapter 5. It occurs to me that this point could be especially true of people who love the Bible. Jesus has healed a man on the Sabbath, and the Jewish leaders are offended. Verse 18: "For this reason therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, not only because He was breaking the Sabbath, but also because He was calling God His own Father and making Himself equal to God." This group — the Pharisees, Sadducees, the Jewish leaders — they are not getting Jesus.
Now keep your finger there and turn to John chapter 10, verse 22. It is the Feast of Dedication, and the same general grouping of leaders comes to Jesus. Verse 24: "They gathered around Him and they were saying to Him, how long will You keep us in suspense if You're the Christ, tell us plainly." Jesus answered them: "I told you, but you don't believe the works which I do in the Father's name, testify of Me, but you don't believe because you're not My sheep. My sheep hear My voice, I know them, they follow Me, I give them eternal life and they will never perish, no one can snatch them out of My Father's hands. My Father who has given them to Me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hands, I and the Father are one." And the Jews picked up stones to stone Him.
This is the same grouping we see in John 5, and by John chapter 10 they are saying, "Don't keep us in the dark — just tell us plainly." And Jesus is saying, "I've already made it as plain as I can possibly make it. You just don't get it." The deficiency is not in Him or His explanation. The deficiency is in them. They have hard hearts and closed ears and they will not believe — that is the problem.
The Scriptures Point Beyond Themselves
Back in John chapter 5, after the Jewish leaders have decided to kill Him, Jesus continues beginning in verse 19. He teaches about the witness of John, His equality with God, resurrections, and His works. Then in verse 39 He says this to them: "You search the scriptures because you think in them you have eternal life. It is these that testify about Me and you are not willing to come to Me so that you might have life."
It occurs to me that we as followers of Christ can fall into exactly the same trap — thinking that Christianity, or life with Christ, is found in the scriptures, when it is not. It is found in Christ. Are the scriptures important? So important we put it in our name: East Valley Bible Church. We are into it. We are into the doctrine, the nuances, the original texts, all the things that are meant by them. That is absolutely important.
But here is what I am saying, based on my observation — it may not apply to you at all, but it is something I have seen in a lot of people. Just like the Jews, I can think I am going to find life in the scriptures and never get to who they point me to, and that is Christ. We do not find life in the scriptures themselves. We do not worship the Word of God. We worship the God of the Word. We must not become so obsessed with all of this that we never get to Christ. That is the problem with these men.
The Pharisees: Devoted to Scripture, Condemned by Christ
Today the Pharisees have something of a bad reputation. If I say "Pharisee," you get a caricature in your mind — some dark, sinister figure. But they were not that. They were the religious leaders of the day, and the admiration for them was so great that when Jesus said, "You're not going to heaven unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees," the people essentially said, "Then we have no chance. We cannot even get close to where they are." These men knew the scriptures and followed them.
Yet Jesus does not applaud them for that. He criticizes them — and more than criticizes: He condemns them. Matthew chapter 23 is the flip side of the Beatitudes. He begins, "Woe to you scribes, you Pharisees, you hypocrites," and then lists charge after charge. He says they count right down to the smallest condiments and tithe off all of these things, and while they think they are bringing people closer to God, they are only pushing them further away. But they knew the scriptures.
I want to make sure — and I can only take responsibility for East Valley Bible Church right now — that those of us here are not searching the scriptures thinking we find eternal life in the scriptures. We find eternal life in Christ and in knowing Him.
Ray Stedman on the Strange Paradox
Ray Stedman, dealing with this verse, writes this: "What a strange paradox. These men were painstakingly students of the scripture, spending their whole lives counting the very words, memorizing great sections of it, committing themselves entirely to it, because they thought the knowledge of scripture would give them life. They're like many today — students, scholars, who search the Bible but never find Jesus. Yet Jesus declares Himself — they, the scriptures, bear witness of Me."
