The topic I chose for today’s message is Grace. When we do what is right and just, when we follow God’s rules, when we step out of ourselves and let God lead our paths, we will have His grace and favor! Grace is God at work in us. God shows His great grace the most, when He gave up His son to die on the cross. Today I’m out of the book of 2 Corinthians chapter 5. But first, I want to bring up a point in Hebrews 4:15. “This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin.” This verse speaks volumes. It says that God came down to earth in human form, as Jesus Christ, and faced the tests and trials of life that we go through today! So, He himself understands our troubles. He himself understands our needs. He himself understands our weaknesses and faults. So I refer now to the very last verse of 2 Corinthians 5:21, which states this: “For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, [became sin Himself] so that we could be made right with God through Christ.” This is powerful stuff there. Jesus, when he was on the cross, not only died for you and me. He became SIN itself. He became all the lies you’ve been told, he became all the murders that have occurred and are yet to happen, He became a thief. He became all the bad things that this world puts in our lives. So essentially, when Jesus died, our SINS died with Him. That’s what it truly means to be forgiven. Yes, we are human, Yes, we will sin, BUT, those sins are already forgiven, by the precious blood of Jesus Christ! Now THAT in itself is something to get excited over!! We jump up to verse 13 which says this: “If it seems we are crazy, it is to bring glory to God. And if we are in our right minds, it is for your benefit.” This means, sometimes when we are SO taken aback by God moving in our life, we just go crazy!! It’s because we “get it”, we understand fully that God is moving in our lives in a way we cannot explain in words, so we go absolutely crazy!! It’s not like “oh yea, that’s nice,” or “I’ve heard something like this before,” kind of thing. This is like the “I’m so excited that God is moving in my life that I just can’t control what I’m doing. Like, in altar call, it’s the people so moved by the spirit they fall to the ground. But we aren’t always going to be that way. There are people in our lives that don’t quite get the spirit of God the way we do, and it’s in those moments the 2nd part of the scripture reigns true: “And if we are in our right minds, it is for your benefit.” See, we as Christians don’t want to offend our non-Christian friends by “going crazy” in the spirit, so we tend to hold back on it. We still worship God in everything, but we don’t act so crazy around them because they don’t get it like we do. It’s a tension that is put on us to stay in the normal realm of things, but in whatever we do, we will shine God’s light. The next verse, Verse 14 says this “Either way, Christ’s love controls us [urges us on]. Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe we have all died to our old life [Since one died for all, then all died.] When we become a Christian, we believe that when Christ died, our old selves died along with him. We’re no longer the people we once were at one point. We don’t live for ourselves anymore. We are to live for Jesus who died for us. Pastor Don talks each week about how Jesus is right beside us at all times. He also shared this next verse, verse 17 with us: “This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” It is truly amazing to know that our past is gone, especially when our past wasn’t that great. When we are baptized in the water, we are our old selves, but when we dive down under the water and are brought back up for air, we are a brand new creation! Thank you Lord! Verse 18: “And all this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him.” God is saying here that He will make us, his believers, right with Himself. And when we are right with God, he then gives us this same plan, to go out and tell others how they too can be right with God. This is a great plan that we must share with others around us. And the plan doesn’t stop there! No, it continues in the next verse, verse 19: “For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation.” Look at the 2nd part of that first statement in the verse: God no longer counts our sins against us when we are made right with him!! So whatever we do wrong, whatever makes us stumble, whatever makes us make a mistake, it’s all in God’s wonderful plan that saves us from ourselves and keeps us from turning back to our sins. And this is the main worry of the non-believers. They think, oh, what I’ve done, God can’t erase. What I’ve done, God won’t forgive me for. They say those things because they don’t quite get the situation because they aren’t really connecting with God since they don’t even fully know Him. But this is the big