It is the new year and I’ll bet that you, like many other Americans, are ready for a FRESH start. Even though time is always flowing at the same pace as it always has, as soon as 364 days have taken place and the number changes on our cell phones – we get really motivated to start FRESH in our lives.

Maybe you want a FRESH start with your health: You resolve to eat healthier, join a gym and only eat one big of Doritos per day.
Maybe you want a FRESH start with your finances: You resolve to start an IRA, to talk to a financial planner, to budget your money and stay in that budget.
Maybe you want a FRESH start in your relationships: “I resolve to be kind, wiser and gentler to the people that I work with…which reminds me of another resolution: ‘Get a new job.’”
 
Or…
Maybe…
You want a FRESH start with God.

Today we are starting a new sermon series called FRESH. The goal is to FRESHEN our relationship with God. Before we get started, a prayer: Lord, strengthen us by the truth; your Word is truth. Open our eyes to see what you want us to see; our ears to hear what you want us to hear and our hearts to believe what you would have us believe. Amen.

I. a FRESH kind of religious leader

The lesson for today starts in Luke 5:27. Look at what it says: “Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his collection booth.”
 
I think this is a great section of God’s Word for the start of a new year. Because it’s a true story about a guy who could use a fresh start in his relationship with God. I say that because Levi was a tax collector. That might not sound awful to you and me, but there are a few cultural things about tax collectors that would have caused the religious leaders of the time to consider Levi a “lost cause” that was “far away from God.”

1. Greedy. This is a bit obvious. But money has this weird effect on people: they like it. Sometimes they like it an appropriate amount. Sometimes a more than appropriate amount. The thought of the religious elite was that in a job like tax collector where you are constantly working with money, you develop an unhealth desire for money. A desire that drives a wedge between you and others. A desire that drives a wedge between you and your God – especially if that God is a God that is all about giving.
 
2. Traitors to the Pagans. Because the government that was collecting taxes in Jerusalem where the Jews lived was not a Jewish government. It was the Romans. Romans that didn’t worship the true God. Romans that worshipped Zeus, Aphrodite, Hades and other pagan gods. This meant that tax collections could be used to fund temples for false gods, to fund renovations on Caesar’s palace, and to help construct a wing in the Aphrodite temple for Roman soldiers to have wild parties.  
 
The Jewish people didn’t worship those pagan gods. The Jewish people worshipped the one true God. A tax collector that was working with that pagan government? They were, at best, foolish; at worst, traitors to God’s people.
 
3. Deception. Tax collectors were not paid a lot of money. Yet most of them were fairly well-to-do. Why?
 
Imagine that you owe some taxes. I, the tax collector, would come to your door. I’d get out your file. I’d know that you owe about $10 in taxes. But instead of giving you a bill for $10…I’d just add an extra zero to it. I’d take the extra $90 for myself.

That’s fraud.
That’s deception.
That’s stealing.

To be fair – that is something that God commands us not to do. The 7th Commandment is “You shall not steal.” Meaning that those who are stealing, really do put themselves in danger of being far from God!
 
This trifecta of reasons led to a perfect storm of a sinful lifestyle.  

A lifestyle that convinced the religious leaders tax collectors were FAR from God.
A lifestyle that convinced the community that they were FAR from God.
A lifestyle that convinced the tax collectors themselves, that they were FAR from God – and could never get close again.

As he counted his money at the tax table and mentally made note of how many shots he would be able to buy down at L’chiam’s Bar and Grill – and whether or not that was enough to wash away the loneliness and guilt that permeated his everyday life…

I doubt that the religious leaders approached him.

Instead…

They turned up their noses.
They shook their heads.
They whispered loudly enough for others to hear: “That man is a sinner. The scum of the earth. A lost cause.”
 
I doubt that Levi had often been approached by religious leaders.

Until…

Jesus.

Levi saw him across the street setting down the tea that he had just sipped at the local restaurant.
He had heard Jesus speak before. Not in the synagogue – he wasn’t really allowed there – but on the streets.

Jesus knew what he was talking about.
Jesus was a religious leader.
Jesus was close to God.

And…
Jesus was on his way over.

Levi tried to look busy counting money. Bracing himself for Jesus to wag his finger and tell them how much of a sinner he was for all to hear – almost like a living object lesson for the community of worshippers that had gathered.
 
But Jesus didn’t wag his finger.
Jesus extended his hand:

“Follow me,” Jesus said to him.
And Levi got up and followed him. (v27-28)
 
And the religious that were watching this started to throw a fit!

“What was he doing? Did he support tax collectors?
Did he support their sin?
Did he support greed and debauchery and deception and sexual immorality that all of the tax collectors stood for?

How could he, a so—called religious teacher, get anywhere near someone so sinfully disgusting!”
 
But that wasn’t the end of it.
A short time later, Levi held a banquet for Jesus at his home and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. (v.29)
 
And even if Levi is starting to act a bit more godly at this point – I doubt that the other tax collectors were. So, don’t picture a real polite, nice dinner meal where everyone is wearing religious jewelry and remembering to pray before anyone takes a bite.

It’s a lot shadier than that.

Picture cigar smoke as Lenny tries to show off the expensive cigar he bought from somewhere down south all with the money he had stolen on his last collection day.
Picture cheap perfume permeating the air from Patsy, the prostitute.  She’s the girlfriend…well, that Nahum pays to be intimate with him, rubbing his big muscles and smiling flirtatiously at the disciples.
Picture the faint smell of alcohol – becoming less faint as Dave the drunk approaches. He’s drowning in the smell of Jim Beam because it’s the only way that he gets rid of that void.

Picture a seedy meal filled with a who’s who of sinners.
And…
Jesus.
 
Which is why the spiritual leaders are losing it! They complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” (v.30)
Why do you get so close to the filthy, spiritual vermin?
Why do you befriend…sinners?

And Jesus overhears them.
He pauses his conversation.
He stands from the table.

He approaches the leaders.

And says this:
“It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (v.31-32)

Do you get it?

It’d be like Julianna having a headache. One of those awful, nasty pounding migraine headaches. It’s so bad that she can’t move and she lays down on the couch. And I run to Walgreens. I pick up some Advil, a bottle of Aleve and some essential oils. I get back to the house. She’s still in pain but is happy to see me.

I go to the faucet.
I fill a glass of water.
I open up the bottle of aspirin.

She holds out her hand.

And I down the aspirin myself.

It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. (v.31)
And it is not the sinless who need a Savior from sin, but sinners.
This is why Jesus came.

And if you are a sinner.
If you have big sins from 2018.
If you had a sin you struggled with throughout 2018.
If you had a sin that you’ve already brought with you into 2019…making you a sinner!
Jesus came for you.
 
II. a FRESH perspective
 
Jesus’ words and actions in this account throw our preconceived notions about our relationship with God into a tizzy. (Honestly, I don’t know what a tizzy is; but these words certainly turn our conceptions around).
 
1) God is for the Righteous Sinners
 
That’s how we normally think. In the same vein as those religious leaders, we think – God is only for the “Righteous.” He’s only for the people who wear crosses around their neck; the people who have never missed a worship service; the people who share three inspirational Scripture memes a day. The people that look like they’ve got it all together! The “professional” Christians.

But that’s not accurate.
If God was only for the righteous, then God is not for any of us, because none of us are righteous!

In fact, that’s the most ironic thing about the Pharisees dismissal of Jesus’ behavior. They say, “Why do you eat with sinners?”  Jesus could have responded:
You’re right. I shouldn’t. I am the sinless Son of God. I will no longer eat with sinners. So, let’s cancel our dinner date next Thursday, because you’re sinners, too.

God didn’t come for the righteous, but sinners. And he didn’t just come for sinners; he died for them.  Look at this passage from Romans 5:5-8 “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
 
That is God’s love for sinners.
That is God’s love for you.
 
If you think you are too steeped in sin that God could never have a relationship with you, you’re wrong.
Jesus lived perfectly, died innocently and rose triumphantly to restore his relationship with you.
And now!?! He calls you righteous! Since we have now been justified…That means “Declared innocent,” “Forgiven,” declared “righteous” by his blood. And that’s a lot more powerful than pencil, more powerful than a blue pen. More powerful than a sharpie. It’s the divine blood of Jesus himself! how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! (v.9)
Because our relationship has been restored.
Because your relationship has been restored.
Because your relationship with God is FRESH.  Apart from sin. Apart from the guilt of last year.
Apart from the guilt of the last hour.
You are steeped in his love.
You are forgiven.

2)God is the One who Waits Seeks
 
A second switch has to do with God’s activity in bringing this message of forgiveness. Because, to be fair, He had already done a lot!  Coming to earth, battling sin, and dying for sins seems like a lot of work! We might expect Jesus to go back to heaven, grab his favorite Lazy Boy, turn on the latest Jim Gaffigan Netflix special and wait for us to come to Him.

And sometimes that’s how we view getting closer to Him!
I need to try harder.
I need to seek harder.
I need to say prayers with my eyes winced and my fists clenched, mustering all the sinful seeking that I possibly can to get him to pay attention to me!

But God isn’t a God who waits.
God is a God who seeks.

Think about it! Levi wasn’t seeking anything. Levi was literally at his table, counting his money, doing his normal, everyday tax collector things. Then, Jesus went out to him! Jesus called him to follow. Jesus did the seeking!

And God doesn’t get tired.
God keeps seeking.
Even today. Even with you.
Even if you’ve been far away from God.
Even if you’re really, really, really good at hiding!

It’s not playing Hide and Seek with your cousins. Did this ever happen to you? You find a really good hiding spot. You stay super quiet. You hear them walk by talking as they try to find you. Then, it gets quiet. And you stay quiet because “they could be tricking me.” And you stay quiet for 10, 20, 30 minutes. Until…eventually you realize. They aren’t coming to find you. They gave up seeking you.

God doesn’t give up seeking you.
God hasn’t given up seeking you.
God is seeking you.
Right now.
With these words.

3) God’s Message Belongs Among the Righteous  Sinners

This leads to the final perspective change. Because the religious leaders felt that God and his message only belonged among those people that already knew it. It belonged in the synagogue. It belonged amongst their clique. It belonged among their very own, special, “we look religious” club.

But that’s not what Jesus did.
He brought the message outside that religious clique.
He brought that message to sinners.
He brought that message to a lot of sinners.
 
And he asks us to do the same.
 
Right before Christmas with the staff here working at Precious Lambs -- we had a challenge to see who could bring the most Christmas Eve worship invitations to parents, family and friends who don’t have a Christmas Eve worship place. It’s part of our “Planting the Message of Jesus in the Heart of North Raleigh.”

And after I explained it to the staff – a couple of them laughed – and immediately began inviting each other to worship.
One of them invited me.  (I told them I was busy).

It was humorous, but sometimes that is all too real the way that we approach sharing Jesus.
I’ll invite my church going friend.
I’ll share the Gospel with my Gospel believing coworker.
I’ll tell others about Jesus …as long as I’m already at worship.

This isn’t a bad thing. Christians need encouragement, too.
But it’s not what Jesus calls us to do.

He wants us to take that message to the fringes of society.
To the homeless.
To the drug dealer.
To the drunkard.
To the guy struggling with his sexuality.
To the porn addict.
To the porn director.
To the dirty politician.
To the vehement atheist!

God calls us to bring the message of his love to them. Because that’s where his message needs to be.
 
As a church that’s our FRESH start for the year. We need to plant the message of Jesus in the hearts of North Raleigh and by North Raleigh we don’t just mean within these walls.
We mean outside of them, too.

Like Levi! After Jesus comes to him, after he fills him with grace and forgiveness, what does he do? He holds a party! He invites friends. He invites Jesus. He brings Jesus’ message directly to others that he knew needed it so badly.

God is calling you and me to do the same.
To hold our own banquets.
To bring the message of Jesus to the people that we might think will NEVER like the message of Jesus!
 
To understand this FRESH perspective – and not to see the religious and irreligious – but sinners in need of their Savior’s love.
 
WHAT NOW?
 
We talk about getting a fresh start – and if you’re trying to get a fresh start on your health, there might be a lot of things that you are told to do.
To get a gym membership.
To use that gym membership.
To eat only greens.
To eat organic.
To drink 8 glasses of water a day.
To get 8 hours of sleep.
To make healthy choices all day long.

It’s easy to think the list for a FRESH connected to Jesus would be just as long!

But it isn’t.
It’s as simple as the two words that Jesus spoke to Levi:
Follow me.

Jesus says:
Follow me and be REFRESHED with the message of my forgiveness.
Follow me and get a FRESH start as my child.
Follow me and feel the FRESHNESS of my love on a daily basis.

It’s simple really. You want a FRESH start in 2019?
Follow your Savior. Amen.