Knowing the Word Without Knowing God
Ray Stedman writes: "We see from this passage how Jesus beheld Himself in the mirror of the Old Testament. There He recognized His own figure so clearly that He thought it impossible to study the book sincerely and not come to Him immediately." Yet as Jesus says, it is possible to study the Bible, to even give your whole life to it, and never see Him. These people held what many people think today — that knowledge is power, that education is life. They believed that if you get the knowledge of what Christ does, you have life. But that is not true at all.
I want to linger on this, because I see it all around me, and I see it among people who are genuinely serious. They are devoted students of the Word, but they mistakenly think that if they study the Scriptures and know the Scriptures, they find life in the Scriptures — and they never get to Jesus. Let me say it again: they know the Word of God, but they don't know the God of the Word. They can diagram all the sentences. They know all the truths.
They want to debate, speculate, and argue about the subtle nuances of all of these different things, and they never get to Jesus. They have figured out when He is coming again, but they don't know Him. They have taken a stand for Scripture, the infallibility of Scripture, and the truth — so much so that they have successfully alienated everybody in their world over this truth. They have made themselves the dividing issue, never getting to the gospel. And the reason is this: we love religion.
Paul's Move from Religion to Relationship
Turn to Philippians chapter 3. If you are still in Ephesians, it is just the next book to the right. I made this point about six months ago, a couple of times in here and a couple of times in Priority Living. It is one of those moments where something is so clear in your mind that you think, this is really important, this is really significant. Then you share it and it goes flat. I have done this three times and have not gotten any positive response at all — so either I don't explain it well, or it just isn't any good. This is my last run at it, because it still seems right to me.
In Philippians chapter 3, Paul is talking about religion, about his pedigree and his credentials. He says in verse 4: "If anybody should have confidence in the flesh" — in religion, in the individual ability to satisfy the law — "it's me." He then goes through all of it: circumcised on the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law a Pharisee, as to zeal a persecutor of the church. He had the right birth, the right vocation, and he did not merely teach it — he lived it. He was a zealot who persecuted the church to try to shut it down.
Then he says: "Whatever things these were gain to me, these things I count lost for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be lost" — Philippians 3:8 — "in view of the surpassing value of knowing" — not knowing the Scripture, but — "knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish, so that I may gain Christ." Verse 10: "That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, in order that I might attain to the resurrection from the dead."
He continues: "Not that I have already obtained all this or have already arrived — I am not a finished product." Verse 13: "But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." Paul is saying: I was deeply invested in religion, in the law — and now I have grace for life. I have experienced grace. I moved from religion to relationship. I was learning all about Him, but now I know Him. That is the distinction he is making.
The New Religion We Build for Ourselves
Here is what I observe. It is not difficult for those of us who have experienced grace for life, who know the Scriptures, to create our own new religion. We start by measuring ourselves, but that is never enough, because we are never satisfied with that alone. We want to make sure the whole world conforms to our standard. So it is not enough that we are content with who we are — we now look for the whole world to conform to our new religious standard. The things God says are genuinely important in your life suddenly become measuring stones for determining what a real Christian is.
I was reading a novel a couple of weeks ago, and one of the characters makes this comment: "No prison is as strong as religious obligation. It takes us captive even while we are patting ourselves on the back. I walked past the synagogue yesterday, and the rabbi came outside and asked if I could go in and turn on some lights for him. Someone had forgotten to do it the day before, and he couldn't do it himself without breaking the Sabbath." We are quick to look at that and mock it — but we have our own version of that religion.
Nothing is as strong as the prison of religious obligation. And Jesus says those whom the Son sets free are free indeed — and that freedom is what I want us to live in. Freedom from the bondage of sin: you do not have to sin anymore. Freedom from the consequence of sin: a change of designation and destination. You are no longer headed to hell but to heaven. You are no longer designated a sinner but a saint. He has also freed you to be who you are, whoever that is. There is enormous freedom in Christ. And yet we almost desire to return to a whole system of rules.
Pursuing God's Agenda Over Our Own
He releases us from religion, and then we put ourselves right back into it again. He frees us to be who we really are in our own unique way, without having to fulfill a whole set of rules and regulations. We have grace for life — grace to take this Word and let it transform us. So we have in our lives a transformed heart and an informed mind so we can live a radical life.
