Sneaky Grace

Last week we started a focused series of messages on Discipleship - Way, Truth, Life: Discipleship as a journey of grace. Sometimes journeys go pretty much like you planned them.

When I was the pastor at Paden City, WV, I went on a trip with our Sr. Adult Ministries. Our Sr. Adult Ministries Director was a retired construction engineer - and he was a planner! He planned out the exact time we would leave and the exact time we would stop for a break, and the exact time and place that we would stop for lunch, and the exact amount of time that we would spend at each stop. It was planned down to the minute, and we followed his plan to a T. It worked out well, and we accomplished exactly what we set out to accomplish.

That was a time that everything worked just as planned! Other times, I have been on trips where something unexpected happened - a flat tire - an unknown detour - unexpected bad weather - sickness that changed our plan! The old saying goes “we plan, God laughs.” I’m not sure I like the implication of that saying, but there is certainly some truth that we cannot know what is going to happen when we plan our journey of life, but God does know!

Discipleship - the process through which God’s grace takes us from who we are to who He wants us to be can rightly be called a journey. We are on this journey together to grow in Christlikeness - to take on His characteristics in our lives - to become all that God desires us to be. We are on this journey together, and we need each other on this journey.

We know where the journey is heading - but there was a time when we weren’t on board for the journey. There was a time when we may not have even known there was a journey to take. But God, in His grace and mercy knew us - He saw us - He was wooing us - to come along on this journey. The Church of the Nazarene rests confidently in the Wesleyan way of thinking and interpreting scripture, and as Wesleyans, we believe that grace is at work long before we understand what grace even is. John Wesley referred to this idea as preventing grace - Wesleyan theologians have called it prevenient grace - the grace that goes before we even realize God is at work in our lives. Dr. Busic in Way, Truth, Life calls it “seeking grace.” This sermon explores the opportunities we have as Christians to see grace at work in the lives of those around us every day. If we believe in prevenient grace, we also believe that discipleship begins before we come to know Jesus as our savior & Lord. This whole idea speaks to how we look at those around us who may not know Jesus as savior.

Narrate

There are countless ways that God shows up in our lives even before we come to know Him. For many of us, that meant that we had the privilege of growing up in a home where God was at the center of our lives. I want us to focus for the next few minutes on the way God was at work in your life before you came to know Him. I am hoping that some of you will participate in this:

I will start--I was fortunate to be raised in a family that made the worship and service of God central to our upbringing. We were in church anytime the doors were open, but we also experienced Him during the week. My parents were consistent in their love of God, and that impacted our lives from week to week. They, and my Sunday School teachers through the years all prayed for me that I would come to know Jesus. Through that faithfulness, God was at work in my life from a very young age - wooing and drawing me to Himself.

Now it is participation time! How was God at work in your life? How did He draw you in?

Participation:

In all of our lives, God was working in and through us in many ways, drawing us in to relationship with Him. He didn’t work in each of us in exactly the same way - He worked in the way that was best for us! And, the beauty of that is that we know He is also at work in the lives of our loved ones and friends - He is initiating a relationship with each of them in much the same way that he initiated a relationship with us! There are incidents that are happening in the lives of everybody we know that God will use to draw them in. Sometimes we call these incidents coincidences, but I have a friend who refers to these kinds of coincidences as God incidents instead - they are places where God is at work in our lives.

Grace sneaks up on us sometimes when we least expect it.

Investigate What this prevenient grace reminds us is that none of us first pursue God - He pursues us and we respond to His grace. He is at work in our lives - leading, wooing, drawing us to Him. We may not even realize it is Him working, but He continues to do so.

Becoming a Christ follower is not just about us making a decision to turn our life around. God draws us and we respond. When I was a youth pastor, I had one of my guys tell me one time that he didn’t want to live his life for Jesus at that time because he wanted to have his fun while he was young, and then when he was old, like 30 - he would come to Jesus then and serve him. What he didn’t understand is that we don’t just make a decision to follow Him - our relationship with Him starts with Him reaching out to us to draw us to Himself. It is this sneaky grace - this prevenient grace - this grace that goes before that makes it possible for us to serve Him.

We believe that we don’t wake up desiring God on our own one day but that God has been activating a desire in us before we knew or understood who God was.

And the really exciting thing that this means is that we believe that Christians don’t take Jesus to nonbelievers—Jesus is already there. It is not all our responsibility to reach people for Christ - the Holy Spirit, through God’s grace is already reaching out to them and drawing them into a relationship with Him. So, when we feel led to share our faith, it is not in a vacuum. We speak grace into someone’s life, but God is already at work - His grace is wooing and working in their lives already!

We often think of discipleship as something that begins when we get saved, but if this prevenient grace is truly part of the process then discipleship begins before conversion.

Extrapolate Let’s turn our attention to Acts chapter 10.

