Living Fully Alive in God's Grace

Living Fully Alive in God’s Grace

John 10:10-18

Grace, Mercy, and Peace be unto you all in the name of Jesus!

My friends, this morning we are wrapping up our “Known” sermon series, and because we are known intimately by our Creator—and have our identity secured in Christ—we live fully alive in God’s grace! Jesus says very clearly in John 10: The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. (John 10:10)

What does it mean to have an abundant life—to live life to the fullest? Does the abundant life mean we have plenty to eat? Good health? All the money we want? Few troubles to bother us? Life in lush, green pastures? A comfortable and convenient life?

I am going to warn you that the world’s idea of an abundant life is very much different than what it means to have an abundant life in Christ—to be living fully alive in God’s grace.

You see, living fully alive in God’s grace starts way back in creation. There in the beginning God made everything good, and right, and perfect. Man and woman was fearfully and wonderfully made special—given all that they needed and given the charge to have dominion over God’s creation.

But everything changed when sin entered the world…

And since then, we have lived in a broken world that distorts God’s perfect and good creation.

Let me introduce you to something foreign to many of you Texans to help us understand how sin affects the abundant life…

Play video 1

Yes, a snow day! Yes, I know it’s such a foreign concept to many where there are two seasons in Texas—hot and hotter with the two days of the year that you need to wear a jacket! But for those Northerners, the snow day is a day of great joy! Pure bliss! Life is good! No School!

And so, Rachel and I did what we usually did when the weather was bad and there was no school…

Play video 2

Even though the roads were too bad to have school, we took the boys sledding! The fresh air! The thrill of the slopes!

But…it’s not perfect. It’s cold. Wet clothes from sweating of climbing back up the hills and the melting of snow making your clothes wet makes you even more cold. And the crashes…oh, the crashes!

Play video 3

Just like sin entering God’s perfect and great creation and bringing with it brokenness and imperfection, a snow day really isn’t all that perfect and good and the abundant life.

Actually, that very much undermines how much sin truly changed God’s good and right and perfect creation. Sin did not only change everything…it ruined everything. It brought brokenness. It broke our relationship with God. It brought death—something that God never intended.

Romans 6:23 starts off by saying: The wages of sin is death… (Romans 6:23a)

Simply put, sin causes a traumatic disruption to the life God has originally planned for us.

But, God would not let sin win nor would He let the thief win.

God the Father sent His Son, Jesus, to reclaim God’s creation and redeem God’s people from the clutches of sin and the thief who tries to steal and kill and destroy. Jesus, the Good Shepherd, journeyed to the cross and rose from the dead to give us an abundant life in Him. Jesus says: I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6). It is Jesus who restores our relationship with the Father. Yes…Jesus died so that we may live fully alive in God’s grace.

Yes…it is true…The wages of sin is death, butthe free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23)

And, the abundant life that we have…living fully alive in God’s grace…is rooted in the hope of that free gift of eternal life.

Living fully alive in God’s grace is about grace being greater than our sin. It’s about a deep down assurance that you belong to the Savior. Jesus says: I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me. (John 10:14) It’s about the security we have in our restored relationship with God and the eternal life He has promised us. And, that promise is the source of our joy—no matter what circumstance we may face.

God may not guarantee us constant happiness in this life, but He does promise to be an ever-flowing source of joy. This joy in the Promise…the source of all our hope…that penetrates our core—our very essence—is the abundant life of living fully alive in God’s grace!

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. (Romans 15:13)

And, Jesus wants you to live abundantly with the joy and hope that is secure in Him.

Jesus says…Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full. (John 16:23-24)

What steals your joy?

What kills your hope?

What destroys your life of living fully alive in God’s grace?

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. (John 10:10a)

The thief—be it Satan, or Satan’s tools, or sin’s consequences—is whatever takes our eyes off of God’s grace. The thief wants us to be robbed of living fully alive in God’s grace.

And, sadly, it is too easy for us to follow the thief. Last week, Pastor Randy talked about our identity crisis. Yes, it’s too easy to lose our identity into that of insecurity…to lose our identity into that of comparisons…to lose our identity into guilt, and shame, and despair…to lose our identity thinking we don’t need God…or to lose our identity thinking God doesn’t want us.

And, when the thief has swallowed our identity, we see that life apart from God turns out to be not life at all…just brokenness and despair.