Martin Luther took the piece of paper and held it a bit closer to his face – allowing the kingly font of the Papal Bull to come into focus:
...we…condemn, reprobate, and reject completely the books and all the writings and sermons of Martin Luther -- whether in Latin or any other language, containing the said errors or any one of them; and we wish them to be regarded as utterly condemned, reprobated, and rejected. We forbid each and every one of the faithful…to read, assert, preach, praise, print, publish, or defend them...Indeed, immediately after the publication of this letter these works, wherever they may be, shall be sought out carefully and… shall be burned publicly!
 
He took a deep breath.
He had only meant to bring people back to God’s Word.
He had only meant to bring people back to the truth.
He had only meant to point people back to the grace of God – not through works righteousness, the buy your way into heaven deception that was being taught.

But the Pope wasn’t having any of it.
The Pope was threatening the mass burning of all his writing.
The Pope was threatening the public burning…of him.

And to be fair – this had happened before. The 16th century European world had seen the Roman Catholic charge plenty of “heretics” with death via burning at the stake.

Jan Hus.
Savonarola.
Joan of Arc.

All of this meant, it wasn’t a lie.
It wasn’t a fib.
It was clear.

The Roman Catholic church was very angry with Luther.
The Roman Catholic church would kill him just as he had clearly seen before.

But the Bible?

It was different.
It talked of a Jesus whom Luther never met.
It talked of a resurrection that Luther didn’t see.
It talked of God’s grace—for forgiveness of sins – an unseen, invisible concept that could not be proved via ocular testing in the slightest.

It also said this.
Whoever holds to my teachings is really my disciple. – Jesus

Luther took a deep breath.
What should he trust? 

The visible and violent words of the Pope?
Or the words about the invisible from an unseen God?

Today we’re continuing our series called 500 that celebrates the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. We will be looking at the second key truth about the Reformation – that salvation comes by faith alone. Our goal in this sermon is to: (1) identify what humans tend to trust in (2) why trusting in the invisible isn’t insane (3) how to strengthen our trust in the unseen. Before we begin, a prayer: O Lord, strengthen us by the truth; your Word is the truth. Open our eyes to see what you want us to see; open our ears to hear what you want us to hear; open our hearts to believe what you would have us believe. Amen.
 
I. Faith in the Seen?

Hebrews 11:1 says this about faith, “Now faith is confidence…and assurance...” This is an extremely interesting take on faith. It talks about confidence and assurance. These are both very solid words. They imply an unwavering, complete, and absolute trust that what is said or stated is 100% true.
 
It’s kind of like holding dumbbells. Ever done that? If it’s really light (say one pound), then it’s really easy to hold onto. I can hold it up really easy. I smile while I do it. I maybe even get a bit cocky “this is no problem at all. I could do curls in my sleep!”

On the other hand, if you hand me a 75-pound dumbbell, I’m not so sure. My grip isn’t very good. I can hold it for a bit and then it gets a bit shaky. I waver. I drop it.
That’s not faith. That’s uncertainty. That’s a struggle.

True faith doesn’t struggle.
True faith simply believes.
Faith shows confidence and assurance.

This might lead you to ask: How then do we get such a confidence? How do we get such a certain faith?
 
I would propose this: Usually we use our five senses. We use vision to confirm reality. We allow the light to reflect off of the object, and if it comes back to our eyes, our brain confirms – that thing does exist. It is real. Believe. The human way of confident faith is this: have faith in things that our senses confirm.
 
For instance, I am 100% certain that there is a bag of chips in my hand.
I can see the triangular shape.
I can smell the artificial cheese.
I can feel the bumpy texture of corn goodness.
I can hear the crunch of deliciousness.
I can taste them – oh I can taste them - and they taste good.

My five senses confirm it. It’s real. I have faith that this is a bag of chips – and it’s not even remotely wavering.

That’s how human faith tends to work.
It trusts in what our senses confirm.  
That becomes a big problem when it comes to spiritual things.

Because we can’t see God.
If you were planning on seeing him at church today, he’s not making a visible appearance. (It’s why I usually don’t advertise for him).
We can’t see God and we can’t see Jesus.
We don’t see the nail marks in his hands.
We don’t see his risen body.
We see only a cross and that cross is only a representation of something that supposedly happened a long time ago.

We don’t see God and that makes trusting in him…hard.  
 
Because again – we tend to look for visible clues in our lives and oftentimes the visual close do not support the idea of God.

God, I thought you said you’d be with me always – but based on how awful this past week was, I’m not so sure you’re here.
God, you said that you’d love me – but I lost my job, I’m behind on rent, and I’m having relationship problems. It can’t be true.
God, you said that you have good things in mind for me – but I just got diagnosed by this awful disease. I feel terrible and the MRI looks bad. None of this looks good like you said!
 
This even makes its way into the realm of salvation! In fact, do you remember the works righteousness concept that we discussed last week? Works righteousness is the theological idea that humans save themselves by what they do. As we discussed last week, this is completely not true. The Bible describes us as sinful. The Bible describes us as spiritually dead. The Bible describes us as completely unable to do anything, let alone save ourselves from our own sins.

Yet.

As impossible as this is…
As completely 100% impossible as it is for anyone to be perfect…

Works righteousness is the number one favorite things for people to have faith in.
Why?

The answer is simple.
It’s tangible.
It’s visible.
It’s something that we can see!

Did you see what I just did? I just saw myself bending over and helping a little preschool kid clean up his juice spill. That’s really good of me God. I saw it.
Did you hear my kinds words? I just said that girl’s dress was really pretty...I sounded so nice.
Did you smell that? Those are the delicious baked good that I made for church FOR FREE! The good things I do, smell so good.
 
And here’s the reality – our good works are tangible.
So, we trust our good works.
We trust in them simply because it’s easy to trust in something that our senses confirm.

But head back to your senses.
Because if you’re honest, it’s easy to see – there’s more than just good in you.

Sure, you can see yourself stooping down to help that preschooler clean up the mess – but you can also see yourself make the visual sign of complete disgust in annoyance for having to help the little one.

Yes, you can hear the nice words that you said about the girl’s dress; but if you listen for about a minute longer, you can also hear your voice whispering to your friend that “actually, that’s a really gross looking dress and I think she looks ugly.”
 
And OK – you can smell the delicious baked cookies that you made for church – they can almost cover up the hint of alcohol left on your breath from the all-night Saturday bender you went through the day before.
 
HERE’S THE POINT: We tend to trust what our senses confirm.
And our senses confirm this – We are sinners and works righteousness does NOT work.
 
II. Faith in the Unseen

Is faith really a result of the senses then?

Think of the Cloud. Not that there actually is a cloud, but the cloud is that big invisible data center that can store all kinds of computer data. If you have converted your data storage to the cloud, then here’s the thing – you don’t actually see the storage happen. You don’t see it go up into the air. You don’t see the photo of Uncle Glen pass out of the window and past a blue bird into the sky.

All you see is that little icon change to SAVED.
And then you trust.
Even though you can’t see...you trust that it will be there.

Here’s the truth – Faith is not in the seen. Faith is in the unseen. Take a look at Hebrews 11:1 again, “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” This is Biblical faith. It’s faith in the unseen, the invisible, the imperceptible!

This starts with Jesus.  Because Jesus is good at showing us that what we see visually is not always indicative of the truth invisibly.  
For instance:
 
The people saw 5 jugs of well water. But when they dipped in a cup at the request of Jesus, they tasted a delicious, red merlot.
The people saw a man who was lame that they saw begging near the temple doors for years – that could not be healed. And Jesus healed him. 
The people – thousands of people – saw five loaves of bread and 2 fish; Jesus saw a feast that fed them all…till they were full…and there were 12 baskets of leftovers!
The people - hundreds of people - saw Jesus body, dead and bloodied on the cross. Placed lifelessly into the grave. And some even went back to the grave to confirm it. But when they got there he wasn’t dead. But alive.

At the heart of the invisibly impossible is what we talked about last week: Salvation by grace alone.
That God simply loves us.
That God simply died for us.
That God simply saved us.
That God simply said, “Whoever has faith in me will be saved.”

Yet -- Jesus made the visually impossible into reality.
He has no problem making the invisibly impossible into reality too.
 
Even though you didn’t see it; Jesus died for you.
Even though you don’t see it; God has forgiveness for you.
Even though you can’t touch it; God has heaven in mind for you.

It is by grace you are saved through faith.

This leads to something really, really interesting.
It leads to trusting the invisible in spite of the visible:

Martin Luther had this to say about faith.  “A Christian is hidden from himself, so that he does not see his holiness, and virtue but only his lack of virtue and his lack of holiness, … In a word, our holiness is in heaven, where Christ is; it is not in the world, before the eyes of men, like a commodity on the market.”

Do you see the point? Each day I can pretend to see my good, but the reality is that each of us knows ourselves all too well. We know our sins. We know our faults. At the end of the day we know this – we are NOT perfect; not even remotely.

But God, in his word – without any visuals – says to you:

In Christ you are forgiven.
In Christ, I see you as holy.
In Christ you are mine.

And it’s true. Because God doesn’t fail! His track record is too good. Amen. 

Are you tired of feeling guilty from sin?
Do you stay up late tossing and turning because of something wrong you did?
Do you struggle with guilt and anxiety about what God will do to you?

Introducing a brand-new product made just for you: The Indulgence.

That’s right folks now you can have the assurance that your sins are forgiven on this certificate looking paper!
Display it in your living room.
Over your sofa.
On your desktop and work.
…and viola – proof that you have God’s forgiveness.
 
What’s that? A produce like this might cost millions? Usually it would. But now it can be yours for one easy payment of $49.95. That’s $49.95 for forgiveness assurance of up to 100 sins!

Are you heavy sinner? No worries. Get the deluxe edition for only $99.95 and double your sin count.
Need more for next month?  With our new app -- you can set up recurring payments so that an indulgence will be sent to your home without having to think about it.  
Want to gift one for a relative? These make great Christmas presents for the ornery teenager in your house.

And if you are order right now – we’ll throw in this mini certificate of forgiveness – good up to 10 free swear word sins – absolutely FREE!

So what are your waiting for?
Get your indulgence and get on the road to a guilt-free existence!
 
 
Or…Not.
Because that sounded ridiculous.
Even made up.
Surely, that’s never really happened, right? 

500 years ago, that’s exactly what was happening.
500 years ago, people were eating this up.
500 years ago, this ridiculous practice was the only thing that made sense.

Today we’re celebrating the Reformation – a time when God used a simple monk to reform these ideas and return the truth to the truth about forgiveness.  Our goal in this sermon is: (1) learn why this buying God’s forgiveness isn’t as archaic and ridiculous as it sounds (2) see from Scripture why it’ll never work and (3) learn about the only way to know true forgiveness. Before we begin, a prayer: O Lord, strengthen us by the truth; your Word is the truth. Open our eyes to see what you want us to see; open our ears to hear what you want us to hear; open our hearts to believe what you would have us believe. Amen.
 
I. Heart of the Problem

Let’s do a bit of church history. Leo X was pope in Rome. He was the head of the only Christian organization that was in existence in the early 16th century – the Roman Catholic church. And…he was getting short on money. Under his reign, he had plans to build a Cathedral – St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome – a beautiful piece of architectural to help people reflect on God (and how awesome Pope Leo X was).

The problem? He had run out of money. The Medici family, who had been funding the construction of the incredible building, stopped funding the incredible building. Leo was stuck. How would he finish his basilica? How would he finish his building?

The answer was the indulgence. Pieces of paper signed by the Pope guaranteeing the buyer forgiveness for a certain number of sins. The proceeds? They would go to fund the unfinished basilica project under the following guise:

It is by INDULGENCES that you are saved.

Sound shady? It is.
Surely no one would fall fort it, right?

Well…

Enter Johann Tetzel.  He might not look like much, but he was essentially the ShamWow guy of 16th century Europe. He was an infomercial king! He was a skilled orator and skilled salesmen. He would travel into towns. He’d set up shop. He’d start doing his best informercial:

Buy you’re indulgence now and you won’t have to pay for your sin in hell later.
If you aren’t worried about your sin, what about your dead Aunt Flo? What if she’s stuck in hell and this piece of paper is what springs her to heaven?
LOOK! The Pope guaranteed it. It must be true!
 
And Tetzel sold.
And people bought.
And people were convinced that it was by INDULGENCES that they were saved.  
 
But...to be fair, this really isn’t as ridiculous as it sounds.
 
Husbands, have you ever forgotten an important event with your wife? Maybe an anniversary or a birthday or an anniversary of the first time that you ate at an Italian restaurant? What do you do? You buy some flowers, do the dishes, give his wife a massage and hope that after a few days of doing that – everything is ok.
 
Naturally people assume that is how it works with God.  “I’ve done wrong, but I’ll just do some good things to make up for the bad things and tip the eternal scales in my favor.”  It’s not surprising then that the Catholic church in the 16th century taught a version of this in their churches: It is by WORKS that you are saved.  
 
