God's Amazing Grace #1 (Dying for Grace)
Text: Luke 15:11-32
It is so good to welcome all of you here this morning as we gather to look at one of the
most important subjects that we can!
God’s Amazing Grace is where any of our relationships with
God must begin, continue in and end with. We are going to look over the next 6 weeks at this
subject that can only be aptly described as amazing when we properly understand it.
But, if we
are ever going to get into understanding grace and what God wants above all things for us to
feel about Him we need to learn how to look at a good thing.
I heard the story one time about a
guy who was speaking to his wife Sara on his deathbed.
‘We’ve had a long life together, when
we got married I didn’t have a penny to my name and then what I did have we lost during the
depression. Then the war came and you enlisted as a nurse to be close to me and when I was
wounded in battle you were always by my side every day and through the years we have had one
hard knock after another and you’ve always been with me. Now I’m dying and your pretty face is
the first thing I see each morning and the last I see each night. You know something Sara;
I’m beginning to think you’re bad luck.’
That guy didn’t know how to look at a good thing. God wants us to look at Him as a good thing
and not some one that we could never come close to feeling anything good about.
When we look at the world today and when we even survey our personal world one thing is
very common:
our world is hurting!
Please turn in your Bibles to Psalm 38:1-10 and read with me.
I think if you look closely enough at what David is saying this seems like it could be a cry
for help from so many today.
‘there is no health in my bones’
‘all the day I go about mourning’
‘I groan because of the tumult of my heart’
‘the light of my eyes—it also has gone from me.’
The biggest question that we need to be able to have an answer for is:
is there anybody who will stand up and simply accept us no matter what we are or what we have
done?
So many people in our world are feeling like nobody can love them for who they are, no
one can simply accept them, no one will forgive them freely, and no one will welcome them into
their lives unless certain conditions are met!
After all, we live in a world where we are being constantly reminded of our failings,
or our mistakes and never can we be separated from what we have said, thought or done! There is
always something even maybe our own minds saying ‘remember when you…’
Then we come to church hoping that they would be different and the types of things we hear
are ‘the wages of sin is death’ (Romans 6:23) or ‘the soul that sins shall die’
(Ezekiel 18:20) and these of course are true but the preacher stops right there and now what do
you do?
And all we need, all we are craving, what we are basically dying for, when we ask if there is
anyone out there who is different, who will accept us no matter who we are, is someone to stand
up and say I will!
A couple of weeks ago something happened with Sydney that really brought this idea home to
me. Sara was out for the evening and I was putting both girls to bed at the same time and
Sydney was doing things she shouldn’t have been doing and so she finally went over the limit and
got in trouble. We talked about it after and she apologized and I told her it’s okay I’m not
angry with her but after I left her room I could hear her crying away. I went back in and asked
her what was wrong and she said ‘Daddy, I’m really sorry.’ So, I tried to tell her some more
that Daddy is not angry with her and finally left her for the night. The next morning when I
woke her for school she came out and her eyes were still different and she still said that she
was feeling sorry for last night.
Now, why I bring this up is that I think it reveals to us our deepest longing:
I want God to be head over heels in love with me despite me! You see, I don’t just want God to
love me when I’m right, I want God to love me when I’m not nice, I want Him to love me despite
the fact that I am not all that pretty at different times.
The question is how?
How can a God who denounces the wrongs we do as being wrong still accept us?
Ephesians 1:6- to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has accepted us in the
beloved.
Titus 3:4-7- So, here is a God who still accepts us despite us and wants us to feel welcome in
His presence all because of a word called grace!
What is grace?
Basically it is the message from God that when Jesus died on the cross He was telling us that
there is no one so bad that He can’t love! Now, basically when we are wondering if there is
someone out there who possibly could accept us-
if grace is not for those who feel helpless on their own it is no longer grace! If grace is
only for those who could earn it through deeds of penance or righteousness it is not grace.
This point was made by Jesus in Luke 18:9-14-
All the first one could do was brag about how he didn’t do what so and so did. All the second
one could do was ask God for mercy- guess what?
He got it!
That is simply amazing!
Turn to Luke 15:11-32-
This is the message of the Bible in one sermon. If you wanted an abbreviated version of what
God has wanted to tell you all your life this is the story that you want to hear.
To set this up, you have to understand who Jesus is speaking to:
He is talking to a bunch of people who have no idea what God looked like. They really didn’t
know that much about God and they didn’t know what made God happy!
You have terrible sinners who are afraid of God and you have religious folk who are telling
people that!
Now, what Jesus is about to say is scandalous-
it’s really not the way it is supposed to work!
Jesus simply says ‘here is what God is like’ and then ‘here is what all of our responses can
be like’.
Everybody here is represented in this story.
We have the Father and the two sons!
The Father represents God- the 2 sons represent all of us.
We are either the prodigal or the elder brother in the story.
If you say ‘I’ve never disobeyed the Father’s command’ you have just identified who you are in
the story.
The good news and we can’t miss what Jesus is saying here:
The Father saved prodigal sons! (vs.23) No one has lived so badly done things so hurtful that
the Father will not run to them and welcome their return.
Why does He do this?
So we can come home. So we can find forgiveness. So we can be restored whole. He will give
the fatted calf, the best robe, the ring on your finger and shoes on your feet- things by the
way that only children wear not servants!
What Jesus is trying to tell us here is this:
I am a prodigal and my Father has welcomed me
home. The Father will accept anybody- He is always ready and He gives complete forgiveness.
No more of this remember last year when you…
This is not how it is supposed to work!
We are supposed to wallow in misery. We are supposed to be punished for the wrongs we did.
We are supposed to make up for it some how. Jesus says that’s not the way it is with God.
Just before this story do you see what makes God rejoice? (vs.7,10) It is not that world
hunger has been stamped out, it is not that wars have ceased, it is not that diseases have been
cured it is when one son or daughter comes home!
That above all things causes the Father to rejoice and run!
Something caught my eye in this story that I never thought of before:
There’s a few things the Father does as interruptions of the sons plans:
- He interrupts the apology! (vs.21,22)- He won’t let the son say he only should be a
servant.
- Notice when the Father ran to the son: vs.20- while he was still a long way off!
This is not what we are used to! Even when I’m far from what I’m supposed to be and I look to
God for mercy He will give me mercy!
The only response from the Father is ‘it is right to celebrate and be glad, for my son was dead
and is alive-he was lost and is found’.
When we re-enter our world with all of our problems and questions about God and could He ever
just accept me. Could He look at me and see the person made in His image again and not just see
the baggage I carry- we find that the answer is yes and God’s grace is truly amazing!
You know what a good definition for grace is- grace means that God orders His life around
mine! (John 3:16)
Author Brennan Manning tells the story of an Irish priest who, on a walking tour of a rural
perish, sees an old peasant kneeling by the side of the road, praying. Impressed, the priest
says to the man, ‘You must be very close to God.’ The peasant looks up from his prayers,
thinks a moment, and then smiles, ‘Yes, he’s very fond of me.’ 1
That’s what makes God’s grace so amazing- in the fact that no matter what you have done,
who you might be, as different as you might seem- God is extremely fond of you!
But, can God forgive me? 1 John 2:1,2
God loves you, God wants to accept you and God will welcome you home. If you are ready
for that acceptance- accept Him this morning as we stand and sing…
1. Philip Yancey, What’s So Amazing About Grace? (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1997) p.69
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