message today: God was IN the WORLD, he reconnected people to himself through Jesus Christ, and he DOESN’T count people’s sins against them! Not yours, or yours or yours, or mine, or anybody else’s on the planet! Somebody said “time out!” Dustin, that’s way too easy! Way too easy!! And you know what I say?? How difficult is it for you to give up your son or daughter, because they want to defend this country, and become someone in the military? The people that sign up for the military are giving up all they have: their family, their homes, their pets, their free lifestyle, all so that they can defend Your country, My country, the United states of America! The same definitely holds true for God: it was VERY difficult when Mary was told she would be pregnant and Jesus was born on Christmas, only to find out later that her Son would DIE on the cross for our sins! Jesus suffered a long, hard day on that Good Friday morning. He was bracing himself for the things to come. He took all our burdens, all our transgressions, all our faults, all our doubts, all our fears, everything bad that’s ever happened to us on the cross with him, and in return, gave us new life, new hope, a newfound peace that everything is going to be alright. And you claim that’s “easy”? It was extremely difficult! In fact, it’s the most difficult thing that’s ever been done in all of humanity! Just because our sins don’t count against us, doesn’t mean we can sin all we want to and God will grant us His great Grace! No, every wrong we do WILL have a dire consequence against us, but it will be less of a problem when we look to the Cross where Jesus died! That’s grace. That’s love!
Now, I’d like to share a little story with you. It was told by Louie Giglio, Pastor at Passion City Church in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s a story of a girl named Ashley. Ashley was a student at the University of Florida, one of the top “party schools” in the country. Her parents divorced when she was young, and she sided with her dad, who never remarried, had no other children, and they didn’t want anything to do with God whatsoever. They didn’t like church, Christians, God, or anything about that. Her mother on the other hand got remarried, she was a believer, she married a believer, and she had a son, so Ashley has a step brother, they’re the Christian side of the family. Now, Ashley lives in Florida and shares an apartment with her boyfriend. About the middle to the end of the fall semester of her senior year, she goes to class, comes home from class because she feels sick, and she gets back to her home and finds her boyfriend in bed with another girl from school. They have a blowup of massive proportion; Ashley kicks him out of her apartment and then placed a notice up at school saying “I need a roommate for my last semester of college, my last semester at the University of Florida.” So a girl came by and saw the posting that Ashley had put up and thought it’d be a good living situation since she was going to get married soon and so she signs up to be Ashley’s roommate. The following are passages written in Ashley’s journal that she kept.
January 7- HAPPY FINAL SEMESTER OF COLLEGE!!!! Ok, so M (the boyfriend’s initial) is officially out of the apartment and I’m so glad he’s gone. Though I’ve loved him for the last two years and I still do love him so much. But, I’m renting out one of the rooms because I really don’t want to live alone. I rented it before winter break to this quiet girl named Christa. She seems sweet, but turns out she’s a fruitcake. She’s into all that God (Expletive), but I’m pretty sure she’s more whacko than mom, Jacob (her step brother) or Jeff (her stepdad). I asked her what she did over winter break and she said she went home then came back to go to a winter conference in Atlanta. I made the mistake of asking her what kind of conference it was. Apparently it was the greatest thing she’s ever done. She said that God had really changed her at this Passion conference. Well, I do not link passion and God, but whatever. She said she got to worship God with over 20,000 college students. So yea, that was the best thing she’s ever done?? She needs to get out more, a WHOLE lot more! So that’s the new fruitcake. Jeremy is her guy, and that boy HATES me. We worked on a group project last year for Children’s Lit, and he made it clear that he thinks he’s better than me. He’d get along with my mom, he’s a little holier than “thou bible thumper”. I really hope Fruitcake’s not as crazy as he is, otherwise it’s gonna be a long [expletive]-ing semester. School this semester’s gonna be a breeze; I’m taking 4 classes and 3 of them are electives; that’s smart planning on my part. I’m gonna party like it’s 1999 this semester, and have the time of my life before I can no longer hide behind the fact that I’m in college LOL Will be back later.
