Understanding Grace
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And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’ ” And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.” Peter began to say to him, “See, we have left everything and followed you.” Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”
As we paid nothing for God’s eternal love and nothing for the Son of His love, and nothing for His Spirit and our grace and faith, and nothing for our eternal rest...What an astonishing thought it will be to think of the unmeasurable difference between our deservings and our receivings. O, how free was all this love, and how free is this enjoyed glory...So then let “Deserved” be written on the floor of hell but on the door of heaven and life, “The Free Gift”. - Richard Baxter
He was pointing out the difference between, as Christians, what we deserve and what we receive.
But even more, he was showing how God’s grace is very real, and any ideas of deserving anything are false.
We are a church that was built on the reality of God’s grace (Pastor Ed - a haven of grace in a graceless world)
We are a church that continues to thrive on the reality of God’s grace - we want to continue to be a haven of grace, but have God’s grace overflow through us to the world like a fountain
Our mission - the 3 E’s - all are about God’s grace!
Our lives as Christians and as a church are dependent on God’s grace!
Our salvation is only by God’s grace!
Indeed, everything we are and everything we have are all only by God’s grace!
But here’s the problem we have as sinners, even sinners saved by grace: we still have on this side of heaven certain sinful tendencies - I’m not necessarily talking about acts of sin, but,
Tendencies that make us:
see reality with worldly eyes
that ever so slightly lean us towards pride
that blur the truth that we know in our heads and our hearts so that it doesn’t always work out in our actions
that even with the best of intentions cause us to try to do for the kingdom our way in our own power
What does this have to do with God’s grace? Well, that’s the problem: God’s grace runs contrary to our natural tendencies.
An what’s more, God’s grace runs contrary to everything the world tells us.
From the time we are small children, our parents teach us that there are consequences for our actions, and they punished us when we did wrong and rewarded us when we did right.
Before remote learning, in school, we got grades based on how we performed in class, and on our homework, and on our tests. We learned that, as my father told me at a young age, you can only get out of school what you put into it.
As adults, most of us are forced into the reality that it takes work to gain any reward. That if we don’t work hard, we don’t get paid, and we won’t have much.
In other words, we are taught the old adage: nothing in life comes free.
Add to that the fact that in our society today, we are all obsessed with what we “deserve”.
Check out the devotional from this past week.
The courts are overrun with lawsuits because everyone deserves something. Whether right or wrong, tax money not just health care, but cell-phones and cable TV for people who don’t work because our government will tell us these are basic human rights. People deserve these things.
Women are allowed to kill their babies. Men are allowed to use women’s restrooms. Why? Because to deny them these rights would be…wrong. They deserve to be able to do these things.
In other words, what our flesh, and what the world tells us is: Everyone should get what they deserve.
But I thank God not everyone does.
Because do you know what I deserve? Hell. Do you know what you deserve? Do you know what everyone deserves?
Listen: Satan is good. He is shrewd and a whole lot smarter than us. He has so many people believing we deserve everything we want. And he doesn’t do it because we fight and steal and kill because we are so convinced we deserve what we want – that’s just an added bonus for him.
No. He does it to distract us from grace. To try to destroy the very concept.
think about it, if I deserve everything I want, then grace doesn’t even need to exist. And when we have lost the concept of grace, it becomes impossible to recognize our desperate need of it.
But God knows our need. And that is why He sent His Son. And that’s why we have His Word.
And this morning, we are going to consider one man that didn’t understand grace – and who didn’t understand his desperate need for Jesus. And I pray that God would open our eyes today to see just a little more of His infinite grace - and our desperate and ongoing need for Jesus.
So as we consider this passage, we need to understand that this young man had one basic problem - he didn’t understand the law, so he didn’t understand grace. First, the law needs to be understood in order for grace to be understood.
So that’s where we need to start this morning, with the law.
Because like this man, if we don’t understand the law, we don’t understand grace. Misunderstandings of the law cause many a Christian to misunderstand grace.
What comes to mind when I say “law of God?”
Do you think of the first five books of the Old Testament? Or maybe the entire Old Testament?