Treasures, Masters, and Worry
I want to move this to the practical. Look at Matthew chapter 6, right in the heart of the Sermon on the Mount. This is in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus has been talking about praying and giving and fasting. Verse 19 gives us a principle: "Don't store up for yourselves treasures on earth." Why? You will lose them. Verse 20: store up treasures in heaven. Why? They last.
Look at the principle in verse 21: where your treasure is, your heart is going to be also. Verse 24: you cannot serve two masters. You cannot serve God and the world. And then He lays out a further principle — "For this reason I say to you, do not worry about your life."
Do we need to hear that? The last four to six weeks have been unbelievable. I have never seen anything like this in my life — not just in the markets and all of those things, but among people I know. I have never seen such a sense of concern, worry, and fear. We have never been in times like this, which instinctively makes us afraid.
Jesus says not to worry about life. He does not minimize the fact — and you can read it — that you need food to eat, clothing, and a place to live. Verse 31, He says it again: do not worry about what you are going to eat, what you are going to wear, or what you are going to drink. Why? Because when you do, first, you are thinking like a Gentile — you are thinking like someone who does not know Him.
Seek First His Kingdom
Here is what you do need to seek. Here is what you do need to strive toward: "Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." That is what you need to strive for. And, by the way, verse 34: do not worry about tomorrow. Why? Tomorrow will take care of itself. Besides that, each day has enough trouble of its own. You can only handle so much worry today, so you had better not bring tomorrow's over, because you are not ready for it yet.
Here is what He is saying: pursue My agenda, not yours. Love Me, not yourself. Fulfill My desires. Because you already have eternal life — is that not what Scripture teaches? "Whoever believes in Him has eternal life" — has it, present tense. When we think of eternal life, we need to understand two components: quantity, meaning it is a great deal of life, and quality, in terms of where we are going to spend it. And eternal life for us begins here, now, today.
Why Scripture Matters Practically
I am not saying Scripture is unimportant. I am saying it is hugely important, for very practical reasons. The more I know God, the more I love Him, and the more I love Him, the more I am going to trust Him.
I was in the bookstore this week, and I realize this is going to sound incredibly self-serving, but I hope you can work your way through it — that bookstore is really a good bookstore. It is not a Borders with 250,000 titles, but I spent a few minutes in there this week and was blown away at the quality of what is in there. As you are planning and thinking about Christmas, if you are thinking about books, think there first. I also talked to Aaron about the gift pack we do every year — this year we only made 250 of them, and it is incredible. So as you are thinking about books and gifts, think about the bookstore.
This book, *When Grace Comes Home: How the Doctrines of Grace Change Life* — as I was trying to figure out how all of this fits together, I found myself looking at the table of contents. The chapter titles are essentially one word each: Theology, Worship, Humility, Adversity, Outlook, Witness, Sanctification, Assurance, Law and Liberty, Prayer, Guidance, Faith for Living. This study of the Scriptures is hugely important — it tells us who we are, and more importantly, it tells us who God is.
Honest About the Times We Are In
As we begin to process all of that, I am telling you, in the flesh you are going to worry. If you are not worried, you are in denial. This thing is in serious trouble. Somebody said the other day that they think we are at the bottom — we have not even seen the bottom yet. We are going there at a record pace, and you are not going to stop it. This is well beyond your control. This is a worldwide calamity. I hope you did not come here to be encouraged today — it just occurred to me.
When God Is Beyond Our Control
Terry Johnson writes something vital in the middle of his book: we must all come to a place in our lives where we realize that we are dealing with the One who is outside of our control. We love to call people controllers, but let me give you a tip — everybody is a controller. Who isn't a controller? Even some guy whose life is spinning out of control is trying to control your life by spinning out of control.
God will not be subject to our will or our desires. He is sovereignly elect. He cannot be changed, challenged, manipulated, or controlled. It is a frightening thing. I am completely subject to His sovereign mercy. I cannot argue with Him, I cannot bargain with Him, I cannot even understand Him. He transcends logic.
