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: Our purpose here is not to blend in, our purpose here is to stand out. When I go to my job tomorrow and I punch my time clock or whatever I do, wherever I live my life, my purpose there isn't just to be in there and survive, my purpose is to represent my race, to represent my kingdom as a saint of God into that environment. Every born again believer in the world is a missionary. We're in a foreign land, called to represent our Maker, our Master in that foreign land.

We don't see ourselves that way very often, and that's something we have to train ourselves to think that way. I see my mission field and my personal level is sort of narrow because I don't have a lot of interaction with the world because I work in the church. But I have a neighbor, a couple neighbors, I'm getting to know my neighbors really well. I love my neighbors, especially my Cuban family to my right. If you're looking at my house, they're great. I've been their neighbor for 10 years and he just put a pool in his backyard. He had to take down my fence and tear up my wood-winning lawn and stuff like that.

He asks if I'm going to help him replant the lawn. He doesn't know what he's doing. He goes, "I want a lawn like you have in your backyard." I said, "You get it and we'll put it down together." He's so excited because we're going to put a lawn down. So he talked to his other neighbor trying to get this other neighbor to help him because our houses are landlocked and he needed to use somebody else's property to get in the back of the house. He talked to the other neighbor, and the other neighbor wouldn't have anything to do with him. He said, "No, get away from me, I'm not going to let you in."

He came over to me and I said, "Sure, tear up my lawn, tear down my fence, yeah, use a saw, cut it up, that's fine." I didn't put a lot of work into it anyway. So I said, "Sure." That's basically what I told him. "Yeah, anything you need to do, we'll do it. I'll help you. I'll help you put it back together again." So they came over. His wife comes over and gives me big hugs and goes, "You're family to us." That's what she says to me. Now, this is a great family. I love them.

About five years ago, I looked out the side window of my house and there was a full gutted pig hanging down from the soffit, just hanging on the side of the house. Head, feet, tail, everything, just a meat hook in the thing, it was just hanging there draining out on the side of the house. That didn't go over real well with my wife because my wife really isn't liking seeing dead animals hanging up on the outside of the house or anything like that. Turns out they had a big pit in the ground, you know how they bury it in the ground and they cook it all day, that's what happened and we were invited to that party.

I didn't make that one. But we were invited. I went over there one time they had their grandkids' birthday party. "Come on over and visit Antonio's birthday party." So I go over there and I walk in the door and they say, "Here you go, here's some American beer," and they hand me an American beer, which I didn't take. "Oh, no thank you, I only drink French beer." No, I didn't say that. But they handed me an American beer. "No thank you, I don't drink," and I'm hanging out with all their family, all their friends. I'm the only person who does not speak fluent Spanish in the whole place and it was amazing.

You know why? Because that's my mission field. I don't have a lot of mission fields, but I have that one. So when I see them, I treat them a certain way. I go out of the way, I acknowledge the grandkids, and anything I can do, I plant sod on their dirt and I take care of it. I put a piece of white fence on their yard, which I didn't have to, but I did it because it looked better doing it that way. Because that's my mission field. I'm a saint. I represent Jesus Christ. I'm a called out one. I'm set apart to Him for a divine purpose. And my purpose isn't to blend into the world, my purpose is to represent Him in the world.

It's interesting. I remember my friend Paul Stevens years ago, he went to Africa and he was in a conference, I think it was Ghana. He was preaching in Ghana and when it came time, a lot of folks walked through the jungle to get to this conference they had in Ghana. So it came church time and they announced church would be starting in an hour. Apparently most of the people milling around the property all ran into the woods. They just scattered into the jungle. When they came out of the jungle, they had all their very best clothes on.

They carried two sets of clothes: what they walked around in the village all day and in the jungle, but when it came to church, they wore their very best clothes. They wanted something to stand out. I'm not saying that was their culture, I'm not saying we should do that. I have better clothes than this and I didn't wear them. I'm just saying they understood they represented something bigger than themselves. Jude 1:3 says, "It is needful for me to write to you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith that was once delivered unto the saints."

