Messy Grace for a Messy World

The title of this sermon is “Messy Grace.” I’m calling it “Messy Grace for a Messy World” not because God’s grace is messy, rather His perfect grace appears to be messy when it intersects our messy lives.

At the end of todays talk, It’s my hope that though everything might not make sense, maybe you and I will consider diving deeper into God’s grace and discover what it is that we can do---and how we can love people as He wants us to.

My wife and I were married in 2000 and we had our first child 2 years later. We were so happy. I romanticized what it was going to be like, and I knew what it was going to be like because I'd seen the movies, right? I knew that the child would grab my hand and my finger and we'd have this instant connection and there'd be the underscoring of music...and that is not what happened.

I remember that room like it was yesterday… it was like a hotel room with super high tech equipment everywhere there was a bed and one chair on either side of it. It wasn’t long before the labor pains of the day turned into full on baby-about-to-be-born mode. The doctor and nurses come in and spreads a plastic mat all over the floor and puts on body armor and a welding mask, and then all the nurses have on welding masks and I go over to the doctor and I said, "Is everything ok?" She said, "Don't worry about it, Dad, you'll be okay." I go back to my position as wife-encourager and I'm waiting for the movie moment.

Soon the moment arrived when our baby boy would enter the world but his entrance was nothing like I expected it. There were complications with my wife’s blood pressure and complications with our baby’s heart rate, the doctor looked concerned and soon the room filled with people and everyone was moving with incredible focus and intention.

at the end of the flurry of action my wife and new child were healthy and strong but it was a complete mess getting there. blood, sweat and tears for all of us including the doctor. AND at the end of that messy moment My wife and I had one thing on our mind, We love our little baby boy. And when our daughters were born it was the same thing…messy messy but at the end of the day we looked through the mess of the process and were filled with incredible love for these precious human beings. Our children.

You need to know something, and for those of you who don't go to church on a regular basis, this is huge for you. The world wants to define you by your messiness. The world wants to say, "You've got addiction problems. You've got financial problems. You've got relational problems. You can't hold a job. You've got problems with drinking and you've got problems with friends and you've got problems, problems," and the world wants to define you by your messiness, but here's what God does: God looks through the messiness, when you follow Jesus, and he says, "That's my child, and I love my child." God says, "I would do anything for you," and God did, by the way. When he stretched out his arms and sent his son to die on the cross, God did everything he could for you by allowing his son to die in your place so that all you have to do is trust Christ and your sins are forgiven, you can follow Jesus and be with him forever.

I'm here to tell you a very, very simple truth, and if you go to church on a regular basis this is nothing theologically deep where you're going to walk away saying, "I never thought about that before." Here's what you need to know: God loves messy people. God loves people with issues. God is very, very good at loving people of all different backgrounds, perspectives and preferences and ISSUES. Look at the person next to you. Now look at the person on the other side. Whoever you looked at, they got issues. They got big issues, right?

You see, we're all messy. We all have things going on because the first two letters of the word "messy" are M-E, "me", right? When you trust Christ and when you follow Jesus, you have to repent, right? That's part of believing in Jesus. Repentance is owning your stuff and saying, "I have not lived the way that God wants me to live." Again, I just want you to know that God loves messy people, and if God loves messy people, and we say we follow God, we need to love messy people as well.

This is NOT EASY… we need examples and demonstrations of it to help us know how to do it.

Usually when we’re faced with a messy situation or a messy person or a messy relationship I think we do one of these things.. whether we want to help the person or not these seem to be the way I’ve seen people respond or the way I’ve responded

we judge them by their mess

invisibly and without warning I categorize people by their problems/challenges and issues.

we blame them for their mess

This is all your fault, and because of your foolishness now you’ve got a mess on your hands

we shame them for their mess

What in the world were you thinking? Haven’t you learned your lesson yet?

we excuse them from their mess

(ignoring the mess) oh it will be ok, this is no big deal.

identifying the mess of it will be ok, I’ll take care of it.

There is a better way. The gospel calls us to love people in the midst of their mess. Let’s look at how Jesus handled a pretty big mess and see if we can learn a few things from Him.

John 8:1–11 (NLT)

1 Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives, but early the next morning he was back again at the Temple. A crowd soon gathered, and he sat down and taught them.

He was slow to speak

I’m a guy who is ok with awkward silence but this is a whole nother level of awkwardness for everyone involved. Jesus was the champion of think before you speak.

James 1:19 (NLT)

19 Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry.

James 1:26 (NLT)

26 If you claim to be religious but don’t control your tongue, you are fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless.

2. He saw that there was more to the story

A great mentor and pastor of mine helped me understand this as we walked along side of broken people and broken families. Every mess has another mess connected to it that you most likely don’t know about.

the clearer you see your own sin the greater you appreciate God Grace.. In this case, with Jesus we see how an understanding of how Everyone has fallen short of the glory of God changes the way Jesus approaches this woman.

Jesus saw the whole picture and helped everyone remember that they didn’t have all the information.

3. He restores dignity without ignoring the mess.

(story about Mrs Benson and the Submarine sandwiches.) I had every reason to be in my mess but she showed me love and restored dignity by giving me a gift.

Jesus knows that this woman and all of us have every reason to be in our messes but he lived in the tension of Truth and Grace with her and with us.

4. He spoke the truth with love

Rubber Band illustration - the power of Grace is felt when we choose to live in the tension of love for others

He is and was the only one that didn’t have issues or make a mess of things yet he took on the punishment for all of us.

“The gospel is this: We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe, yet at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope.”

― Timothy Keller

You could hear all these things as advice and still miss out on the most amazing part of the story today.

The gospel of Jesus Christ isn’t about hearing good advice and trying to follow it, rather it’s about hearing the good news that although you made a mess and you deserve to pay the price for it, JESUS paid the ultimate price for your ultimate mess and is now eager to be in relationship with you so you can have dignity and strength and wholeness restored to you.

If you have ears to hear this today I hope you will hear that God sees you through your mess

That Jesus stepped into our mess and took the pain and suffering for our mess and gives us a chance to be made new

What if we all chose to think differently about other peoples messes this week. How about we choose to look past other peoples mess and live in the tension of Truth and Grace. Love them the way Jesus loves us.

The only way we can do that is to experience that love ourselves first and give our mess to Him.

Let’s Pray.