Grace Thoughts

Guest (Male): 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: In the last three and a half years, I have performed, I think my count is 27 memorial services. Since we lost my daughter, we've counted 27 different funeral services I've officiated at in one way or the other. One of the things that I always say at the very beginning, because it happened to me on a personal level, is when we lose somebody close to us, it slows our life down.

We have a tendency to see things that we normally wouldn't see. We perceive things that we normally wouldn't perceive because before we lose that person in our life, we're just moving. It's busy, isn't it? If we have kids, we've got ballet, swimming, and soccer. Then we have business. We have to run here and there. It's so easy to drive around Tampa Bay; there's no traffic ever. You're flying all over the place, and it's a very hectic life.

You run home. Some of you know my wife took a bad fall, and she's pretty much healed now, but for a couple weeks, I've had to do all the work. I get up, I come to the office, I ride home, I take my daughter to swim lessons, I pick her up, run home, go to Publix every night. I don't know why I couldn't go one night and buy everything, but I go every night to Publix and I come back. She did cook, I will say that. I get home and get ready for bed and start it all over again the next day.

Why am I alive? To go to Publix, that's why I'm alive. That's the feeling you get. Your vision is very constricted. What do I have to do next? What's the next thing on my list of things to do? What's my next job? Where do I have to be? What do I have to do? Then tomorrow, we do it all over again.

When you lose somebody, and you know my story and you all have many stories like this, life slows down. Since I've lost my daughter, life has slowed down. It really does. I don't sweat much anymore. I don't sweat the big things or the little things. Nothing seems to really matter that much.

Life has gotten smaller. Life has gotten less attractive. There's nothing out here that happens in time and space that to me is really that important that it's going to rob my joy, rob my peace, or take my sense of being. Heaven and the things of heaven have grown immensely to me. I have this upward gaze now. The fear of death has disappeared. The timing of death is up to God. How I die, I wish I could choose. If a piece of space shuttle falls out of the sky and gets me in the middle of the night, that would be okay.

Let me read you these verses because Paul had gotten here. I don't know how long it took Paul to get here. Maybe it was right after he got saved, maybe it was a journey walking with God, maybe it was being beaten three times and shipwrecked, torn up by wild beasts, and betrayed by friends. Maybe it was all the things that he went through as he outlined in 2nd Corinthians chapter 11. But we know now, at the last quarter of his ministry in prison, he writes this.

It is my eager expectation, this is Philippians 1:20, and hope that I will not at all be ashamed, but with all full courage, now as always, Christ will be honored in my body whether by life or by death. Then he says in verse 21, a verse we all know, "For me to live is Christ, but to die is gain." If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. There is a purpose for me.

Yet which I shall choose, I cannot tell. I don't know necessarily what that purpose is, but I am hard-pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better, but to remain in the flesh right here on planet Earth is more necessary for your account. Paul is saying it's pretty clear here. He's lived his life and if he had his druthers, he would just punch the time clock now and say, "I'm done. I'm coming, Lord Jesus."

His will for me is different. He has something higher for me than that right now. That's coming, but that's not the time for me yet. While I'm here, there's another purpose. Paul saw things many of us don't see. Life has a tendency of constricting our vision, shrinking things down in a sense of making things very small and all-consuming, robbing us of divine perspective and seeing a bigger picture.

Let me read you some verses here again. Hebrews 2:11 says this, "For both he that sanctifies," that would be God or Christ, "and they who are sanctified," that would be you, "are all one." Hear what he just said there? Christ, the sanctifier, and the sanctified are one. For He was not ashamed to call them brethren. That word "brethren" there is a Greek word "adelphos," and it means to come from the same womb.

Think with me now. He's saying you come from the same womb. You have the same life inside of you. 1st John 3:9 brings that out, "Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin for his seed remains in him." That word "seed" talks about the life source of God Himself. God's seed, the Greek word is "sperma." 1st Peter 2:9 says, "For you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people." That doesn't mean weird; it means set apart.

You should show forth the praises of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. I love how the American Standard Version says this. He says you have been created to be a new race of people. We don't see it that way, do we? We don't live there or use that as our frame of reference, but what I'm trying to show you here is there is a frame of reference God wants us to have. He has a launching pad that He wants us to have.

Romans 6 verse 5, and again, read the first six verses of Romans 6; they build off one another. "For if you have been planted together," that word "planted together" is important, "in the likeness of his death, we shall also be planted together in likeness of his resurrection." The word "planted together" is "sumphutos," and it's a word we get "Siamese twins" from. It can be used that way.

Think with me, how does a Siamese twin work? They are joined at some place in their body and they derive life from the same organs. In a sense, there's an individuality about them, they might have two different brains, but the same kidneys and the same liver. He says we have been planted together. We draw from the same life source of His resurrection.

Ephesians 5:26 says, "That he might sanctify her," talking about the church, that's you and I, "having cleansed her with the washing of the water of the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she should be holy and without blemish." Ephesians 1:6-7 says, "To the praise of the glory of his glorious grace, which he has blessed us in the beloved."

In Him, we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of His grace. Now, what I just told you, is that true? Let me answer. Yes, that's true. Just in case you were wondering. Everyone's like, "I don't know, is this a trick question?" It's not a trick question. It's true. Do you always feel that way? Do I feel like I'm accepted in the beloved? I feel like a bonehead most of the time. But that doesn't change the truth.

What I feel and what I think does not affect truth. Paul had a way of elevating his eyesight out of the mire of time and space, outside the mire of experience, outside the mire of the routine and the mundane, and seeing things from a different perspective. 2nd Kings chapter 6 tells the story about Elisha. The King of Syria, Ben-Hadad, is trying to plot a coup and attack Israel.

He makes these plans, and God is there. Elisha goes and tells the King of Israel what the Syrian king is going to do. The King of Israel makes strategic moves so the Syrian king can't do what he wants. This goes on numerous times. Ben-Hadad gets frustrated. "Who's telling Elisha what we're doing? Who's relaying our plans to him? Find out who the traitor is."

He didn't realize that God was hanging out in his bedroom and God was hearing everything that he said and every one of his plans. The mind of the King of Syria was greatly troubled because of this thing. He called his servants and said to them, "Will you not show me who of us is for the King of Israel? Who among us is a traitor?" One of his servants said, "None, my lord, O king; but Elisha the prophet who is in Israel tells the King of Israel the words that you speak in your bedroom."

That's spooky. He's in the bedroom and wonders who's telling them. God was. He said, "Go and see where he is, that I may send and seize him." It was told him, "Behold, he is in Dothan." So he sent horses and chariots and a great army, and they came by night and surrounded the city.

When the servant of the man of God rose early in the morning and went out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was all around the city. He said, "Alas, my master! What shall we do?" To act out what's going on here, they're sleeping in Dothan. The Syrian army comes and surrounds the city. The servant gets up to go get a cup of coffee and looks and there's the Syrian army laid out before them. He goes, "Elisha, someone ratted us out."

Elisha's response was, "Don't be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them." I recommend you read the whole chapter because it's a really compelling account. Elisha prayed for us, "O Lord, open his eyes. Please open his eyes that he may see." The Lord opened the eyes of the young man and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

The servant didn't see these because they were in a dimension that was unseen to the normal human eye. Elisha had elevated vision and God had a gift and a call on Elisha's life. His prayer for this young man was to lift up your eyes and see things you've never seen before. I want to show you a dimension that you've never witnessed.

The Kingdom is around us. It never goes away. It's around when you're asleep and it's around during the day. It's around 365 days a year every year. But you don't see it because we're human and we're stuck in this body of humanity in the mundane, in the normal, and in the regular. Lift up your eyes.