Immersed in Grace

Teach Us to Pray Sermon Series

Story from Brennan Manning’s book, Ragamuffin Gospel

Brennan struggled with alcoholism, and at one point, spent time in a rehab facility for men

He was taking part in group session where all the men were encouraged to share their struggles

Group counselor asked one particular man to share, man who was not well-liked, came off as arrogant, superior. And that showed as he spoke. He couldn’t understand why he was there, didn’t need it like the others.

Counselor asked him to share his drinking habits - which he did. He had strict drinking regimen that he stuck to, he would come home after work, fix his beverages of choice, always drank two, no more, no less. And that was it.

Counselor called his bluff. Turns out there was a bartender from local bar in the area the man was from and Counselor got him on the phone, put it on speaker for everyone to hear. Bartender painted very different picture of man’s drinking habits.

Got worse for man when counselor got man’s wife on phone. She told story of her husband taking their daughter to store to buy her Christmas gift she dearly wanted. Young girl was so excited. He was so pleased with himself - that on his way home, he stopped in at the local bar to get drink real quick to celebrate, while girl remained in vehicle.

A few minutes turned into a few hours and by the time he came back out to vehicle, his daughter had fallen asleep against the frozen car door window, irreparably damaging her ear.

The man, confronted with truth of his addiction to alcohol and what it had led him to do to his own daughter, dropped to his hands and knees wailing and sobbing.

The counselor, pushed him over to ground with his foot, expressing his disgust at man’s lies. And the whole group walked away, leaving the man lying there weeping.

Brennan said in days and weeks that followed, an amazing transformation came over that man. Properly humbled, he became much more thoughtful and gracious to his fellow residents.

Brennan Manning tells that story because it’s story of man who finally came to realize how pitiful he truly was - what his pride and his weakness had led him to become.

And it was only in that moment of recognizing the painful truth of who he really was that he was open to receive the mercy of Jesus Christ. And it changed him. He became a better man.

In our next request of the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus is teaching us same thing. He wants to show us what it means to live within Kingdom of God, under his reign - specifically, what it means to live in atmosphere of God’s grace.

We’ve been making our way through the Lord’s Prayer, where Jesus is teaching us to pray like he prayed, so we can live in relationship to God the Father like he did.

We began with looking at how Jesus teaches us to come to God in prayer, in childlike trust, coming to our heavenly Father, who is always right with us. Dear Father, always near us.

We continued by looking at requests of the Lord’s Prayer, what Jesus teaches us to ask for.

First request is asking that God’s name be treasured and loved by all (hallowed by thy name), followed by another request expressing our concern for glory of God, that all things would come under rule of God (thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven).

Then requests shift. Starts with our desire for God to be glorified, then Jesus teaches us to what it looks like to live in humble dependence on grace of God.

Last week, we looked on depending on God’s grace every single day for basic necessities of life.

Today, we want to look at depending on God’s grace for forgiveness of our sins, healing of our souls.

Prayer / Scripture: Matthew 6:12, 14-15

Our Need for Pity

When I was in school, most of classrooms had speaker right up on wall above where teacher’s desk was, and occasionally you’d get that squawking announcement…Mrs. Jones, would you please send John Mahan to principal’s office....Mrs. Jones...

And, of course, what was reaction of the rest of the class…oooo…somebody’s in trouble

If it was you, you did walk down the hallway with some trepidation, wondering if you were in trouble.

One time in high school, virtually entire physics class of which I was part got involved in scandal of stealing tests from professor. There were levels of criminal behavior from those who stole the test to those who had a copy to those who had access to copy (I was in that group). Those in the upper levels of criminal behavior got called down to office, and they kept insisting I was supposed to go down there to receive my punishment. Are you crazy? Not going until they call for me!

Nobody wants to be in trouble…or really, nobody wants to suffer consequences of being in trouble.

