Grace is Greater than Yourself, 1 October 2017
03 10 17 Filed in: Sermons | Grace Is Greater
Grace Is Greater Than Yourself
Series: Grace is Greater
John 13:33-35
Series Big Idea: No sin is so great, no bitterness so deep that God’s grace cannot transform the heart and rewrite the story. This 3-week series, based on the book Grace is Greater by Kyle Idleman, explores what the Bible teaches about grace, developing a deep understanding of the life-changing power of God’s unconditional love and forgiveness. For more resources and information on the book, visit https://www.graceisgreaterbook.com/.
Big Idea: We receive grace every day…and need to share it every day, loving one another.
Introduction
A pastor recently sent me an e-mail which contained this question:
“Why is it that so many Christians make such lousy human beings?” In other words, why are so many of us judgmental, defensive, unapproachable, and touchy?”
This might not apply to you, but I have met some Christians who are…not graceful. We receive grace every day from God…and need to share it every day, too.
We’re concluding our series, Grace is Greater. To review, grace is unmerited favor, a free gift, an undeserved blessing. It’s not fair! We all want to receive grace but often struggle to extend it to others for whom we naturally want justice.
In week one, we said grace is greater than your mistakes.
The More We Recognize the Ugliness of Our Sin, the More We Can Appreciate the Beauty of God’s Grace.
God’s Grace Is More Beautiful than Your Brokenness.
God’s Grace Redeems All Our Past Regrets.
And quoting author Philip Yancey,
Nothing you can do can make God love you more than he already does.
Nothing you can do can make God love you less than he already does.
That’s amazing! That’s grace!
Then we said grace is greater than your hurts.
We must release our feelings of anger, bitterness, and rage over to God.
We must release the person who hurt us over to God.
Reconciliation may not always be possible or appropriate, but It can reflect God’s grace and forgiveness toward us.
Last week we saw how grace is greater than your circumstances.
Thankfulness helps us trust God and acknowledge His grace in our lives.
We’re able to receive God’s grace only to the extent we’re able to recognize our need for It.
We must trust God’s goodness, even when life Is difficult.
Since life is filled with storms, I want to remind you of two resources. First, we have a list of Christian counselors available at the information kiosk and in the FAC Focus e-newsletter each week. My family has benefitted greatly from Christian counseling and you may, too. Second, we are excited about launching Celebrate Recovery soon. See Dennis Belkofer, last Sunday’s “my story” presenter, for details.
Grace is greater than your mistakes.
Grace is greater than your hurts.
Grace is greater than your circumstances.
I want to suggest to you that grace is greater than yourself. That’s right, sometimes we get in the way of God’s grace. Like a dam holding back rushing water, our own sin, pride, selfishness, condemnation, and insecurities can keep others from experiencing the flow of God’s grace. Listen to these words from Jesus:
“My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:33-35)
The world will know we are followers of Jesus if we…
have our theology correct?
attend Sunday School every week?
volunteer in the church nursery?
wear Jesus t-shirts?
are for the poor?
pray and read the Bible daily?
No. The true sign of the Christ-follower is if we love one another. He says it twice in these three verses. The message is restated several times later in the New Testament, including
Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. (Romans 13:8)
Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart. (1 Peter 1:22)
For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. (1 John 3:11)
Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. (1 John 4:11-12)
I think we can all agree it’s a good idea to love one another. I’ve never heard anyone around here argue against love. After all, Toledo loves love.
But what is love? It’s not always nice. It’s not necessarily about sex. The Golden Rule is a start:
Do to others as you would have them do to you. (Luke 6:31)
We can make excuses all day long—I don’t feel well, I’ve had a bad day, my mom was not nurturing enough, that was a stupid question, you caught me at a bad time, it was a full moon last night—but Jesus doesn’t leave us any loopholes: love one another.
Before I continue, I must say I am speaking to a wonderful group of people. Heather and I are so glad God called us to First Alliance Church. You are family, we have been loved deeply, and we love you deeply. Many of you extend grace generously, giving others the benefit of the doubt, asking clarifying questions when uncertain about something, and offering constructive criticism when appropriate.
But occasionally I’ve heard unkind words spoken, harsh tones expressed, and fingers pointed. How we treat one another matters. Jesus said so. And it not only impacts us, it announces things to the world.
Mahatma Gandhi famously said, “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” Imagine if Gandhi had become a follower of Jesus.
