Scripture: Ephesians 2:8-9; Ruth 2:1-17
Theme: 5 G’s for 2020
Title: Grace
INTRO:
Grace and peace in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit!
Welcome to a New Year!
One of the interesting things that happens each year is that our dictionaries update and add new words. Words that once meant one thing take on a whole new meaning. Words for example like
+ BLOCK
Old Days: “to be placed in front of something, such as a road or path, so that people or things cannot pass through.”
Present Day: to prevent someone from contacting you on a social network like Twitter, or from viewing your profile on Facebook.
+Cloud
Old Days: “a visible mass of particles of condensed vapor (as water or ice) suspended in the atmosphere of a planet (as the earth) or moon.”
Present Days: “any of several parts of the Internet that allow online processing and storage of documents and data as well as electronic access to software and other resources.”
And then there are other words that are brand new words like Phonesia, Disconfelt and Intaxication:
+Phonesia - The affliction of dialing a phone number and forgetting whom you were calling just as they answer.
+Disconfelt - To sterilize the piece of candy you dropped on the floor by blowing on it, assuming this will somehow remove all the germs.
+Intaxication - Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.
With all that being said this morning; there are some well worn words; words that have been around since before even human history that we need to retain. Words that we need to cherish and make sure that they are a part of our lives; this year, next year and for the rest of our lives.
One of those words is the Word – “GRACE”
Grace is an old word. In fact, it is one of the oldest words in existence. In Hebrew the words translated as Grace are the words Chen (??) and Hesed. The oldest of these is Chen which has a rather interesting word picture that goes with it.
The Hebrew people were concrete thinkers. They thought in practical terms. In this regard, they differed greatly from the Greeks who used a great deal of abstract thinking – thinking in ideas, principles and the like.
The Hebrews wanted to learn and experience things through the use of their God given five senses. They wanted to hear, touch, taste, smell and see something. While they did think at times think abstractly, creatively, analytically, critically and even divergently and convergently their desire was to think in concrete ways
Now, when it came to the Hebrew word Chen (grace) it was made up of two root letters chet and nun. These letters stood for two very important things:
+For life – especially for the protection of life
+For a tent – for a tent which is pitched in the wilderness
In other words; the word grace was to be capture by this concrete thought.
+A certain person would be living in a tent.
+A storm or a threatening situation would arise.
+A person would be traveling or attempting to set up their own camp but for some reason could not set up their camp would need immediate help.
+The first person would open the doors of their tent and welcome the other person inside providing a time of protection, provision and welcoming. They would be invited to stay until all danger was over. And in some cases like Jacob with Laban they would be invited to stay and become a part of the family.
To share grace (either CHEN or Hesed) was to share one’s life; one’s tent and to do all you could to provide a time of protection, provisions and join with them heart, mind and soul.
Often times we rely on the word grace we find in the New Testament. There we find the Greek form of the word grace – charis. Charis has a more limited meaning and is more abstract in nature. Charis means unmerited, underserved, unearned kindness and favor given to someone.
But too often that definition gets lost in all its abstract thought and that is not the true meaning of the word grace as understood by both the Old and New Testament.
The Bible is clear that for Grace to be understood correctly, it has to be experienced. Grace in other words has to be touched, smelled, heard, tasted and seen. Grace has to have its concrete values.
Thankfully for us the Bible shows us this very idea over and over in both the Old and New Testament. Let’s look at a few of them this morning and let’s allow them to help us deepen our understanding of God’s Grace so that we can start this New Year off living in Grace and pouring out Grace.
1. We see grace operating in Genesis chapter 3 immediately after Adam and Eve’s rebellion.
Adam and Eve had been given a perfect world. The Garden of Eden was a little piece of Heaven on earth. And yet, the Bible tells us that Adam and Eve rebelled against God’s will. They deliberately decided to disobey God’s commands even though they understood that to do so would bring about chaos, destruction and death.
And we all know from the Bible that their rebellion should have resulted in both their physical and spiritual death. Mankind should have been immediately annihilated. But God’s amazing Grace steps in. God reached down and with grace scaled back their punishment.
While mankind did immediately die spiritually; his physical death was delayed. And it was delayed on Divine Purpose. By delaying mankind’s physical death the Lord provided the means for mankind to be redeemed. Because of God’s amazing grace was given the opportunity to experience a Rebirth - Spiritually, Mentally and Socially in this life with the promise of being given a whole New Body in the life to come. All of this is because of Grace – CHEN, HESED, CHARIS.