When my girls were small, there would be those times — Sarah more than Haley — where they would challenge me with "why?" I would give them some reason, and it was never enough for Sarah. She would keep pressing, and we would eventually reach a point where I would say, "Here is what we are going to do, and here is why." And she would say, "Why?" And I would say, "Because I said so. That is why. You want a tattoo? I will tattoo this on you — because I said so."
Here is what I have discovered. Often times with God it is the same way. We say, "God, why are You doing this? God, why would You allow this to happen?" And He says, "Look up here, Tom. Because I said so. I do not owe you any answer. Who do you think you are?" He is out beyond our control.
And all of a sudden, when Paul writes in Ephesians 1 of the riches of His grace which He lavishes upon us, it is in the context of this doctrinal truth about our sin, our separation from God, and His provision for that.
Life Found Only in Jesus
Jesus said to the Jews — and I think it applies to us too — "You search the Scriptures because you think in them you find life. You do not find life in them; they point you to life." John 14:6: "I am the way, the truth, the life." John 17:3, as Jesus is praying the night before He dies, He says, "This is eternal life, that they might know You, the one true God, and me, Jesus, whom You have sent." And in John 10:10 He says, "I have come that you might have life and have it abundantly."
Let me give you some of the definitions and synonyms of that word "abundantly": exceeding some number, measure, rank, or need; over and above; more than is necessary; never added; exceedingly abundant; supremely; something further; more; much more than all; more plainly; superior; surpassing; uncommon; preeminent. He said, "I have come that you can have that kind of life." That is what life with Jesus is.
Now we mess this up. In John chapter 4, Jesus is dealing with a woman at the well. She is there getting water, and Jesus says, "Will you get me some water?" She says, "This makes no sense. How is it that You are a Jew talking to me, a Samaritan, and a woman at that?" Jesus says, "Listen, if you knew who I was, you would drink from the water which I give and you would never thirst again." She says — and I am paraphrasing — "You do not even have a bucket. How are You going to get me water?" And He says, "You are thinking on a physical plane. I am talking spiritual truth. You drink that water, you are going to thirst again. You drink from Me and you will never thirst again."
Here is the reality of the Creator who knows us. He says the problem and challenge in our life is this: we have needs that can be met with a person, a place, or a thing. But we also have a crucial need in which we find the essence of life itself, and we are never going to find it apart from Him. That is the lesson in the parable of the rich man who had a bumper crop. He said, "I do not know what to do. I will build bigger barns and shove all this stuff in them." And Jesus said, "You fool, tonight your life is demanded of you. Doesn't life consist of more than stuff?"
That is the lesson Jesus is pressing into our minds and our lives — that life is not about stuff. Not to minimize these things. You need a place to live. You have basic needs. But what is your deepest need? You have one: Jesus. That is all you need. Is that not what He said? "Seek first His kingdom, and I will take care of all this other stuff."
What Difficult Times Can Do
Here is what I am convinced of. I am convinced that the difficult times we are entering into are going to do something for us that prosperity never could. Being upside down in a house is going to do something for you that living large could not do. Not having a job is going to do something for you that being the chairman of the board could never do. Having bills that you are not exactly sure how you are going to pay is going to do something for you that having all that disposable income and all that stuff is never going to do.
In the past four, five, or six weeks, I cannot tell you how many businessmen I have sat with from all sorts of different industries.
When You Don't Know What to Do
Every person I talk to, from every industry, is saying the same thing. Some of them just say it outright, and it amazes me. Here is what they are saying: "I don't know what to do." They tell me they have always had a plan, and then a plan B, and then a C and a D, and if everything else fell apart, they always had a Z plan in their pocket. But now all the rules have changed, and they don't know what to do.
I want to tell you something, and I know it doesn't feel this way — I am right there with you — but this is actually a great place to be. If you don't know what to do, you have only one option: to trust Him. That is all you have left. You are so desperate that you are going to trust Him. It is a little sad, isn't it? I would have liked to learn this lesson a different way, but I didn't.
