CRCF””2/7/10
Ridiculous Grace
Ephesians 1:3-14
Introduction””After the first half-day, Nathan captured the essence of our trip to Arizona””“This is crazy ridiculous!” Check it out (go through pics quickly).
We were given this trip””all expenses paid and an amazing itinerary mapped out, by a great group of people.
“As the only organization of its kind in the nation, the Jack & Jill Late Stage Cancer Foundation provides memory opportunities for children who have a Mom or Dad with late stage, limited life expectancy cancer. Thousands of Moms and Dads in their 20’s, 30’s, and 40’s with late stage cancer will die each year despite the advances in research. These parents are leaving behind grieving children.
Jill Albert appreciated that memories become our greatest inheritance. She urged us all to never stop appreciating our family time together and to never stop dancing.
The Foundation flies in the face of Late Stage Cancer with smiles, joy, and a return to normalcy for these families . . . A WOW! Experience is a unique, memorable getaway that allows the family to enjoy time with each other…while they can away from their new normal of living with the dire circumstances of late stage cancer.” (from www.jajf.org )
In a thank you letter to all who were involved in our week in Arizona, we wrote: “We have come away from the trip with a greater appreciation of God’s grace because of you all–unearned, undeserved, lavish and extravagant favor, free for our enjoyment because of a great price paid by Someone who loves us infinitely! The cost was great for our time at Wild Horse Pass–time, energy, service, thought and resources, all given by people who care deeply for families dealing with cancer; and the cost was greater still for God’s own Son, Jesus Christ, who loved us enough to give His life that we might be free to know God as our Father!”
If God”™s grace isn”™t just “crazy ridiculous” to you, then you don”™t get just how good it really is!
1. Grace is Unearned
Eph. 2:8-9 (NIV)
8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith””and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God”” 9not by works, so that no one can boast.
If God”™s grace isn”™t just “crazy ridiculous” to you, then you don”™t get just how good it really is!
2. Grace is Undeserved
Rom. 5:8 (NLT)
8 But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.
If God”™s grace isn”™t just “crazy ridiculous” to you, then you don”™t get just how good it really is!
3. Grace is lavish and extravagant favor, free for our enjoyment because of a great price paid by Someone who loves us infinitely!
Ephesians 1:3-14 (NLT)
3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. 4 Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. 5 God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. 6 So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. 7 He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. 8 He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding.
9 God has now revealed to us his mysterious plan regarding Christ, a plan to fulfill his own good pleasure. 10 And this is the plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ””everything in heaven and on earth. 11 Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for he chose us in advance, and he makes everything work out according to his plan.
12 God”™s purpose was that we Jews who were the first to trust in Christ would bring praise and glory to God. 13 And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago. 14 The Spirit is God”™s guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify him.
If God”™s grace isn”™t just “crazy ridiculous” to you, then you don”™t get just how good it really is!
4. Grace makes us truly FREE!
Romans 8:1 (NLT)
1 So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.
Steve Brown: “Some people in the family of God will require things of you that God never required, will tell you that God is angry when he isn”™t, and will make you feel ashamed and guilty when you shouldn”™t feel ashamed and guilty.” (17)
Galatians 5:1 (The Message)
1 Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you.
Steve Brown: “Many of us don”™t live free because we don”™t believe in a God who loves us enough to give us the gift of freedom.” (ibid., 28)
“Abraham Lincoln went to a slave market. There he noted a young, beautiful African-American woman being auctioned off to the highest offer. He bid on her and won. He could see the anger in the young woman”™s eyes and could imagine what she was thinking, Another white man who will buy me, use me, and then discard me. As Lincoln walked off with his ”˜property”™, he turned to the woman and said, ”˜You”™re free.”™ ”˜Yeah. What does that mean?”™ she replied. ”˜It means that you”™re free.”™ ”˜Does that mean I can say whatever I want to say?”™ ”˜Yes,”™ replied Lincoln, smiling, ”˜it means you can say whatever you want to say.”™ ”˜Does it mean,”™ she asked incredulously, ”˜that I can be whatever I want to be?”™ ”˜Yes, you can be whatever you want to be.”™ ”˜Does it mean,”™ the young woman said hesitantly, ”˜that I can go wherever I want to go?”™ ”˜Yes, it means you are free and can go wherever you want to go.”™ ”˜Then,”™ said the young woman with tears welling up in her eyes, ”˜I think I”™ll go with you.”™” (Steve Brown, A Scandalous Freedom, 13)
On the way home from Arizona, I thought to myself””I”™d really like to meet the folks who made this trip possible, I”™d really like to thank them personally and get to know them better, because their kind generosity is just “crazy ridiculous”!
I don”™t know about you, but God”™s “crazy ridiculous” grace makes me want to know Him more and act more like Jesus!
If God”™s grace isn”™t just “crazy ridiculous” to you, then you don”™t get just how good it really is!
Conclusion””
Romans 8:31-39 (NLT)””READ from Bible
“At a convent school, there was a basket of apples on the dining-room table. A note under the basket said, ”˜Take only one. God is watching.”™ At the other end of the dining room sat another basket filled with chocolate-chip cookies. In a child”™s handwriting, a note under the basket read: ”˜Take all the cookies you want. God is watching the apples.”™
“God is really watching both the apples and the cookies. In fact, he made them for you and will be offended if you don”™t try them.” (Brown, 48)
Last Slide””THAT is how we should feel about God”™s grace all that time””it”™s THAT “crazy ridiculous”, good!
Celebration of the Lord”™s Supper