Our Ministry of Reconciliation
Tom Shrader concludes his Grace for Life series by examining Ephesians 2:8-10, warning that Christians can fall into the same trap as the Pharisees by searching Scripture without finding Christ. He emphasizes that knowing God through His Word leads to trusting Him, especially during economic uncertainty and trials. Shrader calls believers to embrace their ministry of reconciliation, living with quiet confidence that their lives are in God's hands.
“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
Duration: 49 min
Themes: grace, reconciliation, ministry, trust, confidence, scripture, works, faith, facing economic uncertainty, experiencing trials, new believer, mature christian, church member, struggling with legalism, seeking purpose, dealing with doubt
Scripture: Ephesians 2:8-10, John 5:18-47, John 10:22-31, Philippians 3:4-14, Matthew 6:19-34, Matthew 23, John 4, John 14:6, John 17:3, John 10:10, Mark 4:35-41, 2 Corinthians 5:17-21
Theological Themes: soteriology, salvation, sanctification, holy living, biblical authority, grace theology, good works, spiritual maturity
Full Transcript
Today, we close out our session and series titled Grace for Life, Grace for Living. I'm going to invite you to turn to the book of Ephesians. Your Bible should almost fall open to this now. Ephesians chapter two, verse eight, nine, and 10. It's the theme passage for this series and we're going to be all over the New Testament primarily here this morning.
Grace for life, that's 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 of works, lest anyone should boast." As much as I'd love to spend a ton of time on that, we've spent weeks on it. So if you're new and you missed that, I'd encourage you to go online and just work your way through that.
Grace for life is that we were dead in our sins and trespasses. That's what Paul writes at the beginning of this chapter. Chapter two, verse one: "You were dead in your trespasses and sins." But God moves and now we're alive. We're 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 that you had at that moment was a gift of God. He opened your eyes to see that truth. It wasn't a result of works. You didn't generate that faith. You responded to the gospel, but you responded to the gospel because God put that in you.
But that's not the end of the story. That's really the beginning of it. Verse 10, grace for living: "We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." We would live in them.
A Personal Reflection on East Valley Bible Church
I spent two weeks probably putting this message together, and by that I mean just simply thinking about what I wanted to really communicate to you this morning. It occurred to me—I got here really early this morning, 4:45 or something—it occurred to me as I was sitting this morning kind of letting this thing come together. It occurred to me that this may be way more autobiographical and maybe way more about me than it is about you. I don't think that's the case. It certainly is about me, but I think it relates to you as well. If it doesn't, then I apologize. But I'm making some assumptions in here.
I want to speak about the church, and in this case, not about the church universal, but really about East Valley Bible Church. I think I understand East Valley Bible Church almost as well as anyone. I've been here from the beginning. I think I understand who we are and what our DNA is. You may see nuances and stuff that you see because of your unique position. But I think overall, I have a pretty good perspective of who we are and the people that come here and who we are as a leadership team and how we have evolved and changed and morphed over these 17 or 18 years.
Grace and Faith: More Than Personal Concepts
There are two words that we use correctly and consistently as it relates to this idea of salvation. My fear is we either ignore them or minimize them as we get to the idea of grace for living. The two words are this: grace is one of them. Grace and faith. So we will talk pretty openly about saving grace or saving faith. We will pretty freely associate with the idea of grace or the idea of faith as it relates to that initial act of salvation. But what we want to really emphasize today is the idea of the grace for living part.
The more time I spend thinking about the idea of grace and the idea of faith, I come to the conclusion that these two words are not so much about you and me, but about God and who He is and how He works in the grand scheme of things. So you and I are selfish, so we want to get it to us and how He works in our life too. When we talk about grace and faith and we talk about walking by faith, living by faith, to a large degree, the depth of that faith is going to depend upon our knowledge and our love and our trust of God. That's my conclusion.
You aren't going to trust someone you don't know. You aren't going to have an affection for someone—and by that affection I mean a holy unconditional following—if you don't have a love for them. And if you don't know them and don't love them, there's no way that you're ever going to get to that idea of trust.
