Proverbs 19:21
21- Many are the plans of a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.
Romans 8:28
28 – And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.
Philippians 2:1-2
1 – If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from His love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion,
2 – then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.
I’ll never forget the day in September of 1972 when I left home to attend the University of Delaware. My parents loaded up the station wagon and made the trip north with me. We toured the campus together. We drove around the town checking out grocery stores, laundry mats, etc. They met my room-mate: an engineering student by the name of WAYNE WYCOFF and then, after several trips up and down the stairs of Rodney Hall, they helped me settle in to my third floor room…..which was room #360F. I remember the number because this was a special room! It was my first “home” — other than the home I had shared with mom and dad and by sister and brothers for the first 17 years of my life. Well, when it was time for mom and dad to return to Dover, they pulled me aside and spent about 30 minutes reminding me of certain things,
things they had already told me many times in life but things they wanted to make ABSOLUTELY SURE I knew. You can probably imagine what this entailed: “Get enough sleep at night, son! Be sure to eat good foods! Study hard! Keep your room clean! Be careful the kind of people you chose as friends! Lock your door at night! Get involved in a Campus Bible Study! Call us if you ever need us!” In other words, BEFORE I MOVED INTO A NEW CHAPTER OF MY LIFE, my parents took the time to remind me of principles they had taught me ALL my life-basic truths that would help me to be successful-tips to guide me to be all God intended me to be.
Now, I don’t know if mom and dad realized this or not but they were following a biblical precedent that afternoon as we stood on the steps of Rodney Hall. For God’s practice of prodding His children to REMEMBER important truth at PIVOTAL TIMES of change is seen throughout scripture. * One example is when the people of Israel were about to MOVE into the promised land.
You may remember that Moses died immediately before they crossed the Jordan but, before the nation of Israel moved into Palestine he gathered the people he had shepherded for four decades and said to them, “Take to heart all the words I have solemnly declared to you…[in other words, REMEMBER WHAT I HAVE SAID]…so that you may command your children to obey carefully all the words of [God’s] law. They are not just idle words for you-they are your life. By them you will live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.” (Deuteronomy 32:46-47 ) Then in Joshua 1:7 God says to Moses’ successor, “Be careful to obey all the law My servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you MAY BE SUCCESSFUL wherever you go.”* And then a New Testament example of this practice is seen in John 14:26 where, in the upper room on the night of Jesus’ arrest, He said,
“The Counselor, the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things….and will REMIND you of everything I have said to you.” So at times of pivotal change God usually prompts His people to recall important truth….truth that will help them to fulfill His plans for them. And as you can see…this morning is a time of change for us here at Redland.
Today we are MOVING into a newly renovated Sanctuary. Doesn’t it look great!!! After years of hoping and dreaming and planning and two months of construction, we are re-dedicating this room to God. And, as this special, long-awaited day has drawn nearer and nearer, I have prayed about what I should say to you. I’ve wondered how I should use this brand new pulpit for the very first time. I mean I have never dedicated a building before. This is new territory for me! Moving in here is much more overwhelming than moving into my new dorm room home in Rodney Hall! Well in response to my prayers I have heard our Heavenly Father’s still small voice prompting me to use this time today…this time of change to REMIND you of something He has already told us as a church a principle that should be familiar to us all by now-an instruction from God that will help us to fulfill His plans for us…and help make us a truly GREAT church. I am referring to our purpose statement, which we adopted nearly two years ago after a great deal of prayer on part of many people.
TODAY, I think God wants us to recall our purpose statement-His vision for us….because it is vital for any body of believers to remember WHY it is that they do what they do. Proverbs 29:18 says, “Where there is NO vision….or purpose….the people perish.” Or…as Rick Warren says, “Where there is NO vision, people leave for another parish!” This week I came across a story about a golfer whose errant shot ended up in the rough right on top of an ant hill.