January 12 – M and I are back together… well, kind of. I do love him so much, he came over last night, we hung out with J & C & C & F, we were all just drinking and watching a movie. The lights were out and of course M and I quit watching the movie after the credits. We were amazing together. He did not say anything about us being officially together again, but he did spend the night. He said he had a class and so do I, so I have to run.
[A few days pass]
Ok, so it’s been a few days since I’ve been here. I’ve been so busy. I went running today. I was running past one of the buildings in the complex and I see M’s car, and he comes out of this other girl’s apartment. I just kept going. He had on the same clothes he wore at C’s house last night. He told me last night he still needed a little time to figure out what he wants. I was like that’s cool, but there’s only one reason you would sleep with that [expletive]s place last night. I cannot believe you slept with that [expletive] [expletive]. I ran an extra 3 miles and came home dripping in sweat, mind you it was 40 degrees outside. I already had taken off my jacket. I came in and went straight to the kitchen, walking past Christa, pulled a beer out of the fridge and ice cream out of the freezer. I jumped on the counter, drank my beer and ate my ice cream and just cried. Christa asked me if I was ok. I said [expletive] no I’m not ok. Fruitcake then grabbed another container of ice cream out of the freezer and sat down at the table. Why the h---- do we have so much ice cream in January? Seriously, there are 3 more containers in there! I really wanted her just to leave me alone, but she was not gonna do that. I asked her what was wrong with her. I mean, she obviously does not drink, she does not go to clubs. She asked me what I meant, so I asked her why she was the way she was. And all she said was God. She said it was her goal to live a life that Christ would be proud of. I laughed. I couldn’t help it, that the Fruitcake was serious! I asked if she’s ever slept with Jeremy, the guy she’s dated. She said no, when she gets married she’ll be a virgin. Wow! Those are still around? She said they’ve been dating 3 years. I’ve not dated a guy 3 weeks and not slept with him! I can’t imagine 3 years without sex, the girl was a FRUITCAKE! She then said it was because she had a personal relationship with God, that she was saved. I did have to admit she’s different from the Christians I know, but she’s still a Fruitcake. But then she asked me why I was so upset and I told her about M wanting more time apart, then seeing him come out of this other girl’s apartment. I cannot believe how much one guy can mess me up. I told her about all the [expletive] he’s put me through, and how he used me and cheated on me. And you know what? She didn’t give me all the Christian crap that Mom always gives me if I mention M to her. Fruitcake just sat there and listened to me vent. She did not criticize me when I was done. All she did was say Wow, and she said Ashley, I’m really sorry he’s done that to you. Then she did it. She asked me if she could pray for me. I laughed, jumped off the counter, and said I need a shower. After my shower, Christa was gone and I just sat on my couch and cried. I love M and I hate him, how is that possible? I should only hate him. I cannot figure Christa out and her little Bible-thumping world. You know, she actually reads her bible, like A LOT. I see it move around the apartment from the kitchen, to the living room, and even to the office. I should be the enemy to her, the one she wants nothing to do with. But she does not seem to think she’s better than me. It also seems that this God and Jesus stuff is real to her. I do not understand the Fruitcake at all.
January 18- Fruitcake and I went running together today. I cannot believe she actually kept up. Who knew Christians could run, an amazing thought!!
January 19- Ok, so I have to find out what makes Christa different from every Christian I’ve ever known. She does not look down her nose at me. She’s really nice to me and acts like she just wants to be my friend. It does not make sense- no one just wants to be Ashley’s friend without getting something in return, especially not a Christian. God is not for people like me. And Jacob’s supposed to be the only Christian who does not Judge me, and that’s only because he’s my brother.