How We Know God
Well, how do we know God? We know Him certainly in a general way through general revelation, right? That's Romans one. We can get a sense that there's this God or higher power or whatever we want to call it. We get this idea of God, and we get that—God tells us in His word—just by creation. Look around, see the stars, see the universe, see the creation itself and we understand there's a creator. Just the magnitude of the creation tells us about His power, about His glory, just its existence.
But to really know Him, we've got to get into this word, right? This is how He revealed Himself to us. This is how we begin to understand who He is and His attributes and how He interacts with His people.
The Story of Reconciliation
This is a wonderful story and we tried to illustrate it this way before. This part right here, this section right here is about His creation and our sin. This section right here is about Him trying to fix it. So it really is a story of God and sinner reconciled, isn't it? It's a story about Him creating, and God saw fit to give us this: that in the beginning, God created heaven and earth. He tells us the story of creation itself. He tells us about who we are and then He tells us about our rebellion in Adam. The rest of it is the story of Him reconciling a sinful man to a holy God.
Our understanding of Him and growing in Him is primarily through the scriptures. The scriptures expose us to God and who He is, how He acts, begins to define our relationship, how it's established, how it's maintained, how we grow in it. Then as we learn about Him, we begin to experience Him in our life. As we begin to know Him intellectually and begin to experience Him, the reality of Christ in our life grows deep.
So when we say grow in faith, that's essential for us. There's 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 or reality in Him. In fact, I could be in real trouble after 25 years.
The Danger of Missing Christ Despite Knowing Scripture
There's a scene—will you turn with me to the Gospel of John, John chapter five. I want to make this point. It occurs to me that this could be true of especially people who love the Bible.
In John chapter five, Jesus has healed the man. He's done it on the Sabbath. The Jews 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, making Himself equal with God."
This group of the Jews—it's the Jewish leaders, Pharisees, Sadducees, the Jewish leaders—they are not getting Jesus. In fact, if you keep your finger right there and turn to the right to John chapter 10, let me revisit a scene we looked at maybe a month or so ago.
John chapter 10, verse 22, it's the Feast of the Dedication. This same group of guys, if not the same exact guys, the same guys from this general kind of grouping come to Jesus. Verse 24, John 10:24: "They gathered around Him and they're saying to Him, 'How long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.'"
Jesus answered them and said, "I told you, and you do not believe; the works that I do in My Father's name, these testify of Me. But you do not believe because you are not of My sheep. My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one." And the Jews picked up stones again to stone Him.
This is the same group of guys that we see here in John 5, see again, at least the same grouping in John chapter 10. By John chapter 10, they're saying, "Listen, don't keep us in the dark, just tell us, tell us plainly." 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 Me and My explanation. The deficiency is in you—you have a hard heart and you have closed ears and you won't believe. That's the problem."
Jesus' Clear Teaching About Life and Scripture
In John chapter 5, these guys have decided to kill Him. Jesus continues now in the beginning of verse 19, begins this process of teaching. He's talking about the witnesses of John, He's talking about the equality He has with God, He's talking about the resurrections and He's talking about the works and then He makes this comment, the witness of the Father.
Then in verse 39, He says this to them: "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may 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. It's not. It's found in Christ.
Are the scriptures important? So important we put it in our name: East Valley Bible Church. We're into it. We're into the doctrine. We're into some of the nuances. We're into the original texts. All the things that are important. Is it important? Absolutely.
The Trap of Loving Scripture More Than Christ
Here's what I'm saying. This is based on my observation. It may not apply to you at all. It certainly is something I've seen in a lot of people. Just like the Jews, I can think I'm going to find life in the scriptures and never get to who they point me to, and that's Christ.
I don't find life in the scriptures. We don't worship the Word of God. We worship the God of the Word. We don't become so obsessed with all of this that we never get to Christ. That's the problem with these guys.
Today they kind of got a bad rap, because if I say Pharisee to you, you get this caricature in your mind of kind of these dark figures. Maybe like this, over here, kind of dark the way, with one eyebrow that starts in this ear and goes all the way over to this ear and this sinister lean guy. They were not that, were they?