Driving down interstate, and as you’re zipping by, you realize, that was state police car sitting there. Look back to see if those lights are going to come on…and when they do, please no ticket, please no ticket.

When you were kid, you heard your mom or dad say your name, your full name, in that tone…you want to go disappear. You’d rather avoid that trouble (or punishment for whatever you did).

But from perspective of principal or police officer or parent - if they are good principal or police office or parent - their ultimate goal is not punishment. They want to change behavior. And even more so, they want to see change of heart.

Good principals and teachers want their students to be honest and engage their learning with integrity.

Good police officer - not just about obeying speed limit, but taking seriously our mutual responsibility to make roads safe for everyone.

Good parent - wants their children to be good, to love well, to have generous hearts, to not just do right things but want to do right things.

And this is even more true of our heavenly Father. We spend a lot of time this summer talking about Kingdom Hearts, heartfelt love for all others. That’s what God wants for us...but we have long way to go.

In order for that to happen, we have to come to terms with where we’re really starting from.

Only way this begins is if we’re willing to acknowledge that it is only God’s mercy - or pity, as Dallas Willard likes to say - that makes life possible.

That we really are that kid getting called down to office or pulled over by police officer or being called out by Mom by our full name. That we have a lot more in common with man sobbing on his hands and knees in the middle of that group counseling session than we care to admit.

Dallas Willard says that we need pity because of who we are.

He says, “Only pity or mercy makes life possible. We are at our best pitiable creatures. Only God’s mercies keep us from being consumed because of our sins.”

Word “pity” makes us wince. He’s very intentional about using that word, precisely because of that.

much easier to take about receiving grace, maybe even mercy.

But pity…I don’t want anyone’s pity! Yet we are at our best pitiable creatures.

God would be fully just in bringing his righteous judgment on us at any given moment…it is only his mercy that has kept that from happening - long before we came to trust in his forgiveness.

Our actions may not have caused as dire of direct damage as the man did to his daughter, but we have deeply wounded others in all sorts of ways...

And we will never fully enter into Kingdom of God if we do not come to acknowledge the depth and seriousness of our sin.

Our malice, our quick condemnations

pride that makes us feel superior to others…because we work hard, we’re not lazy…we have right political views...

In this part of Lord’s Prayer, Jesus is teaching us humble dependence on God’s grace for forgiveness of our sins. That we need pity of God to make life possible.

John Stott: Forgiveness is as indispensable to the life and health of the soul as food is for the body.

In this request, we are, as Willard says, asking God to deal with us on the basis of mercy or pity.

In this prayer, Jesus is teaching us what life in kingdom is about, what it means to live in atmosphere of grace.

Atmosphere of Grace

Fascinating part of this request is that it is conditional - and it’s only request that is.

Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

Jesus repeats same point in verses 14-15, For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you don’t forgive other people when they sin against you, he won’t forgive you. Just think about that for moment…that is a serious, serious statement.

We don’t see this condition on any other request…there’s no condition on giving daily bread to others, or not leading others to temptation.

Question is why? What’s going on here?

Quick answer is that it has to do with nature of grace, what it means to live into God’s grace

Willard: “It it not psychologically possible for us to really know God’s pity for us and at the same time be hardhearted toward others.”

Grace, by its very nature, softens our hearts. It humbles us. It wrecks our pride.

Why recovering alcoholic’s heart changed so dramatically, why it softened - because he was wrecked. He realized how pitiable he truly was.

As Willard says, we need more than a break. “I need pity because of who I am. If my pride is untouched when I pray for forgiveness, I have not prayed for forgiveness. I don’t even understand it.”

In other words, something inside of us is still hanging on to excuse for our sin, still thinking we’re really pretty good, I just messed up…that leaves us shut off from grace.

John Stott: “If we have an exaggerated view of the offences of others, it proves that we have minimized our own.”

