The Grace Experiencer Pt.1

In a recent book entitled, PROOF: Finding Freedom through the Intoxicating Joy of Irresistible Grace, Timothy Paul Jones about their family taking their adoptive daughter to Disney World. They adopted their daughter when she was eight. The unique thing is that the girl had been adopted by another family before. The family certainly had good intentions, but the girl was never quite integrated into their family of biological children. After a couple of years the family dissolved the adoption. That’s how the Jones family was able to adopt her.

The previously family had taken a trip to Disney world, they took their biological children, but the left the adoptive daughter with a friend because of-in the child’s mind- she had done something wrong and the consequence was that she missed the trip. So this girl had seen a lot of pictures of Disney World and characters. She had heard stories of wonderful rides, but she had never experienced any of it. When the Jones family heard of this they made plans to take the family to Disney world.

What the family didn’t expect was that the prospect of going to Disney World brought out the worst behavior in their adoptive 8 year old daughter.

For one reason or another, whenever our daughter’s previous family vacationed at Disney World, they took their biological children with them, but they left their adopted daughter with a family friend. Usually — at least in the child’s mind — this happened because she did something wrong that precluded her presence on the trip.

The following is how Jones describes the situation.:

In the month leading up to our trip to the Magic Kingdom, she stole food when a simple request would have gained her a snack. She lied when it would have been easier to tell the truth. She whispered insults that were carefully crafted to hurt her older sister as deeply as possible — and, as the days on the calendar moved closer to the trip, her mutinies multiplied.

In the month leading up to our trip to the Magic Kingdom, she stole food when a simple request would have gained her a snack. She lied when it would have been easier to tell the truth. She whispered insults that were carefully crafted to hurt her older sister as deeply as possible — and, as the days on the calendar moved closer to the trip, her mutinies multiplied.

A couple of days before our family headed to Florida, I pulled our daughter into my lap to talk through her latest escapade. “I know what you’re going to do,” she stated flatly. “You’re not going to take me to Disney World, are you?” The thought hadn’t actually crossed my mind, but her downward spiral suddenly started to make some sense. She knew she couldn’t earn her way into the Magic Kingdom — she had tried and failed that test several times before — so she was living in a way that placed her as far as possible from the most magical place on earth.

I asked her, “Is this trip something we’re doing as a family?”

She nodded, brown eyes wide and tear-rimmed.

“Are you part of this family?”

She nodded again.

“Then you’re going with us. Sure, there may be some consequences to help you remember what’s right and what’s wrong — but you’re part of our family, and we’re not leaving you behind.”

You might think that would solve the problem. It didn’t. The girls actions spiraled out of control. She showed out in every hotel they stayed at all the way to Orlando.

Jones writes:

Still, we headed to Disney World on the day we had promised, and it was a typical Disney day. Overpriced tickets, overpriced meals, and lots of lines, mingled with just enough manufactured magic to consider maybe going again someday.

Still, we headed to Disney World on the day we had promised, and it was a typical Disney day. Overpriced tickets, overpriced meals, and lots of lines, mingled with just enough manufactured magic to consider maybe going again someday.

In our hotel room that evening, a very different child emerged. She was exhausted, pensive, and a little weepy at times, but her month-long facade of rebellion had faded. When bedtime rolled around, I prayed with her, held her, and asked, “So how was your first day at Disney World?”

She closed her eyes and snuggled down into her stuffed unicorn. After a few moments, she opened her eyes ever so slightly. “Daddy,” she said, “I finally got to go to Disney World. But it wasn’t because I was good; it’s because I’m yours.”

What a beautiful picture of grace! She had received a gift from her father that filled her with joy—a joy that had changed her. A gift that had no connection to what she had earned or deserved. But, simply a reflection of the outrageous love of the father.

She had become what I call a ‘Grace Experiencer.’ That experience had changed her. And, I’m sure an experience that changed her forever. Millions of people have had their life changed by an experience of God’s grace.