They were the religious leaders of the day. So much was the admiration for these guys that when Jesus said, "Listen, you're not going to heaven unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees," the people said, "Well, we're screwed at this point then, because we got no way in. We got no chance. We can't even get close to where they are."
These guys knew the scriptures and followed them. But Jesus doesn't applaud them for that. He criticizes them for that. In fact, stronger than criticize—He condemns them for that.
Jesus' Condemnation of Religious Hypocrisy
Matthew chapter 23 is kind of the flip side of the Beatitudes. He begins to say, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!" Then He lists all these things. "You count right down to the little condiments and you tithe off all of these things. You think you're bringing people closer to God and you're just pushing them further away. But boy, do you know the scriptures."
I want to make sure that those of us—and I can't be responsible for the whole world, so let's just take responsibility for East Valley Bible Church right now—that those of us at East Valley Bible Church are not searching the scriptures thinking we find eternal life in the scriptures. We find eternal life in Christ and knowing Him.
Ray Stedman, dealing with this verse, writes this: "What a strange paradox. These men were painstaking 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.'"
A little bit later, 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. As Jesus says it, it's possible to study the Bible, to even give your whole life to it, and never see Him.
These people thought what many people think today, that knowledge is power, education is life. If you get the knowledge of what Christ does, you have life. But it's not true at all. I really want to hang on this, because I see it all around, and I see it among people who are really serious. They're really students of the Word, but they mistakenly think that if they study the scriptures and know the scriptures, they find life in the scripture, 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, and I'm fine with it, they want to debate, speculate, argue about the subtle nuances of all of these different things, and they never get to Jesus. They figured out when He's coming again, but they don't know Him. They figured out all of these subtleties, and they've taken a stand for the scripture, and the infallibility of the scripture, and the truth, so much so that they've successfully alienated everybody in their world over this truth. And they've made themselves the dividing issue, never getting to the gospel.
We Love Religion
You know why? I'm going to tell you this: we love religion. Turn to Philippians chapter 3 with me, would you please? If you still are in Ephesians, it's just the next book to the right. I made this point, I don't know, six months ago or so, and I made it a couple times, I think in here, and a couple times in Priority Living, and it's one of those things. I don't know if you ever have these moments where something's so clear in your mind, you go, this is really important, this is really cool, this is really significant, and then you share it, and it just goes flat. I've done this three times, and I haven't gotten any positive response at all. So either A, I don't explain it well, or B, it just isn't any good. This is my last run at this. It seems right to me.
In Philippians chapter 3, Paul's talking about religion, and he's talking about his pedigree and his credentials. Philippians 3:4, he said, if anybody should have confidence in the flesh or religion or ability individually to satisfy the law, it's me. Because I was circumcised on the eighth day, then he goes through all of this. Of the nation of Israel, tribe of Benjamin, and to the Hebrews of the Hebrews, to the law of Pharisee, as to zeal, I'm a persecutor of the church.
He said, I had all the things. I had the right birth, I had the right profession or vocation, I didn't mess around with it, I was a zealot, I didn't just teach this, I lived it, I persecuted the church to try to shut it down. He said, 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. Knowing the Scripture? No. Knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I've suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish, so I may gain Christ. Verse 10, so I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and of His fellowship in His sufferings, of being conformed to His death, in order that I might attain the resurrection from the dead.
I haven't already obtained all this. I haven't arrived, I'm not a finished product. Verse 13, but I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind, reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal of the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
From Religion to Relationship
Now here's what Paul's talking about. Paul is saying, I was really into this religion, this law thing, and now I have grace for life. I've experienced grace. I moved from religion to relationship. I was learning all about Him, but now I know Him. That's the distinction he's making.
Here's what I observe. It is not difficult for those of us who've experienced the grace for life, who know the scriptures, to create our own new religion. So we start measuring ourselves, which isn't enough, because we're never satisfied with that. We want to make sure the whole world conforms to our standard, so it's not enough that we're happy with us and who we are. We now look for the whole world to conform to our new religious standard.