Which is exactly the point of the parable Jesus tells in Matthew 18, parable of unmerciful servant - servant whose enormous debt is forgiven by king who was moved to pity at the servant’s pleading for mercy. Yet that same servant refused to forgive a much smaller debt that a fellow servant owed him. King learns about servant’s lack of mercy and brings full weight of justice on him.

Jesus concludes story by saying, “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister - and here’s the key part - from your heart.”

Unfortunately, that is exactly our tendency - to zero in on every nuance of the mistakes of others and minimize or rationalize our own.

We read into tone of others’ comments and expect them to take ours at face value.

Second guess or jump to conclusions about motives of others while never questioning our own.

My anger is justified - yours is not.

And this is not Kingdom living. It is not living in grace.

Willard: “People who are merciless, unable to pity others and receive pity, simply have a hard life full of unsolvable problems.”

This is what Paul is referring to in Titus 3:3, about our being enslaved to our passions and pleasures…that without mercy, without pity, we live by malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.

Jesus wants to free us from this, to change us, that our passions and pleasures would be loving kindness and ready forgiveness and patience.

And he’s doing it through this prayer - in this prayer, Jesus is teaching us what it means to receive gift of pity as atmosphere in which we now live

That the nature of grace, to really receive it, know it, understand it, leads to sharing it freely, offering it to others willingly. That you would forgive your brother or sister from your heart.

Helpful image, to think about grace as atmosphere in which we live

Atmosphere is what’s all around us

For fish, it’s water they swim in

For us, very air we breathe…think about difference of being in stuffy, smelly enclosed space (I’ll let you imagine space of your choice) versus standing outside in fresh, fall air, just breathing it in (no mask!).

We are to breathe in grace of Jesus Christ, his mercy towards us, towards you

Power of Scriptures, reminding us over and over again of compassion, the pity, God has for us

Psalm 103 (breathe it in)…don’t forget his benefits, the Lord who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion.

Romans 5 talks about how we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through Jesus Christ - gained access by faith (here it is) “into this grace in which we now stand”…breathe it in

We’ll ask that question, about where things stand…how’s project? How’s game going?

This summer Conner spent this time working for bank, he was doing a lot of financial reviews of companies that held loans with that bank, to see how they were doing in the midst of coronavirus pandemic slowdowns…in order words, where did they stand?

Would they be overwhelmed by debts they owe?

If you did an audit of our lives, there is no debt. We are forgiven, the debt has been paid in full. We stand in grace…breathe it in

When we live in atmosphere of grace, when it’s the very air that we breathe, it’s not just what we breathe in , it’s what we breathe out

That’s atmosphere of Kingdom, grace freely received, freely offered. Mercy towards one another. Pity because we all need it.

When we pray to Father, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, we are asking Jesus to help us forgive others.

Parent to child. Child to parent. Wife to husband. Husband to wife. Friend to friend. We want every relationship we have to lived out in this atmosphere of grace.

Because we are all, at best, pitiable creatures, we all need pity - not simply from God, but from one another.

As many of you know, Beth Jordan has been working with the girls at Pressley Ridge, but has been unable to be with them because of Covid-19. But she’s been writing letters back and forth with them.

One of the girls has been struggling with whether or not God will accept her, especially in light of her self harm. Heart breaks when I hear that, long for her to know mercy of God, that he is gracious and compassionate. I long for her to know that he does accept her as she is. I long for her to breathe in that grace!.

But not just her - could we have same pity towards man who gets so drunk he abandons his daughter in freezing car for hours?

Or what about person who gossips about you? Who mocks others flippantly and frequently? Who makes bad life choice after bad life choice after bad life choice? Who takes advantage of kindness of others?

Can we imagine showing pity towards them? Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. Father, forgive them because you know how often I know not what I do.

This is what Jesus is teaching us when he teaches us to pray…Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

This humble dependence on God’s grace for forgiveness - and willingness to freely offer it to others.

That this grace, this pity, would be very atmosphere in which we live…breathing in grace…breathing it out.