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Grace For The Race Pt 3 · Mental Health and the Mission of the Church

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Hey everybody, looking forward to hanging out for a minute here.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we've been talking about grace for the race, and that's just a preacher way of saying how to appropriate what we need, what we want, uh, what we hope to get from God um for this journey of life, to uh meet us where we are, and by the way, we all start at different places, which is kind of important, but uh, and how to acquire and pull and receive and enjoy what uh what God's provided for us, what Jesus uh what we like to say paid for through the process of his death, burial, and resurrection, um, and his life, quite honestly.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: But uh what we're gonna do today is read a scripture, a handful of scriptures, about eight or so.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because I believe if you're gonna understand grace, and remember we're basing this on John 1:14, that uh Jesus was full of grace and truth.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: Grace and truth.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I think the order is important, and that's kind of what we're gonna talk about today.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: That a lot of times what robs us is we have the sequence wrong.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: You know, where the alphabet's A, B, C, D, we might go A C B D or A D C B or something, and we get the order out.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: You know, if you're spelling a word cat, uh C A T, then if you get the order out, you get something different.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: A C T Act, T A C tact.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: The order is important, and you'll see what I mean as we read this scripture.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: So let's we're gonna be looking at Romans chapter 4, verses 1 through 8.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: And in these verses, and there's so many more, but you gotta start somewhere, but you've gotta you've got to allow God's word, what he said about how things work in his kingdom, to shape your reality.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus said in John 8, 31 and 32, remember that we're talking about grace and truth, but what he said in John 8, 31 and 32 is that you shall know the truth, and the truth will make you free.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: And um there's certain truths that you just gotta get your head wrapped around.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: Then, and as that verse said, you shall know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: There's certain truths that are so liberating, and this is one of them.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: So let's uh slow down, pay attention, put your hat, your thinking cap on, and uh maybe later go back and revisit these verses and stew in them, soak in them, meditate in them for a bit.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: All right, Romans 4.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: What then shall we say that Abraham, remember Abraham, and we're considered heirs, you know, partakers of the promise to Abraham?
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, is found?
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: Now he's speaking to Jews, so that by birth they were children of Abraham.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: We are also, but by second birth, don't have time to get into all that, but as Christians, what then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to flesh, is found?
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: All right, let's slow that down.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: If Abraham was justified, justified is an interesting word.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's the word made righteous.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's the same word righteous, but in the context of being made into that thing called righteousness.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: What is righteousness?
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: Righteousness, this simple right standing.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: What it really means is to be in a state of having pleased God, in a state of total welcome, acceptance, and um embracing, belonging with God.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, it's being in a state before Almighty Holy God as if I've never sinned, justified just as if I'd just as if I'd never sinned.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: So if Abraham was placed in this condition as if he'd never sinned by works, by works, what are works?
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: Well, when you go to work and punch, you uh you expect to be paid.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: You've agreed to some salary.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna work for this hour, eight hours, 40 hours, and I expect to be paid for it.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: Work is first, pay comes because of the work.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: So if Abraham was made pleasing to God by his works, by the effort that he put in, he has something to boast about, but not before God.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, that process, that mentality, that strategy will not work with God.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: What does it go on to say?
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: For what does the scripture say?
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: How many of you know that'd be a good thing to figure out?
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm living this way and God should honor it.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: Well, what does the scripture say?
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: Are you living in a way that is uh in alignment with God in the way he does things?
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: So, verse three, what does the scripture say?
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: Abraham believed God.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, Abraham did something.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: Let's not, don't you, don't you miss that?
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: Abraham did something, but what he did was he believed God.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: What in the world does that mean?
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: He believed that God was a person of integrity and that God meant what he said and said what he meant, and he adjusted his behavior, his actions, his thoughts accordingly.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: Well, what does that mean?