So we start measuring all of these things that God says really are important in your life, and you ought to have them there, but they become all of a sudden the measuring stones for what a Christian really is. I was reading a book, and it's a novel. There's a little scene in it that I came across a couple weeks ago, and one of the characters is making this comment. No prison is as strong as religious obligation. It takes us captive even while we're 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. Well, we're perfect at looking at that and mocking that, but we have our own view of that religion.
The Prison of Religious Obligation
There's a sense and a phrase: nothing is as strong as the prison of religious obligation. And Jesus says those that are free are free indeed, and that's what I want us to live in, is that freedom of Christ. Freedom from the bondage of sin. You don't have to sin anymore. Freedom from the consequence of sin. Change designation and destination. Not headed to hell anymore, headed to heaven. Not a sinner by designation anymore, but now I'm a saint.
He's also freed me to be who I am, whoever that is. Huge freedom in Christ. And yet we almost desire these whole idea of rules and regulations.
All over again. We love—we're not satisfied with our own rules and regulations for ourselves. We want to have those rules and regulations so now we can put everybody else into bondage too. I've taught it this way before. It's like I'm walking through life and I'm carrying all this guilt. It's like a ball and chain. I'm carrying all this guilt. I can't forgive myself.
All of a sudden Christ comes along and we find forgiveness and He cuts us loose from that. Then we reach over, pick up that ball and start hauling it around life with us. 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 fill out those rules and regulations. We have grace for life—grace to take this word and let it transform us so I have in my life a transformed heart and an informed mind so I can live a radical life.
Practical Application in the Sermon on the Mount
Now I want to move this because I'm not even comfortable there. I want to really take it to practical. Look at Matthew chapter six, right in the heart of the Sermon on the Mount. We'll look at two passages that we actually looked at last Sunday when we were outside at Mesa Amphitheater.
This is in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus has been talking about praying and giving and fasting. Verse 19 He gives us a principle: "Don't store up for yourselves treasures on earth." Why? You'll lose them. Verse 20: "Store up treasures in heaven." Why? They last. Look at the principle in verse 21: "Where your treasure is, there your heart's going to be also." Verse 24: "You can't serve two masters. You can't serve God and the world."
Now He lays out a principle: "For this reason I say to you, don't worry about your life." You think we need to hear that? I do.
Living in Times of Fear and Uncertainty
The last four to six weeks have been unbelievable. I have never seen anything like this in my life. I'm not talking about in the markets and all of those things—I've never seen anything like that. But I have never seen, among people who I know, I have never seen this sense of real—I'm going to use words, they may not be totally accurate here, so I apologize for the inadequacy of the words—but I've never seen such a concern, worry, fear.
We've never been in times like this, which instinctively makes us afraid. Now Jesus says, "Don't worry about life." Why? Well, He doesn't minimize the fact—and you can read it—that you need food to eat and you need clothing and you need a place to live.
Verse 31, He says it again: "Don't worry about this, what you're going to eat, what you're going to wear, what you're going to drink." Why? Because when you do, first, you're thinking like a Gentile. You're thinking like somebody that doesn't know me. Two, here's what you do need to seek. Here's what you do need to strive toward: "Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." That's what you need to strive for.
Oh, by the way, if you missed it, verse 34: "Don't worry about tomorrow." Why? Tomorrow will take care of itself. Besides that, each day has enough trouble of its own. So you can only handle this much worry, and that's all you got for today, so we better not bring tomorrow over because you're not ready for it yet.
Boy, is that wonderful stuff for us as we begin to process this life we live in?
Pursuing God's Agenda, Not Our Own
Here's what He's saying. He's saying, "Listen, pursue my agenda, not yours. Love me, not yourself. Fulfill my desires." Because you already have eternal life, right? You know what the scripture teaches? "Whoever believes in Him has eternal life." Has it, present tense.
So when we think of eternal life, we need to understand two components to that. Quantity—it's a lot of life. Quality—where I'm going to spend it. Eternal life for us begins here, now, today.