Sin caused us to be thrown into the wilderness of a world tainted and ruled by sin, guilt, shame and death. Sin caused us to enter into a world full of violence, chaos, destruction and death. But God did not allow us to go alone to fend for ourselves. God did not throw us out of the Garden and abandon us.
If God had done that then we would not have survived. We were not made to survive in sin. For sin is unsurvivable. Wherever sin rules all life will perish. Wherever sin rules there will be bondage, chaos and death.
God never wanted that type of life for us. So, the Bible is clear that The LORD GOD ALMIGHTY went with Adam and Eve and all the generations of their children down through the ages.
The LORD has spent all of humanity’s time on His Good Earth doing His best to provide for us GRACE – a tent of protection, safety and a way for us to be transformed and restored into His family. God has done, is doing and will do all He can to help us live a life of Grace – a life living in His Tent and through His Holy Spirit He has chosen to live in our redeemed and restored tent.
2. We see Grace in Genesis 6 with Noah and His Family
In Genesis 6:8 we find the first time the word Chen is spelled out
“Noah found CHEN – (grace/favor) with the LORD.”
The earth had become a living hell. Society had broken down. The family had broken down. Sin was running and ruling rampant. Mankind had chosen not only to rebel against God but to make an alliance with evil (Satan and his demons) that ended up creating all kinds of odd hybrids and sin filled people all across the earth. Mankind had literally sold its soul over to evil and the effects were devastating.
Listen again to the words of Genesis 6:5-6
“The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the LORD said, ‘I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.”
The sinfulness of man had become so great that it was not only destroying mankind but it was destroying everything; all of creation. The LORD GOD ALMIGHTY, the Good God of Creation grieved that He had formed man from the ground and had breathed His Spirit into Him. The LORD GOD ALMIGHTY grieved that He had created our world; for all of creation (from the sea, to the land to the sky) had become tainted. All of creation had become sin sick, sin filled and sin driven.
As bad as we think our world is today it is nowhere near where it was in Noah’s days. I don’t even want to think about how bad the world must have been for God to have been grieved that He had made the earth in the first place.
But then we read verse 9 – “… Noah found favor (chen/????) - grace in the eyes of the LORD”
Now, we must be careful not to make a super saint out of Noah and his family. For it doesn’t take long after the Flood to see that they were not perfect nor did they make perfect choices.
In spite of all of that, the Bible tells us that God was once again using grace – this time building not a tent but an Ark. An ark that would provide safety, protection and provision for creation to face the biggest danger it had and would ever face. God was building an ark of grace that would enable creation to survive. God’s grace would not give up on His Earth Project.
God could have just wiped it all clean. He could have just obliterated the whole planet and removed it from the sky. God could have destroyed all of creation: animals, birds, creeping things, things that live in the waters and mankind. He could have done it in an instant. But to do so would be against Him – His Grace – His CHEN and His Hesed Love.
You see, Grace is not an abstract term. It is not some theoretical proposition. Grace is not intangible nor is it just a nice little concept to debate over or to write a white research paper about.
Grace involves real human flesh. It involves wood and tar, straw and plants. It involves dogs and cats, sheep and lions and doves and ravens. It involves all of creation. That is what Grace is about – it is about living and being protected, provided for and brought into one’s family; in this case, the family of God.
That is what Noah and his family and therefore in and through them the rest of humanity experienced. And that is what we can experience this morning – God’s Amazing Grace. Grace that is real. Grace that is to be experienced and poured out on others.
3. We see grace spilled out over and over in the Story of Ruth.
By the time we get to chapter two of the book of Ruth we find a woman who is a foreigner, a refugee, poverty stricken and helpless. Since the death of her father-in-law and her husband she and Naomi had fallen on hard times.
Her day is rather simple. She’s still wearing her mourning clothes but she has to put all of that to the side for the day. She gets up as early as she can and walks to a grain field; whatever grain fields are coming into season and whoever fields allows beggars to pick up the scraps.
It is the only way she and Naomi will survive. It is the only way for her to work. There is no work for a Moabite widow in ancient Israel. Her and Naomi were considered to be cursed by God. How else can you explain that both their husbands had already died? The locals would have seen them both as cursed women.
