A Nice Patch of Grass

Intro -

I had a great conversation with Kate this past week, and I felt like it was something that we all might need to hear. Basically, it revolved around our modern idea of what being a Christian is all about. Church on Sunday, Sunday School, Wednesday nights, Bible study, devotionals, translations, points of view, books about living a life of faith, schools of thought about this idea or that idea. All these things that keep us up at night sometimes.

Bigger than that, though, they are all things that can overtake our lives if we let them. We can get so wrapped up in those things that we miss the forest for the trees.

I mean, we can get so wrapped up in what one preacher, or one author says - in what we have been brought up thinking perhaps - that we then lose our grip on God while we tighten our grip on those thoughts, preachers, authors - whatever - we are in love with today.

But on this “good shepherd” Sunday, I think God is reminding us that we may have gotten used to this life - we may like some of these things we have on this side of the fence - but they will never be sufficient for us.

So today, I want us all to ask ourselves, “Is God’s Grace Sufficient for You?” Is He really all you need? In your heart, do you believe that no matter what, all one needs is His Grace and nothing more? Because sometimes, our lives don’t reflect that truth! Sometimes we seem to add Jesus to our situation rather than live out Jesus’ life in all our situations!

Openness. Forgiveness. Kindness. Mercy. Hope. Peace. All things that Jesus offers us, and asks us to live out. And things, sadly, that we only offer to those who think and look like us.

But today can be a new start. It can be a reminder that all that other stuff might make us think we are close to God, but they really only keep us here on this side of the fence, fighting everyone else for a nice patch of grass.

2 Corinthians 12:5–10 ESV

On behalf of this man I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses— though if I should wish to boast, I would not be a fool, for I would be speaking the truth; but I refrain from it, so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me. So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

2 Cor 12:5-10

Pray

[picofps23]

One of the most difficult things about faith is that - no matter the era, no matter the time - we all want to make it what we want it to be. That is to say, we want to find a reason to believe, and in that desire, we ascribe all good things to God - or more to the point, all the things we like, want, or agree with.

Now don’t get me wrong, that can be a good thing! After all God is good! And when we experience good things, we definitely need to praise God! But all too often what we are finding isn’t God as much as it is what we want God to be. And this is the story throughout all time. Those are the moments when all people find God in some way. And finding Him there, they - we - try to relive that feeling and those emotions as much as possible so that we can be near Him!

That is true for the Psalmist as much as it is for us. For David, the idea that all his enemies, all the danger that surrounded him, was all just window dressing on the path toward God’s peace was a reassuring reminder that God was always with Him. But even as he thought about all of that, praise God, he was reminded that God is there in the hard moments as much as the good.

[I am the gate]

And for the Christian, that is magnified by our Gospel message today. This idea that life can be lived on our own. It can be what we want it to be! We can be in charge, it turns out! Life can happen on either side of the fence of Grace!

That Is the implication of Jesus being the gate and gatekeeper. Imagery purposefully used to make us think of pastures - lifeblood for sheep. And if there is a gate, there must be a fence separating one pasture from another.

For us, one life from another. One set of realities from another. Christ is the gate in between the life we can live on our own, and the life Christ has for us.

Unfortunately, though, because of our human condition, we often associate that life with blessing or only those good things. Even more telling for us, we tend to associate God with only those things that we were taught were good when we were young. Even in the ways we were taught to be a Christian!

[tradchurch]

As I mentioned at the outset Kate and I were talking about this just the other day. We were all taught - and to some extent rightly so - how to be Christians. To read the Bible. To do daily devotionals. All good things! But we were taught that is just what we are supposed to do.

Further, we are taught that Christians go to Sunday School class, or read certain books. Maybe they get cool bumper stickers or learn the Christian lingo of the time. Again, not that these things are bad at all - quite the contrary - but that we chase after these things, and far more, like they are a sort of 12 step program toward God’s acceptance, and then, His blessing.

But that isn’t the case. That is life on the world’s side of the fence. Sure it is looking toward God’s side of the fence, and that is awesome, but it is still life lived under our own power. To use David’s imagery, it isn’t unlike a sheep watching those sheep following the Good shepherd to green pastures, and thinking that because they feel good where they are they don’t need to follow. Never understanding that their little patch of grass will one day dry up.

Ecclesiastes 1:16–17 ESV

I said in my heart, “I have acquired great wisdom, surpassing all who were over Jerusalem before me, and my heart has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.” And I applied my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is but a striving after wind.

Ecc 1:16-17

As we read on Wednesday night a couple weeks ago, That is just vanity. It is, according to Solomon, meaningless. We can know everything that could ever be known about God and have no connection with Him! Not that He isn’t trying to connect to us - rather, that we will be connected to what we can learn, what we can conceive, what we have developed as our idea of God or faith! And that, ultimately, is a connection to ourselves, or at the least to our own wisdom.

And that connection, that thought and reality, is all too often where we find our purpose and inspiration.

[pasturefence]

But life on that side of the fence isn’t our created purpose! We are created to go through this world - with all its desires and its reality - following Christ, the good shepherd into His reality! And that reality is to be found both here and on into eternity!

But we will only go to that other side of the fence if we begin to find all the trappings of this world insufficient, and begin to find God’s grace to be sufficient for our life and worldview!

After all, God is intended to be experienced, not just learned about. To be felt and participated with, not understood, and only then applied! That makes us out to be God. But that isn’t the way it works.