I hope you get this. I'm not saying scripture's not important. I'm saying it's hugely important for very practical reasons. Because the more I know God, the more I love Him, and the more I love Him, I'm going to trust Him.
How Scripture Transforms Our Perspective
I was in the bookstore this week, and I say this—I know it's going to sound incredibly self-serving, but I hope somehow you can work your way through this. That bookstore is really a good bookstore. It's not a Borders that has 250,000 titles in it. But that bookstore, I just spent a few minutes in there, I was blown away at the quality of stuff in there. Also, as you're planning and thinking about Christmas, I guess I'm making a plea—if you're thinking books, think in there first. Also, I talked to Aaron about the gift pack. We do that gift pack every year. This gift pack this year—we only made 250 of them—is incredible. So as you're thinking about stuff and books and all that, 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 does all this stuff work together, I found myself looking at the table of contents of this book. Here are the basically one-word titles: Theology, Worship, Humility, Adversity, Outlook, Witness, Sanctification, Assurance, Law and Liberty, Prayer, Guidance, Faith for Living.
This study of the scriptures is hugely important to tell us who we are—more importantly, to tell us who God is. As we begin to process that stuff, all of a sudden, because I'm telling you, in the flesh, you're going to worry. If you aren't worried, you're really stupid. You don't know—you're in denial, my friend.
The Reality of Our Current Crisis
This thing is in the toilet. Somebody the other day said, "I think we're at bottom." We haven't even seen bottom yet. We can't even—it's that way, that's all we know. We're going there at a record pace, and you aren't going to stop it. This is way beyond your control. This is a worldwide calamity.
I hope you didn't come here to be encouraged today. It just occurred to me. Hide all the sharp objects and take them away.
The Reality of God's Sovereignty
We must all come to a place in our lives where we realize that we're dealing with the one who's outside of our control. We love to control things—somebody the other day said someone "is such a controller." Here, let me give you a tip: everybody's 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. God sovereignly elects. He can't be changed. He can't be challenged. He can't be manipulated. He can't be controlled. It's a frightening thing. I'm completely subject to His sovereign mercy. I can't argue with Him. I can't bargain with Him. I can't even understand Him. He transcends logic.
That's an incredible thought. I haven't raised kids for a while—they always say you're never done, though I feel done. But when the girls were small, there would be those times, and there weren't many of them, where they would challenge: "Why?" "We're going to do it." "Why?" And I'd give them some reason, and it was never enough, oftentimes not enough for Sarah. "Well, why?" Then she'd be very much like her mother—she would want this, and why they... Then I'd reach this point where I'd go, "Listen, okay, here's what we're going to do, and here's why we're going to do it. Why? Because I said so. That's why."
When God Says "Because I Said So"
Here's what's interesting. Here's what I've discovered: oftentimes with God, it's the same way. "Well, God, why are you doing this? God, why would you allow this to happen?" And He goes, "Look up here, you short, fat little thing. Look up here, Tom." And He'll say, "Because I said so. And I don't owe you an answer. Who do you think you are, Tom? Because I said so." He's beyond our control.
All of a sudden, when Paul writes in Ephesians 1 about "His riches of His grace, which He lavishes upon us," it's in the context of this doctrine—this truth about our sin, separation from God, and His provision for that.
The True Source of Life
Now 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 don't 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 that prayer the night before He dies, He said, "This is eternal life, that they might know you, the one true God, and me, Jesus, whom you've sent."
You want to have life? He says in John 10:10, "I've 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, or rank, or need; over and above; more than is necessary; super added; exceedingly abundant; supremely; something further; more; much more than all; more plainly; superior; surpassing; uncommon; preeminent. He said, "I've come that you can have that kind of life." That's what life with Jesus is.
The Woman at the Well
Now we mess this up. In John chapter 4, Jesus is dealing with a woman at the well, and she's there getting water. Jesus said, "Will you get me some water?" And she said, "This makes no sense. How is it that you're a Jew talking to me, a Samaritan? Plus I'm a woman, and you're asking me—this doesn't make sense?"