It is in chapter two that we read how God’s grace began to come into full action. It is in chapter two that we see the love and grace that a certain man named Boaz begins to pour out on Ruth. No doubt he saw still in her clothes of mourning doing her best to eek out a living for her and Naomi. He saw her struggling each day to get enough for them both to live.
But then I think she also caught his eye. There was something different about her than the other women that were working in the field. Maybe it was the brown color of her skin or the almond shape of her eyes. Maybe it was the way she was still being faithful in mourning for her lost husband.
There was something about her that the Holy Spirit used to attract his eyes, his mind and his heart. He graciously opens the door of grace for her to harvest more than she would have normally been allowed.
The Bible tells us that Boaz sneaks in a first date there in 2:14ff as he asks her to come up and have some bread and wine. He didn’t normally do such a thing. It was out of character for a man of his wealth and position. We have to realize that God was at work here working through grace to do a new work in and through the both of them.
Ruth accepts and after their first “date” Boaz tells his workers to allow her to even work beside them. Ruth would be allowed to not only take from the leftovers but she would now be allowed to take the prime grain.
Ruth may not have understood it but Boaz was not just giving grace, the LORD was touching this bachelor’s heart. Boaz started having feelings for her; even though she was a Moabite widow and supposedly a cursed woman.
Well, before Ruth left that day she had over 35 lbs of wheat to carry home along with part of the meal that she had eaten with Boaz. This meant that she had gotten more in one day than she usually did in a week – now that is grace at work.
All of this did not slip by Naomi. She was overjoyed seeing all that grain, the rest of the meal (which no doubt she was given) and the twinkle that must have come into Ruth’s eyes. It had been a while since a man had paid so much attention to her. It was the first note of hope that they had experienced in a long time.
All of this was grace at work. Naomi knew what God’s favor and grace meant. She had once been the recipient of it and now knew that God was again working for her and for Ruth.
That is why in chapter three she sets up the date of a life time. She tells Ruth to put off her mourning clothes and to get out her best dress. She tells Ruth to break out her best make up and perfume. If God grace was at work Naomi was not going to waste it. She was going to go all in for God doing something for Ruth and for her.
And while chapter three may be rated at least rated PG – 13 the truth is God was in the background working in and through Ruth and Boaz to get them together. After a hard day’s work, a stomach full of good food and a little wine the sight of a gorgeous woman doesn’t go unnoticed; especially a woman that you have had your eye on already. Especially a woman who looked at radiant as Ruth.
Well, you know the rest of the story. They get married and have a child named Obed who has a child named Jesse who has a child named David. Who, when you look at his life you see God’s grace being poured out over and over and over again.
You can read all of these stories and miss out on God’s grace because you are stuck up in the clouds of thinking unmerited and undeserved favor. Or you can read page after page in the Bible and begin to understand that in very concrete ways God’s grace is on each and ever page.
+A woman who has lost her husband and who really has no future.
+A woman who has come to a land where people would look down on her and when they could even spit on her.
+A woman who was so poor she had to work each morning in the beggar’s corners of the grain field.
+A woman who was still wearing mourning clothes which by the way were not designed to make you look attractive at all – black, no make-up nor perfume.
And why was she this way? Because she was filled with CHEN and HESED grace and favor. She was pouring out her life in grace to take care of Naomi whose only relationship she had was her dead husband’s mother.
There is a divine law here at work. It is the Law of Grace – for Grace begets grace. When we give grace we see Heaven pouring out grace in bucket loads. That is what we see in Ruth’s story.
This morning the more gracious we are the more God pours out favor, blessing and grace on us.
Don’t believe it? Not convinced?
Look back to the Abrahamic Blessing God shares in Genesis 12:1-3
“Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” – Genesis 12:1-3
God promises to give us blessings. God promises to give us blessings especially when we are gracious to others. Grace opens the door for us to find freedom, peace, joy and love.
4. Finally, let’s look at one more story. This one we find in Matthew 14:22 – 32. It is of course the story of Peter walking on the water.
It is an amazing story. Peter tries to do and is able to do the impossible. He tries to walk on water and sure enough in the power of Jesus he does just that; he walks on water. He walks on water even when the wind begins to kick up all the waves around him.
But then of course we all know that he took his eyes off of Jesus and began to sink under the water.