What's that word contend? It's a word we get "agonize" from. It speaks of a vigorous, intense, determined struggle to defeat anything opposing us. Now in this particular case, it's really talking about false teachers, people bringing in false doctrine. I'm sure that would apply to a degree today even though I think there's enough doctrinal theological checks and balances in our American culture today, which just isn't the issue of full blown heresy like it was back then. But how do we contend for our faith now?

Back then it was, and not that it's not that case now, but how do we—I'm not saying how do we argue with other Christians and convince them that our doctrine is right and our theology is right and not theirs? I'm not talking about that. They weren't contending with other Christians, they were contending with the world to represent to the world who Christ was. How do we do that now? How do we show the world who Christ is? The best way is the Gospel. We'll be talking about that the next four weeks on Sunday morning, five weeks. But the chances are in American 2016, the Gospel will have a lot more power to it if it's delivered by somebody who lives it.

In other words, how do I contend for the faith? I live my faith. I live pure. I am humble with God and men. I relinquish a negative critical spirit. I contend for the faith. I'm contending for the faith. I want people to see something different in me. I want the world to look at me and say there's something different about that lady or that guy. Their countenance is different, their demeanor's different. They're not demanding, they're not claiming their rights, they act differently than the rest of us act.

That's how we're going to win this world in 2016. They won't listen to our words, but they'll read our life. Think with me on that. I haven't had a chance to share the Gospel with my neighbor yet. I opened up the door six or seven years ago whenever that was and they shut me right down. But they love my love. They love the fact I know who they are and I acknowledge them and I remember Antonio's birthday. They love that. That's what's going to win them. At some point the Gospel needs to be presented, but if I want to use my life, my life is what softens the soil for the Gospel to plant the seed.

The word saint, I'm going to move on in a moment, primarily speaks to living life in a different sphere. I wrote this down, I thought it was a good statement: "A Christian's life is indeed separated as much from something as it is into something." It's important because people will take this word separation and use it to just rail other Christians. They're not separate, they watch movies, they do that, they do that. That's nuts. That's just legalistic nuts. I'm not saying we shouldn't guard our hearts, but that legalistic beat everyone up with my level of righteousness doesn't win cockroaches to Christ.

We're separated into something. It's not what I'm called out of, it's what I'm actually into. I'm into Christ. I'm into Christ. And Christ went down to the woman caught in adultery and picked her up. He said, "Go and sin no more," but not after a lecture, not after a long speech, not like, "You know honey, you better make a plan." He said, "I don't condemn you either. Go and sin no more." And you know and I know the only place Christ got mad in the scriptures is Matthew chapter 23, the Pharisees. That's where he got a little bit testy, wasn't he?

Now, then it says saints in Christ. Now this is incredible. And it's so incredible I'm going to give you a moment to say, "Wow." Thank you, three of you were impressed with it. This word—if it's something that we read through in our English so casually, "saints in Christ," "in Christ Jesus." And that term, it's over 164 times in the Pauline Epistles. He's the one that really championed this phrase. Just a few times in the other authors if I get my memory right. Over 80 times in the book of Ephesians alone he uses this term "in Christ." There might not be a more powerful phrase describing the scope of the Gospel than this little phrase.

I've always used the illustration, I'll sort of walk you through the illustration I've used and all of its riches, that Jesus Christ is now my true identity. We see ourselves after our sins, after our weaknesses, after our needs. That's how I see myself. Jesus sees us as He sees Himself: perfect. I see myself with these weaknesses, these shortcomings, these things I don't get right, but He looks at me and sees me not after my behavior, not after my performance, but after He sees Himself: perfect.