And Jesus said, "Well listen, if you knew who it was, you would drink from the water which I give, and you'd never thirst again." And she says—I'm paraphrasing all this—she says, "You don't even have a bucket. How are you going to get me water? You don't even have a bucket."
And He said, "You've got this all screwed up here, because you're thinking on a physical plane. I'm talking a spiritual truth. You drink that water, you're going to thirst again. You drink from me, and you'll never thirst again."
Our True Need
Here's the reality of the Creator who knows us, who says here's the problem and challenge in our life: We've got these needs that can be met with a person, place, or thing. But you have this crucial need in which you find the essence of life itself, and you're never going to find it apart from me.
That's the parable of a guy who was a rich man who had a whole bunch of stuff, then a bumper crop. He said, "Boy, I don't know what to do. I'll build bigger barns, and I'll shove all this stuff in them." And Jesus said, "You idiot, tonight your life is demanded of you. Doesn't life consist of more than stuff?" And that's the lesson that Jesus is trying to get in our lives, in our minds, in our life—that life isn't about stuff.
Not to minimize these things—you need a place to live, you have some basic needs. What are your needs? Take a sip while you think about that. What are your needs? You got one: Jesus. That's all you need. Isn't that what He said? "Seek first His kingdom, I'll take care of all this other stuff."
What Difficult Times Teach Us
Here's what I'm convinced of: I'm convinced that these difficult times we're in, just entering into—these difficult times we're 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 couldn't 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're not exactly sure how you're going to pay is going to do something for you that having all this disposable income and all this stuff is never going to do.
In the past four, five, six weeks, I can't tell you how many businessmen I've sat with from all sorts of different industries. This is how I know this thing's so far gone.
Nothing is doing well. Grocery stores are doing okay. Walmart's okay. McDonald's is okay. I imagine Netflix, anything that keeps you home. Everything else is gone. Every guy I talked to from every industry, you know what they're saying to me? Some of them just say it, which is amazing to me. I'm sitting back and going, oh my gosh, every guy's saying that.
Here's what they're saying: I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. I've always had a plan, and then I had a plan B, and we always had a plan B, and then we had a C and a D, and then if everything else failed, I always had a Z plan in my pocket, but I don't know what to do. All the rules are changed.
When You Don't Know What to Do
I'm going to tell you something, and I know it doesn't feel this way, and I'm right there with you, man. It's a great place to be, because if you don't know what to do, you only got one option. That's to trust Him. That's all you got left. You are so desperate that you're going to trust Him. Kind of sad, isn't it? I would have liked to learn this lesson a different way, but I didn't.
This morning, and I'm not clever enough, and we don't work at it hard enough to coordinate music and all that stuff with the message, but this morning over in the conference center, the first song they sang, and I thought, boy, when they sang that, I said, this is perfect for today. "Your grace is enough." That's what they say. Is it?
His Grace Is Enough
He understands exactly what you need. He understands your predicament, and He promises He'll never leave you or forsake you. I don't have a clue about tomorrow, but He's got it all figured out, and so there's a sense, maybe a stretch here, but there's a sense of excitement in seeing how He's going to fix it.
One of the authors writes this: just remember He's not worried about tomorrow. He's already worked it out. He's 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
I was laying in bed last night, and I turn on the light, and there's a stack of books there, but this was on top. I love this book. We've quoted from it so much in here, it feels like we've read the whole thing to you. I'm not, but I know I am Louie Giglio, and I pick the book up. This is weird how this stuff happens. I pick the book up and open it to this page. I will grant you this, it's turned down exactly five lines. I'm a little anal that way, and here's the opening, and he's talking about the Sabbath.
You could misunderstand what I'm saying. You can say, well you know what, Tom just said just go, don't worry about it. I had a guy in one of the studies, came in one day, I said, you don't look well. He said, I lost my job. I said, hmm. He said, well God will provide. Three weeks later I said, how you doing? He said, all right. I said, you got a job? No. I said, well how's the search going? He said, well I'm not searching. And I said, well what happened? He said, God will provide. And I said, well yeah, through a resume, an interview. You know, sit home.