Do you think of an antiquated set of rules that no longer apply in this day and age? Of rules that applied to a particular people in a particular circumstance at a particular time?
Or maybe of a set of rules that is still binding on us today?
Or rules that today are simply meant to guide us in our life and religious practice?
Or, do you think of the gracious self-revelation of a supremely holy God meant to show us Who He is and drive us to Him for our salvation?
Charles Spurgeon: ‘(People) will never accept grace till they tremble before a just and holy law’
You see, God intended for the law to be, not an end, but a means. The law is a means to understanding grace. Because it is a means of understanding God.
Because when we look at the Law of God, what we see is God Himself - His holiness, His righteousness, His perfection. The law shows us the greatness of God!
As we see the greatness of God more, we see our sinfulness and our need of Him more. As we see ourselves as we are and see our sin, we more clearly see the greatness and the grace of God.
In other words, until the law shows us our need of grace, we can’t understand grace.
Well, that is what Spurgeon is talking about.
And that is what this young man in our passage today was missing. He saw the law not as revealing God and His righteousness - but a measuring stick to reveal his own righteousness.
We can see this in the question the man asks Jesus:
And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
What must I do to inherit eternal life?
This man believed there was something he had to do - that he could do - to get eternal life - that he could, in essence, earn salvation. Because he didn’t see the law as God’s self-revelation, but as a set of rules God put in place to determine who was righteous and who was sinful.
The problem is, when held up to the standard of God’s holy law:
“None is righteous, no, not one"
as it is written:
“None is righteous, no, not one;
So Jesus tries to redirect this man. Jesus wants to both correct his faulty thinking, and get his eyes off of himself and onto God. He wants him to see the law as a means of grace.
Look at Jesus’ reply:
And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.
And Jesus is not, of course, implying that He isn’t good. That wasn’t the point. He knew this man came at the law from a faulty perspective - from an earthly perspective - and Jesus wants him to understand that the law is not about him being “good” or being “bad.”
The law is about God. And His goodness.
In other words, He is telling this young man that his question and his basic beliefs about God and salvation were misguided. Because the point of the law is to show us that, in fact, no one is good but God.
And Jesus points him to the law as proof of this.
You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’ ”
Jesus basically lists the second table of the law. And if you’re familiar with the Ten Commandments, there is an order to them that God put in place purposely.
The order of the 10 Commandments - first how we deal with Him (no other gods, no idols) - vertical (God) to horizontal (others) - the horizontal is how we put the vertical in practice
This is why Jesus can reduce these ten to two - the greatest commandment and the second like it - love God first, love your neighbor
But the point is that God places Himself at the start of the commandments - because that is where the law is supposed to point us.
And not just because the first commandment is that His people shall have no other gods. God literally starts with Himself when He revealed the law to Israel:
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
“You shall have no other gods before me.
He first establishes Himself as the God of grace - the God Who already saved His people. The God Who already took His people from slavery into freedom. The God Who already conquered their enemies.
Even for the Israelites - those who were under the law - the law was first about God and His goodness and His grace, before it was about anything they did!
And this man who came to Jesus missed that. He made the law about himself. What he did or didn’t do - not what a gracious and holy God had already done, or was doing in Christ.
He misunderstood the law and he misunderstood God’s grace.
And that is what Jesus is pointing out. Because Jesus aims right at this man’s misunderstanding of law, of grace, and of God when He says:
You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’ ”
And we see from the man’s response that misunderstanding God meant he misunderstood himself.
And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.”
This man did what our sinful hearts tend to do - what many Christians tend to do - what we still sometimes do. He made himself the standard. I think I covered this sufficiently last month, but let’s just say that we tend to judge “right” based on what we already do.
So this man looks at what Jesus said and thinks: “Okay. I’ve never killed anyone - check. I haven’t physically cheated on my wife - check. I don’t take physical objects that aren’t mine - check." - and as he goes down the whole list in his mind and looks at the law from that earthly, physical point of view, and believes the law is about him, he convinces himself that he follows the law.
I have to assume that this guy didn’t hear the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus explains more fully things like murder and adultery.