Well, he squared off, took a big swing and missed. Thousands of innocent ants were killed. So he took another big swing….and missed again. Another wave of ants were destroyed. By this time, panic stricken insects were running everywhere. One ant finally took charge. “Follow me,” he cried with authority. Another ant yelled, “But where are we going?”‘ Then, pointing at the golf ball sitting in front of them, the leader ant cried, “There….that’s where we’re going. If we don’t get ON THE BALL we’re all going to die!” And for any church to survive and grow and do GREAT things for the Kingdom of God it must GET ON THE BALL. That is to say it must know WHERE it’s going…and, more importantly, WHY it’s going there. People want to join a church that has a clear purpose. When a church communicates its destination, people are eager to get on board. When Ezra told the people of Jerusalem what God expected them to do the people responded, “Tell us how to proceed in setting things straight, and we will fully cooperate.” (Ezra 10:4 ) Charles Swindoll says, “Vision is essential for survival. It is spawned by faith, sustained by hope, sparked by imagination, and strengthened by enthusiasm. It is greater than sight, deeper than a dream, broader than an idea. Vision encompasses vast vistas outside the realm of the predictable, the safe, the expected. No wonder we perish without it!”
Okay, do you remember OUR purpose statement…the vision God gave Redland Baptist Church two years ago? We print it on our stationery. It’s always in the bulletin and Sower. We’ve hung it in a display case in the foyer. Let’s say it together. Redland Baptist Church is to be “…a GRACE-driven church for a GRACE-needing world.” This motto should help us to never forget that God has call us to be a church that is driven by His grace. In other words….the single motivational force behind all that we do: worship, discipleship, evangelism, fellowship, and ministry…is to be our experience of His grace. Grace is the “WHY” behind every “WHAT” that we do!
Now,in the past two years have you ever wondered WHY God gave us this vision? I mean….why be GRACE-driven? Why not be TRADITION-driven or FINANCE-driven or PROGRAM-driven? Well, I for one think this is because its EASY to find organizations that are driven by THOSE things but GRACE. Grace is unique to the church.
In fact, you could say that a truly GREAT church is the ONE place on this planet where genuine grace can be found. In His book, What’s So Amazing About Grace, Philip Yancey writes of a conversation he had with Gordon MacDonald in which MacDonald asked him,
“What is the ONE thing the church has to offer that the world cannot get anywhere else?”
Then he continued, “You don’t have to be a Christian to build homes for the homeless, feed the poor, or donate to charity. You don’t have to be a Christian to try to effect political change or pass social legislation. And…there are other teachers and traditions that offer wise moral instruction. What’s the ONE thing the church has to offer that the world cannot get anywhere else? It’s GRACE!” You know, it would be illegal for me to open a restaurant and sell BIG MAC sandwiches or EGG MACMUFFINS….because to sell MacDonald’s food I have to buy a Franchise. Only people who have hole such a franchise can dispense MacDonald’s products. They alone have the rights and the responsibilities to serve MacGrill sandwiches and MacFish filets….and MacFries…and MacCokes….etc. Well, through His death on the cross Jesus has in essence paid the franchise costs for us. When we accept His forgiveness and follow Him as Lord and Savior we become commissioned or licensed-we are given the “franchise” rights and responsibilities to share God’s grace with others. This is what I Peter 4:10 means when it refers to Christians as being, “DISPENSERS of the grace of God.” Only Christians can do this…for no one else has access to the grace of God. Unfortunately….many churches have forgotten this. Yancey writes,
“Like fine wine poured into a jug of water, Jesus’ wondrous message of grace often gets diluted in the vessel of the church. The apostle John wrote, ‘For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.’ Christians have spent enormous energy over the years debating and decreeing truth; every church defends its particular version. But what about grace? How RARE to find a church competing to ‘OUT-GRACE’ its rivals! Grace is Christianity’s best gift to the world, a spiritual nova in our midst exerting a force stronger than vengeance, stronger than racism, stronger than hate. Sadly, to a world desperate for this grace, the church sometimes presents one more form of UN-grace.”
Yancy hits uncomfortably close to the mark here for, we who have experienced the grace of God DO so easily slip into UN-graceful actions and attitudes. We often become just as self-righteous and judgmental as the Pharisees of Jesus’ day. And if we are to be a GREAT church, one thing we must realize is that the world is tired of Christians who proclaim that they know the right beliefs and are committed to the right values but in whom there is NO grace. The world needs GRACE-driven Christians for it is that grace that will drive them to God.