Could God have the phone ring and go, hey I don't know you, but I just got this impression. I've got this $200,000 a year job. Are you interested? Could He do that? Sure. Doesn't happen often. I wouldn't bank on that one. It's going to come in a more traditional fashion. So please don't misunderstand what I'm saying. I'm not saying, don't you work.
In here Giglio's talking about the Sabbath in a figurative sense, saying we need rest. And this is what I open to. This is the paragraph I opened to last night. Furious rest, that was an interesting phrase, is not about doing nothing. It's about doing everything we do with the quiet confidence that our lives, families, business, ministries, relationships, and dreams are in His hands.
Grace-Based Living
When Tim Kimmel was here this summer, he talked about grace-based parenting. If you were not here, you ought to call the media guys. I'm sure there's a CD of it floating around, and especially if you're parents or grandparents, it'd do you well to listen to it. What he was talking about is talking about parenting and leading, in essence, living.
I emailed Tim this morning at 4:50. I figured it would catch him off guard. I wanted to highlight the time, hoping he'd see that I was already up well into the day praying. A little religion to shove down his throat there. And I want to get together with him to encourage him to write a book that takes that, not out of grace-based parenting, but grace-based living, not fear-based living.
Jesus Calms the Storm
Will you turn to Mark chapter 4? We've got eight minutes here. Mark chapter 4, and it's the passage that I shared, started with last week, and I blew it. I never finished it. I got distracted. The wind was blowing my notes, and the sun was out, and I got into what was going on. I never closed it, so if that lesson made sense at all to you last week, it's because the Spirit of God is good, because I never finished my point.
Here's the scene. Jesus has been teaching. They get in the boat. They're going to the other side of the sea. A storm comes up, verse 37, Mark 4:37, and the waves are breaking in the boat. The boat's filling up. Jesus is asleep. They woke Him up. They said, "Teacher, do you not care we're perishing?" He got up, and He rebuked the sea. "Hush! Be still." The wind died down, and it was perfectly calm.
And He said to them, "Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?" And I loved the next verse. And they became very much afraid. See, they were afraid in the storm. But now it's smooth as glass. They're not afraid. They're very much afraid. Why? He tells you. Who is this guy?
See that's the guy that you call Lord and Savior. He's big enough to get you through today, tomorrow, and your life. Braden called the other day, and this is his thing now, and so he's
calling, and his latest thing is 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 got in my whole life. Oh, that's incredible. He remembered his phone number.
So he called the other day, and he starts singing, "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so," then he finished it up. And I got off the phone, and I had this incredible moment. The rest of his life, whether he'll be three, what's today, 23rd, he'll be three on Tuesday. As important as that may be, I'll be 59 on Thursday. So that's far more important, and I'm tired of taking back gifts, so this year I've just... No, I'm telling you, really? I've been embarrassed to put my sizes down.
I had this 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. And the best way for us to get there is to understand He's the potter, and I'm the clay. And so I trust Him, and I obey Him. And it's in the midst of that that I find great freedom.
Honest Confession About Financial Fear
I want to be, and I may not get through, I'm all messed up. I've got notes and everything today, but this is so in me that I want to get it out to you. Because I'm going to be really honest, because in the midst of this, I did something that I told you not to do. I opened all of my retirement stuff when it came. And I haven't reopened it for like four months, and I opened it this month.
And I saw, and like you, I've experienced asset erosion. And I'm going to be really honest with you. I got so mad. I got so mad when I looked at it, because I found myself going, doggone it, I've played by all the rules here. 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, into a retirement. I did all the things I was supposed to do, everything. And I'm watching this go boom, boom, boom, boom. And then I turn on the TV, and there's some jerk on there who says, "I owe $200,000 to the IRS, but I paid them $24,000." And I say, "You know what? Come over here, because you owe me $180,000. You puke."