And suddenly everyone is playing a divine game of addition and subtraction. “Let’s see. I opened the door with prayer (that’s good), but then I was rude to my wife (bad). I helped an old lady across the street (good), but I told my friends that she smelled (bad). I listened to my wife (good), but really, I was just thinking about the football game the whole time (bad).

Well, if you do this long enough you’ll realize one very important thing:
There is no peace in the spiritual balancing game of good works.
 
Because that was good. I think.
And that was wrong. I think.
And that was good, but then I got angry in the middle of it and ended up with more sin when I started than I had to begin with!

So what people needed was an improvement.
They needed something that was bigger.
Something that was worth more.
Something that could really outweigh sin.

Enter the church with another idea and another adjective:  It is by CHURCH WORKS that you are saved.
 
Kinda like the Power Rangers – a bigger, better power.
 
The bigger better power for 16th century people was the “church work”.
Say the Lord’s prayer 10 times a day for forgiveness. 
Say the Lord’s prayer in the church 10 times a day for extra forgiveness.
Buy a picture of Jesus and say the Lord’s prayer in front of that in the church for extra, extra forgiveness.
 
Because of this theological theory, men became monks. Women became nuns. Men took vows of silence and women took vows of celibacy. People everywhere listened to whatever the priest told them to do: Cross themselves – say 10 Hail Mary’s – hold onto a rosary real tight – even…buy an indulgence….
 
And suddenly, we’re back where we started. The indulgence wasn’t crazy. It was just the grossest abuse of human idea of works righteousness.
The idea that works are what save you.
 
An idea --- might I add – that hasn’t left us in the 21st century.
An idea – might I add – that hasn’t left the church in the 21st century.
An idea – might I add – that might not have left us.
 
II. The Truth about Works Righteousness

You’ve got your bulletins in your folder. There should be a blank spot. Here’s a quick question that I want you to answer. You have 30 seconds to answer.
Will you be in heaven? And if so, why?

What was your answer?


I’m a good person.
I try really hard.
I’m better than that guy.
 
If that was your answer, what are you basing heaven on? Yourself. Your works. Cause – that’s the exact same thing the church was telling people to do.

And maybe your answer is more sophisticated. And you said: I’m not just a good person, I serve at a church. I’ve been an usher for years. That’s how I know I’m going to heaven.
But isn’t that just basing your faith on church works? Are they really any better?
 
And maybe you’ve gone all the way and thought: But I gave 10% of my income at this church for years. Look at the 3rd hymnal from the front. Inside is MY Family’s name! I paid for it. And I know I’ll be in heaven because of it.
AKA – I know it, because of my indulgence.
 
This whole works righteousness thing is not a 16th century thing.

Because it’s a human thing.
It’ll always be around.
And it’ll always be wrong.
 
Because here’s what the Bible has to say about our works:
 
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins. (Ephesians 2:1)
 
Notice what the Bible calls us: dead. Obviously, not physically, because here we are. But spiritually dead. Think about what it means that we are spiritually dead. It means we were motionless. It means we were rotting. It means we were decomposing.

And it means we couldn’t do…anything.

Because just this past week I saw a dead squirrel on the side of the road.
Do you know what it was doing? Nuttin. (Get it?)
 
Bad joke aside – dead things don’t do anything.
Dead things can’t do anything.
Spiritually dead human beings cannot do anything toward spiritual salvation.


Yesterday, I was at the Food Bank. We were sorting donations of sweet potatoes. And some of them were disgusting. They were filled with mold. They were rotting. They were squishy at the touch.

And I was thinking – even the best cooks couldn’t make anything good with that stuff. If you took those rotten sweet potatoes home and mixed them and baked them and put them into the oven and made sweet potato pie -- it would still taste awful.

That’s the reality of being dead in sin – even our best – is still rotten to the core. It’s selfish. It’s done for our own sake. It’s done so that I feel good and I get closer to heaven, not simply because I love that person.
 
Which means we don’t earn heaven.
The only thing we have earned with our works?
God’s wrath.

We were by nature objects of wrath. (Ephesians 2:3)
 
Because our works are tainted by sin.
Because we are tainted by sin.
Because we are dead in sin.

And God hates sin.
 
To put it simply – It is by works you CANNOT BE saved.
 
III. The Truth About What Saves

Which is devastating.
Especially if you’ve been basing your whole eternity on your own good works.

That’s what Martin Luther had done.
Martin Luther was a 16th century man. He had gone to school to be a lawyer. He had learned that wrong was wrong and that wrong deserved punishment.
And he knew he had done wrong…and deserved punishment.
And so, he tried to do good works! But even when he did the good works he did so with a heart that hated God for making him do the good works --- thus spoiling the good works – and leaving him in worse straights than before.
So, he became a monk! He did a church work. But that didn’t help. The vows of silence didn’t keep his thoughts from sin. The time alone didn’t keep his thoughts form hating others.
So, he heard of indulgences! And he saw a promise of heaven. And he saw that with a simple paper he could have guilt removed.

And he thought - this is crazy!
And he thought – this can’t be the way!
And he thought – I wonder what the Bible has to say about this.

Now remember – back then the Bible wasn’t available in thousands of languages via a cell phone app.
It was written in 3 languages – (Hebrew, Greek and Latin) and it was only at the monastery chained to a wall. So, for centuries people just accepted whatever priests told them because they didn’t know any better.

They accepted work righteousness, because they didn’t know any better.

But when Luther was in the monastery he no longer had to accept it.
He could read it for himself.
And what he found was vastly different from what was being taught: 
Because of God’s great love or us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ – even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved.
Wow.
Did you see that?
It’s not works righteousness at all. But something entirely different.

It says: God made us alive with Christ! It makes sense. We were dead – dead can’t do anything. Dead definitely can’t bring itself back to life.
But you know who could? How about the guy who made Jairus dead daughter sit up?
How about the guy who made a young man in a coffin stand on his feet?
How about the guy who made Lazarus dead in the grave for 4 days come walking out like he was just checking the place out on House Hunters?
How about the guy who said: “Kill me and I’ll come back to life,” so they killed him and then – he came back to life?

God made us alive with Christ! He gave us spiritual life by paying God’s wrath. He died. He suffered the payment for our sin. He suffered the complete payment for our sin!
And if you’re thinking: “But my sins are pretty big,” look at what it says here: God is rich in mercy. He’s a tycoon. He’s a gazillionaire of mercy. He has so much that it covers completely the payment for your sin! It covers completely the payment for your little sins. It covers completely the payment for your big, nasty, ugly sins that you hope no one else finds out about.
It's like Scrooge McDuck. Remember him from Duck Tales? He had this gigantic 40-story tower that he filled with gold coins. He had so many gold coins that he would put on a swim suit and go swimming in his wealth.

That’s God and his mercy. He’s swimming in mercy. He doles out that mercy to you through Jesus Christ.
But, pastor, surely, he only gives that out to the people he likes.
Surely, he only gives it out to the people who do church things.
Surely, he only gives it out to the people who do enough good church things.
Look at the passages again: Because of his God’s great love for us.

It doesn’t say: “Because we did enough good works.”
It doesn’t say: “Because we served enough cookies at church…”
It doesn’t say: “Because I said enough Hail Mary’s OR memorized the Lord’s prayer…”
It doesn’t say: “Because I gave enough money…”

Nope.

Because of God’s great love.
Because he loved you.
Because he wanted to save you.
Because he loved you, he died and paid the ultimate price to save you.
Therefore?

It changes our salvation equation.
God’s not telling you to pay for his love.
God’s telling you that he already paid it for you:

It is by GRACE you have been saved through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God! (Eph. 2:8)
And Martin Luther? When he read this, it changed his life.
His guilt was removed.
His conscience was unburdened.
He was free.
So…On October 31st, 1517. He marched through the streets of Wittenberg. He pulled his cloak close to his nose.
He marched right up to the main doors of the castle church – the big castle church – the church that thousands attended – the doors that thousands passed.
He marched up.
He knew he’d get in some trouble.
But he also knew Jesus had gotten him out of worse trouble.

So, he pounded.
He pounded a list calling out the false teaching of indulgences and the false practices of the church.
His goal? Bring people back to the truth.
Bring people back to God’s grace.

Here we are 500 years later.
God’s grace is still the truth.
God’s grace is still what saves.

You’re forgiven.
Jesus died for you.
You’re forgiven.

 Brothers and sisters, may we return to GRACE and NEVER leave. Because it is by grace we have been saved! Amen. 

Have you ever heard of Angie’s List? It’s an online service that lets you hook up with various contractors in all kinds of areas. From painters to dry wallers, from lawn care to carpet care, from lizard wranglers to sheep shearers -- you can find the professional you need on Angie’s List

But you might wanna shop around. The truth is there are usually more than one company you can go with. Take plumbing, for example. If you need a plumber, you might like Plumberee – with lots of experience and fine craftsmanship, but a fine way of breaking the bank. Then again, there’s Bargain Plumbers less expensive, but so is their work. There’s Plumber’s R. Us. A bit corporate in its structure – so you know they can get the job done, but bad customer service. Then, there’s Frank’s Plumbing. Not as well known, but you can almost always get him on the phone and he does a fine job -- just as long as you don’t mind the smell of cigarettes that he brings with him everywhere he goes. 

Who do you choose? The wise person shops around first, before making his decision. 

Is the same thing true about grace? The last couple of weeks we’ve talked about the blessing of grace that Jesus brings. It’s without cost. It covers even the worst of sinners. It lasts into eternal life. It brings forgiveness for all your sins. 

But…the wise person shops around first so…

What about Buddha? What type of grace does he offer?
What about Mohammed? I hear he has a good plan. 
What about doing your best, trying your hardest, and earning some grace with the human spirit? That’s the American ideal. Plus you can get away with a lot more sins. 

After all, doesn’t it kind of depend on your geography? 
Different gods? Different traditions? Different religions? 
Different options? 

Today we are finishing our series called Surprising Grace by looking at the exclusivity of grace. We’ll see why Grace must be from Jesus and how that’s true, no matter who you are or where you’re from.   Before we do that, let’s say a prayer: O Lord, strengthen us by the truth; your Word is truth. Open our eyes to see what you want us to see. Open our ears to hear what you want us to hear. Open our hearts to believe what you would have us believe. Amen. 

I. Shopping Around for Other Options
​
Today’s account is taken from Revelation 5:1-12. Revelation is the final book in the Bible. It’s written by the Apostle John. It’s called Revelation because it’s a revelation that John received from God. A revelation of the future. 

That’s why it has to be from God. 

Remember: Time is like a jump rope. You and I are on the jump rope. Somewhere within this tiny ½ cm. It means we can only see behind us – as much as is preserved by history – and we can’t see too far in front of us – only making best guess predictions. 

But God is of the timeline. He’s eternal. He sees everything from 6000 years ago to 15 years from now like it’s happening before his eyes. 

Cool, huh? 

That’s why God was able to tell John about the future in this revelation. He could see it happening. So, when we read Revelation, we find out about the future. We find out that sometimes – the future is comforting. Sometimes it’s scary. And sometimes…well…it’s strange. 

John fell to his knees. The sight before him was too much. 

For starters, there were these beasts. 4 incredible, terrifying beasts watching his every move. They were kind of like earthly beasts – and kind of not. One looked like an eagle. One like a lion. One like an ox. One like a man. 

But they were only like these things. They were radiating. They were flying. They each had eyeballs all over them. Each eyeball blinking in tune with John’s every movement. 

The beasts weren’t the only ones watching John. Surrounding him were 24 smaller thrones. Each throne had 24 elders – dressed in white and crowns of gold on their heads (v.4) Long, flowing, divine white hair gently flowing in the breeze – as if they were floating on water.  

But the gentleness was interrupted. Flashes of lightning, rumblings, and peals of thunder came from the center of the room. There stood a gigantic throne. There was a bright light radiating right in front of it. A white, bright light. The bright kind that makes you squint your eyes if you don’t have a pair of sunglasses. 

But this light wasn’t coming from the sun. It wasn’t even coming from outside. It was coming from an ethereal rainbow that had fashioned itself at the top of the throne – marking and identifying the one who sat upon the throne. 

Whose throne was it? 

If John hadn’t figured it out yet – the melody of the elders made grew until it was at a thunderous level made him certain: 

You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being. (v.11)

John again looked to the ground in horror. 

He was before God Almighty. He was before the Creator of heaven and earth. 
He was before the one who makes volcanoes explode, tectonic plates shake, and flood water engulf the earth. 
He, a sinner, was standing before the All holy, sin hating God. 

But God wasn’t fixated on him. Not at the moment. At the moment, God was fixated on what he had in his hand. 

