Freely Grace, Grace Freely
Matthew 10:8
April 28, 2019
The great Economist, Milton Friedman coined the phrase, “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.” In lots of ways that’s true. When someone gives you something, oftentimes they want something in return. Maybe not at that moment, but they will be back asking for something. Think about how that works at Christmas. We joke about it, but when someone gives you a gift, we think we need to find something to give back to them.
We can get pretty jaded and cynical about stuff like this. When someone offers us something for free, no strings attached, we tend to believe there are strings attached. We wonder what’s the catch. Most of you know I love books, and when I get that email add telling me to go to a certain link and this book will be free . . . I’m there. But then comes the catch they want you to pay money for shipping or sign up for a 30 day free trial. UGH!!
Well, for the past 6 weeks we’ve been talking about grace in a series I’ve labeled GRACEOLOGY. While we didn’t talk about grace last week at Easter, in many ways we did talk about it through the resurrection.
Today, we’re going to look at grace in a different way. It’s about what we do with grace, then next week, we’ll look at offering ourselves grace, then we get to Mother’s Day and I’ll be talking about a woman from the Bible we need to know.
As we look at GRACE today . . . we need to believe and that’s a key word for me. It’s about faith in Jesus, but we have to add believing what this faith is about. Without it, really we’re sunk and the potential for life transformation is not going to happen.
We need to believe and this will be key next week as well. We need to believe. There’s nothing that God's grace cannot erase. It doesn't matter how far you’ve fallen, you can be restored. It doesn't matter how long you’ve been gone, you can come home. It doesn't matter how many and/or which sins you’ve committed, you can be forgiven. That's God's grace.
Folks, that’s something we need to believe and I may say it again next week!!
When it comes to God’s grace, we can’t think "If God is going to forgive me, why not keep on sinning and then come to God and ask for His forgiveness?" Because, ultimately, God will forgive me, if I’m really sincere - - - right?
Now, that makes about as much sense as me saying, "If the doctor can heal a broken thumb, then I should just hit it again with a hammer and ask the doctor to fix it again?"
How many people do you know who have experienced the grace of God, they’ve been profoundly changed and how many do you think will say, "Hey, that was fun. I think I'll do it again." Sin is destructive. No one knows that better than the people who have lived in it.
BUT, the power of God’s grace is that He can pull you out of it and restore you and heal you and make your life good again ... and you’d have to be crazy to want to put yourself through that misery all over again.
God's grace restores you and changes you. When you experience God's grace, you want to be different. And you begin to recognize when you’ve fallen short, you grasp the moments when you mess up, when you sin, when you make that hurtful comment to someone . . . we begin to better understand God’s grace in light of our sinfulness.
We’ve been talking about receiving God’s grace and I want to look at what it means to extend God’s grace to others.
There is a sense in the Bible - - - I want to be careful here, that you reap what you sow. Now, that is biblical, but we can take that to an extreme and fall into the health and wealth gospel and that’s not an accurate meaning of this.
In Luke 6:35, Jesus said –
37 “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven;
38 give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap.
For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”
Now, we are called to give grace because we have received grace. We give not so that we will receive from others or God, but we give because we have already received from God.
This passage can be a little confusing, so let me quickly unpack it for you.
Jesus is giving us some amazing life instructional skills. Too often we don’t like it and don’t accept it. Jesus is not telling us to skip using discernment and to forget about church discipline, instead, He’s admonishing His listeners to STOP their tendency to criticize and find fault with others.
Jesus explained if you think you can judge others and condemn others, then you too will be judeged and condemned. So, stop judging others. Also, understand that when we judge the root of jedging someone means you’re looking into their motives, their heart, which we can’t do. We can hold another person accountable for their actions, but we can’t always pinpoint the reason for their actions.
For example, if I get angry and yell and scream, Debbie can call me out on it. It’s not acceptable behavior. But she can’t judge me, because she may not know what the source, what the heart issue is that led to that outburst. Hopefully that makes a little sense.
Jesus also adds the need to forgive others. As God has forgiven us, we need to extend that grace and mercy to others as well. And let me add this too - - forgiveness sometimes takes a little time. The bigger the hurt, the longer it may take to work through and forgive. And that fact that you forgive, does not mean you need to have a relationship with the person who hurt you.
OK, next - - Jesus said –
38 give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap.
For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”
We are called to go beyond judging and condemning others. We want to help someone find wholeness. So, Jesus tells us when we give to others, it will be given to us. Now, the motivation for giving comes into question here. We don’t give thinking, “OK God, look at what I did? And all you people look at what I did!” We give because we have received!
So, what we are called to do is this, and I’m going to try to illustrate this as best as I can so you can see. I’m going to do it with rice.
We are to take a good measure, which means we don’t skimp on what we give.
Pressed down means we make sure there’s more room in the container.