It makes me so mad when I say, and I see that credit card, "Oh, do you have $8,000 worth of credit card debt? Not enough. Here's a $10," and here's this thing, and we'll write it off. That makes me so mad. That makes me so angry. I planned by all the rules, and you jerk, you aren't. Some greedy slob on your money you couldn't pay back, and you barred it, you greedy puke, and you're taking us all into the toilet. That makes me so mad.
Recognizing My Wrong Response
Having said all that, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, because some of you are in that situation that's an ugly situation. Listen, don't take that personal. Listen with me. I'm wrong. I'm wrong. Look at it. I played by the rules they made, and it didn't work out. That's nobody's fault. God's certainly not asleep in this thing. God knows what's going on.
Look at it. He's the potter. I'm the clay. And He's put me, you, us through whatever it is for our own good. He doesn't take any great pleasure in this, only to the extent that He's glorified in the midst of it. Only to the extent that the opportunity that as people watch this, you feel like that. These are emotional things. These babies are charged.
But if I'm not trusting Him, I'm either going to operate out of fear, I'm going to get angry, but I don't need to be afraid. Am I going to be? You're going to flinch into that. That's just the way it is. When I opened that envelope, oh my gosh, and it took me, I'm not kidding, it took me a while to stop and go, "Whoa, chief, what is going on here? Why are you so mad? God's in control. God's on the throne. And this is about trusting Him."
The Ministry of Reconciliation
No, He left you here for a purpose. And that's where I wanted to get to today, but I didn't get there. And it's 2 Corinthians 5, verse 17 through 21, and that is He left you with the ministry of reconciliation. Now, I could tie this into this.
What He said is God has reconciled us to Himself through Christ and then gave you and I a ministry of reconciliation. If we were to take that to the world. And in the climate that you are in, in the world that you're in, in the culture that you're in, I'm telling you, 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're missionaries, man, and everybody, periodically people want to then explain to me the nuances of that word. I got it. I understand all this stuff. But I want you to see that God sovereignly placed you in your world.
When I spoke at the Jesus film thing, and they were raising money for the Jesus film, which is a great project, go all around the world, spread the gospel all over. And I made the point how tragic it would be if you gave $100,000 to promote the Jesus film, but you never took the time to share Christ with the person right next door to you and the cube across from you.
Personal Reflections on Sharing the Gospel
Yesterday, Sarah is married to Timmy, Haley's married to Tyler. Timmy and Tyler were born, yesterday was their birthday, same day, same year. It's also the day, four years ago yesterday, that Susan was diagnosed for the first time. And so it's easy, fortunately for me it was all one day, so I can remember that.
I remember so many things, and we've learned so much in four years, but one of the things that caught me off guard were the people who we didn't even know who would recommend to us some sort of regiment for her health, juicers, or vitamins, or a doctor here. And I'm not minimizing it, maybe that was you. If that was you, here's what I want you to hear from my heart, thank you.
It just blew me away that people that I didn't know, or we didn't know, would send us, take a risk even, and send us this, but wouldn't even talk to their own family members about the gospel.
See, if Susan gets through this and healed, she's going to die from something else, you got that right? So this healing, whatever it might be, would be temporary. But one thing she needs is Christ, and yet I'll freely risk a relationship over a juicer, but not over something that's eternal. That doesn't make much sense, does it?
So He's 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 stuff, I did a series, but I don't remember what it was called, the last time we did the doctrines of grace. It was like 12 weeks on grace, I think it was living for grace or something. You might go on the website, or if you email me, I'll give you the correct title, but they're on the website. It was great stuff, taking that in depth.
Preparing for Christmas
Next week, we're going to take the four weeks now, heading up, so us individually, then you as a family, and then us as a family, can really prepare for Christmas this year. We have something very special, we want to invite you in with us, and join with us on this.
As is always the case, there'll be pastors here in front of the chapel, and over in the conference center, and they would love the opportunity to pray with you. Maybe it's a praise of thanksgiving, or a praise of request. They were here to rejoice with those who are rejoicing, and weep with those who weep.
Let's pray together. 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.