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: All right, time out here.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: The verse before said, if Abraham was justified by works, then he's got something to boast about.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: He worked, God owed him, and God paid him with righteousness.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: What this is saying is not so.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: Abraham simply said, God, I believe you.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: I don't trust in me or my abilities, my sweat and toil, my effort to please you.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: I trust your effort to bestow gift, G-I-F-T, gift me with having pleased you.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: And when he crossed from, I'm done trying to earn or deserve it into I'm simply going to receive it, he received it.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: Abraham believed God, believed God.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: That's all he did.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: I don't mean all he did like it's no big deal.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's a big deal.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, in this day and time, it's a really big deal because faith is uh it's spurned and disdained.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, he believed God and it put him in a place of being pleasing to God, welcomed by God.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 4 explains this a little bit.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: Now, to the one who works, all right, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I don't, I don't, I don't take anything for free.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: You know, maybe you name your you know your family and you're like the juds, that's my last name, the juds.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: We don't we don't accept gifts.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: We're it we're not gonna be indebted to any man.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: Well, bless your darling heart.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: Have at it.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: Uh but that mentality is not gonna work as a Christian because Christianity is all about being indebted.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's all about being indebted to God because He's done so much to you, for you, around you, in you, with you, that there's no way on earth you can have any other response but a sense of indebtedness and gratitude.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: Not a somber, heavy indebtedness, but just a joyful, like, God, I can't believe what you've done for me, what you've given me.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: So now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, if your mentality is in any sneaky little way, well, if I do this, God will like me better.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: If I don't do this, God will be more pleased with me.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: No, I believe God when he said Jesus died for my sins.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus was the propitiations, the fancy word, substitute.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: I believe God when Scripture says he who knew no sin, 2 Corinthians 5, 21, I believe.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: He who knew no sin became sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: All right, time out.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus knew no sin, hanging on the cross, my sin, your sin, all of our sin, was in essence put upon him.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: He became our sin, and he died the penalty that we all should, that we do, we deserve.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, he he accepted the wages that we'd all earned, to be honest, and he did that so that he could then say, now I want to give you what I deserve, Jesus.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: Now he wants to give you what his hard work has earned as wages.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: So now to the one who works, thinking that your benefit from God depends on your productivity, you might say.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: His wage is not credited as favor, but as what is due.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know about you guys, but come on, man.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: Anytime you go to God with the mentality, you owe me something.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my goodness.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: Gosh, we are so indebted.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: We're the curve, the the seesaw is so uneven.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: But let's read on.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: But the one who works his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: But to the one who does not work, oh man, you kidding me?
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I want to please you today, God.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: Well then don't just do something, sit there.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: What did you just say?
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: I want to please you, God.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: Well then don't just do something, sit there.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: What do you mean?
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: Sit there and recognize that what pleases God is when you realize that it isn't about what you do, it's about what's already done for you, and you receive it.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: God, I want to please you today.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: Well, don't just do something, Chipper.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: Sit there.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: Sit there and let my grace.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: What is grace?
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: Grace is when you get what you haven't earned or deserved.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: Grace is when you don't get what you really deserve.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: And you do get what you don't deserve.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: Well, God, I want to please you today.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Chipper, then don't just do something sit there.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: Sit there and let my grace, waves of it, just flush over you.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: Now, here's what I said about order.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: Ephesians 2.10 says that we've been created uh in Christ Jesus for good works.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: For good works.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the deal.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: You're not saved by good works, but you are saved for good works.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's an order thing.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: I'm saved by grace, by nothing I contribute.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, other than simply bowing before the truth that God presents of who Jesus was and what he did.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: But from that place of pleasing him, don't just do something, sit there, because you gotta sit there long enough till that becomes real to you.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: And then from that place, you go do cool stuff with God.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: You work from righteousness, from being welcomed by God, from pleasing him.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: You work from it, not for it.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what grace is really all about.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: I hope that make it that's making sense to you.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: Take some time and read Romans chapter 4, verses 1 through 8, and and chew on them, read them, chew on it, chew on it, chew on it, and um, and really slow it down and think through the the simple, gosh, simple, in your face, boom, reality of what he's talking about.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: Love you guys.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: Love meeting with you like this, and uh look forward to doing more of it.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: All right, later, man.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: Bye.