Steve Jobs had a similar impression of Christians. He told biographer Walter Isaacson, “The juice goes out of Christianity when it becomes too based on faith rather than on living like Jesus or seeing the world as Jesus saw it.” Imagine if Steve Jobs had become a follower of Jesus.
Brothers and sisters, people are watching us, and if we can’t even love one another, why would anyone want to join us? Years ago I was attending a conference and the speaker said, “The greatest obstacle to people coming to know Jesus is the Church.” I wanted to scream, “Foul” but he may have been right.
Is your life attractive?
Are you known for your love?
Do people ask the reason for the hope you have?
Is our reputation in the community one of love for one another?
We all know actions speak louder than words. It’s not enough to agree with the idea of loving one another. We must do it! So just do it! Love!
Putting this message together, I was tempted to offer a few choice words, such as
Don’t be mean.
Stop being so critical.
Shaming is not godly.
Get the log out of your own eye.
Turn that frown upside down.
Who made you God?
Or my favorite…edify stupid!
Then I realized none of those would be all that graceful!
Love one another. It sounds so simple, yet it can be so challenging. Our lack of love can be expressed in so many ways:
- Complaining about the music being too traditional or modern, loud or soft
- Posting divisive thoughts on Facebook
- Offering gossip disguised as prayer requests
- Rolling our eyes or other non-verbal expressions of disgust
- Behaving selfishly rather than putting others first
- Jumping to conclusions rather than graciously giving others the benefit of the doubt
Here’s one of my favorite passages for weddings…and for our church family:
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. (Philippians 2:3-4)
Humility is a rare commodity these days. What if we took the lead? People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.
We all agree we need to love, but let’s go back to that original question:
“Why is it that so many Christians make such lousy human beings?”
Here’s Pastor Pete Scazzero’s response:
A large part of the reason is a faulty, compartmentalized understanding of what it means to follow Jesus.
The religious leaders of Jesus’ day were passionate about holiness and purity in their relationship with God. They memorized books of Scripture, fasted twice a week, gave generously, evangelized, prayed three times a day, attended worship without fail, and kept Sabbath.
The problem was that in their zeal to love God, they were not equally zealous to love people. This put them on a collision course with Jesus.
- A Pharisee in Jesus’ day would say, “First, complete your worship to God, and then be reconciled to your brother. God is more important than humans.” Jesus said, “Leave your gift at the altar. Go first and get right with your brother or sister” (Matthew 5:23-24).
- A Pharisee would say, “Obey the commandments and do not murder people.” Jesus said that even angry and dismissive words towards another person are equivalent to murder. We may think calling someone idiot or stupid doesn’t matter. Jesus argues it is a hell-deserving crime (Matt. 5:21-22).
- A Pharisee might say: “It is important to forgive.” Jesus says forgiveness is so indispensable that if we don’t forgive, our heavenly Father will not forgive our sins” (Matt. 6:14-15).
- A Pharisee would say, “Be holy by separating from sinners.” Jesus, quoting Hosea 6:6 said, “Discipleship is about being merciful and kind to people, especially our enemies. That is the heart of what it means to follow me” (Matt. 8:13).
- A Pharisee might say, “You will be evaluated at the Final Judgment on your faith evidenced by acts of holiness before God.” Jesus says, “You will be evaluated at the Final Judgment on your faith evidenced by your love for the people the world discards” (Matt 25:31-46).
Jesus summarized the entire Bible as an unbreakable union of loving God and loving people (Matt. 22:37-40). This was a difficult teaching in the first century and it remains a difficult teaching today.
You cannot love like Jesus if you don’t know Jesus.
You cannot love like Jesus without the Holy Spirit.
When Jesus was asked about the greatest commandment…
Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:37-40)
Sometimes it’s much easier to love a God we cannot see than a brother or sister right in front of us who may say something we disagree with, act in a way which offends us, look different than we look, or simply has different preferences. We are to love our enemy. We are to love our neighbor. But most of all we are to love one another. We’re going to spend a lot of time together—eternity—so we might as well get used to one another, and that means extending grace.
Jesus never talked about grace, he simply modeled it.
Many Christians talk about grace but fail to model it.
I confess this is me. I fail to love. I fail to extend grace. I jump to conclusions when I should say, “Help me understand.” I speak when I should be listening. I have agendas and want to be in control when I should discern and submit.
Who do you need to love more graciously?