Well, since GRACE is so important…and since we are commissioned to dispense it..well then, I think it would behoove us to pause today and make sure we have a clear understanding of grace. So let’s review a bit…
What IS grace?
Simply said, GRACE is God’s absolutely unmerited favor. It is His giving good to us that we could never hope to deserve or earn. Of course, the greatest example of God’s grace was when He sent His only Son to die for us. Remember the words of Romans 5:8 ? “God demonstrates His own love for us-His absolutely unmerited favor-in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” And God continues to bestow His grace on Christians like you and me each and every day as He gives us OTHER things we could never deserve or earn: * His guidance in life-decisions His forgiveness when we disobey Him. His strength when we try to do His will. His healing power when we are sick… His provision of this newly renovated worship space.
I could go on and on. But suffice it to say that GRACE IS GOD’S UNMERITED FAVOR.
Now, you and I have heard this in Sunday School and in sermons all of our lives. This definition of grace is nothing new to most believers. But it is this COMMON understanding of grace that often causes us to have problems. We become almost TOO familiar with grace. Many people come to think that, since they cannot deserve the grace of God they shouldn’t try to…that grace really makes it “legal” in God’s eyes for them to sin all they want. This philosophy of grace abuse is known as antinomianism, which means “against moral law” and, it is nothing new. Paul dealt with it in the church at Rome. In Romans 3:5-8 he refers to the grace abusers of his day and says,
Someone might argue, “If my FALSEHOOD enhances God’s TRUTHFULNESS and so increases His glory, why am I still condemned as a sinner? [These people are saying,] Let us do evil that good may result.” People like this are way off base when it comes to understanding grace for grace is not the condoning of immorality…knowing God will forgive us no matter what we do and in so doing, show how GRACE-ful He is! Even we don’t tolerate that kind of reasoning. Mothers, how would you feel if your teenagers said, “Mom, I’ll keep my room messy so the whole neighborhood can see what a good housekeeper you are.” Employers, would you like your employees to say, “The reason I’m lazy is to give you an opportunity to display your forgiveness?” Would we respect a beggar who refuses to work by saying, “I’m just giving the government an opportunity to demonstrate benevolence.” No of course not. This kind of attitude abuses grace. Grace is not a license to sin. The fourth verse of Jude refers to people who think like this as, “…intruders…who pervert the grace of our God into licentiousness.” No, grace-driven people are not soft on sin, for, of all people they know what our sin cost God.
They are familiar with Romans 6:1-2 where Paul writes, “What shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” They have learned that it is the grace of God gives us the desire and the power to LEAVE our sin. We see this principle in Jesus’ story of the prodigal son which is recorded in Luke 15 . You’ll remember that, after months of squandering his inheritance on sinful living, one day the prodigal woke up with his money and his so-called friends gone. Famine had hit the land.
Soon he was forced to live in wretched poverty and eat the slop he fed to pigs. Verse 17 infers that standing knee-deep in pig muck gave him an anxiety attack that began to drive him to his senses. I think that if they ever made this parable into a movie, the text of Amazing Grace would be great background music for that moment of fear in the pig trough. Remember the words? “Twas grace that taught my heart to fear and grace my fears relieved.” That day the prodigal learned that grace does instill fear, and fear leads to repentance which leads to the relief of forgiveness. Imagine someone who lies constantly, cheats without a care, lusts without regret, betrays friends to get ahead, and does it all in a spirit of defiance and mockery. Then one day he looks in a mirror and gets the first glimpse of the horror he’s become. He is afraid and trembles at his capacity for evil. That trembling…that pain…is the beginning of salvation. That’s GRACE teaching him to fear and, if he will respond by repenting, grace will relieve his fears….just as the hymn text says. Titus 2:11-12 says, “The grace of God that brings salvation….teaches us to say ‘NO’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives.”
Remember, in Jesus’ story the father didn’t go and find his son while he was willfully living in sin and give him a robe and a ring for his finger. No — first things first. The son had to respond to his fear by coming home-not because he had to EARN his father’s grace, but because as John Ortberg says, “Grace always and only consists of that which will help someone come home to and be immersed in the love of the Father.” So, grace is NOT a license to sin. In fact it is grace that shows us our sin and motivates us to repent and return to God. Well….What will happen to us if we allow ourselves to become a church that is truly driven by GRACE? What would a grace-driven church look like?
