Grace Thoughts

Announcer: Hello friends, welcome to Grace Thoughts, the radio ministry of Grace Connection Church with Pastor Tim Kelley. Grace Thoughts has been dedicated to preaching a clear Gospel of grace for over 20 years. Here is Pastor Kelley.

Tim Kelley: Grace wants to find its home, my friends, in our hearts. Hebrews 13:9: “Be not carried away with divers and strange teachings, for it is a good thing that the heart be established,” have a foundation by grace. A gracious, open, God gives, we receive, and nothing more relationship with God.

Second thing that religion does: it bases its acceptance with God on our performance for God, which in turn will unleash the root sins of pride and fear. Think with me, when Adam and Eve became aware of their nakedness after the bite of the fruit, the first emotion they had was fear.

“I’m naked. I didn’t even know what naked was, but now I know what naked is. I feel uncovered. I’m naked in the sight of a holy God.” This is the first time fear was ever felt. It was also the first time that they no longer felt acceptable to God. Something has come between me and God. I feel naked. I don't know what to do here. I have to do something that helps me cover me.

So they came up with Plan B. I’ll show you that. This is the original right here. Adam was a big guy, so he needed an extra large. This is the original—I think it might be the original leaf from the Garden of Eden. Not sure, but it might be. This was their plan to resolve their problem with nakedness.

So it went from being afraid, fear, to pride. Now it’s pride. “I can do this myself. I just need some fig leaves and I won’t be naked anymore.” I cut this from the river in the back. I’m not sure that’s a fig leaf; it might even be edible. We can make a salad out of this later. This is my plan so I won’t be naked. That’s what religion does. It makes you either fearful or makes you prideful.

We compensate ourselves by creating our own brand of righteousness. Now, those who have been with us a while know some of these terms, but I think these are really good terms. There is something called comparative righteousness. Comparative righteousness is when I am in the church and I’m looking at somebody else—use Andre as an example—and I’m comparing myself with him.

I watch what his spiritual practices are. I see how he treats his wife, how he knows the Bible, and he’s sort of my criteria. I’m going to try to get myself level with him or eventually maybe even have a little bit more than him. If I can maybe memorize a few extra verses and sing like he sings in church, then maybe I could do that. My righteousness, how I perform for God, is using somebody else as a criteria for that.

Don't get me wrong, I think we can be inspired and challenged by other people’s lives. I think that’s how God intended it. Iron sharpens iron. But the problem with comparative righteousness is that sometimes I can just get better. Then we have relative righteousness. This is probably even bigger. This is where I would battle, that I’d consider God’s thoughts towards me and my righteousness before the Lord is relative to how I’m performing at any given moment.

Right now, I’m doing really well because I’m preaching. But if the Patriots are losing at halftime, it’s going to be a deep challenge to my faith to maintain this positive outlook on life. If I lose with all the talking I’ve done, I’m going to go into hiding for a month because I just expressed my opinion a lot this week. My righteousness is relative to how I’m performing at any given moment.

Here’s the thing with comparative righteousness and relative righteousness: I can get really good at it, especially after numerous years. We’ve said many times, I just outgrow sin. Sin’s just too tiresome. I’d rather take a nap. I don't battle with certain things like I used to battle as a younger Christian, so I graduate. I no longer struggle with comparative righteousness or relative righteousness. Those are baby forms of righteousness.

I now have become self-righteous. Now I’m an official judge. I can judge pretty much because I have it down pat now. That’s how we fabricate these things. But when we really understand we have nothing to offer but our brokenness, that puts God in a place where he wants to be, getting all the glory. That’s what I have to offer: nothing. I can show up, God.

An interesting dynamic can occur in believers’ lives. Maybe this has happened to you. Sometimes our obedience to the Word of God can subtly become a way we try to manipulate God. In other words, I serve him and I obey him, and in my mind of minds, I create a subtle premise that now God owes me something because of my obedience, or he should reward me for my obedience. Sometimes my goodness can keep me from really knowing God. I sort of think that God won when he got me on the team.

Now, this may not be an issue to you, but I speak very candidly and transparently in my journey. When I lost my daughter, I said, “You know, God, explain this to me. Explain this to me, God. I’ve been serving you for 30 years. Gone without, said no to many things, lived my life as high as I could live it, laid down my life, done everything I know how to do to honor you with my life. Couldn't I have my daughter? Why did that have to happen?” It gets hard trying to process these things.

Simply, my friends, our obedience and our service to the Lord—let me just go back and say this: God doesn’t owe me anything. He doesn’t owe you anything either. He’s given us all things, 2 Peter 1, that pertain unto life and godliness. He’s made us no promises that we’re not going to face deep loss or deep heartache.

He’s made us no promises we won’t battle with an addiction in our life and that we’ll even ever get victory over that addiction. He’s made us no promises that our marriage is going to be perfect and a resting place for us. He’s given us no promises that our spouse is going to be alive as long as we’re going to be alive. He’s promised none of those things. He’s promised himself.

