Core 52 Week 45 - Grace
Notes
Transcript
Johnny, Sally, and the Duck A Story of Forgiveness
A little boy visiting his grandparents was given his first slingshot. He practiced in the woods, but he could never hit his target.
As he came back to Grandma’s back yard, he spied her pet duck. On an impulse he took aim and let fly. The stone hit, and the duck fell dead.
The boy panicked. Desperately he hid the dead duck in the wood pile, only to look up and see his sister watching. Sally had seen it all, but she said nothing.
After lunch that day, Grandma said, “Sally, let’s wash the dishes.” But Sally said, “Johnny told me he wanted to help in the kitchen today. Didn’t you Johnny?” And she whispered to him, “Remember the duck!” So Johnny did the dishes.
Later, Grandpa asked if the children wanted to go fishing. Grandma said, “I’m sorry, but I need Sally to help me make supper.” Sally smiled and said, “That’s all taken care of. Johnny wants to do it.” Again she whispered, “Remember the duck.” Johnny stayed while Sally went fishing.
After several days of Johnny doing both his chores and Sally’s, finally he couldn’t stand it. He confessed to Grandma that he’d killed the duck.
“I know, Johnny,” she said, giving him a hug. “I was standing at the window and saw the whole thing. Because I love you, I forgave you. But I wondered how long you would let Sally make a slave of you.”
– Author Unknown
Satan constantly whispering, “Remember the duck.”
In this parable, Grandma represents God who forgives and extends grace.
We all have our “remember the duck” moments.
We’re intimately familiar (as Johnny was) with Paul’s “bad news” in Romans:
23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.
For the Christian, we also have the experience of forgiveness and grace.
Verse 24 helps us:
24 Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.
This is the gospel message in a nutshell. We rebel, we sin, we choose our own way of living. We fail to meet God’s standard.
But the grace of God wipes our sins away and restores us to Him because of Jesus’ sacrifice and resurrection.
When we’re thoughtful, we should as a logical question:
NOW WHAT?
There tend to be two polar opposite reactions to God’s grace:
The first is to accept it but not really. We still find ourselves worrying that our misdeeds, sins, spiritual immaturity is going to somehow make God mad and he’ll take our gift of grace away. Consequently, we “work.” We do good deeds to stay in God’s good graces.
This kind of thinking and behavior steals grace from God and turns it into a payment for our sins. The problem as v. 23 reminds us is that we can never hit the mark enough to meet the standard of God’s holiness.
The other extreme is to accept that God has given us grace (given love and acceptance we don’t deserve) and mercy (withheld judgment we DO deserve). Unconditionally and completely.
And then run with it. Like little Johnny and his slingshot living in a state of grace, who can apparently do no wrong. We got out and shoot all the ducks we want!
Clearly, this is not a good understanding of the nature of our relationship with God nor does immorality demonstrate our discipleship.
So how do we understand and live at the intersection grace and our subsequent behavior?
Paul’s answer to this apparent dilemma is found in Ephesians:
8 God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. 10 For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.
When little Johnny got sick and tired of living under his sister’s thumb and dealing on his own with the consequences of his actions, he found grace and mercy.
Now he has the chance to demonstrate his gratitude. Before he did the chores out of obligation. Now he can act in love.
“believe” in v. 8 is “faith.” It’s “fidelity,” “loyalty.”
His grandmother won’t love him any more or less because of his “work.” She will be gratified that he wants her to know that he is glad to have their relationship restored.
It’s the same with us and God. Accepting grace doesn’t put us in God’s debt. In fact, we already were but Christ paid that debt.
Now, we can live and act out of love and gratitude, living a life that is blessed and a blessing to others.
Our lives demonstrate and show God to others around us. We become living grace.
When we know and understand what grace really is, we’re ready to serve.
10 God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another.
Don’t fall into the devils trap of constantly repeating your sins to you: “Remember the duck.”
Do choose to accept God’s free gift of grace found in Jesus Christ.
Then live free.