As we enter into this text we see that Paul had become a ‘Grace Experiencer.’ An experience that completely changed his view of God and life forever. You may remember Billy Sunday, who had been a hard drinking professional baseball player in the late 1800s. He and some friends passed by a street preacher in Chicago. The made fun of him that day. But, the gospel he preached lodged in his heart and transformed Billy Sunday. So that he become what of the greatest evangelists of the early 20th century.

The grace of God in Christ Jesus changes people. It transformed a former Roman Catholic monk named Martin Luther who started the Protestant Reformation. It changed a former slaver trader named John Newton who penned the historic hymn amazing grace. It transformed an atheist named C.S. Lewis who went on to write Mere Christianity, one of the most read Christian works in history.

And we see in our text, the grace of God transformed a rising star in the Jewish faith, a Pharisee, and renown persecutor of the Christian church named Saul, who we know as Paul the Apostle, the writer of more books than anyone else in the New Testament.

In our text this morning, we are going to see Paul, describe to his young protege Timothy, who he has sent to the church in Ephesus the effect that grace had on him. In the previous text, we have seen him point to false teachers that have found their way into the church that are bringing distraction away from the gospel. He’s saying that is not what people who have encountered the outrageous grace of God look like. Paul says, “Look at me. I am what people who have encountered the grace of God really look like.”

So, the question for us is, “Has the effect that the experience of grace has had on Paul’s life, the effect that it has on our lives?”

It’s imporntant

The experience of grace made Paul...

Outrageous grace isn’t a favor you can achieve by being good; it’s the gift you receive by being God’s. Outrageous grace is God’s goodness that comes looking for you when you have nothing but a middle finger flipped in the face of God to offer in return. It’s a farmer paying a full day’s wages to a crew of deadbeat day laborers with only a single hour punched on their time cards (). It’s a man marrying an abandoned woman and then refusing to forsake his covenant with her when she turns out to be a whore (; ). It’s the insanity of a shepherd who puts ninety-nine sheep at risk to rescue the single lamb that’s too stupid to stay with the flock (). It’s the love of a father who hands over his finest rings and robes to a young man who has squandered his inheritance on drunken binges with his fair-weather friends ()…It’s one-way love that calls you into the kingdom not because you’ve been good but because God has chosen you and made you his own. And now he is chasing you to the ends of the earth to keep you as his child, and nothing in heaven or hell can ever stop him…

But here’s what’s amazing about God’s outrageous grace: This isn’t merely what God the Father would do; it’s what he did do. God could have chosen to save anyone, everyone, or no one from Adam’s fallen race. But what God did was to choose a multi-hued multitude of “someones,” and — if you are a believer in Jesus Christ — one of those “someones” was you. God in Christ has declared over you, “I could have chosen anyone in the whole world as my child, and I chose you. No matter what you say or do, neither my love nor my choice will ever change.” That’s grace that’s truly amazing. (Pgs. 81-84)

I. Thankful that God would use him. ()

1 Timothy 1:12 ESV

12 I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service,

Paul reaction to the gospel of grace was first thankfulness. Why is that?

The Apostle Paul was absolutely sure that he had not chosen God, but that God had chosen him, “appointing me to his service.”. If you know anything about Paul’s testimony, you know that that appointment to service as an experience of salvation. Paul was headed to Damascus in order to persecute Christians when the risen Lord in a blinding light stopped him in his tracks. In , the Lord sent Paul to a respected Christian named Ananias for help. Ananias wasn’t sure about this plan, but here’s what the Lord said to Ananias about Paul,

Acts 9:15 ESV

15 But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel.

Acts 9:15–16 ESV

15 But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. 16 For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.”

So Paul was thankful that God would chase him down and save his soul. For that he was deeply thankful.

2,200 Quotations from the Writings of Charles H. Spurgeon: Arranged Topically or Textually and Indexed by Subject, Scripture, and People Thanksgiving

1407A friend said to me on Wednesday, when the sun was shining, “We ought to be grateful for this fine weather.”

I replied, “I go farther than that—I am grateful for it!”