Shaken together means you shake up the container to make sure the bigger pieces fall to the bottom and you can then add more to it so that the amount will be running over the top.
And it will be put into your lap is the two fold image that it will be placed into your lap, as you put your hands under your cloak which forms a container.
For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you. In other words, God will richly bless that type of an attitude. That’s the type of grace we are supposed to extend to others as well. It’s really the grace God gives to us.
Another verse to help us see this comes from what Jesus said in Matthew 8. As Jesus was instructing the disciples when they were being sent out to minister to the people, He said --
8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. You received without paying; give without pay. – Matthew 10:8
It’s the second part of the verse that I want to look at. Now, another way that you’ve maybe heard this verse is
FREELY YOU HAVE RECEIVED, FREELY GIVE.
That’s the mission of the disciples. They are to proclaim the kingdom of God to the Jewish people - and whoever receives them will be blessed and many will be healed.
Jesus tells them, You received without paying, give without pay.
At its root level, this is what it means.
When Jesus used the word FREELY or WITHOUT PAY - that means
you undeservedly received something. Something was freely given to you, not done out of obligation or complusion.
Then when you receive, you just don’t stick your hands out and are passively receiving, but in this situation, Jesus wants us to understand that receiving is action oriented. It’s what we don’t want our kids to do when someone gives them something - - they aggressively grab it and take hold of what was offered to them.
YET, this is the very image Jesus is portraying with this sentence.
So, Jesus is telling us I have given something to you which you didn’t deserve, I gave it to you freely and without obligation. Now, when I give it to you, I don’t want you to passively accept this gift, instead I want you to grab hold of it and don’t let go.
(ILLUSTRATE with LILY?)
In all honesty, I could stop here! We shouldn’t even sing a final song, but you leave with that image . . . BUT . . . . . . .
In the final minutes, I want you to know what to do with this - -
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Too many of us spend too much of our time focused on what we lack: I need more money. I need more friends. I need more customers. I need more time. I need more attention. I need more this, I need more that.
Jesus calls us to live a different way. Instead of focusing on what's missing in your life, focus on what's existing in your life. Then, out of gratitude for what you have been given, give to others. Can you imagine how that would change our focus if we lived that way.
We’ve received the amazing gift of God’s grace, mercy and forgiveness.
Remember,
Grace means - we receive what we don’t deserve
Mercy means - we don’t receive what we deserve
In its simplest terms -
we receive what we don’t deserve is the gift of salvation, the forgiveness of our sins through the death of Jesus. We receive it, even though we don’t deserve it because of our sinfulness.
Then we don’t receive what we deserve which is death. Ultimately, we receive the hope of eternal life in Christ but we don’t deserve it because of our sinfulness, yet God extends that to us through Jesus, and that’s part of the hope of the resurrection.
If you're a follower of Jesus Christ, you have freely received forgiveness. Jesus came into your life and has forgiven you of your sins. Not just the small, little sins - - - but He has forgiven you of all your sins.
The Bible tells us God has trampled your sins under His feet, that as far as the east is from the west, that’s how much He’s removed them from you, He’s cast them into the depths of the sea - and He will remember you sins no more! You are forgiven! You don't deserve it, none of us do, but you have received it.
There are times when we commit a sin, ask for forgiveness, then commit that very same sin again. And that second or third or 20th time you ask for forgiveness . . . does God withhold His grace and mercy? No way! He forgives you! He knows we are all a work in progress. When we fall, He’s there! Always!
This is what God does for us. We’ve been given all the forgiveness we will ever need. And what did we do to deserve it? Absolutely nothing. It was freely given to us.
The Bible tells us that we should forgive others the same way. Paul wrote –
32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. – Ephesians 4:32
13 bear with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. – Colossians 3:13
Think about this - - and it’s kind of a crazy thought - - Nobody in my life has sinned against me as many times as I have sinned against Christ. Have you ever considered that? And He still keeps on forgiving us, offering us grace and mercy.
For me, that means when I'm tempted to give up on someone, ask yourself - Has God given up on you? He hasn't given up on me, so I can't give up on you. He hasn't given up on you, so please don't give up on me.
I really want to talk about another way to give, and that’s financial. But, I’m going to be honest, not that I shy away from talking about money, I believe what we’re talking about will get forgotten about if I shift topics. So, on another day, we’ll jump onto the money and blessings and grace topic.
For today, I want you to recognize what God has done for us. The power of His grace and mercy which comes to us as forgiveness.
When you are in need of His grace, when you’re struggling, suffering under the weight of your own sinfulness, your own shortcomings, whatever it might be, please understand that God loves you - - He sent His Son to die for you.
But this Son, Jesus, rose again, to give us a great hope. So, when we’re struggling, we have a living God who offers us hope.
And when God offers us hope, grab it, don’t be shy and prim and proper about it. Be assertive and aggressive when God offers you His grace, His power, His mercy, His love, His strength.
It will change your life . . . forever!
