Transcript

Gift Policy · The Holy Pause

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SPEAKER_00: A reading from scripture, Romans chapter 3, verses 21 through 31.
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SPEAKER_00: But now,
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SPEAKER_00: apart from the law,
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SPEAKER_00: the righteousness of God has been made known,
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SPEAKER_00: to which the law and the prophets testify.
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SPEAKER_00: This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.
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SPEAKER_00: There is no difference between Jew and Gentile,
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SPEAKER_00: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
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SPEAKER_00: and all are justified freely by his grace and Through the redemption that came
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SPEAKER_00: by Christ Jesus.
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SPEAKER_00: God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement through the shedding of his blood
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SPEAKER_00: to be received by faith.
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SPEAKER_00: He did this to demonstrate his righteousness because
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SPEAKER_00: of God's forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished.
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SPEAKER_00: God did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time so as to be just and
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SPEAKER_00: the one who justifies those who have faith.
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SPEAKER_00: Where then is boasting?
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SPEAKER_00: It is excluded.
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SPEAKER_00: Because of what law?
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SPEAKER_00: The law that requires works?
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SPEAKER_00: No, because of the law that requires faith.
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SPEAKER_00: For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.
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SPEAKER_00: Or is God the God of Jews only?
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SPEAKER_00: Is he not the God of Gentiles too?
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SPEAKER_00: Yes, of Gentiles too,
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SPEAKER_00: since there is only one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and
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SPEAKER_00: the circumcised through the same faith.
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SPEAKER_00: Do we then nullify the law by this faith?
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SPEAKER_00: Not at all.
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SPEAKER_00: Rather, we uphold the law.
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SPEAKER_00: So from time to time, we get lost in the details.
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SPEAKER_00: We get lost in the process and the rules and the structure and the sentences and
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SPEAKER_00: the words and the breakdown of each sentence and grammatical.
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SPEAKER_00: We get so lost sometimes in the details that we begin to think those things,
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SPEAKER_00: the sentences and words themselves are holy.
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SPEAKER_00: We begin to worship those things instead of worshiping The one who created all of those things.
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SPEAKER_00: From time to time, my kids get a little particular.
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SPEAKER_00: They like to be right.
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SPEAKER_00: They like to know more than mom and dad about things.
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SPEAKER_00: They like to especially know more about things than their brother or sister.
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SPEAKER_00: And so they get a little particular.
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SPEAKER_00: They start arguing about very, very small things.
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SPEAKER_00: This morning,
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SPEAKER_00: as we were getting into the car,
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SPEAKER_00: My youngest asked if we could go to my middle child's school first
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SPEAKER_00: and drop him off first.
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SPEAKER_00: And I said, well, no, because his school doesn't open until 9 and your school opens at 7.30.
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SPEAKER_00: To which my middle child responded, well, it's 9.15.
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SPEAKER_00: Now, I want to be clear.
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SPEAKER_00: Drop off starts at 8.45.
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SPEAKER_00: So nine was an average, a median, a mean, whatever.
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SPEAKER_00: So we were both right,
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SPEAKER_00: but in our desire to be right,
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SPEAKER_00: we forgot about the actual point of the conversation,
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SPEAKER_00: which was to say that one child's school opened earlier than the other,
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SPEAKER_00: and that's why he got dropped off first.
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SPEAKER_00: We can get lost in this argument about how we are saved.
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SPEAKER_00: Some people make a whole religion out of a process.
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SPEAKER_00: Say these exact words, do these exact things, check these exact boxes.
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SPEAKER_00: It's almost like casting a magic spell over our lives.
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SPEAKER_00: If we just say the right things and do the right things,
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SPEAKER_00: if we just show up in the right ways,
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SPEAKER_00: if we wear the right clothes,
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SPEAKER_00: if we don't wear the wrong clothes,
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SPEAKER_00: if we eat the right food or don't eat the wrong foods,
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SPEAKER_00: that is what will save us in the end.
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SPEAKER_00: Paul pushes against that so strongly here.
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SPEAKER_00: He tells us instead that we are saved by faith.
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SPEAKER_00: We are saved by grace through faith is how the reformer John Calvin put it.
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SPEAKER_00: And faith is a gift.
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SPEAKER_00: Faith is not something you do.
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SPEAKER_00: Faith isn't even a verb.
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SPEAKER_00: It's a noun.
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SPEAKER_00: Faith is a gift.
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SPEAKER_00: That is given to all people by the God who loves us unconditionally.
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SPEAKER_00: God's grace is poured out onto us despite the fact that sometimes we choose to argue
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SPEAKER_00: about 9 and 915.
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SPEAKER_00: We cannot be saved by grammar.
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SPEAKER_00: We cannot be saved by Diligently following a set of principles and rules,
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SPEAKER_00: we cannot be saved by anything that we do.
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SPEAKER_00: Instead, our lives, our hearts, belong to God.
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SPEAKER_00: And that is the good news.
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SPEAKER_00: Because some days I like to get in an argument too.
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SPEAKER_00: Some days I like to be picky too.
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SPEAKER_00: Some days I like to be right.
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SPEAKER_00: And on those days, I'm missing the point.
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SPEAKER_00: So try it on today.
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SPEAKER_00: I wonder how you might approach today if you see it as a gift and not a set
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SPEAKER_00: of things to accomplish.
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SPEAKER_00: What if today your value isn't wrapped up and what you produce
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SPEAKER_00: and how much you get done But in how often you can be aware of God's gift of grace
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SPEAKER_00: in your life.
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SPEAKER_00: And so today I ask you to be aware.
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SPEAKER_00: I invite you to notice where God is showing up in your life.
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SPEAKER_00: And tonight, before you go to bed, I want you to make a list.
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SPEAKER_00: Pull out your notes app or write it down on a piece of paper or just say it out loud
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SPEAKER_00: to yourself.
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SPEAKER_00: But make a list of all the ways God showed up in your life.
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SPEAKER_00: I bet you noticed some different things happening.
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SPEAKER_00: Join me in prayer.
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SPEAKER_00: God, we give thanks for your gift of grace.
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SPEAKER_00: We give thanks that you save us from ourselves.
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SPEAKER_00: You save us from our desires to make rules where you create freedom.
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SPEAKER_00: We thank you for the faith that you give us free of charge.
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SPEAKER_00: Despite who we are, not because of it.
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SPEAKER_00: We ask that you help us to offer that grace to others.
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SPEAKER_00: To live into the faith that you have given us.
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SPEAKER_00: And to be the kind of people who see that grace everywhere and every day.
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[music]