This morning, over in the conference center, the first song they sang was "Your Grace Is Enough." When I heard that, I thought, this is perfect. He understands exactly what you need. He understands your predicament, and He promises He will never leave you or forsake you. I don't have a clue about tomorrow, but He has it all figured out. And so there is a sense — maybe a stretch — but there is a sense of excitement in seeing how He is going to fix it.
One author writes this: "Just remember, He is not worried about tomorrow. He has already worked it out. He is inviting you to live with Him in the joy of the moment, responding to what He puts right before you. The freedom to simply live that will transform so many areas of your life. He loves you, and He wants you to live in the security of that, without having to figure everything out."
Furious Rest — Not Passive, But Confident
I was lying in bed last night and I turned on the light. There was a stack of books there, and on top was a book by Louie Giglio, one we have quoted from so many times in here it must feel like we have read the whole thing to you. I picked it up and opened it to a page that was already turned down, and here is the paragraph I opened to.
Now, I want to be careful, because you could misunderstand what I am saying. You might think I am telling you to simply stop worrying and do nothing. I once had a man come into one of our studies who didn't look well, and he told me he had lost his job. A few weeks later I asked how he was doing, whether he had found work, and how the job search was going. He told me he wasn't searching. He said, "God will provide." Yes — but God will typically provide through a resume, an interview, and a more traditional process. Could God have the phone ring out of nowhere with a $200,000-a-year job offer? Sure. But that doesn't happen often. So please don't misunderstand me. I am not saying don't work.
What Giglio is talking about is the Sabbath in a figurative sense — the rest we need. This is what I opened to last night: "Furious rest — which is an interesting phrase — is not about doing nothing. It is about doing everything we do with the quiet confidence that our lives, families, business, ministries, relationships, and dreams are in His hands."
When Tim Kimmel was here this summer, he talked about grace-based parenting. If you were not here, call the media team — there is almost certainly a recording of it, and especially if you are a parent or grandparent, it would do you well to listen. What he was talking about was parenting and leading and, in essence, living. I emailed Tim this morning at 4:50, early enough that I hoped he would notice the time and be impressed. I want to get together with him and encourage him to write a book that takes that same concept — not grace-based parenting specifically, but grace-based living, as opposed to fear-based living.
The Storm and the Sleeping Savior
Will you turn to Mark chapter 4? This is a passage I started with last week and never finished. I got distracted — the wind was blowing my notes, the sun was out — and I never closed the point. If that lesson made any sense to you last week, it is because the Spirit of God is good, because I never finished it.
Here is the scene. Jesus has been teaching, they get into the boat, and they are heading to the other side of the sea. A storm comes up. Mark 4:37 — "And the waves were breaking over the boat so that the boat was already filling up." Jesus is asleep. They wake Him and say, "Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?" He got up, rebuked the sea, and said, "Hush, be still." The wind died down and it became perfectly calm. Then He said to them, "Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?"
And then I love the very next verse. They became very much afraid. Think about that. They were afraid in the storm. But now the water is smooth as glass — and they are very much afraid. Why? He tells you himself: "Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?" That is the One you call Lord and Savior. He is big enough to get you through today, through tomorrow, and through your life.
A Grandson's Song and a Life's Journey
Braden called the other day. His latest thing is that he's memorized his phone number, so he calls and tells me his phone number, and we tell him how good it is. He's had more affirmation in two phone calls than I've gotten in my whole life. He'll be three on Tuesday, and I'll be 59 on Thursday.
When he called the other day, he started singing, "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so." He finished it up, and I got off the phone and had this incredible moment. Whether Braden lives to be four or 104, the rest of his life will be spent unpacking "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so." That's the rest of his life. He doesn't need to figure out anything else.
The best way for us to get there is to understand He's the potter and I'm the clay. We trust Him, and we obey Him, and it's in the midst of that that we find great freedom.
Honesty About Anger and Asset Erosion
I want to be honest with you, because in the midst of all this, I did something I told you not to do. I opened all of my retirement statements when they came. I hadn't reopened them for about four months, and I opened them this month. Like you, I've experienced asset erosion.