But that’s the point. If the law was about this man - what he did and didn’t physically do to the letter of the law - then maybe he’d have reason to feel justified. And even that’s a big maybe.
But that isn’t the purpose of the law.
So Jesus explains it further.
And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”
First, I love this verse. Jesus looking at him loved him!
In other words, Jesus was going to give this man the answer to his question, because He loved him. Jesus was showing compassion on this man by trying to explain God’s grace as revealed through the law.
Jesus could have told this man he was absolutely wrong. That he had no understanding of the Scriptures or of God - He’s done it before. He told the religious leaders on a few occasions that they didn’t understand either!
And this man was self-righteous. He came to Jesus looking to justify himself, not looking for God’s grace.
But Jesus loved this man. He showed him grace anyway. He loved this sorry, lost sinner and his misconceptions about himself and about God.
I think I love this verse so much because it may as well be about me.
Coming to Christ later in life - I had formed opinions about God and myself that were a hindrance to seeing God for Who He is and myself for who I am
Ask Jeff
I was this prideful young man!
So I thank God that what the Apostle Paul tells us is true:
but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
That is grace.
And Jesus showed this man grace and pointed him to the truth about the law.
Jesus knew the man could justify himself - could rationalize having followed those commands He listed to Him. Jesus was setting the man up for a dose of truth. Because Jesus tells him what following the law means:
And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”
This man came to Jesus thinking he was already good enough to inherit eternal life. He had made the law about himself and not about God, so he believed he kept the law.
And actually, in Matthew’s account, Jesus starts by telling the man that if he wants to do something to have eternal life, he’d have to keep the commandments. And the man misses the point Jesus is making, because he believed he could do something himself. So Jesus actually lists these commandment in response to the man’s questions to set him up for the truth that he couldn’t truly keep the law!
And the man missed the point because he had his eyes on himself, and not God. He had his mind on earthly things, not heavenly.
And Jesus gets to the heart of that issue here. And He tells this young man that he needs to give up the earthly if he wants the heavenly.
And understand, Jesus isn’t saying that we all need to give up all of our belongings and donate them. I mean, He’s not saying not to, but that isn’t the point He’s making. He is telling this man who came to him looking at the law and God through earthly eyes that he needed to let go of what it was that tethered him to the world and kept him from God.
For some it’s pride. For some it’s love of certain sins. For some, like this man, it’s love of money.
But Jesus wasn’t making a point about belongings, he was making a point about sinful man. That he needs to get his eyes off himself and onto God. That he needs to let go of the physical, and seek the spiritual. That he needs to value the heavenly, not the earthly.
In other words, he needed to give up what he finds important, and embrace what God finds important.
That is what Jesus is telling this man to do - give up what you hold precious in the world - what you have set your heart on - and set your heart on heaven, and follow Jesus.
But we see what sin does to the human heart:
Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
Remember, this is the story of the RICH young ruler. This man was basically defined by his possessions. And he chose to hold onto what defined him in the world, rather than give it up to be defined by Jesus.
And we have all been called to do the same. To treasure the heavenly rather than the earthly. To hold what we have here - even the worldly things God has blessed us with - we need to hold onto these things with a very loose grasp - even let go of some of them - so that we can hold onto Jesus with all our might.
And this is a decision we have to make often, isn’t it? We get drawn back into that worldly thinking sometimes, don’t we? We try to take hold of what we have in the world instead of with open hands of faith asking God to fill us with His grace.
And this is all about grace. Jesus makes this all about grace. He tells this man that he needs to fulfill the law, and in order to that, he needs grace.
Because this man thought he obeyed the law, until Jesus called him to give up what he had on earth to inherit heaven. And the man couldn’t do it.
And quite honestly, neither could we. None of us. Nobody ever has and nobody ever will.
That’s why we need grace.
Look at what happens next:
And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”
And again, this is not a comment about wealth or earthly possessions, per se. There are wildly rich people that love God with all their hearts. No, Jesus was talking about how the more someone is content with the earthly - the more they value the things of this world - the more difficult it will be to value the heavenly.
And yes, for many, it is easier to be content with more wealth and more earthly comforts.