But we need not to wallow in despair. Praise be to God that Jesus came to give us life! For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. (Romans 5:6) It is because of Christ’s death that we sinners, we the lost sheep, have life…life abundant…life that is fully alive in God’s grace.

Paul while writing in prison gives us a great example of what it means to live fully alive in God’s grace in spite of facing a circumstance that without God would be one of despair:

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:4-7)

My friends, living fully alive in God’s grace is for the here and now regardless of our circumstances and is also looking for the hope to come. And as we look for the hope to come…to be made complete in Christ in eternity…we live now navigating a broken world with hope that the best is yet to come.

Living fully alive in God’s grace is to live in forgiveness.

Think about a time where you needed forgiveness and the joy…the relief…the security that you found in being forgiven.

At the end of chapter 26 and the beginning of chapter 27 in the Gospel of Matthew, we see Peter’s denial of Christ immediately followed by Judas trying to return the 30 pieces of silver. Both have great remorse over what they did.

· Matthew 26:75 says: And Peter remembered the saying of Jesus, “Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.” And he went out and wept bitterly. (Matthew 26:75)

· And then, Matthew 27:3 says this: Then when Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he changed his mind and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders, saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.” (Matthew 27:3-4)

· What was the difference between Peter and Judas? Not remorse—both had that. The difference was that Peter believed in the hope and the promise to come. Peter lived fully alive in God’s grace of forgiveness found in God. Judas, stuck in his despair, did not believe that he could be forgiven for what he did. Judas was stolen by the thief. The thief wants you to believe that God would not want to forgive you. But the abundant life is living in the hope and security of forgiveness.

Living fully alive in God’s grace is to live with contentment.

It is hard to live with contentment at times. Been there. Struggled with that. Growing up my family did not have much at all. We were poor. I distinctly remember one Friday night when I was in junior high, we were about to eat dinner and my Mom was wondering what we could eat. Oh, we had stuff to eat…canned Spam and canned vegetables…not much…not great…but it wasn’t payday and so we were limited to what we had. My Dad sitting at the dinner table in his bib overalls after having worked outside, said, “Sharon, how many Benny’s coupons do we have?” He must have seen the hope light up in my and my sisters’ eyes! Ahh…Benny’s…the best pizza in the whole world. You see, Benny’s pizza boxes had a printed coupon on them and if you saved up 10 coupons, you got a free pizza. And that night, we had exactly 10 coupons! So, my Dad tells me to call and order the pizza and off we were to Benny’s to pick it up in our old 15-passenger van where my Dad had to staple a sheet of plastic from ceiling to floor in the van right behind the first row of seats to keep any heat into the vehicle. And once we picked up the pizza, it was placed on dash and as my Dad began to drive away the pizza box slid off the dash and fell on the floor. My Mom and sisters in tears. My Dad looking straight ahead driving as if he could ignore what happened in the hope of ignoring it, the tragedy would be undone.

And me, well, I unbuckled and tried to pick up the pizza and put it back in the box. And let me tell you, that was the grittiest best tasting pizza in the world!

Yes, when we live fully alive in God’s grace, we live with contentment.

Again, Paul, in his letter to the Philippians, writes these words of contentment even though he is facing such horrible and trying conditions:

Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:11-13)

Lastly, Living fully alive in God’s grace is being hemmed in by Christ.

Psalm 139 speaks about how God knows us, but it also speaks to God’s protection of us:

You hem me in, behind and before,

and lay your hand upon me. (Psalm 139:5)

My friends, you see, we are living in a broken world that is much like a ride at an amusement park.

Show picture of rollercoaster while I do the paragraph below.

Sometimes the ride is a roller coaster with scares and thrills and going by so fast that we feel it is too difficult to catch our breath. Sometimes the ride is slow, perhaps even tranquil. Sometimes it goes from fast and scary to slow and tranquil with such an abruptness that we can’t make sense of what is happening. But when we are living fully alive in God’s grace, we are on this ride being hemmed in by Christ…Christ is the harness on the roller coaster…Christ is the safety belt on ride…Christ is the lap bar that you pull down to keep you in place in protection. Regardless of the how unnerving the ride may be or how enjoyable the ride may be, Christ hems us in and never leaves us.

Christ is the Good Shepherd who leads us sheep to greener pastures…who leads us through the valley of the shadow of death…who leads us to the eternal life that He has secured for us by laying down His own life. My friends, the hope and promise of that is how we live fully alive in God’s grace. Amen.