I'm going to be really honest: I got so mad. I got so mad when I looked at it, because I found myself thinking, I've played by all the rules. I did everything I was supposed to do. When Susan and I had no money, we'd put $5 a month — literally, some months two or three dollars — into a retirement account. I did all the things I was supposed to do, everything. And I'm watching it go down and down.
Then I turn on the TV, and there's someone on there saying he owed $200,000 to the IRS but paid $24,000. And I think, you owe me $180,000. It makes me so mad when I see the credit card commercials — do you have $8,000 worth of credit card debt? Not enough, get it to $10,000, and here's how we'll write it off. I played by all the rules, and some greedy lender lent money people couldn't pay back, and now we're all paying for it. That makes me so angry.
Correcting Myself: God Is Still on the Throne
Having said all that — I'm wrong. I'm wrong. I'm wrong. I played by the rules they made, and it didn't work out. That's nobody's fault. God is certainly not asleep in this thing. God knows what's going on.
He's the potter. I'm the clay. He has put you, me, all of us through whatever this is for our own good. He doesn't take any great pleasure in it, only to the extent that He is glorified in the midst of it — only to the extent of the opportunity that, as people watch how we respond, they see something real.
These are emotional things. They are charged. But if I'm not trusting Him, I'm either going to operate out of fear or I'm going to get angry, and I don't need to be either. When I opened that envelope, it took me a while to stop and say, wait — why are you so mad? God is in control. God is on the throne, and this is about trusting Him.
The Ministry of Reconciliation
He left you here for a purpose, and that's where I wanted to get today. It's 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verses 17 through 21, and the message is this: He left you with the ministry of reconciliation. God has reconciled us to Himself through Christ and has given you and me a ministry of reconciliation. We are then to take that to the world.
In the climate you are in, in the world you are in, in the culture you are in, you have an opportunity to let people see something distinct and different in you as you respond to the really scary world around you. You are missionaries. God sovereignly placed you in your world.
When I spoke at the Jesus Film event, where they were raising money for the Jesus Film project — a great project that spreads the gospel all around the world — I made the point that it would be tragic if you gave $100,000 to promote the Jesus Film but never took the time to share Christ with the person right next to you, or in the cube across from you.
Four Years of Unexpected Grace
Yesterday, Sarah married Timmy and Haley married Tyler. Timmy and Tyler were born on the same day, the same year. It is also the day — four years ago yesterday — that Susan was diagnosed for the first time.
We've learned so much in four years, but one of the things that caught me off guard was the people we didn't even know who would recommend some sort of regimen for her health — juicers, vitamins, a doctor here or there. I'm not minimizing any of it. If that was you, here's what I want you to hear from my heart: thank you. It blew me away that people we didn't even know would take a risk and reach out to us.
The Ministry of Reconciliation
If Susan gets through this and is healed, she is going to die from something else. Whatever healing might come would be temporary. The one thing she needs is Christ, and yet we will freely risk a relationship over a juicer, but not over something that is eternal. That doesn't make much sense, does it?
God is giving you a ministry of reconciliation — grace for life, grace for living. We could spend a lot more time on this. If you have a thirst for unpacking some of that grace for living material, there is a series on the website — the last time we did the doctrines of grace, it was about twelve weeks on grace. I don't remember the exact title, but if you email me I will give you the correct one, and it is available on the website. It was great material, taking all of that in depth.
Looking Ahead
Next week we are going to begin four weeks of preparation leading into Christmas — so that you individually, then you as a family, and then us as a church family can really prepare for Christmas this year. We have something very special and we want to invite you in to join with us on this.
As is always the case, there will be pastors here in front of the chapel and over in the conference center, and they would love the opportunity to pray with you. Whether it is a praise of thanksgiving or a prayer of request, they are here to rejoice with those who are rejoicing and to weep with those who weep.
Closing Prayer
Father, thank You for grace — for the grace that brings us into this relationship with You and sustains us. God, remind us that what we need is singular: we need Jesus. Let us be students of the Word, but let us study the Word of God so that we would know You, the God of the Word. Father, thank You for Jesus, that we find life and life abundantly in Him and Him alone. We pray to You here this morning, in Christ's name, amen.