January 21 – Ok, today I did it! This morning Fruitcake and I were in the kitchen, and I asked her why this God stuff was so important to her. She told me it was because He truly loved her, and He was her closest friend. So, I asked her what she meant by that, and she said exactly what I said. She said God is all about love, and God’s love is the greatest thing ever. So, then I was like, why do you live all perfect like you do? She laughed and said she was not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but she was forgiven. She said she was at this passion conference, the 20,000 people with no lives thing in Atlanta. She said she was reminded that God loves not only her, but also the rest of the world. He sent His son to die for us all, Basically the Easter story. Mom used to make me go to church all the time. I hated it. I quit going when I was in High school and able to stay at dad’s place all the time. See, God is not for people like me. God is for people like Fruitcake, Jeremy, and their friends. I’m way to screwed up for God to care at all about me. Fruitcake had to go to work, so we had to end our conversation. She said she would love to talk some more after she got home tonight, and I said maybe. Well, after she left, I was on the couch when M came over and apologized for ---- ---- ---- ---- ----, but as he said we were not together anymore, but he did say when he saw me running away he realized what a big mistake he made. He said he loved me so much and I’m the only one he wants to be with. I really want to believe him. We’ve been through so much together but can I forgive him for sleeping with that…. [Expletive] again. Besides, he’s not going anywhere in life. He’s a professional student. I asked him to leave. I told him I cannot do this again. I am moving on with my life. He left, and I cried and cried for a very long time. I do not need ---. I can live life on my own. Besides, I can get any guy I want. Who needs M?
Ok, I’m back again [expletive], it’s been a crazy day! Crazy enough to make me come back here twice in one day! So no actual homework got done today. I cried, shopped, cried, ate, cried, ran, cried, and ate again, so you get the point, there was a lot of crying today. I did not answer my cell literally the 17 times he’s called me today. Well, I’m on the couch when Fruitcake got home. She sat down and asked me if I wanted some ice cream. I cannot help but laugh. We sat there in silence for a really long time, and then I asked her how long God was gonna punish her for living with a screw up like me. She just looked at me and said Ashley, God is not like that at all. He really does love us. I told her I knew all about this God stuff and I was way far too gone, and too screwed up to even think about God’s kind of love. I am not a religious nutcase like my mom or her family. As much as I love them, they are crazy! She said, Ok you need to hear Louie talk, he’s better at this than I am. So I asked who Louie was and she said he kind of headed up the Passion conferences. So she pulls a couple of DVDs off of her shelf in the unit. She said they were just Louie talking, they were Sermons on DVD. I could not believe Fruitcake had sermons on DVD! But I agreed to watch anyway, not like I had anything better to do. So the first one we watch is called “Indescribable”, and this Louie guy talked about God differently than I’ve ever heard before. It was kind of weird. He made it sound like God was for everyone. He made it sound like the God who created the universe really cared about all of us. Then, when that was over, Fruitcake asked me what I thought. I told her I did not buy it. I told her that God is Not for people like me. She asked me if I wanted to watch another talk, a.k.a Preacher Man, I just said, Whatever, again I had nothing better to do. So we watched one called “Passport”. In this one Louie talked about how Christians did not have to hope for the best in the end, that people did not have to do enough good stuff to get to heaven. It made sense. Pretty weird huh? Then, Louie started talking about grace, and how God is a loving and forgiving God, and that he wants to forgive us. It all made sense. I could hardly breathe though. Seriously I was sitting and oxygen was not flowing through my lungs the way it should. The DVD ended, and the Fruitcake just looked up at me. I was crying and tried to regain control of my lungs and gather my thoughts. I asked her if what he said was true, that because of grace, God can love me, that God can even love the screw ups. She said yes, it sounds so easy but all we have to do is ask Christ to save us and He will. I’ve heard of salvation my whole live but never agreed with the whole idea that all I have to do is ask and everything would be ok. Then Fruitcake explained, that is where grace comes into play. She said that because God is such a gracious and loving God, that he forgives, that Christ took care of everything on the cross! And he did not just die, but most important, he rose again, Easter. Christianity is the only religion where we get to worship a God who walked the earth, died, and rose again. So there on my couch in my living room, where a lot of [expletive] is going on, I decided I wanted what Fruitcake had, that I wanted what Jacob, Jeremy, mom, and Jeff all had: I wanted grace. So I asked Jesus in my heart. I asked him to forgive me for all the mistakes I’ve made. I told God that I knew I had messed up a lot, but if He would take me, I wanted to be a Christian. So there you have it, I am a Christian! I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders and I can breathe again. I feel like everything is gonna be alright. I feel like I’ve found something I didn’t even know I was looking for. I know all this sound crazy, and I am sober, I promise! Fruitcake said she’s been praying for me since the first day she moved in and asked if I was a Christian. Then we got out the ice cream. I’m gonna get fat, with Fruitcake around!