And of course, in Jesus day, those with great wealth were considered superior. They were thought to be specially blessed by God. So it would be expected that those blessed so greatly by God in this world would be the first in line for heaven!
That’s why the disciples are so amazed at what Jesus said.
Well, thank God that in our day those with wealth aren’t considered at all superior, right?
But again, this isn’t about wealth. It isn’t really about the earthly things we possess. It is about what earthly things possess us.
And it doesn’t have to be money.
Think about it this way:
We each make a host of choices every day that reveal what we value - what are our true priorities.
Because even when we choose something to watch on TV, we are choosing it over any number of other things that are on. When we choose to spend three bucks on a cup of coffee, or seven if you go to Starbucks, we are choosing to spend that money on the coffee instead of any number of other things.
When we choose to spend our time reading or working out or napping or whatever, we are choosing to spend our time on that rather than a million other things we could be doing. So really, when you think about it, we are choosing against most things rather than choosing for them.
Since we only have limited time and resources and brain power – we have to choose against the overwhelming majority of things.
How often do we choose against Jesus in favor of the world? How often do we choose against paying the price of following Him?
I’ll tell you: As often as we miss the blessing of knowing Him and experiencing God’s grace.
And that’s really what this is about.
This is not just for the wealthy - it’s for everybody.
That’s why Jesus clarifies and tells them how difficult it is - in general - to enter the kingdom of God.
“Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God.”
And then He amplifies that for those who are held by earthly things and says that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God.
And there are plenty of interpretations of what Jesus says here. There are some real interpretive acrobatics done on this one to make it not mean what it plainly says.
Some say He is talking about a narrow gate on the rear of the wall of Jerusalem that camels can't easily get through. Some talk about some other places that camels can’t easily navigate. I won’t bore you with details, but all of these interpretations have the same goal.
They want to say that Jesus is talking about the difficulty of earthly people entering the kingdom of God. And Jesus does use the word difficult. He says it’s difficult for those who are possessed by the things of the earth to get into the Kingdom.
But then He uses this metaphor about a camel and the eye of the needle, and if we take that at face value, that wouldn’t mean it was difficult, it would mean it was impossible.
And understandably, that makes some people - maybe many people - uncomfortable. The idea that there is nothing we can do to enter the kingdom of God - that we play absolutely no part in that - is contrary to our natural tendencies.
Even for Christians. Because we all say that there’s nothing we can do or have to do to be saved, don’t we?
We say it’s all by grace, right? But then we still tend, in practice, to impose upon ourselves some kind of standards we have to meet. Maybe not to earn God’s favor, but to keep it. And that’s why we feel so guilty when we fail. Sometimes maybe even doubt our standing in Christ?
But the fact of the matter is that thinking like this is a misunderstanding of the law and a misunderstanding of grace. It is a misunderstanding of ourselves, and a misunderstanding of God.
And don’t feel badly about that, the Apostles were in the same boat as us!
Look at their reaction to what Jesus is saying:
It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, “Then who can be saved?”
They understood what Jesus was saying. If there is nothing I can do to be saved... If there’s nothing you can do to be saved... If there’s nothing someone as blessed as this wealthy young man can do to be saved... Then who can be saved?
Literally, they ask “then who has power to be saved?”
And the answer, as much as it goes against what the world, and what our sin, and what Satan tells us is - NOBODY. It would literally be easier for an animal that can literally weigh over a ton to literally pass through the eye of a needle.
In other words, it’s impossible.
And that was Jesus’ point all along. The question was: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” The answer is: “There’s nothing you can do.”
And this is why we need grace.
And that’s exactly what Jesus says:
Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.”
It’s not just difficult, Jesus says, for man to enter the Kingdom of God. It’s impossible.
But what is impossible for us, is possible with God.
And that is grace.
And that’s exactly why, if we misunderstand the law, we will misunderstand grace.
Because the point of the law was to show us not what we must do, but what we cannot do!
And it was meant to point us to the One Who pointed to Himself before ever giving the law. The law is meant to drive us to Jesus for mercy and grace because we have no other way to God.