It was a scroll. An ancient version of a eReader or book. Divine parchment tightly rolled up and sealed tightly with seven seals. (5:1)

What was in the scroll? Well there’s two books mentioned in the book of Revelation. One is called the Book of Life. That’s an important book. Because there is written the names of every person who has life – every person who is allowed to enter into heaven. Picture it like a divine guest list – only the bouncer isn’t some tough looking Italian guy named Guido. 

It’s God himself. 

Meaning this scroll was important. Without it, there was no way of knowing who it is that is allowed into heaven. 

And…for whatever the reason, God wasn’t opening it. 

In fact, one of the angels, a mighty angel, the king angel with bulging veins in his biceps and a heart tattoo on his left delt, started shouting in a loud voice, “Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll?” (v.2)

No one moved. 

He repeated himself. Louder. “Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll?”

John looked around. Why wasn’t anyone trying to do it? Sure, the seals looked intimidating, but they were in God’s throne room. Why wasn’t he burly angel giving it a try? Why didn’t the ox-like thing try smashing it with his hoofs? Why didn't the eagle like thing try dive bombing it from on high? Why didn’t the 24 elders work together to develop some kind of divinely inspired Rube Goldberg machine to open it up? 

But none of them were making their way to the scroll.
None of them were lifting a hand to break the seals.
Mostly, they were just shaking their heads – their divinely, haloed, eye-filled heads. 

John began weeping. If that scroll wasn’t opened, then he wasn’t getting into heaven. Then, his friends weren’t getting into heaven. Then, none of his loved ones and fellow believers were getting into heaven. 

But…
v. 3 No one in heaven or on earth or under the earth could open the scroll or even look inside of it. 

Pay attention here. Because this has everything to do with God’s grace. Because we need God’s grace to get into heaven. We need God’s grace to get our names onto the pages of the Book of Life. 

And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth could write our names in there. In fact, they couldn’t even open the scroll or look inside of it. 

Not anyone in that throne room. Not the mighty angel. Not the eagle. Not the ox. Not anyone on below that throne room either. Not Zeus. Not Hades. Not Hercules. Not Buddha. Not Mohammed. Not Vishnu.
Not a president. Not a king. Not any member of congress. Not a brilliant scientist. Not a billionaire business man. 

Not even a guy who tries really hard and does his best and hopes that it’s enough to get his name in the book of Life. 

There is no one else. No one who can get your name on the Book of Life. 
No one who can win your forgiveness.
No one who can offer you’re an eternity in heaven. 

No one…besides….
 
II. The Exclusive Answer 

“Do not weep!” cried one of the elders. His mouth agape in excitement. “Look! The Lion of the tribe of Judah has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.”

John took a deep breath. Of course! A lion. Lions are the King of the Jungle for a reason. They have majestic manes and fierce teeth for sinking into their prey. They have powerful jaws and swift, fierce claws. Lions were some of the most muscular and magnificent creatures on earth. A divine, heavenly version of it would have no problem destroying those seals!

John looked up with excitement. He covered his ears anticipating this miraculous roar!

But what he saw wasn’t a Lion.
It wasn’t fierce.
It wasn’t intimidating. 
It didn’t roar.

Then, I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing at the center of the throne. (5:6)

John turned his head in shock! A Lamb? Lambs aren’t intimidating! They don’t have claws – they have unbalanced hoofs. They don’t have majestic manes, but soft, gentle wool. They don’t roar – they baaa!

How was this creature – a creature of nursery rhymes and preschools – supposed to be the one to open the seals?

And this one wasn’t even in good health? It was looking as if it had been slain. (5:6) It looked like it was limping along. It needed to be held. It needed to be nourished. It didn’t need to be trying to open up these incredible seals. 

John looked around. Is anybody going to stop this? 

But no one else shared his concern. In fact, the others in the room – the elders, the winged creatures, the mighty angel – God himself – smiled at the sight of the Lamb and erupted into a magnificent song….

…to the Lamb: 

You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain. (5:9)

Suddenly, it hit John. 

The Lamb. The Lamb of God. He had heard that before. 

He had read about it in the Old Testament – as the blood of innocent lambs foreshadowed this moment. 
He had heard it from John the Baptist as he pointed at his leader “Look! The Lamb of God! Who takes away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29)
He had seen it from his fellow disciple Peter who wrote, “-- a lamb without blemish or defect.” (1 Peter 1:1

That’s who the Lamb was. 
That’s why he was slain.
That’s why he alone could open the scroll. 

Because that Lamb was Jesus!

Brothers and sisters, understand this! There is no other being in heaven or under heaven or on earth who can open the scroll. 
There is no other being in heaven or under heaven or on earth who can get you into heaven. 
There is no other being in heaven or under heaven or on earth whose grace is enough for your eternal life. 

No other being than Jesus Christ. 

The Bible is simple then. 
The Bible is clear. 
God’s eternal vision has been revealed to you.

Do you desire forgiveness for your sins? Trust Jesus. 
Do you desire to lose your guilt? Trust Jesus. 
Do you desire to escape hell? Trust Jesus. 
Do you desire eternal life? Trust Jesus. 
Do you desire peace with God? Trust Jesus. 
Do you desire eternal joy? Trust Jesus. 

There is no one else who can provide these things – because the only one on the spiritual Angie’s List for salvation is The Lamb – Your Savior, Jesus Christ!!!

III. What Now? 

(1) Celebrate this Exclusivity

Because what do they say? The only thing you don’t want to talk with people about are politics and religion. But…as this past election showed us – we had no problem talking politics. I’m friends with most of you on Facebook. I know this. 

So why not religion? 
Better yet…why not your Savior? 
Better, better yet…why not the only one who provides forgiveness of sins, eternal life and salvation? 

The elders didn’t mind shouting. Worthy is the Lamb!
The four living creatures didn’t mind shouting. Worthy is the Lamb!
The mighty angel didn’t mind shouting. Worthy is the Lamb!
Even John – stopped being nervous and frightened and as he watched Jesus open up that scroll shouted: Worthy is the Lamb!

You do that too. In fact, why do you get on your Smartphone today and make that your status. #WorthyIsTheLamb

Don’t be afraid to let others know who it is that you trust. Don’t be afraid to let them know who it is they can trust. 

(2) Celebrate Diversity

Because notice what it says about the Lamb in verse 9 You are worthy…because you were slain and with your blood you purchased persons from every tribe and language and people and nation. 

I love that. It means Jesus is your exclusive king no matter who you are. 

It doesn’t matter what tribe you’re from. Which may be the closest Bible words for “race.” This is key, isn’t it? It doesn’t matter if you’re black or white, Asian or Latino, middle Eastern, Native American, combination of the above. 

JESUS IS YOUR KING. JESUS IS YOUR SAVIOR!

And it doesn’t matter what language you speak. He’s the answer if you speak English or Spanish. Italian or German. Nigerian or Malawian. Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Sign Language…even if you speak in emoji! 

JESUS IS YOUR KING. JESUS IS YOUR SAVIOR!

And it doesn’t matter where you live. It doesn’t matter if you live in America or Iraq. Whether you live in Russia or China. Whether you live in Mexica or Canada. It doesn’t matter if you live in Durham or Cary or Chapel Hill or Knightdale or Morrisville or South Raleigh or North Raleigh or anywhere else on this planet!

JESUS IS YOUR KING. JESUS IS YOUR SAVIOR! 

And if Jesus is king of us all – that means we’ve got to celebrate that diversity just like Jesus does. We’ve got hug those from different backgrounds. Speak with excitement – show excitement – to those who speak different languages. Grab hands and go to work with those from different places. 

Celebrate Diversity because that’s what Jesus celebrates!

(3) Celebrate Unity

Because diversity…sometimes leads to division. I fear it’s happened to America. There’s so many different people in America that we let our differences get the best of us and we fight. 

The same is true in Raleigh. It’s a global, multicultural, multigenerational community. It’s started to get divided. 

The same could be true for our church. More and more God has enabled us to reflect the global, multicultural, diverse community that He will have in heaven. 

How do we stay united? 

Look carefully at verse 9 again You are worthy…because you were slain and with your blood you purchased persons from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom.  

Did you hear that? 

Not many kingdoms.
No a White kingdom and a Black kingdom and an Asian kingdom and a  Hispanic kingdom.
Just a kingdom. 

One kingdom. 

Jesus creates only one kingdom. 

And we stand together as one kingdom, by remembering who it is that created that one kingdom. 

It’s Jesus. 

And that’s kind of what happens at the end of the section. Everybody remembers that it’s all about Jesus and they started shouting – despite their differences – despite some being angels and some being lions and some being elders and some being many-eyed-flying-ox-like creatures. 

Then, I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. In a loud voice, they were saying: “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!"

But that’s not it. Because then, John prophesies about us. And he says this: 

Then, I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea and all that is in them saying – (and since you are one of those creatures – please, say it with me ) “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, forever and ever!” 

And the elders said “Amen!” 

And I say “Amen.” 

Amen. 

It happened. 

We were vacuuming up the dog hair (that gets all over your carpet when you have two dogs), when the vacuum stopped picking up the dog hair. It was just collecting it into a nice pile and not picking it up. 

Then, it made a loud noise. 
Then, it stopped making noise. 
It was dead. 

So, I went to the file folders that we have in our guest closet – and began looking for the warranty. Perhaps the company would fix it? Maybe they’d send a new one? Maybe we wouldn’t have to go out shopping? 

I read the warranty. 

Expired. About a month and a half ago. 

Ugh. 

Has something like that ever happened to you? Again – it’s not any good to never get coverage, yet it’s almost worse to have coverage and then lose coverage because the time has run out!  

But what about God’s grace? We learned last week that it completely covers even the worst of sinners…

But for how long? 
What are the terms? 
Will it cover you 10 years from now? 
Will it cover you 20 years from now?
Will it cover you…even after you die? 

Today we are continuing our sermon series called Surprising Grace. Our goal is to examine the duration of God’s grace. We want to see: (1) How long his grace lasts (2) How long its benefits last (3) If you need to go looking for a replacement coverage anytime soon. Before we do that, let’s say a prayer: O Lord, strengthen us by the truth; your Word is truth. Open our eyes to see what you want us to see. Open our ears to hear what you want us to hear. Open our hearts to believe what you would have us believe. Amen. 

I. The Duration of God’s Coverage 

To learn about the duration of God’s grace – we’re going to turn to a man who had been under God’s grace for quite some time: The Apostle John. John is interesting, because he is one of the first disciples to learn about God’s grace. He is one of the first disciples that Jesus recruits while John is busy fishing. John gets to follow Jesus and see his grace throughout his ministry on earth. He seems him graciously cause the blind to see, the lame to walk, to deaf to hear – and the guilty to hear about God’s forgiveness. 

It’s later on in life, after he’s known about God’s grace for years, that the Apostle John writes the letter known as 1 John. It’s a letter written to Christians everywhere and in chapter 2 he writes about the duration of God’s grace: 

Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the father, but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God the Father lives forever.  (v.15-17)

I suppose the biggest problem with believing the long-lasting endurance of God’s grace is that nothing on earth lasts for that long of a time. 

It’s true about neutral things. 
A tree may last hundreds of years but eventually it falls down. 
A flower may last for a season then winter comes and it dies. 
A bag of Doritos is delicious, but lasts all about 3 minutes. 

But it’s also true about sinful, worldly things. That’s essentially what John is referring to when he talks about the world and its desires in this section. “Things of the world” means “things born from the mind of the sinful world.” 

What’s interesting is that we turn to these things for relief – for comfort.

Things like: 
A momentary high from that illegal drug. 
A few hours of relaxation from drinking too much. 
A few minutes rush from screaming obscenities at your family. 
A few minutes rush from typing obscenities at that other political party on Twitter. 
A few moments of private excitement with that person you aren’t married to. 

These things offer moments of happiness…
…and a lifetime of regret. 

A headache that lasts all morning. 
An argument that lasts for hours.
An addiction that lasts for years.
A friendship spoiled for the rest of your life. 
A guilty feeling that stays with you whenever you look at your spouse – for the rest of your life. 

But should we be surprised? Look at where these highs are coming from. John writes, “These things do not come from the father, but from the world.” 

Do any of you remember Oakley sunglasses? They were all the rage growing up. They had awesome aviator shades. They had a deep jet black frame. They were very durable and very cool. 

But they also cost $250. 

So -- many kids got imitation Oakleys. The ones from Walmart for $15 bucks. Problem is? You could tell they were phony. You could tell they were fake when they came apart at the hinges the first time you dropped them. 

Should we be surprised that earthly things only last for a moment? They come from an earth that (in the grand scheme of eternity) will only last for a moment. 

But God’s grace isn’t like that. 
God’s grace isn’t from the world. 
God’s grace is from God. 

The world and its desires pass away, but the one who does the will of the Father lives forever. 

What’s the will of the Father? 

To believe in Jesus Christ. 
To put your faith in the one who died, hit his expiration date, and then came back to life again. 
To trust in the one who is indestructible, because his grace is indestructible – so that you too will be indestructible. 