I use an illustration years ago, I had a little paper guy in an envelope. I took the little paper guy and said this is what it means to be in Christ almost, and I put the paper guy in the envelope. So what's that mean? It means that here's the paper guy and on that little paper guy was written all these sins and the envelope was Jesus. I put the paper guy in the envelope and closed the envelope, so I held him up. Can you see the little guy's sins? You can't, all you see is the envelope, all you see is Christ. The phrase goes beyond that, though.

That means that Christ was a perfect covering for our sin, and that's wonderful of a truth in itself, but it's incomplete truth. If I wanted to take that illustration and I can't because I don't know magic, that little paper guy in that envelope would become part of the envelope. So when you open up the envelope and you try to get the little paper guy with the sins all over him and you shake them out, he wouldn't be there because he was in Christ. He's part of the family of God, part of a new bloodline, part of a new race.

It's not like God just said, "I'm not going to let anyone see your sin anymore." No, I'm bringing you part into my body, my family, my flesh, my blood. So you will no longer exist in the state that you used to be. You'll be a brand new creature in Jesus Christ. You won't be that guy with a bunch of sins written over him that I've decided to forgive. No, I'm going way beyond forgiveness, I'm bringing you into my family so you can become a partaker of my life. Is that awesome? That's awesome.

And that's really what this in Christ means. Matthew 11:27, you know, I've used this—I've taught that verse many times and I always love it because I don't even have it in front of me, I just wrote it down. But it's right before Matthew 11:28, 29, and 30. You all know that verse: "Come unto me you who are heavy laden and burdened, I'll give you rest." 27 basically says this, Jesus is talking: "I have this relationship with the Father. It's exclusive. No one has a relationship with the Father that I have," Jesus is saying.

Verse 27, you can read it yourself. "But the Father has allowed me to invite whoever I want to become part of this relationship and I'm inviting you to be part of this relationship." Then He says, "Come unto me whoever's burdened and heavy laden." He wasn't talking about not working, He wasn't even talking about the rest that He spoke about. Getting rid of your burdens simply was not some mystical act upon you, it was your nearness to God. It was your nearness to the Father. That's where the battle is fought and won, it's how close I'm going to remain to Jesus Christ.

Partake of my relationship with the Father, I'm inviting you into it. And then you will be a man without burden and you'll find rest for your soul. Think with me: Romans 3:24, "being justified freely by His grace through redemption that is in Christ." Redemption is the word being bought from slavery or captivity. You were once defeated, conquered, and enslaved. Now it's funny because we're bought back from slavery but we just become a different slave. I was a slave to sin, but now I'm a slave to Christ. I was in the dominion of sin, but now I'm in the dominion of Christ.

One wants to ruin me, one wants to embellish me. Now it's interesting because this word redemption there is the word where we get "ransom" from. I've always loved it because when we're brought into the family of God, we take on His righteousness just as if we'd never sinned. But ransom is this: if I was captured by an enemy government, which would happen semi-regularly back then, the people that would be carried away captive, especially politicians or rich families, they would put a price tag on their head. "You can get your dad back, your brother back, your wife back, your son back for this much money." That's the ransom on that person.

Now, notice the poor people didn't get ransomed. There was no one to ransom them. The poor person wouldn't be bought back because there was no one—they didn't know anyone with money to buy them back. Only the rich people and the important people, the people that had social, political, personal value are the ones that got ransomed back. The rest remained slaves. So we were ransomed back from sin. We were ransomed back from death and bought back by Christ. So that meant we had value, purpose. But where'd I get my value from?

Well, obviously numerous things: I'm a hard worker, I can be honest sometimes, I can have probably two or three hours of personal holiness stretched together at one personal time. I have value, right? That's my value? No. My whole head is sick, my heart's deceitfully wicked, there are no righteous, no, not one. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. I have no value. I have nothing to bring to Christ and say I'm worth redeeming. Nothing.

And Christ says, "I know. But I love you. And my love gives you value. That's why you're redeemable. Not because of what you've done or what you haven't done. Not by what you can do for me or what you can't do for me. You're redeemable because my love has made you worth something. So I will pay the price of buying you back from sin." And that's redemption.