1. First of all, it would be made up of people who do every thing they can to please God.
The pursuit of holiness would be very important to the people of a grace-driven church. They would constantly strive to be worthy of God’s grace for, as Max Lucado says, “Grace understood is holiness desired.” Walter Trobisch writes, “Christ accepts us as we are, but when He accepts us, we cannot remain as we are.” A genuine experience of grace fosters an eagerness to do good. Titus 2:14 says, “Jesus gave Himself for us so He might pay the price to free us from all evil and to make us pure people who belong only to Him-people who are ALWAYS WANTING TO DO GOOD DEEDS.” God’s grace makes us yearn to do right. And..this is the genius of grace. The law can show us where we do wrong, but it can’t make us eager to do right.
Only grace can motivate us in this way. So, a grace-driven church would be full of people who are doing everything they can to grow in godliness.
2. Another thing you will find in a grace-driven church are people who enjoy a very special fellowship.
Listen to the description of the FIRST grace-driven church in Acts 2,4, “Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts. All the believers were ONE in heart and mind.
No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had.”
Doesn’t the fellowship of those Christians in the church at Jerusalem sound wonderful? Well, the factor that makes this caliber of fellowship possible is their common experience of God’s grace.
You see, people enjoy being with people with whom they have something in common. That’s why we have singles clubs and veterans clubs and computer clubs and soccer clubs, etc. And when we belong to a church where the membership admits to a common need for God’s grace then a truly amazing fellowship is possible. As joint heirs of the grace of God….as people who realize that we all have both received AND needed God’s forgiveness…we treat one another with a special humility and respect. Church becomes a place where you can be honest…where you can be real…where you can confess sin and find forgiveness instead of judgement. But without grace, without grace…this quality of fellowship is not possible. Max Lucado’s story entitled, The Water Master, shows what happens to a group of people in which there is no grace. It goes like this….
Years ago there was a village in a desert. Water was scarce, and the people treasured what little they had. It seldom rained, but when it did, people scurried about to capture it in buckets and pots. Every drop was a treasure. Every cup was precious. For that reason the discovery in the cavern was thrilling news. One day a farmer was digging holes for fence posts. A few feet below the surface of the ground he found a cavern-not large, but full of water. He immediately lowered a bucket, pulled it out, and tasted, to his delight, cold, sweet water. He was so excited he filled all his buckets, loaded them in the back of his wagon, and hurried into the village. “I have water! I have water!” he shouted. The villagers came running out of their houses. As the people gathered, the farmer explained how he had come upon the treasure. He joyfully announced that there was enough for everyone. “Drink all you want,” he offered. And then, to the people’s amazement, he picked up a bucket and doused a little boy. “There is plenty!” he proclaimed. “Enjoy it.” And with that the people began to laugh and splash each other. For the first time as long as anyone could remember, there was enough water for everyone.
After the celebration, the farmer announced his plan. “I’ll bring some water in every morning so each of you can have what you need.” And that’s exactly what he did. The farmer became the Water Master. Every morning he loaded the buckets into his wagon, rode into town, and gave some water to the people. It was a new day. The water was free. The farmer was willing, and the villagers were grateful. Until one night when the farmer had a dream. In the dream he saw the people taking the water and not being thankful. They would walk up to the wagon, snatch the bucket, and march away without a word of appreciation. When he awoke, he was troubled. As he rode into town, he resolved to give the water only to the grateful. Before he allowed the people to take their buckets, he announced, “From now on, I will not give water to those who are not thankful.” The people were surprised. Each person thanked him when he or she received the water. All was well until the farmer had another dream. In this dream some of the people who were drinking the water were unkind to their neighbors and mean to their animals. The next morning he was bothered again. He decided he would only give the water to worthy individuals.