John knew this. He had seen it happen. 

Lazarus was a friend of John’s. He was a friend of the entire family of disciples. He had sung hymns with them, said prayers with them, and told jokes with them. 
Lazarus was also human. 
Because he was a human he was susceptible to germs.
Because he was susceptible to germs, he got sick. 
Because he was sick, he grew weak. 
Because he grew weak, he started to die!

His body was from the earth which meant it was going to pass away. 

And it died. 

And he died.  

They wrapped his body up in linens. 
They placed him in a grave. 
His family mourned their loss. 

Then, Jesus came. 
And Jesus spoke. 
And Lazarus went right back to living. 

It’s interesting, right before that happens Jesus explains why. He says this, “I am the Resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me will live, even though he dies; whoever lives and believes in me will never die!” (John 11:25-26)

Why?
Because God’s grace comes from God. 
And God lasts forever. 
So, his grace – lasts forever! 

Another passage repeated throughout the old Testament says this, “Give thanks to the Lord for he is good and his love endures forever!” Of course it does! God is eternal. He isn’t on the timeline. He doesn’t have an end and set time. His grace doesn’t have an end time. “His love endures forever,” is a phrase that lasts “forever!”
 
And this is comforting. 

Because I heard about God’s grace a long time ago. I believed. God’s grace was mine.  
But here’s a secret: I’ve sinned since then. I’ve even sinned since we talked about it last week. 
Is God’s grace still enough? 

Think of a jump rope. Maybe about 12 feet long?  I want you to imagine for a minute that this jump rope covers all of eternity. That’s a long time. You and I exist on this tiny half centimeter right here. 
God’s grace lasts longer than you.
It lasts longer than me.  
What do you think? Can you outlast God’s grace? 

God’s grace is forever. 

But Pastor! People still die and miss out on God’s grace. 

You’re right. That’s hell. But the problem isn’t with God’s grace. It's with people. People who throw away God's’ grace because they figure they can last on their own that’s like throwing away your insurance plan because you think you don’t need it. The problem isn’t the insurance plan. It's you. 

And if you throw out God’s grace because you don’t think you need it anymore…The problem isn’t God’s grace. That’s on you. 

But John continues, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us all our sins.” Even if that sin has been going on for a while – for your whole life – listen to God’s Word right now. 

Repent. 
Believe.
And be confident. 

His grace is there. 
It’s forever. 

II. The Duration of God’s Blessings

And its blessings are forever. 

Take a look with me at a Bible book that was written even after 1 John. In fact, it’s the last book of the Bible to be written. It was written by the same John but at the end of his life. It’s a book called Revelation. It’s called Revelation because in the book, God gives John a revelation of what will happen in the future. Things that are easy for God to see, since He is beyond this whole timeline thing. 

He writes this about heaven: 

Believers are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat down on them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. 

And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. 

This is eternity. It mentions a few awesome things about the blessings that God has in store for us in heaven. Blessings that will endure forever: 

(1) God’s Presence

That’s the first thing that pops out. The people are serving God day and night. They are with him. He’s at the center of the throne. You always know that he’s there. 

Which isn’t always the case on earth. 
We get nervous. 
We get frightened. 
We think: God, you left me! I’m all alone.

That’s never the case in heaven. Not that God has left us on this earth, he’s always there; but that we don’t always believe it. In heaven, that doubt is gone and God’s presence is completely obvious in a new, incredible way – as we serve him day and night. 

(2) Joy

Which sounds like work – except – notice – God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. 

It isn’t sad in heaven. 

People don’t lose their jobs. 
Finances aren’t difficult. 
Friends don’t fight about politics. 
Kids don’t tell parents that they hate them. 
Parents don’t abandon kids. 
People don’t call each other awful, racist names. 

Why? 

Because they are too joyful! 

In fact, right before this section John writes down what those believers in heaven are saying. It’s isn’t complaining. It isn’t fighting. It isn’t arguing about who should get to take a break. It’s this: “Honor and glory and praise and thank be to our God and to the Lamb forever and ever! Amen!”

(3) Painlessness

Do you have arthritis? Arthritis is something that kinda sorta can get the best of you. It’s this dull, achy, constant pain that affects your joints. So…how do you handle it? You take a pill. You have an Advil and water and you’re pain free! For about 4 hours. Then, you better take another pill before the pain comes back. And at the very best you can fall asleep and escape pain for 6 hours! Until it’s time to wake up and then the pain is even worse because the joint has been stiff all night long. 

Heaven is final relief. 
God’s grace brings forever relief. Revelation said, The sun won’t beat down on them nor any scorching heat. It won’t hurt. There won’t be any sunburn in heaven. That’s because there is no pain in heaven and that will last forever!

Think about it: 
No hangnails ever. 
No headaches ever.
No scraped knees ever.
No allergies ever. 
No cancer ever. 
No getting old…ever.
No dying…ever.

(4) Life

And no death. 

John writes, “The Lamb will lead them…to springs of living water.” Springs that give eternal life. Springs that outlast death. Springs that allow us to say “that person is in a better place.” 

Which is key. 

Because death stinks. 

This past Friday I went to Elmcroft Retirement home. It’s a place where I go to do a Bible study. I’ve been doing it for the past five and half years. And just about every one of those last five and a half years – an older woman by the name of Ms. Fannie has been there. It hurt her to get there. She had pain in her knees and she had struggles seeing. But she’d always be there. 

Until this past Friday. 
Because she couldn’t. 
Because she passed away. 

And it hurt. I was sad. This dear friend of mine had passed so quickly, so effortlessly, and life just moved on. 

But then…I got to thinking – that’s why she always made sure she was there for Bible study. Because Ms. Fannie knew that life was short. Because Ms. Fannie knew that arthritis was temporary. Because Ms. Fannie knew that her momentary pain was just that – momentary. 

And that Bible study? It contained the only thing that lasts: 

God’s grace. 

Brothers and sisters, may we have that same attitude and do everything to hold until the truth that lasts forever. Amen.

Can you imagine going to the doctors and finding out that you aren’t covered?
And that they can’t remove the cancer?
Can you imagine standing before God and finding out that you aren’t covered?

That your sins are still there.
That your guilt is still there. 
That the guilt you feel from that big ol’ sin, that bogs you down, day after day will be with you forever. 
That you won’t be getting eternal life, but…

Today we are continuing our sermon series called Surprising Grace. Our goal is to look at the case study of the Apostle Paul and see why he was so sure that he was covered and to gain confidence that we are also covered. I want you to leave here today confident that you’re covered in God’s grace. But in order to do that, we’re going to need to hear God’s Word. Let’s say a prayer: O Lord, strengthen us by the truth; your Word is truth. Open our eyes to see what you want us to see. Open our ears to hear what you want us to hear. Open our hearts to believe what you would have us believe. Amen. 

I. A Case Study: Paul 

To learn about just who it is that God’s grace covers, we’re going to head to 1 Timothy 1. 1 Timothy is a letter written by one of Jesus’ disciples. His name was Paul. The Apostle Paul. Maybe you’ve heard of him? In fact, he’s probably one of the top 5 -- outside of Jesus -- famous people me in the Bible. Moses, David, Mary, Peter and Paul. 

Paul is kind of a man’s man of Christianity. He always puts me to shame when I read about how he preached God’s message to an angry group of men that told him to stop or they would kill him. Paul went on a missionary journey by foot, traveled hundreds of miles, started about 10 churches, and then returned home to grab a Pop Tart, take a shower, and head on another missionary journey. 

Paul went on 4 missionary journeys. 
He started over 20 churches. 
He wrote 13 books of the Bible. 

It’s why we shouldn’t be surprised to find out that Paul is covered: I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me trustworthy, appointing me to his service. (v.12)

Paul’s a part of God’s service. 
No one is a part of God’s service that isn’t covered in his salvation plan. 
Paul is covered in God’s salvation plan. 

And that’s probably not all that encouraging. 

Paul is a answer to Bible trivia.
Paul has had churches named after him.
Paul has had hundreds of thousands of sermons preached about him.
Of course, he’s getting covered!

That’d be like an insurance company saying, “Don’t worry. We’ll cover you. Look over there? Do you see that insanely in shape 22-year-old? The one with the bulging biceps, no history of heart problems, and the lesson than 2% body fat? He’s covered. No worries.” 

But I do worry. Cause I’m not in that kind of shape. 
And I’m not in the kind of spiritual shape that Paul was in. You?

But that’s not entirely accurate. There’s more to Paul’s story than the famous Apostle portion of his story. Check out verse 13. “I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man….” 

Do you know the first time Paul shows up in the Bible? He actually has a different name. It’s like a superhero. He’s not originally known as the Batman, but billionaire Bruce Wayne. And Paul is not originally known as the incredible Apostle Paul, but lowly, mild-mannered Saul. 

In fact, Saul was kind of an apprentice. But he didn’t work for the Daily Planet or work as a lab technician in a government factory. 

He worked for the Pharisees. 
The very people that hated Jesus. 
The very people who spearheaded the movement to kill Jesus. 

In fact, when we first see Saul it’s in Acts 7. Saul is on the job helping the Pharisees stop the message of Jesus as the Savior of the world. 
How are they doing it? 

They aren’t blogging against it. 
They aren’t writing articles against it.
They aren’t even spray painting the disciple’s headquarters. 

They were throwing stones at one of Jesus’ followers. 
One by one. 
Until he was dead. 

57 At Stephen’s confession that Jesus was the Savior, the Pharisees covered their ears and yelling at the top of their voices,they all rushed at him, dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named – Saul.

“Nice shot sir. Hit that no good Jesus-lover in the throat.”
“Well, don’t guys. I love how he’s moaning for mercy.”
“Oh look out…you got a bit of blood on your coat. No worries. I’ll wash it out. You just keep killing.”

That’s the same guy from 1 Timothy?

I haven’t even finished yet. Because if you read on, the scriptures say that Saul was really moved by this gang murder. So much so that he spearheaded the movement to put an end to Christianity. In chapter 8, it says, he persecuted the church in Jerusalem and began to destroy the church…Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison…And in chapter 9 -- He was breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples.

Yes. This same guy. This same guy writes this in 1 Timothy 1:13 “Though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy…because I acted in ignorance and unbelief."

Which is such a strange reason for mercy. Because usually ignorance and unbelief do not lead to mercy. 
Sorry officer I didn’t know that I was going 30 mph over the speed limit. 
Sorry, officer. I saw the stop sign; I just didn’t believe that I needed to stop. No worries, right? 

That’s not how it works. Ignorance and unbelief do not result in good things!
Ignorance and unbelief do NOT earn God’s mercy. 
Sin deserves death. 
Saul deserved death. 

But he didn’t get death. Because of God’s mercy. 

In fact, it had to be about God’s mercy. Just like we talked about last week. No one can earn God’s grace – God’s grace is a free gift to be given. Jesus came to Saul – literally when he was on the road to go throw more Christian men and women and children into jail, literally when he was about to take a sledge hammer to whatever house churches he could find – literally when he was going to post signs everywhere stated that “Any man or woman found practicing Christianity would be put to death,” 

Jesus appeared. 
Jesus rebuked. 
Jesus had mercy. 

And it covered Saul! Not because his sins weren’t too bad. (we just heard – they were really bad!) God’s mercy covered Saul because God’s mercy was more than enough. (v.14) The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. 
 
It’s kind of like filling up a tea pot. Any of you have a teapot? I have a teapot that I use for coffee. But if you’re like me, I put it under the sink and let it start filling up --- then I go do something. I comb my hair. I brush my teeth. I pet the dogs. I read an article in Time magazine. I get distracted by a Facebook post. I put on my shoes. I get ready to leave and then I hear it! 

The teapot!

I run back to the sink and find the teapot overflowing. And since the teapot is sitting over the drain, the teapot looks like it is soaking in a hot tub of water. There’s an abundant, overflowing amount.

That’s God’s grace. It overflowed to Saul. It overflowed so much that his past was completely washed away from God’s sight. It even washed away his old identity. He was no longer – Saul the blasphemer, but Paul the believer. He was no longer Saul the persecutor, but Paul the Apostle. He was no longer Saul the violent, but Paul – whom Christ suffered violently for. 

Paul was completely covered by God’s grace. 

II. A Case Study of You 

And that’s awesome. Because it means something really, awesome for you. 

And I don’t know how you take notes. But when you take notes and it’s an important point, you might do something to draw your attention to it. You might put an ink star. You might underline it. You might highlight it. You might highlight, underline and star it. You might put a bookmark in the Bible. You might make an audio recording of it. You might do something – anything to let you know about the note!