* Charles Spurgeon once said, A friend said to me on Wednesday, when the sun was shining, “We ought to be grateful for this fine weather.”

1407A friend said to me on Wednesday, when the sun was shining, “We ought to be grateful for this fine weather.”

Spurgeon replied, “I go farther than that—I am grateful for it!”

Are you truly thankful for you salvation as you should be. If not, you don’t understand it.

Paul’s thanksgiving is even more profound in that he understood that gift of salvation comes with the call to service. And for Paul, this service to bring the gospel to the Gentiles was a call to suffering. Look at the rest of what Paul told Ananias about Paul’s appoint ment.

Acts 9:15–16 ESV

15 But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. 16 For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.”

Acts 9:

When you read through the New Testament and you see what Paul had to experience because God had appointed him to salvation and service, we may find it hard to believe that he could be thankful for that. Paul’s call was a call to suffering:

2 Corinthians 11:24–28 ESV

24 Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; 26 on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; 27 in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. 28 And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.

2 Corinthians 11:

God did not call the Apostle Paul to an easy life. Paul would be no fan of the “health and wealth gospel.” The gospel almost killed him and it led to costing him everything that he ever owned. And, eventually his life. And, yet Paul says,

1 Timothy 1:12 ESV

12 I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service,

Paul understood that whatever Paul had received in Christ was infinitely better than anything else he knew in life. Knowing Christ as his treasure was worth every ounce of suffering that he had experienced or could experience.

Paul understood the gospel. He understood the cross, as we will see next week. He understood that Christ was the source of grace. He understood that he was now a child of God, given a purpose in life by God himself because of Christ. That profoundly moved his heart.

1 Corinthians 15:9–10 ESV

9 For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.

1 Cor.

It was Jesus who had saved him. And it was Jesus who had strengthened him for whatever service the Father had called him to.

For Paul, Jesus wasn’t just simply the source of the treasure. Knowing Jesus was the treasure.

Philippians 3:7–11 ESV

7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Paul understood that there was nothing greater than being restored to a right relationship with God through forgiveness of sin in Christ. Such a great gift that it made suffering a joy in the name of Christ.

I want to close talking to you about another grace experiencer named John Bunyan. John Bunyan was an English Puritan who had been saved as he passed a group of women talking about spiritual matters. This happened as he had been wrestling with things of God himself. It was so moved by the women, he trust Christ and joined their church. It soon became clear that he had the gift to preach. However, he had been saved at a time where religious freedom in England was being curtailed by the monarchy. Because, Bunyan was a noncomformist and not an Anglican, it became illegal for Bunyan to preach the gospel of Christ.

Bunyan was preaching at a farm near the village of Harlington, just outside of Bedford, England when a warrant was issued for his arrest. At Bunyan’s trial, he was sentenced to only three months in prison, if after those three months he would stop preaching the gospel. Bunyan refused. He stayed in prison refusing to not preach the gospel for 12 years in the Bedford County Jail. This brought unbelievable suffering to his with Elizabeth and 4 small children, one of the blind. However, while in prison, Bunyan wrote prolifically. This continued after prison. Bunyan would eventually pen over 61 works including The Pilgrim’s Progress and Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners.

Where would he find the strength to persevere like he did. Why was he so passionate about the the gospel of grace in Christ? Bunyan would write this:

God is the only desirable good; nothing without Him is worthy of our hearts… The life, the glory, the blessedness, the soul-satisfying goodness that is in God are beyond all expression.

Jesus Christ was life to John Bunyan. He was a grace-experiencer and he had been changed.

Has grace changed you. Are you so thankful today for Christ that it has changed the direction of you life?

His grace to me was no without effect.

Spurgeon, C. H. (1995). 2,200 quotations: from the writings of Charles H. Spurgeon : arranged topically or textually and indexed by subject, Scripture, and people. (T. Carter, Ed.) (p. 204). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.

II. Humbled that God would use him despite his past. (5)

III. Determined that his life would display the glory of God. ()