Our obedience and service to the Lord has to spring from one fountain and one fountain only, and that is the truth that he is the only one worthy. The only one worthy of our worship, the only one worthy of our service, and the only one worthy of our obedience. He owes us nothing.

I think when we arrive at this place when we can just say it’s me and Jesus—and not in an arrogant way, just really believe it is me and Jesus—we’re not protecting anything anymore. I don't have a reputation I’m trying to hold close to my chest. We’re transparent, we’re honest, we’re ourselves.

Somebody wants to accuse you of something, point out our faults, and we rejoice. No, no, stop right there. You only have a partial list of my faults. I’d like to give you the full list of my faults. It’ll be in the Tim Kelley fault book coming out soon, free for all who want to read it. I don't have to protect anything. I take up residence towards Hebrews 4:16, a throne of grace. We pitch our tent there, at the throne of grace.

Know what that does? It makes me accepting, it makes me forgiving, it makes me gracious to others because we know what we’re capable of and we know where we’ve come from. And though we don't like the plan of God, we understand that everything is a breath from God, everything is from the mercy of God. God is good, as we sang. God is good, God is merciful, God is kind, God is forgiving. He’s everything he says he is. Circumstances of our life doesn't change that.

Last thing, my friends, is religion causes an insecure relationship with God. The harder we work, the more stuff we find out we’re doing wrong. After a decade or so, we give up because I never get it figured out. I’m so frustrated with myself, I figure God is frustrated with me too.

Ever heard of John Wesley? Preacher, Methodist, beginning of the Methodist Church. He started in Georgia, I believe it was Georgia, with his brother Charles, 1724. He had a degree from Oxford; he was ordained. He started something called the Holiness Club. He had an outreach to the Indians in Georgia, right here in the United States. For 10 years he was there.

In this Holiness Club, they prayed one hour a day and they fasted two days a week. They cut all pleasures and comforts out of his life. I don't know how many pleasures and comforts he had in 1700-something, but whatever they had, they cut them out of their life. They were going to turn the world upside down with this Holy Club.

So they went to serve the Indians and visited the Indians and knocked on all the tepee doors, whatever they were doing. After 10 years, they were so frustrated and so burnt out with so little fruit that they turned around and went back to England, defeated, very deflated by what didn't happen with all their efforts.

He wasn’t back in England very long and somebody came up to him and said, “Hey John, there’s somebody reading Martin Luther’s preface on his Romans commentary. Would you like to go hear it?” Imagine if you asked your wife out on a date, “Hey honey, why don't we go hear Martin Luther’s preface to his commentary on Romans be read tonight?” That wouldn’t get you any points at all. But back then, they went.

This is what he heard read that night: “Faith is a living, unshakable confidence in God’s grace. It is so certain that somebody would die a thousand times for it. This kind of trust in and knowledge of God’s grace makes a person joyful, confident, happy with regard to God and all his creatures. This is what the Holy Spirit does by faith.

Through faith, a person will do good to everyone without coercion, willingly and happily. He will serve everyone, suffer everything for the love and the praise of God who has shown him such grace. It is as impossible to separate works from faith as burning and shining from fire. Therefore, be on your guard against your own false ideas and against the chatterers who think they are clever enough to make judgments about faith and good works, but who are really the biggest fools.

Ask God to work faith in you, otherwise you’ll remain eternally without faith no matter what you try to do or fabricate.” When he heard that and the rest of that preface being read, the light bulbs went off in his head because, wow, it’s not about what I do. It’s about what he did. It’s not about “do,” it’s about “done.”

At that point, John Wesley’s life changed forever. In fact, he went on to say shortly thereafter, “Admire more and more the free grace of God.” Ten years of serving God at a hectic pace, demanding others do so also, he was miserable. He thought he had not yet even obtained salvation. But the Gospel awakens us to the beauty of God.

The Gospel overwhelms us with his mercy. Our behavior changes because we change. Religion is shallow and artificial. But when God gets inside our hearts, when we understand we stand in this grace—Romans 5:2—this same grace that the angels look into, seeing the Spirit of God in us try to work its way out of us.

Taking these people marred by sin, insecurity, and fears, racked by their needs, and then putting the living Holy Spirit of God inside them, changing them from the inside out. Making people who deal with cowardice courageous, making people who deal with impurities pure. Someone who has wrong priorities, giving them right priorities. The Spirit of God does it.

It goes on a lifetime. It doesn't happen quickly; it goes on a lifetime of him making us something more fit to his glory. What do we do? We admire more and more the free grace of God. We embrace it. We think on these things. We make this what grabs our attention. Just like it grabbed the angels' attention, this now grabs our attention. God, teach me, show me, convince me that this grace is all that you say it is.