In the next verse, Paul has such an important note for you that he even takes the liberty of drawing attention to it for you. He says, in verse 15, “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance…” That means: “LISTEN! PAY ATTENTION! IF YOU HAVEN’T BEEN PAYING ATTENTION TO ANY OTHER PART OF THIS SERMON, YOU NEED TO PAY ATTENTION NOW!” 

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the worst!

This is so interesting, because usually the Bible puts us on equal footing. It says – “All have sinned and fall short and all are justified freely by Jesus.” (Romans 3:23) All are on the same playing field. That’s still true. 

But humanly speaking we do put levels on sins.
“I didn’t really commit adultery – I didn’t have complete intercourse.” 
“I’m not as bad as that guy because I wasn’t a knock out drunk.”

Paul knows the human heart. God knows the human heart. God has Paul write on that level of human wisdom. He says, “16 For that very reason, I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life.”

He says, “Do you really think you’re so bad that Jesus couldn’t save you? Do you really think you’ve done too much bad that Jesus’ forgiveness couldn’t cover you? Well. Let me ask you this: 

Have you ever killed anyone for telling an elderly widow about Jesus?
Have you ever gone to church in order to tackle the pastor, handcuff him, and throw him into jail?
Have you ever taken a sledge hammer to the foundation of a church? 
Have you ever sent email after email after email to a Christian friend – telling them they were the most vile person on earth and if they didn’t stop, you’d kill them!?!

Paul did. 
God still had enough grace to cover him. 

Paul was that bad. 
But Jesus’ salvation was that good. 

If God did that for Paul, won’t he do that for you? 

In fact – that’s why Jesus came into the world: To save sinners! If you’re a sinner, Jesus came to die for you. He came to provide complete coverage for every last one of your sins. He came to completely cover you in his blood and conceal you in his pure and sweet forgiveness. 

This is true for you. 
No matter the sin. 

Struggle with lust? Jesus came for you.  
Struggle with hatred? Jesus came for you. 
Struggle with greed? Jesus came for you. 
Done something to get you in jail? Jesus came for you. 
Done something to ruin your marriage? Jesus came for you. 
Done something to ruin your relationship with your children? Jesus came for you. 

If you’ve done something or anything sinful, Jesus came into this world to save you. 

And? He did. 

He lived perfectly.
He died innocently.
He rose triumphantly. 

Jesus came into this world to save sinners – Jesus came into this world to save you!

Which means…You are fully covered. 

III. What Now? 

1) Revel in your New Identity

That’s what Paul did. He didn’t stay in the realm of “Woe is me! I’ve done so much wrong. I’m the worst of sinners.” He didn’t see himself like that because God didn’t see himself like that. In fact, the only reason he ever talked about it was to help others understand how incredible God’s grace was and is. 

It’s like Halloween. At Halloween, you may have put on a mask. You may have been someone else. For the rest of the night – depending on how good you are at playing the part – you became a Dr. Who, Doc McStuffins or a Pokemon! 

In fact, I came across one little kid who was doing an awesome job with his costume. He was pretending to be a ninja. He was such a good ninja. He was always tip toeing. He tried to sneak up on me a few times. He talked in a whisper.  And when his mom came calling him to get him into the car, he was so into his character that he forgot about who he really was. He hid!

Understand this: Paul is not advocating that you play a character. He advocates that you revel in who you really are. 

Forgiven.
Covered.
Child of God!

2) Honor the King!

Because there’s no reason to feel sorry anymore! We are forgiven. We are given grace. We are a part of his kingdom!

Praise God! 

That’s exactly how Paul closes that section…which is so interesting, because it’s not even the end of his letter. He’s still at the beginning. But he can’t mention God’s incredible grace without breaking into praise. He says, “Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen!”

Make that your refrain.

Instead of posting on Facebook about how bad you’ve got it; post about the awesome you’ve got it in God. 
Instead of getting to work to complain about the unfortunate consequences of sin; get to work tell others about the awesome consequences of God’s grace. 
Instead of avoiding God in fear; come, worship Him – because his grace had completely covered you!

CONCLUSION: 

Today is Last Judgment Sunday. A day that we remember what’s coming up. A day when the Bible reminds us that one Day, Our King, Our Immortal, Incredible, Divine, earth shaking, mountain quaking, flood pouring, lightning storing God comes to earth and judges us.

Each of us. 
Me. 
You.

And without coverage – that’s a terrifying thing. 

But you have been covered. 
You are covered.
By faith in Jesus, you will be covered. 

Your words to him will not be – Please don’t! But filled with praise “To the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever!” (v.17)

Amen. 

It was Halloween about 25 years ago. I was dressed up as a fisherman. I had on my dad’s vest. I had my dad’s fisherman’s hat. I had my bright green, Oscar the Grouch fishing pole with a bright red and yellow bobber. I was carrying a mini-bucket in order to collect my candy. 

It was going as expected. I went up to a house. I knocked on the door. I said, “Trick or treat.” I got a Tootsie Roll and moved on. 

But then, we approached a house that was different. The candy was located outside. It was being held by a giant mannequin in a grey snowsuit with a hockey mask on. There was a sign attached to his suit that said, “Have one.” 

I thought – “This is unexpected. It’s a little different. But it’s easier. I’ll be saving myself about 15 steps all the way to the front of the door and the awkward fifteen seconds waiting to see if anyone came. If more people did this, I could get more bang for my buck, save time and get more candy.” This is a nice surprise!

Then, I walked up to the mannequin. I reached out my hand. I grabbed a Butterfinger. And…

 YAAHHH!!!

The mannequin reached out and grabbed my hand. I turned tailed, dropped the Butterfinger and ran as fast as my little Cabella boots could take me. 

That was a scary surprise. 

Today we are starting our sermon series it’s all about surprises. It’s called Surprising Grace. Our goal is to examine God’s grace through the lens of God’s Word and learn some surprising truths about His Grace. Some terrifying. Some wonderful. Before we take a look at some of the first surprises in God’s Word. Let’s say a prayer: O Lord, strengthen us by the truth; your Word is truth. Open our eyes to see what you want us to see. Open our ears to hear what you want us to hear. Open our hearts to believe what you would have us believe. Amen. 

I. A Scary Price 

Today we want to start our series by talking cost. (I know that sounds like a political ad), but I think it’s real important to talk cost when you’re talking about buying anything. 

If you’re buying a home, you want to talk cost. Sure, you look at the floorplan, the rooms, the updated hardwood, the open concept living room, the backyard, and the location. But you’ve also got to talk cost. What’s the down payment? What’s the homeowner’s insurance? What’s the tax value? How much will renovations cost? Can you get the NC State Wolfpack washer and dryer set for free or not? 

It’s the same with God’s grace. It’s filled with value. In God’s grace, we get forgiveness of sins, peace with God, the promise of heaven, a joy filled heart, the assurance that we are God’s children and a beautiful connection with people of all races, ages, and social status. 

Those are some pretty awesome things. Those pretty, divinely, awesome things. 

As your grandpa would say, “Sounds expensive.” 

But God doesn’t deal in dollars and cents. That’s physical. 

He deals in righteousness and perfection. That’s divine. In fact, God puts this rather simple yet expensive cost on His eternal and divine gifts – his Grace.  The price tag is found in Leviticus 4:2: 

Be holy as I the Lord you God am holy. 

Holy seems like a key word then. Holy is what you’re going to need to get to heaven. Holy is what your gonna need to have peace with God. 

What’s holy mean then? 
Does that mean you go to church a lot? 
Does it mean that you wear nice clothes to church?
Does it mean that you have a nice, holy, smile on all the time? 

Nope. Holy means “without sin.” It means “without defects.” It means “without sin.” 

Jesus helps us out with this when he quotes this passage and uses a Greek word that means “perfect” to translate “holy.” He says, “Be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect.”

So are you perfect? You’re going to need to be perfect to get to heaven. 

Understand this. You can’t trick God. You can’t convince him that you're trying hard and doing your best and your good intentions are perfection. God knows a bogus holy payment when he sees it. That’d be like trying to take some Monopoly money to buy a house. It won’t work. 

Let’s be real: What do you have lying around? What is in your spiritual piggy bank? I imagine it’s a lot like mine. I don’t have any perfection. I have imperfection. 

I have a thing called Sin.     

The Bible says this, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) 

The word for sin there is interesting. The Bible was written in Greek and the Greek word translated sin here is one of the most popular words for sin in the New Testament. It’s hamartia.  Hamartia means to miss the mark or to be off target. 

It’s like darts. Ever played darts?  Your goal is to aim your dart and try to throw it onto the bullseye…or at least somewhere on the board. If you miss, you don’t score any points. If you miss the board entirely, you are a laughingstock to your friends.

That’s sin. God has given us a benchmark for our lives. He says, “Don’t lust. Don’t hate. Don’t be a jerk. Be king. Be loving. Help others.”

When we don’t do that, when we sin…it’s like we’re taking a dart, aiming carefully, and hitting the drywall about 3 feet to the left of the dartboard. 

Now a bargaining man might ask – What’s my sin worth? I might not be able to get all of it, but how much of God’s grace can I get by offering him my sin? 

Ever heard of Kelley’s Blue Book? It’s a place online where you type in your car make, model, and year. You let them know what condition it’s in. You tell them if has a Smartphone port, a CD play or a (gasp) tape deck. You let them know if you have made any upgrade and whether or not those stains from that time your kid spilled red Kool Aid on the back seat are permanent. You enter in all that information and the website provides you with the appropriate value of your car. 

Sin doesn’t work like that. You can’t type in the amount of sin, type of sin, year of sin and expect a price that it’s worth to come back to you. 
Kelley’s Blue book for sin is called the Bible. 
And the Bible places the same value on sin regardless of size, shape, and variety. 

Romans 6:23: The wages of sin is death.  

Let’s break that passages apart. First, zero in on the word wages. That means the payment. It’s a word that’s used to described what you get paid for raking the leaves – what you get paid for crafting a cabinet – what you get paid for working 40 hours a week at your job. A wage is what you get paid for what you do. It’s what you earn. 

What is sin worth? What do we get paid? 

Death. 

Pay careful attention to that. Because the wages of sin is NOT a $20 offering. The wages of sin is NOT saying the Lord’s Prayer 10 times. The wages of sin is not 15 good deeds. It’s not 10 hail Mary’s. It’s not trying, really, really, really, hard for the next couple of weeks. 

The wages of sin is death. 

And it doesn’t matter what kind of sin it is. 

Theft? Death.
Violence? Death.
Adultery? Death. 
Racism? Death.
Hatred? Death.
Stealing a pencil from work? Death.
Calling your husband a loser? Death.
Not holding the door for the guy behind you because you don’t feel like it? Death. 
Taking a second glance at the secretary who is not your wife, but is looking real good today? Death. 
Checking your phone at church to see if your Fantasy team is set for today, because that’s more exciting to you than singing God’s praises? Death. 

It’s all the same and it’s all worth the same. Death. 

And notice this – Each sin is worth one death. One sin costs one death. Two sins cost two deaths. Seventeen sins costs seventeen deaths. One hundred-forty seven sins costs one hundred forty seven deaths. If you’re like me (and you are) then you have so many sins that you can’t even count. 

An infinite amount.
An eternal amount.
Payable with eternal death. 

Can you imagine your bill? Can you imagine how impossible this is? Because sin is all we’ve got. A piggy bank filled with sin. A bank account bulging with imperfect. A fully funded H.S.A. of death. This means that the surprising and terrifying truth about God’s grace is this:

You can’t pay for God’s grace.  

You haven’t in the past. You can’t right now. You will never be able to in the future. 

You can’t pay for God’s grace. 

II. An Incredible Gift 

But…

That’s a keyword in Romans 6:23. “But.” It means there is more to come. It means the thought is going to change. It means there is a solution. It means there is someone who can help us. It means keep reading…

The wages of sin is death, BUT the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. 

Do you know what a Shopkin is? It’s these little plastic appliance action figures that kids love.  

But here’s the deal – They cost a bit of money. And if, like any good Shopkins collector, your kid wants them all – they are going to have to turn to you for help. Mommy, can you buy this? Daddy, I don’t have the money? 

Of course, the same thing is true when you’re an adult. You ask someone with the money to help you pay for something you don’t have the payment for.

Mom, help me with this car payment? 
Dad, can you give me money for the new TV? 
Credit card company, can you help me get these things that I don’t need? 

It’s the same thing with all of God’s heavenly blessings.
We can’t pay for it for us.
We need someone to pay hundreds of thousands of deaths for us. 
Someone who doesn’t have his own sins to pay for.
Someone who has an infinite life funding his death. 
Someone like Jesus. 

The gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus.

That’s why he died! Jesus didn’t die because he owed God a death for his own sins. The Bible calls him perfect. The Bible calls him without sin. 

Jesus didn’t die for his sins, but for your sins. Jesus died because you owed God a death for your sins. 
That’s why he went through a horrific and terrifying, Halloween-esque death on the cross. It’s why he bled and hung with nails in his hands and through his feet. It’s why a crown of thorns was pressed into his skull. It’s why his lungs slowly stopped breathing.