“If you are mean to your animals or unkind to your neighbors, you will get no water,” he decreed. The people looked at each other and were silent. They knew the bad people among them. When the Water Master saw the looks of distrust, he had an idea. “Each of you come and tell me who is unworthy so I will know who is mean and unkind.” So one by one they came with their names, and he made a list. The list grew and grew. Finally, after every villager had spoken, the farmer read the names. He was shocked. Every person in the town was on the list except one. THE FARMER. So he stood on the wagon and announced that since few were grateful and none were worthy, he would bring no more water to the village. And he turned his wagon of water around and went home. The moral of this story is this. None of us deserve God’s grace. All of us are unworthy of God’s love. We all drink from the same well of His forgiveness. And when we realize this it motivates us to treat all people….even those we don’t like…with a special tenderness. Lucado writes, “We must be quick to share the water of grace with our enemies-as a gift for them, just as it was a gift to us.” Grace-driven churches enjoy a special quality of fellowship…a sweet, sweet spirit!
3. And then, the third characteristic of a truly grace-driven church is this. They attract sinful people.
I say this because the people of our world hunger for grace. Sinful human beings are drawn to grace like a bee is to honey. We see this in the way people responded to Jesus during His earthly ministry. Tax collectors, prostitutes, and criminals were all drawn to Him because they knew that in Him they could find what they wanted more than anything in this world: forgiveness. So, they left everything to follow Him. To them, His grace was the “pearl of great price.” They gladly gave up their possessions, sacrificed their careers, renounced past behavior and sin even accepted persecution and suffering because in Jesus they found Someone Who loved them in spite of themselves. In his book The Kingdom of God is a Party, Tony Campolo tells of a time he was traveling to Hawaii and, due to his still being on Eastern Standard Time, found himself in a diner at 3:00AM. The only other customers at that time of the night were a group of prostitutes. He heard one of them, whose name was Agnes, mention that the next day was her birthday and that she had never in her life had a birthday party. After they left, Tony found out from the diner’s employees that Agnes and her friends came into the diner each night at this time. So Tony asked Harry, the owner of the diner, if he could come back the next night and throw a surprise party for Agnes. He agreed….and here is Tony’s narration of what happened: “At 2:30 the next morning, I was back at the diner. I had picked up some crepe-paper decorations at the store and had made a sign out of big pieces of cardboard that read, ‘Happy Birthday, Agnes!’ The word had spread that the party was happening and the diner was packed with street people of all kinds. At 3:30AM the door of the diner swung open and in came Agnes and her friend. Everyone screamed, ‘HAPPY BIRTHDAY!’ Never have I seen a person who was so flabbergasted. Her mouth fell open, and her legs buckled. When we finished singing, her eyes filled with tears and when the cake was carried out, she began to cry. The cook mumbled, ‘Blow out the candles, Agnes. If you don’t I’m going to have to.’ Finally he did and then he urged her to cut the cake….she paused and said, ‘Look, Harry, is it OK if I keep the cake a little while….if we don’t eat it right away?’ He said, ‘Sure, if you want to….take it home if you like.’ ‘Can I?’ Then looking at me she said, ‘I just live down the street. I want to take the cake home, OK? I’ll be right back.’ She carried that cake out the door like it was the Holy Grail. We stood there motionless, a stunned silence in the place. Not knowing what else to do, I broke the silence by saying, ‘What do you say we pray?’ Looking back on it now, it seems more than strange for a sociologist to be leading a prayer meeting with a bunch of prostitutes in a diner in Honolulu at 3:30 in the morning. But then it just felt like the right thing to do. So I prayed for Agnes; for her salvation, that her life would be changed, that God would be good to her.
When I finished, Harry leaned over the counter and said with a trace of irritation: ‘Hey, you never told me you were a preacher. What kind of church to you belong to?’ In one of those moments when just the right words come, I answered, ‘I belong to a church that throws birthday parties for prostitutes at 3:30 in the morning.’ Harry, waited for a moment, and almost sneered as he answered, ‘No you don’t. There’s no church like that. If there was, I’d join it.'”
I love that story, because I think if Jesus walked into that diner, He would have done the same thing. Jesus was and is the sinless friend of sinners (Matthew 11:19 ). And if we are grace-driven we’ll follow His example…and if do people will come here in droves. That means that this place will be used. I’m sorry enhancing facilities committee but these new seats will be worn out. Walls and floor will be scuffed. Because grace-driven churches just naturally attract loads of grace-needing people!
So,what will make this church great? God’s Grace will! Remember Proverbs 19… “Many are the plans of a man’s heart, but it is the LORD’S PURPOSE that prevails.”