Sermon Notes — September 15, 2024


September 15, 2024

Ephesians 2:4-10

“The Gift of Grace”

Dr. Craig Goff

Today is one of my favorite days of the church year and on the church calendar, because it is the day we give Bibles to our third-graders.

Anybody else remember your first Bible?  I do.

My very first “Bible” was actually a Bible story book.  My grandmother gave it to me for Christmas.  I read that book from cover to cover many times.  Then, when I thought I was too old to read “children’s Bible stories,” I gave to my one cousin I thought would most likely take care of it.  She took very good care of everything she had.

I got my next Bible when I was a teenager.  My mom’s younger sister gave it to me.  It is a New Testament.  The “Good News for Modern Man” translation first published in 1966.  It includes illustrations designed to help modern people connect with the story of the Gospel.

I’m sure she gave it to me because she thought I needed it, like I really needed it.  I did.  Even though I kind of kept it a secret, I read and reread it many times.

I still have my Good News for Modern Man Bible.  I keep it in my study next to my third Bible, another New Testament.  It was also a gift.  My friend and self-appointed “lumberyard chaplain” gave it to me just after I committed my life to following Jesus.  It is Billy Graham Crusade Edition King James version of the New Testament.  It is the real deal.

In our text today, Paul says, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.

Salvation is a gift from God just like those two Bibles and Bible story book I was given were gifts.

They didn’t cost me anything.  One was given to me by my grandmother, who loved me.  Another by my  aunt who loved me and wanted me to experience God’s grace and love; the other given to me by a friend who had shared his faith journey with me.

Our theme for today as part of our “Roots” worship series is grace.

The word for gift and the word for grace in the New Testament are almost identical.  They share the same root.

In the text we heard read, Paul says, “by grace you have been saved, not by works, less anyone should boast.  It is a gift.”

We receive salvation from God as a gift, just like we receive life itself as a gift from God.

I didn’t have to pay anything to come into existence or to be born into this world, not a penny.  But on April 18, 1960 at about lunch time in a hospital in Clinton, Kentucky, that is exactly what happened.  I was born into this world. 

Like any other baby, there for a while, I couldn’t do much.  I couldn’t even lift my head.  I couldn’t feed myself.  I was pretty helpless.  If I went anywhere it was because somebody picked me up and carried me.  

I didn’t pay anything for the food I ate; for the transportation I was provided, the trips to the doctor — none of it.

It was all a gift.  Everything was done for me.  I was totally dependent on others.

I am not expert in childhood development, but if I understand the maturation process correctly, in early infancy, when everything is done for us and provided for us, our individuality is at a minimum.  When we wiggle our toes and our mouths make noises it’s without a thought out conscience purpose.  We are just making noise.  We haven’t really discovered a sense of self.

But when we are little babies, that is all we do.  We really don’t have a sense of self or individual identity.

But before long, we begin to figure some things out and to be able to do some things on our own.

We realize there are things we like and things we can do to get the things we like.

That is part of growing up.  It is normal and healthy.  But we don’t want to get stuck there and only focused on what we like and don’t like.

At some point, we hopefully realize there are other people in the world and life isn’t just about our own comfort and convenience but helping others with their needs.

A fully mature person learns to care about others.

Just as we don’t want a child to always be dependent on others to provide them with what they need.  We also don’t want the child to only be concerned with their own personal needs and desires.

Growing up is complicated.  Spiritual growth is complicated, even though grace is free and salvation is a gift, spiritual growth involves a process just like any other form of human development.

One of John Wesley’s greatest contributions to theology was to teach about grace and spiritual growth in ways that are easily understood.

Unfortunately, we haven’t always followed Wesley’s lead as Methodists, and I don’t think we’ve always done a great job in the church helping people understand how spiritual growth and grace go together.

All too often we have a tendency as Dietrich Bonhoeffer once said, to promote “cheap grace,” which among other things means we limit our understanding of grace as something God gives us so that we can go to heaven when we die.

That is definitely a part of what grace is.  But that is not all that grace is.

Grace isn’t just about a free ticket to heaven when we die.

We were created in God’s image.  We were created to care for everything God has created.  However, we have fallen far short of that responsibility.

But God has not given up on us.  God offers us the gift of grace which isn’t just a ticket to heaven, but a divine energy that transforms our hearts and lives so that we can become part of  something bigger than ourselves, so that we can take part in what God is doing, so that we can take part in God’s renewing the world.

In 1 Corinthians 13 Paul says:

“When I became an adult, I put childish ways behind me.”

I’m not sure I understand that completely, but I think part of what it might mean is that as we grow in grace, we begin to see that the world doesn’t revolve around us.

We begin to care about other people and our world, which is why it’s good to read 1 Corinthians 13 at weddings which we so often do.

Putting childish ways behind us means we care for our world.  We don’t just dump our trash beside the road because “Church has left the Building” people will eventually come and pick it up….

Growing spiritually we learn to care about our world.

In John 20 when Jesus was giving his disciples some pretty important instructions, one of the things he told them was:

“As the Father has sent me I send you.”

Just try to wrap your mind around that.

Jesus says to his followers, “…as the Father has sent me, so I send you.”

Our salvation is a gift, but it’s a gift to be developed, to be exercised.  It is gift to be shared.

And since we were created in the image of God who is infinite, our capacity to grow is infinite.

As you know, there are two large bodies of water in Israel, the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea.

The Sea of Galilee has water running in and water running out.  It is filled with all kinds of fish, all kinds of life.

The Dead Sea only has water flowing in with none flowing out and it is as dead as it can be.  All take and no give.

Yes, salvation is free.  Yes grace is a gift, but it is not a gift given to us just so we can sit on our blessed assurances and do nothing.

It is not just about what I receive and how I might personally benefit.  It connects to God and everyone else on this planet and with the planet itself.

Jesus said to his disciples.  “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”

He also taught them how to pray.

He taught them how to pray a prayer that I think can really help us understand the fullness of the gift of God’s grace.

As I close would you pray it with me?

Our Father who Art in heaven. . . . .

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Weekly Greeting - September 13, 2024