Jesus was paying for sin. He was earning God’s grace. Jesus was buying your way to heaven. And his death was more than your average human death. It isn’t like he just died for one of your sins. He was the Son of God. He was the Divine Lord of heaven and earth himself. His death is worth a lot more than a normal human death. He’s got God blood. It paid for your first sin, your last sin, and the hundreds of thousands of sins in between. His death paid for your sin and your sin and your sin and your sin and your sin. 

Want proof? Jesus came back to life! If he hadn’t paid for your sins, then, he would still be dead – still dying – still paying….like a Credit Card debt with interest that just keeps multiplying, he would have stayed dead. 

But he didn’t stay dead. Three days later, he rose. That cross is empty!

This means that Jesus did paid for your sins. 
He paid for all your sins.
He paid for every, last one of your sins. 
Jesus paid the steep price for God’s grace.

Our first truth was terrifying. You cannot pay for God’s grace. But here’s something amazing. God’s grace is already paid for which means -

God’s grace is free. That’s what our passages says, “The gift of God is eternal life.” If it’s a gift, that means it doesn’t cost anything. 

Think about your grandma. Maybe she has made you a nice sweater before or crocheted you a blanket or a pair of socks. If you open up your gift and look at the socks, and say “Thank You” and her response is, “That’ll be $42.50.” IT’S NOT A GIFT! It’s a wage. 

God doesn’t do that. God paid for it all. The gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. 

The gift of God.
Is.
Free.

That’s exactly what God gives you in Jesus. 
He gives you forgiveness. 
He gives you peace. 
He gives you heaven. 

III. What Now? 

1) Stop Trying to Pay for the Gift!

Because it’s really quite rude. God bought you the gift. God paid for it all. God brings it to you in His Word. 

And we say, “Nah, God. I think I’d rather try to pay for it by myself. I don’t trust your money. I don’t trust it’ll be enough.” 

We’re the ones who don’t have enough. God is the only one who does. Stop trying to pay for God’s grace and simply rejoice in it!

There’s a change in the way you live your life. The burden is gone. There is no eternal debt over your head. You don’t have to sit there each day thinking, “I gotta be good. I gotta be good. I gotta be good. I gotta be…ahhh! I missed a chance to be good because I was too busy trying to remember to be good! That’s selfish. It’s another sin. Now I’ve got even more good to be doing!” 

That’s foolish. It’s impossible. 

It’d be like throwing away an all-expense paid gift card to Applebee’s. Racking up a $780-dollar bill on ½ price apps. But then, doubting that the gift card will work. Throwing it into the garbage and trying to pay with what’s in your wallet. 

NOTHING.

If you do that, you’re in trouble.
And if don’t trust Jesus, you will be in trouble. 

2) Have Faith in Jesus. 

But God is God.
God doesn’t lie. 
He doesn’t change his mind on payment.
He doesn’t offer incomplete gifts. 

He says, For God so loved the world that he gave His One and Only Son – that’s Jesus – that whoever believes in Him – and what he did! That he lived perfectly, died innocently, and rose triumphantly to pay every last bit of God’s grace for you – shall not perish, but have eternal life.

If you trust him, God’s grace is yours. As expensive as it is, as impossible as it is for you to earn – it is yours.

That’s life changing. 

A while back I met a woman at the hospital. Maria. I stumbled into her on an elevator and we exchanged pleasantries. 

How are you?
I’m fine; how are you?
How was the person that you came to see? 
What treatment did the doctor’s recommend? 

And so on…

I said to her before I left, “May God bless you and your family with healing.” I meant it to be nice – but she began to frown.

“God couldn’t be nice to me. I don’t deserve it.”

I stopped her. I asked her to explain. We sat down and I listened. 

About how God couldn’t love her. 
About how God had seen her do awful sins. 
About how God had seen her do drugs and sleep around and cheat on her husband and even…try to take her own life.
She knew it was wrong. Oh, she knew it was wrong. She understood sin. 
Because of it, she couldn’t ever earn God’s blessing.

She couldn’t earn his grace. 

And I looked into her eyes. I looked past the tears. I smiled and said, 

“You’re right. You can’t….But Jesus can.”

The wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. Amen. 

Just a few nights ago, the youth group from New Ulm was at our house with Pirates of the Caribbean on Netflix. I was sitting on the couch mildly watching Johnny Depp swing his sword around Orlando Bloom when I got a text message on my phone. It was from my wife – who was sitting about three people away. A few moments later I got a message from Mr. Steenbock, the youth leader – who was a bit farther away -- on a chair by our dining room table. In fact, throughout the night I got a few Facebook messages --- four email updates --- a comment on Instagram and even an attempted Skype chat.

Wow. We are connected. If you want to get ahold of someone nowadays, you can try Twitter, Facebook, Messenger, Snapchat, Instagram, Text Message, Email, Skype --- and even this crazy, old fashioned thing called a telephone. Have you heard of it?

Yet. In spite of how connected we are, Americans have trouble connecting.

You can misread tone in an email and get real upset at a your spouse who was sending you a lighthearted joke.
You can send an angry emoticon on accident to your child and he will respond with a very real, on purpose, emoji of an angry cat.
You can turn on the CAPS LOCK to get your point across and dampen your relationship with your sibling, because “WHY ARE YOU YELLING?”

The truth is that in spite of the new ways to connect – we still need to approach communication in the same way God commanded us to approach old fashioned, face-to-face conversation.

What is that command? Today we’re going to continue our Family Matters series on Communication by looking at what exactly God’s Word has to communicate to us about communication.

I. The Sinful Truth Behind BAD Communication 

Take a look at Luke 6:28-29. These are the words of Jesus himself. He said, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. 29 If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. 30 Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. 31 Do to others as you would have them do to you.”

That’s an awesome amount of love. Notice who it’s for. Do this for your enemies. Enemy means someone who hates you. Someone who’s against you. Someone who treats you really, really poorly. Someone who calls you “jerkface.” Someone who takes your toys away from you. Someone who spends the last of your budgeted money on something that you didn’t want to spend money on. Someone who yells at you, fights with you, and leaves you in tears.

Someone who might be in your family.

Isn’t that a sad truth? Yet it shouldn’t surprise us. After all, we are all sinners. We sin daily. We often sin much against those who are in close proximity.

It’s kinda like a sprinkler. It’s hot out now, so you might set up the sprinkler. But if you are mom or dad and cold, cold water doesn’t sound like something you want to get on your nice “hangout” clothes --- just set up shop outside the vicinity of the sprinklers’ range. Everything in range will get soaked. But you’ll be fine.

Unfortunately, its impossible for families to set up shop outside the radius of our own sin. The fact of the matter is that we will naturally get hit by our families over and over and over again.  There’s no one you will sin against more than your own family – simply because you spend the most amount of time with your own family.

So how do you react? Jesus says, “With love. Treat them how you want to be treated.”  

But our actions seemed to indicate that we have misread his words.

Our version is something more like this:

"Hold grudges against your enemies, say hateful things about those who hate you, 28 curse those who curse you, complain to your friends about your family who mistreats you. 29 If your brothers slaps you on one cheek, slap him back harder. If your sisters takes your coat (without asking first), tell her that she’s a “Brat.” Tell your children who asks you for something to “get a job – this is my money,” but if your wife takes the money that belongs to you, angrily demand it back! 31 Do to others as they have done to you.”

This is exactly what Esau did. Remember him from our Old Testament lesson? He had been looking forward for years to receive a special blessing from his father. He had been looking forward to the “birthright” which allow him special blessings as the first born son. When his father finally told him it was time for the ceremony, he went off into the woods to hunt for a delicious venison meal and spend some sentimental, quality time with his father.

When he came back after waiting in his tree stand, after quivering with excitement for this long awaited moment, after skinning the animal, preparing the meat and dreaming about the success that was due him, he found out that his brother had stolen it. Jacob had dressed up as Esau – taken advantage of his father – and stolen what was rightfully his!

Esau was ticked.

Verse 41 says that Esau held a grudge against Jacob. In fact, he immediately began denouncing his brother and decided the only action he could take wasn’t carefully, calmly expressing his pleasure. Esau didn’t write out a long letter venting his frustrations. He didn’t pray to God for help.

He threatened to murder him.  “I’m doing to Jacob what he did to me.”

But that’s wrong.  That is not how God wants us to communicate. Godly communication isn't selfish. 
Godly communication is selfless.

II. Godly Communication
 
Look at Luke 6 again. It says, “Love your enemies.” Do you realize who is saying that? It’s Jesus Christ. He absolutely had enemies. The religious leaders of his day were so angry with him for calling them sinners and so jealous of him for all of the crowd following him that they planned on killing him. They arrested him. They threw him in prison. They told lies about him. They spoke badly about him. They convicted him of false wrong doing. They shouted – “Crucify him – Nail his body, hand and foot, to this big old piece of wood and let him hang there until he dies!” They ridiculed and mocked him – “You say that you’re the Son of God! I don’t know any Son of God that would hang up on a cross and die. You worthless worm – you disgust us!”

And Jesus’ response?

Nothing. 

He spoke no ill will.
He didn’t curse them.
He didn’t even call them jerks!

He blessed them with final words of the Gospel. He prayed to the Father for their forgiveness. He turned his other cheek – and his other hand – and his other foot. He let them take his clothes. He gave them his blood and sweat and tears. He did to them, not like they did to him, but completely unlike how they treated him. 

That’s God’s love. That’s selfless communication.

In fact, Psalm 103:10 says, “He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities...For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love.” He doesn’t speak as you deserve nor as you have spoken about him. He speaks to you with love.

He could call you sinner – instead he calls you forgiven.
He could call you enemy – instead he calls you friend.
He could call you brat – instead he calls you his child.
He could call you disgusting – instead he calls you righteous.
He could ignore you (just like we’ve done to him) – instead he is attentive to your every prayer.
He could shout at your to get far away from him and never return – instead he promises a home in heaven to which he will bring you when He does return.

This means that if you have been a poor, ungodly communicator in the past -- God has heard your cry for mercy. He sent his Son Jesus that you would be forgiven. By hearing that message and confessing your faith in it -- you are forgiven. 

III. WHAT NOW?

Therefore, let’s learn from Jesus. May his love be a motivation and a guide for our communication in our families. A few quick notes from God’s Word:

1. Listen as You Want to be Listened to

It’s the last verse in the section we’ve been looking at and it summarizes the main point of that section. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Part of doing is listening. When it comes to communication, listen to others as you would have them listen to you. Because when you don’t listen, no one gets listened to.

One spouse says, “You spent $100 at Whole Foods on like, 11 items?”
The other spouse says, “Do you think I want to waste our money? I can’t believe you are so stingy.”
The original spouse says, “I didn’t say you were a money waster. Stop calling me a jerk. ”
The other spouse says, “I didn’t call you jerk. Stop calling me a name caller.”

And the rubber keeps bouncing back and forth, more and more quickly with each non-listening jab.

So try this: worry less about having others listen to you and worry more about how well you are listening to others. Be quiet. Listen. Repeat what they said. Ask questions about what they said. Learn about their fears, emotions, and anxieties, because then, you’ll know how to address them.

That’s exactly what God did. He heard your cry into eternity – “Lord, help me from my sins and my guilt.” God gave you exactly what you needed – a Savior, Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for all of your sins.

(2) Build Up.

Ephesians 4:29 says this, Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building each other up.

Imagine that you bought a bookshelf at Walmart. It came in pieces and needed to be put together. Dad was going along and put in screw after screw after screw to hold it together. How helpful would it be to go behind him with your own screwdriver loosening and taking out every screw that he put in?

It wouldn’t be. That’s destructive.  

It’s the same thing with our words. They can easily destroy – a wife’s confidence, a husband’s character, a brother’s good nature, a sister’s self-worth.

Stop destroying and start building. Look for ways this week to build up each member of your family.Go out of your way to tell them that you’re proud of them, to tell them that you think they’re beautiful, to tell them that you are praying for them. If you do that, you’re building. You’re building up and building up and building up with God’s help. There’s no telling how high it’ll go!

(3) Season with Salt

Colossians 4:6 says, “Fill you speech with grace, season it with salt.” Salt is important. It improves the taste of bland casserole. It makes brussel sprouts tolerable. It is the incredible key in making Doritos so awesome.

Grace is like salt. Phrases like “I love you,” “I forgive you” and “thank you” make any kind of message that much sweeter! It’s Politeness 101.

Use these words. Too often we leave that grace salt on the shelf and sprinkle those spicy four letter words into the conversation. Or we grab a pinch of pure insults and drop them in to get our way.  

But you don’t need those things. You are God’s child! You are a part of the salt of the earth; let your language reflect it. Sprinkle words of grace into your conversation.