That could have been a great lesson about judgment and the wrath of God. Jesus could have let him die and then got into the boat and sternly looked at the rest of the disciples and said:
“That serves him right. He should have never taken his eyes off of me. Now, let that be a lesson to all of you. Without me you will perish. The next time I tell you to do something then you better do it or else you better have some scuba gear. Now, let’s go and tell Peter’s family that he died because he wasn’t obedient.”
But that is not how God operates. God’s judgment is always the last resort. God loves us and wants to pour out His grace on all of us. He gives us more than one chance does He not?
Verse 31 says – “JESUS IMMEDIATELY REACHED OUT HIS HAND AND TOOK HOLD OF PETER ….”
Jesus did share a teaching moment with Peter but it was after He had saved him. The teaching lesson followed Grace. It was not lesson first then grace. But Grace first and then the lesson.
At that time Peter didn’t have time to have a debate or to hear a lesson. His lungs were being filled with salt water and he was sinking to the bottom of the Sea of Galilee. Which by the way that was somewhere near 140 deep.
I don’t know about you but I can’t live 140 feet under the water without some type of scuba gear. Peter couldn’t either.
Simon Peter needed grace – not in a minute or in an hour. He needed grace instantly and Jesus did what God always does – He immediately reached out and grabbed Peter. He immediately poured out grace and favor.
The Devil tries his best to get us misunderstand God. He tries to get us to see God as an Angry God. A God who is seeking how He can cast us into Hell. A God who is wrathful and wants nothing more to judge us and condemn us.
That is not the God of the Bible. That is not the Good God of Creation. That is not the Father, Son and Holy Spirit who came to earth to live among us, die for us and make a way for our redemption. That is not the God who wants to live in us and through us.
Our God is full of Grace.
There are so many stories we could share this morning that speak of Grace in the Bible. We could go on and on and talk about how God by grace
+Gives a Promise Son to a Woman who Laughed at Him (Sarah)
+Gives Living Water to a Woman who does her best to ridicule Him (Woman at the Well)
+Gives a Promise King to a woman who has been abused and to a man who put her husband to death. (King David and Bathsheba)
+Gives freedom to a slave who has run away and now asks for forgiveness (Onesimus and Philemon)
+Speaks such words as “Father Forgive Them” when they have nailed Him to a Cross.
This morning Grace is to be experienced. Grace is to be Received. Grace is to be lived out. Grace is to be poured out.
This morning as we come to a close let me share a couple of spiritual nuggets before we take Communion together:
+When we get to Heaven there will be no boasting about our Good Deeds – all of will be singing songs of thanksgiving for God’s Amazing Grace.
+Jesus gives out Invitations instead of receiving Applications. Let that thought live with you today – Jesus gives out Invitations instead of receiving Applications.
+Ours (Yours and mine) is not a story about what we have done wrong but it is a story of what God has done for us and in us.
This morning as we come to the LORD’s Supper let us begin the New Year receiving and giving God’s grace. Let us relish in the fact that God loves to do nothing more than pour out His grace – His saving and sanctifying Grace on all of us.
This morning I invite you to Experience the meal of grace – taste grace, touch grace and be filled with grace.
If you have never asked Jesus to forgive you, to redeem you and to come into your heart and life then as we prepare for Communion this morning all you need to do is to:
+Confess our sins to the LORD
+Believe that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life
+Repent – change our hearts and our minds. Turn from our sins and invite Jesus to take charge of our lives.
+Choose to follow Jesus – Choose to make Jesus both Savior and LORD. Surrender your life to Jesus and each day choose that He is Your LORD!
And then go out and give grace –
Today, you may be here and someone has done you wrong – in truth they owe you:
+They may owe you an innocent childhood
+They may owe you an amount of money
+They may even owe you a happy marriage that they stole
+They may owe you time that they have stolen
+They may owe you an apology or at the very least an explanation
Today, begin the walk of giving them grace.
It will not be easy but GRACE will enable you to push on, to begin to heal and to enjoy life with more freedom and joy. It will not be easy but as Ephesians 4 reminds us if we don’t both receive and give grace the spirit of bitterness and hate will come in and set up residence and who wants that to be their final days – a picture of bitterness and hate.
Grace makes all the difference. It did for Adam and Eve. It did for Noah and his family. It did for Ruth and Boaz. It did for Peter and it will for us today.
Let me invite you to a meal of grace – a meal that Jesus gives us to enjoy and be forever filled with His Presence and Grace.
Songs/Prayer/Communion/Blessing