January 28- So I wrote an email a few days ago to Louie Giglio, the sermon guy on the DVD. He wrote back, that is Crazy cool! I also drove to Jacksonville to tell Mom, Jeff, and Jacob that I am a Christian. Mom cried, and said that she was so happy that I made that decision. Jacob and I went running as well, and just did a light jog so we could talk; he was also pretty stoked about me learning about grace and stuff. Daddy told me I’m going crazy, but he loves me anyway. That is daddy’s way – it will take him a long time but Jacob says if I pray, God can use those prayers to soften Daddy’s heart, and maybe he will become a Christian too.
Guess what? Louie Giglio put my email on his blog that like a ton of people read and it got a ton of really nice comments. It was pretty cool! So much I want to write but I need to get on my British Lit paper, this class may be the death of me this semester, I really want an A. So Christa was listening to Louie’s podcast and he read my email on that as well, I cannot believe how many people are hearing about me becoming a Christian, it’s crazy crazy stuff!
February 8 – I went to a bible Study with Christa tonight, and that was actually kind of fun and cool. Everyone was like “Hey Ashley” and did not make me feel all awkward and stuff. It was like I belong there. They sang some songs which I did not know and everyone else did but it was cool. My favorite I came home and looked up the lyrics. Here they are because I love them. I don’t know why but I started crying when they were singing it, and I just wanted to lift my hands like they did. I did not, but I talked to Christa about it afterwards. She said that’s just a way of worshiping God. Jesus did take me just like He found me, with all my failures and my screw ups. He loves me just like I am. He shows me so much compassion and mercy and he ALWAYS LOVES ME. That just blows me away, you know.
Everyone needs compassion, a love that’s never failing, let mercy fall on me
Everyone needs forgiveness, the kindness of a savior, the hope of nations
My savior, He can move the mountains, my God is mighty to save, he is mighty to save
Forever, the author of salvation, he rose and conquered the grave, Jesus conquered the grave!
So Take me as you find me, all my fears and failures, fill my life again
I give my life to follow everything I believe in, now I surrender.
Shine your light and let the whole world see, we’re singing for the glory of the Risen King
April 28 – Daddy and I went to the BMW dealership and ordered me a new car which should be in at the end of June to be delivered to the San Francisco Dealership. I love my daddy and he is so proud of his princess. Jacob, Steven and I went surfing today. Well, Jacob and Steven surfed, I laid on the beach and worked on my tan; I need to look great for graduation night pics. Tomorrow I’m driving back to Gainesville after church and sushi in Riverside: we’re going to Sushi Café.
And they did. Went to church, Worshipped God, went to lunch, had sushi, headed back to Gainesville, and at 3:00 PM Ashley had an accident, and they never could stop the internal bleeding that night in order to do the surgery that would have saved her life. There was nothing written on the next page, or the rest of the pages for that matter.
Ashley’s story is one prime example of Grace in Action. If Grace wasn’t evident in our relationship with God, who knows where we’d be today! God puts people in our lives for a reason, just as he placed Fruitcake in Ashley’s life. I pray that God's grace shines on us all as we go throughout our daily lives, so that we, like Fruitcake, can change and renew others hearts to know God himself for who He truly is! Amen!