(4) Ask for God’s Help

Scripture talks about how the tongue is THE most powerful weapon of the body. Sticks and stones can break my bones, but names will never hurt me – is not remotely true at all. It can greatly harm someone.

So just like if you are picking up a samurai blade to slice off a piece of cheese, be very careful with what you say – you can easily do much more harm than good. Look at Psalm 103:4 it says, “Set a guard over my mouth; keep watch over my lips.”

We need God’s help. We need his help to muzzle our tongues from destructive talk and seasoning. Communicating our desire for his help will undoubtedly result in him sending his angels to guard our tongue -- and keep it safe from itself.

CONCLUSION:

Can you imagine what it would be like to get stuck in the desert? (I know it's been hot in Raleigh, but at least the humidity means there's plenty of water in each faucet). If you were stuck in the desert, you'd start to fade. Your energy would evaporate. Your nutrients would disappear. All of your energy would be zapped. Even a glass of water would be a welcome sight!

Life can be kind of like a desert. Dealing with day to day stresses, disappointments, and struggles at work. You can be zapped of strength and out of energy. How do you deal?

Proverbs 10:20 says "The tongue of the righteous is a fountain of life." 

Wouldn't it be nice if your family was a fountain of life?
A place where you get re-energized? 
A spot where the words reinvigorate your soul? 
The go-to area to receive the Word of Life itself and strengthen your faith in the LORD? 

Be that fountain of life for your family. 
Be strengthened by The Fountain of Life Himself. 

​Amen.

Families.

The people who are always there for you. The people who always support you. The people who guide you, love you, and deal with you even when you’re not at your greatest.

The people who every once in awhile can get a bit annoying. The people who grab your toothbrush, use it, and don’t even know it enough to dry it off and hide the evidence. The people who don’t show up at the piano recital, just like they do at all piano recitals, when they said that this time would be different and they were really going to be at the piano recital. The people who whine and complain that they don’t have the iPhone and when you finally buy them the new iPhone they whine and complain that it isn’t the NEW, new iPhone. The people who, when you sit down with a beer and some chips to watch the recording of the NASCAR race, feign innocence when the only available recorded shows are the last three episode of The Bachelorette!

Yes, family .The people who are always there for you which means they’re always there.

It’s amazing how when you talk to different people, you will get a lot of different thoughts about family. Some like it. Some hate it. The distinct difference is most likely related to their own family dynamic – growing up or currently. 

Who’s right? Is family good? Is family  bad? Is it just sometimes ok, but mostly annoying? 

This morning we are starting a sermon series all about family. We’re going to take a look at what it takes to have a happy, blessed family in this modern era.  In order to get to that, we need to see what God has to say about it. He is the one who invited family. But before we listen to God’s principles of family life, we need to first understand where God is coming from. We need to understand God’s Family Dynamic.  

I. God Loves A United Family
 
Take a look at Luke 15 beginning at verse 11. This is a section where Jesus tells a quick story to give us a glimpse into the kingdom of God. Kingdom of God is a phrase that Jesus uses interchangeably to talk about his family. In this parable, Jesus wants us to understand what it’s like to be a part of the family of God.

Jesus said this, “A man had two sons” For years, they were a happy family. Dad owned a big farm that made them a lot of money. Every night they had home cooked meals. Dad wrestled with them after dinner. He loved giving them both noogies after lunch. They took turns grabbing his nose and hiding it from him. He paid for them to try out soccer, then karate, then baseball, and even Harry Potter camp. He tucked them in for bed, read them a Bible story, and prayed for God their souls to keep.

Then, they got older. As they got older, the younger son grew restless. He wanted to live out there in the world. He wanted to be to the places he had seen on the TV. He wanted do the things that he heard the guys in his father’s work crew talk about being. He was disenfranchised.

One day, he had enough. The younger son said to his Father, “Father, give me my share of the estate.” There was no asking. No wondering dad’s thoughts on the matter. No “can I borrow a dollar for the vending machine.” Just a demand.
 
Give me money, Dad. I’m sick of this place. I’m sick of this boring existence. I’m sick of being in this family. I’m sick and tired of being your son. Give me money so I get out of this hellhole.

And Dad, he teared up. He fought back sobs. He went to his hiding place and returned with the son’s inheritance.

Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, he set off for a distant country and there he squandered his wealth in wild living. He bought an apartment high rise in downtown Raleigh. He made sure it was close to the local bar. He went out the first night and spent his money on a fine steak, top shelf Grey Goose Vodka, and $9 dollar local brew after $9 local brew.

One night grew into every night. He developed some friends. Friends who showed him where to score some drugs. Friends who showed him where to find the best strippers. Friends who knew where the good prostitutes were located.

He fell in love with one of them. She fell in love with his money. She made him buy her diamonds, Gucci dresses, and the finest wines. After he had enough of her, he tried men – spending enough money at the local gay bar to pick up a new guy each night.

Until one day – one day when it all ended. Relationships ended. Friends ended. The fancy meals and top shelf booze ended.

It ended because the money ended.

Soon the young man wasn’t even able to pay the rent. He was facing eviction. Soon to be homeless. Down to nothing more than a few dried up bags of Ramen noodles.

15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. Fixing the slop. Feeding the pigs. Spending each minute of daylight walking around in the filthy, disgusting, foul smelling mess of a bunch of hogs.

Thing is. The guy was so hungry that even the moldy apples with the rotten strings of banana wrapped around them, drizzled in fresh pig saliva looked like the fancy steaks he had been eating.

Then, he snapped out of it. 17 He came to his senses & said, “What am I doing? I had it so good. I was fed. I was clothed. I was cared for. I was loved. Now here I am starving to death. 18 I will go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants. Because even if I am lowest of the low – the servant in charge of cleaning the restrooms at my dad’s ranch, at least...at least it’d be way better than this.

20 So he got up and went to his father. He packed the few things he had left – an old ball cap, a broken wallet, and a sponge he used to clean himself. He put them in a bag and made his way back home.

As he got close, a feeling started generating within his stomach. It was small at first – tense. Then, it grew. It grew and grew as he nervously anticipated what it would be like to see his Dad again.

I told you so. You ungrateful, little worm. You dare come back to me after the way you had spoken to me!?! Get out. You were done with me; now I’m done with you.

A tear formed in the young man’s eyes.

Then, off in the distance. He saw him. He saw the figure of his father. He saw his father approaching him – slowly at first; then quickly. As the recognizable shape of his dad got closer, the nervousness grew. His dad got closer and he raised his arm into the air.

The son winced.

His father’s giant paw wrapped around him. It pulled him close. It welcomed him.

The son immediately started protesting. “Father, I’ve sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” I’ll work in the fields. I work as far away as possible from you. I’ll make it so you won’t have to look at my disgusting face ever again.

But his dad wasn’t listening. He motioned to the servants who had been watching this scene unfold: “Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it! We’re having the fine steaks tonight. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.”

That’s how much God loves family. He wants families to be whole. He wants them to be repaired. He longs for family to come back together even when awful, awful things have happened between them.

But this is more than just a feel good, Hallmark movie about how nice family is. This is more than just motivation for you to go out and fix your family.

This is a story that shows just how much God, our Father, wants you in his family.

Maybe you can relate to the younger son. Maybe you’ve left God. Maybe you grew up in the church, you went to Sunday school, you had sugar cookies, sang “Jesus Loves Me” and played with the Duplo version of Noah’s ark.

Then, you got older. Then, you got curious. Then, you left your heavenly Father.

You became an alcoholic.
You did drugs.
You had sex with various men and women.
You married yourself to work and money became all you thought about.
Then, when you ran into troubles – you blamed it all on God! If only he hadn’t been such a tyrant. If only he hadn’t have had so many rules. If only God wasn’t your Father, this wouldn’t be happening.

You distanced yourself even farther from God.

I know. That’s exactly what I did. I’m not joking.

But then, something happened. Something happened to make you realize how wrong you’d been. Maybe you lost it all. Maybe you lost a friend. Maybe your family fell apart.

Maybe it’s this sermon.

But the guilt is great! How can I go back to God? I never should have left. I know it now. I’ve sinned against heaven and against you, God, my heavenly Father. How can I come back to you – I don’t deserve it. I haven’t earned it. I’ve earned nothing but your scorn. You should disown me because I have disowned you.

But. Hear God’s heart: He won’t raise his hand to smite you; He will raise his arms to hug you.

He still loves you.

This is how much God wants you to be a part of his family. He took his Son, the only and only perfect Son, the only Son who didn’t leave him, the one who was perfect in every way – Jesus Christ – and he sent his son into the world to defeat the sin that had taken us, to stomp out the death that threatened to separate us, and to destroy the devil who had led us away in the first place.

Scripture says, “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” That’s you – no matter where you’ve been, no matter how long you’ve been gone, no matter how heavily you wanted to be apart from God -- God longed for you. He still longs for you - -and when you come back to him – you will be a part of his family.

Galatians 3:26 says this, “In Christ Jesus, you are a child of God through faith.” Not you might be. Not you could be. Not you may possibly be one day after years of quiet, faithful, no complaining, getting up each day and sunrise and working to sundown service….
 
You are a child of God.

Wow.

II. God’s Family is about Grace

Of course, that’s hard to believe. It’s why the son was nervous to return. It’s why the son started refusing his dad’s love. It’s why the son said, “Dad, I’m not worthy.”

And it’s also why the older brother wasn’t at the celebration.

Remember him? This story isn’t over.

The older brother was in the fields. In the fields, like he always was. In the fields, like he had been since his younger brother left and like he was when his younger brother came back. He missed the fantastic reunion.

But as he returned to the ranch house that evening, sweat on his body glowing in the evening sunset and dirt caked well under his fingernails, he heard some noise. He heard music. He heard dancing and laughing.

"What’s going on?” he asked a servant that ran by with a bottle of wine.

"There’s a celebration, sir. It’s your brother. He’s back."

v28 The older brother became angry. Are you kidding me? That ingrate is back. And…we’re having a party for him. I want nothing to do with this. And he went and shut himself up in his home.

Meanwhile at the party, his dad was feeling pretty good. He was in the middle of showing his younger son how to whip and NaeNae, when he started to feel incomplete. He looked around. The whole family wasn’t there. He was missing the older son.

And so he left the party. He went to his son’s house. He knocked on the door. He knocked again. He heard his son’s voice, “Go away,” shout from in back.

What’s wrong son? Why aren’t you at the party? Don’t you know your brother is back?

Suddenly, the older son came storming outside – poking his accusing finger as he approached.

29 “Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders.” I got up in the morning. I got up at night. I ran the show when you were sick. I picked up the slack when the servants were away. I’ve been in this family and happily a part of this business for years. But you never threw me a party. You never even gave me a small rump of meat to go and celebrate with my friends.

But this son of yours – he ain’t my brother – he comes back. After what he said to you. After what he did to you. After making our family an embarrassment. After leaving you in that depressed state – not feeling whole – and you kill the fattened calf, the finest possible meat that we have on our entire ranch for that fool!?! He hasn’t earned it. I earned it. Now you’ve earned my disrespect.

Dad paused. He sighed. He put his arm on his boy. 31 “My dear son, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. You have been a part of this family. You are a part of this family. You will be a part of this family. But we had to celebrate, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.”

You see – the older son had totally misunderstood what it meant to be in his Father’s family. He thought it was about earning a spot in the family. He thought his long list of quality service and well done chores made him a part of the family and his brother’s sins disqualified him from it.

To be fair that happens in earthly families. Someone is disowned. The family never mentions that one sister. Mom and dad never speak to each other again.

But not in God’s family. God’s family is about grace.

It has to be! Without grace, every one of us would be disqualified. Yes – even you long time, long time, long time church goers. Even you member of the ladies guild, counter, signed up for snacks once a month at church, church goer. You would not be a part of this family without God’s grace.

So stop thinking it’s about what you’ve done. Stop thinking it’s your long tenure as a child of God that made you a child of God. You’re wrong. If you’re thinking like that, you’re on a path to abandon the family of God altogether.

God’s family is about grace. It’s about the Father’s love. Love that forgives the worst of rebellions. Love that forgives a subtle anger against the worst of rebellions. Because that's what God's love does. God's love unites us back into his family. 

WHAT NOW?

To be honest, I don’t have a lot for you this week. We’ll get more into how to have a godly family in a modern world over the next weeks. For now? Take today – take this moment – take this coming week – to reconnect with your dad.

Read his letter to you – it’s a book called the Bible. Open it up and read about how much he loves you.
Talk to me. If you have questions, concerns, even a bit of a hunch that maybe, this is all true – Talk to me. You’re hearing the heart of God calling to you.

Come back. Come back to God’s house next week. Don’t let it be so long before you return again. Come back and celebrate with us.

We were dead and we are alive. We were lost and are found. Alleluia!

Let's get the family together and celebrate!

Amen.