Acts 10 NIV

1 At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion in what was known as the Italian Regiment. 2 He and all his family were devout and God-fearing; he gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly. 3 One day at about three in the afternoon he had a vision. He distinctly saw an angel of God, who came to him and said, “Cornelius!” 4 Cornelius stared at him in fear. “What is it, Lord?” he asked. The angel answered, “Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God. 5 Now send men to Joppa to bring back a man named Simon who is called Peter. 6 He is staying with Simon the tanner, whose house is by the sea.” 7 When the angel who spoke to him had gone, Cornelius called two of his servants and a devout soldier who was one of his attendants. 8 He told them everything that had happened and sent them to Joppa. 9 About noon the following day as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. 10 He became hungry and wanted something to eat, and while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. 11 He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. 12 It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles and birds. 13 Then a voice told him, “Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.” 14 “Surely not, Lord!” Peter replied. “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.” 15 The voice spoke to him a second time, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.” 16 This happened three times, and immediately the sheet was taken back to heaven. 17 While Peter was wondering about the meaning of the vision, the men sent by Cornelius found out where Simon’s house was and stopped at the gate. 18 They called out, asking if Simon who was known as Peter was staying there. 19 While Peter was still thinking about the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Simon, three men are looking for you. 20 So get up and go downstairs. Do not hesitate to go with them, for I have sent them.” 21 Peter went down and said to the men, “I’m the one you’re looking for. Why have you come?” 22 The men replied, “We have come from Cornelius the centurion. He is a righteous and God-fearing man, who is respected by all the Jewish people. A holy angel told him to ask you to come to his house so that he could hear what you have to say.” 23 Then Peter invited the men into the house to be his guests. The next day Peter started out with them, and some of the believers from Joppa went along. 24 The following day he arrived in Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends. 25 As Peter entered the house, Cornelius met him and fell at his feet in reverence. 26 But Peter made him get up. “Stand up,” he said, “I am only a man myself.” 27 While talking with him, Peter went inside and found a large gathering of people. 28 He said to them: “You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with or visit a Gentile. But God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean. 29 So when I was sent for, I came without raising any objection. May I ask why you sent for me?” 30 Cornelius answered: “Three days ago I was in my house praying at this hour, at three in the afternoon. Suddenly a man in shining clothes stood before me 31 and said, ‘Cornelius, God has heard your prayer and remembered your gifts to the poor. 32 Send to Joppa for Simon who is called Peter. He is a guest in the home of Simon the tanner, who lives by the sea.’ 33 So I sent for you immediately, and it was good of you to come. Now we are all here in the presence of God to listen to everything the Lord has commanded you to tell us.” 34 Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism 35 but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right. 36 You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, announcing the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. 37 You know what has happened throughout the province of Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached— 38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him. 39 “We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a cross, 40 but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen. 41 He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen—by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 42 He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. 43 All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.” 44 While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. 45 The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on Gentiles. 46 For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God. Then Peter said, 47 “Surely no one can stand in the way of their being baptized with water. They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have.” 48 So he ordered that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked Peter to stay with them for a few days.

God’s prevenient grace was at work in the life of Cornelius, and through Cornelius, prevenient grace was at work in the lives of his family members and friends who were there with him. Crossroads: The unique place of life Cornelius was in was perhaps a setup for grace to have its way with him. Curiosity: Anyone who begins to turn toward God is already under the allure of grace. This pull is often demonstrated through curiosity. This is one of my favorite examples of God’s prevenient grace. People ask questions. They show up in spaces they wouldn’t ordinarily. They hang out longer than they used to. Unfortunately, well-meaning Christians sometimes sabotage these moments, feeling pressured to “get someone saved.” But the beauty of prevenient grace is knowing that God is already doing the work. Companionship: Cornelius’s life would have constantly bumped up against the lives of the people of God. He was highly esteemed among the Jews, so he was no foreigner to people of faith. Notably, his first act of obedience was to seek the companionship of Peter, a Jewish Christian he’d never met. Conviction: Conviction is the grace that begins to align our lives to the kingdom of God before we’ve made that kingdom our home. This is why discipleship is so important. Discipleship doesn’t begin at the point of conversion. Discipleship happens all along the journey of grace, nurturing, fostering, and fueling the work that God is already up to in a person’s life.

Gospel Mandate Prevenient grace works in two ways. It works on the person the Lord is drawing to God’s self, and it works through the person who is called and commissioned—sent to stand with the person who is searching.

Peter was appalled when God suggested that he eat some things that were against the standards of a devout Jew to eat. The reason behind this vision becomes clear when the men show up from Cornelius. Peter was a vital connection point between this seeker and God. Peter was faithful to go when God made it clear that he was supposed to go. He recognized that God was already working in Cornelius’ life.

God is at work in the lives of your family and friends that do not have a relationship with God. The Holy Spirit goes before us and is doing the job of wooing and drawing them into relationship. We all have a job to do to reach people and share the truth that we know!

Celebrate What a celebration happens when Cornelius responds to the message of Peter! It is the same celebration that happened in your own lives when you came into relationship and began to live into your discipleship story.

If you are here today or you are watching online and you recognize that God has been at work in your life - drawing you into relationship - maybe this is the day to stop running and let this sneaky grace have its way in your life.