Ultimately, God exists in every part of our lives, in every part of creation. He exists before us, and after us. He is in the storm and the calm. He is in all those moments when life doesn’t feel sufficient! And while He is surely in those devotions and in Bible study, in preaching and in teaching - He is just as evident in our everyday moments and especially in creation if we would just listen!

prodigalpic

His voice is calling to us! Just like all those stories we know so well! He calls to us to come to Him! He stands at the doors of our lives, of our hearts, and all creation - and calls us to His pasture! To His reality. To His plans. To the sufficiency of His love and Grace!

No matter what we are walking through in life, He stands with us! Even when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death - there is nothing to fear! And bigger than that, there is nothing else we need!

He is with us! His rod and staff comfort us! And when we stop relying on all our habits; on our knowledge, on our plans, and on our idea of what life or what God is all about, we will hear His voice!

[denyself]

We need only to stop for a moment. To stop our doing, and start experiencing Him in all our moments. THAT IS LIFE IT TURNS OUT! THAT IS THE ABUNDANT LIFE TO WHICH CHRIST CALLS US! SO OFTEN WE THINK THAT LIFE IS FOUND SOME OTHER WAY, BUT CHURCH, ALL THE STUFF - ALL THE KNOWLEDGE, ALL THE SERVICE, ALL OUR DOING WILL NEVER BE ENOUGH! IT WILL ALWAYS BE INSUFFICIENT! WE MUST LISTEN TO THE VOICE THAT CALLS TO US THROUGH GRACE! THE VOICE THAT CALLS US TO DENY SELF, AND TAKE UP HIS CAUSE! AND THAT DOESN’T START EXTERNAL TO US! THAT STARTS WITH US FINDING HIS PASTURES! HIS PEACE! FINDING AND EXPERIENCING HIM RIGHT WHERE WE ARE!

That means, church, that we must begin to be satisfied with all we have and all we are. God’s grace must be sufficient! We can’t get caught up in all this other stuff if we want to find pasture with Him! We must instead become satisfied with all that He has created! Or more to the point - we must stop looking at all the things we don’t have, or that others have, or what we want. And we must stop that because it develops in us an unhealthy desire for what we don’t have! For an abundance, we may not be called to! But more importantly, it leads us to desire something more than what God has given us, what we already have - and eventually depending on that stuff rather than the Grace in which we are all allowed to stand!

[cloudofwitnesses]

Listen, Paul, the disciples, the early church fathers and mothers, those great teachers and preachers or role models in your life - THE ENTIRE CLOUD OF WITNESSES IN WHOSE SHADOWS WE STAND! They all found life to be something constantly in flux. There are good times, bad times, times of plenty, and times of want. Friends come and go. Relationships end. Money is earned and then immediately spent. Houses, buildings, roads, all things we create return to the earth! There is nothing - NOT A SINGLE THING APART FROM HUMAN LIFE - that we can create that has any eternal value!

BUT CHRIST CALLS TO US TO COME TOWARD THE ETERNAL! TO DO OUR JOB! TO FOLLOW HIM - AND NOT A GREAT AUTHOR OR PREACHER ON TV OR YOUTUBE! TO LEAVE BEHIND THIS WORLDS PASTURE AND ALL THOSE THINGS THAT WILL NEVER BE SUFFICIENT FOR OUR LIVES SO THAT WE CAN FIND THE GRACE AND PEACE THAT IS SUFFICIENT FOR ALL THINGS! THAT PASTURE THAT BRINGS LIFE - LIFE ABUNDANT - ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN! HIS GRACE IS ENOUGH - AND NOT JUST ENOUGH - HIS GRACE SETS THE TONE FOR OUR LIVES! AND IF WE WOULD ONLY LIVE INTO THAT GRACE, AND STOP LIVING INTO OUR SCHEDULES OR HABITS OR DESIRES, WE WOULD SPEND LIFE IN HIS PRESENCE!

[..surelygoodnessandmercy…]

Then, surely goodness and mercy will follow us. We will find peace in all we do. We will stand daily in the presence of God and experience life through His lens! WE WILL EXPERIENCE HIM! No longer convinced to follow this world’s idea of life. No longer listening to the voices of this world, but following only the voice that calls us to - through our Good Shepherd - to come home.

How do we get there though? How can we live like that?

Stop boasting about the other stuff. Stop considering everything EXCEPT Christ as essential! Or even sufficient!

Those things - anything we can do ourselves or create - they will only lead us to be conceited, even conceited toward God!

But when we rest in the sufficiency of His grace, we need never boast! We need never find comfort in ANYTHING apart from Him!

His power is always made perfect in our weakness! Not when we have all we want! Not when life is exactly what we always fantasized it would be! But only when we are weak, only when we don’t find all our stuff to be sufficient for our needs will we find the shepherd that supplies all that we will ever need!

2 Corinthians 12:9–10 ESV

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

[2 Cor 12:9-10]

We must find our rest - our comfort - in Him to be satisfied with our weakness! That is where the power of Christ will become sufficient for us! That is where we will find hope and peace! Not in all that we want, but in all we SHOULD HAVE ever wanted! In Christ alone!

So when life isn’t how we want it, don’t lose heart! Don’t look for other stuff to satisfy your soul! Delight in those weaknesses. In insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. Delight in all moments and in all situations! For when we are weak, only then are we really strong! Because in those moments, we will pull away from all that other stuff and draw near to Christ, who will come to bring us peace and hope. He will be for us the Good Shepherd if only we focus completely on Him and what He has for us! Then, and only then, we will stop looking for what this world has to offer, those things that are available to us on this side of the fence - realizing that what this world has to offer only distracts us from the life and truth that Christ has for us all - and we will follow Him - the gatekeeper, our good shepherd, our Savior and our God - to His pasture! His peace! His expectations! And the life He has waiting for us.