And we need to realize that the things of this earth will distract us from that reality if we let them. They will distract us from God and from His grace if we let them.
And we do, at times.
I had a wake up moment this past weekend, myself.
The JBL system (I’m not fancy, no designer clothes) - the connector in the rear was no good - I flipped out (I have a record with electronics) - packed it up, put it in the car and brought it back to the store
My wife looked at me with her beautiful brown eyes, and smiled, and said - “honey, this is a first world problem.”
That has resonated with me all week, because I forgot who I was in that moment. I forgot whose I was! I forgot that God’s grace had already given me everything I need.
Does that ever happen to you?
It’s easy.
Because we can gain riches for ourselves on earth. We can gain respect, and standing, and build our own little kingdoms, if we want.
But we can’t gain heaven. We can’t gain the Kingdom. We can’t gain salvation. Only Jesus can gain these for us.
And He did.
What was impossible for us, was not just possible for God - but done!
(The Gospel)* - (Jesus followed the law we couldn’t!)
And that is why we can now value the heavenly above the earthly. We couldn’t before God’s grace brought us into the Kingdom, but now we can. His grace enables us to follow the spirit of the law. It enables us to want to.
We can now want to give up earthly things for heavenly. And we can value the spiritual above the physical. And we can let go of what we have in this world for the world to come.
All by God’s grace!
And that’s what the Apostles were able to do, by God’s grace:
Peter began to say to him, “See, we have left everything and followed you.”
Peter is hearing how hard it is for those who have in this world, to want the world to come. And he is pointing out to Jesus that he and the other disciples have given up a lot to follow Jesus - because you can’t follow Him without giving up a lot.
Peter himself had given up his fishing business. He left his net and his boat when Jesus called him. He had left the comfort of his house. He had to be apart from his wife for a time to follow Jesus.
But he left even more.
Peter left what he could have had in this world. He left what he previously desired to have.
Peter forsook the world he knew to follow Jesus.
And that is exactly what Jesus told the rich young man he had to do. And it is what He tells us we have to do - what anyone who would follow Him has to do. Not just give up what we have - give up our desire for earthly things - give up what we maybe always thought our life would be!
But the grace of God is such that we will gain so much more when we do.
Look at Jesus’ response:
Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.
There’s that “truly” that tells us we should listen up. Jesus says “pay attention.”
And then He makes a promise. He says “Yes, you will need to forsake what you have in this world for my sake and the sake of the Gospel. But what you give, I will give back a hundredfold.”
And notice that Jesus does include eternal life, which is the important part, but He also promises more than we give up in this time.
You may lose loved ones - I know there are some in here that don’t have the same relationship with parents or siblings that they once had since they were saved. But you have gained more family than you’ve lost. I know I have.
I look around this sanctuary and I see brothers and sisters. I see those who guide and nurture me and offer me much needed tough love like parents do. I see many that I love like children. I see the family I never knew I wanted before I knew Christ, but now are some the most important people to me in this world.
That is God’s grace.
I mean, Jesus says here that if we give up siblings and parents, we will gain even more. That sounds good.
He says if we give up earthly things, like lands, we will gain even more. That sounds good, too.
He says that we will gain eternal life! That’s what the man came asking Jesus about in the first place. So we’re all on board for that!
He says that we will have persecutions...
Wait… what? It all sounded so good until that point.
But what Jesus is talking about is giving up the earthly for the heavenly. The physical for the spiritual.
Following Jesus may cost you relationships with physical relatives. But you will gain a spiritual family a hundred times greater.
Following Jesus may cost you physical possessions, like land. But you will gain a spiritual desire for spiritual things that God will grant you. You will possess things that are so much richer and more valuable than what the world can provide.
And you will have to give up friendship with the world, and expect the world to make you an enemy and suffer persecutions in the world. But you will gain the friendship of God, and treasures in heaven so much greater than what the world can offer.
And remember that Jesus Himself calls persecutions in the world a blessing? Why? Because it is our guarantee that we have entered the kingdom of God that it is impossible to get into on our own:
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
And that is why Jesus ends with this:
But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”
He is again contrasting the physical with the spiritual and the earthly with the heavenly. If we seek to be first from an earthly perspective, we are last from a heavenly one. But if we are willing to be last in the world for the sake of Jesus, we are first in the kingdom!
And if it was up to us to give up what we can see and touch for what we cannot, it would be too much to ask.
And that’s why God pours out His grace on His children to desire heaven and obey Him!
Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
Do you see, the law is a means to understanding God’s grace, and God’s grace is the means of obedience to God. Law and obedience are only joined by grace!
In other words, we aren’t obedient to God to be saved, we are saved to be obedient to God.
Steven Lawson Tweeted this last week: Holiness is not the way to Jesus. Jesus is the way to holiness.
I couldn’t put it better myself! Once we belong to Christ, He makes us objectively holy before the Father - before our just and holy judge. And then He makes us what we already are for the rest of our lives as He not only calls us to holiness, but works in us to want and to do according to His will!
That’s why Paul says:
For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
Not end eschatos, end telos
This rich young man came to Jesus to find out how to get eternal life, and the only way was standing right in front of him.
And He is our only way. Our only way to holiness. Our only way to obedience. Our only way to shine our light in a dark world that doesn’t know it needs Him. Our only way to desire this world less and less, and desire Him and the kingdom more and more.
He is the only way that we can break free of the earthly tethers that bind us, and keep us from a richer faith and deeper relationship with Him.
He is the only way that we can endure persecutions for His sake as we show the world the lies of Satan and of sin, and show them the truth - the firm reality - of God’s grace.
He is the only way that we can be a church that forsakes the earthly for the heavenly, and ushers our community and our world towards Jesus so He can save them.
He is the only way we can encounter God’s grace, He is the only way we can experience true community, and He is the only way we can engage the world.
All we have to do is let go of what we hold onto in this world for His sake - Him Who gave it all for us!
How do we do that? That’s a pretty high calling - pretty extreme.
Well, there are a few very un-extreme things we can do to continue down this path.
Read your Bible (even the OT - understand the law, understand grace, understand God, understand yourself) - not only is Jesus found in here, but who we are as His church is found in here
Start with one thing, one choice for Jesus (you need to do one before you can do it all!) - choose against something else for the sake of Jesus.
Give up time for God at home - One TV show - a half hour a day - to pray and read your Bible if that’s not your habit
Give up time to serve (it takes a lot of people - Sunday [kids, technical, fellowship] and all week!)
Forgive that one person you have not - ask for forgiveness from that one person you have wronged
Pray for yourself, and your church - power in prayer! That we would value heaven over earth.
Let’s do that together now.
Men's flag football game on Saturday, 11/28 at 11 am in Brookdale Park for all men and high school boys
Connect with us (11/22)
Thanksgiving eve eve (11/24)
Food pantry - MOM’s Pantry:
MOM’s Pantry is a small pantry of non-perishable foods and hygiene products that are available for anyone who needs them. People from within our congregation, as well as others in the community have been blessed by MOM’s Pantry for many years.
When funds are tight, being able to “shop for free” at MOM’s Pantry means food on the table, and possibly not having to choose between paying utility bills OR food shopping. This is a common issue, and now even more so.
Anyone can freely and confidentially shop at MOM’s Pantry by just contacting Elaine or Janet on the office phone or via email, and setting up a time to come in. They’ll get some shopping bags and have private time to “shop” for whatever they can use.
While the church building was closed, we gave the contents of MOM’s Pantry to Star of Hope, so it would be distributed, rather than sit unused. At this time, we would like to re-stock MOM’s Pantry to start blessing the community again.
How You Can Help:
Bring any canned, boxed or packaged food or hygiene products, and put them in the collection box that will be in the front vestibule for the next two weeks (through Sun. Nov. 22)
Spread the word! When someone is in need, they don’t always share that information. It could be a friend, neighbor, colleague, even a relative you don’t realize is in need. So, go ahead and mention MOM’s Pantry to everyone you come in contact with. You’re sure to bless someone. If you or anyone you know would benefit from MOM’s Pantry, or for more information, contact Elaine or Janet.