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Trinity Community Church
Trinity Community Church
The Gospel-Centered Community - A Grace-Filled Community
Welcome to our profound sermon, “A Grace-Filled Community,” part of “The Gospel-Centered Community” series with Kelly Kinder. This sermon delves into the transformative power of grace and its capacity to rejuvenate our modern faith communities, drawing richly from John 1:14-17. Pastor Kelly eloquently discusses how the grace and truth that came through Jesus Christ can breathe new life into our spiritual environments, just as unexpectedly as finding fish in the Dead Sea.
Pastor Kelly begins with a thought-provoking metaphor about this discovery, using it to illustrate how grace, when it penetrates areas of our lives that seem barren, can lead to vibrant new growth and vitality. He integrates insights from C.S. Lewis, emphasizing that grace is the cornerstone that sets Christianity apart from all other belief systems. This unique balance of grace and truth, embodied perfectly in Jesus, provides a blueprint for our interactions and the culture within our faith communities.
Throughout the sermon, Pastor Kelly discusses the practical dynamics of grace within our churches. He addresses how internal barriers like fear and pride can stifle the flow of grace, making it difficult to cultivate a community that truly reflects the gospel. Through personal anecdotes, such as his challenges with growing basil, he draws parallels between these gardening efforts and our spiritual lives, highlighting how both require patience, persistence, and the removal of weeds that hinder growth.
Pastor Kelly also tackles the complex issue of favoritism within the church, illustrating how it can prevent the full expression of grace. He encourages a culture of self-reflection, urging listeners to examine their own lives for areas where grace may be restricted by personal biases or fears. This segment of the sermon is particularly impactful as it offers practical insights into recognizing and overcoming these spiritual obstacles.
A significant focus of the sermon is on the concept of “grace upon grace” from John 1:16, emphasizing that God’s grace is always sufficient for our needs. Pastor Kelly shares touching stories of grace in action, such as unexpected kindness during a family emergency, to demonstrate how God’s grace not only supports us in crisis but also in our everyday interactions. These stories inspire listeners to become conduits of grace, channeling God’s unmerited favor through their actions and relationships.
As the sermon wraps up, Pastor Kelly calls on the congregation to embrace their identity as stewards of God’s grace. He encourages everyone to use their unique gifts not just for self-benefit but as instruments of grace that build up the church and glorify God. The sermon concludes with a powerful call to action, challenging listeners to strive towards being a grace-filled church that magnifies God’s glory in every aspect of community life.
This exploration into grace is not merely theoretical but deeply practical, offering listeners a roadmap to transforming their personal lives and their community engagements through the power of grace. Join us in discovering how embracing a life of grace can lead to profound changes in personal faith and communal dynamics, making us true reflections of Christ’s love and mercy in the world.
Tune into “A Grace-Filled Community” for a transformative experience that will deepen your understanding of grace and inspire you to live out this divine principle
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Good morning, trinity. It's good to see you this morning. I'm so glad to be here Before we get into our word this morning. And just something the Lord brought to my mind and we've been thinking at least I have, and I think many of you have is that in this season, there just seems like there's something boiling beneath the surface that God is doing, and we don't really know what it is, but we can sense it and you know, listening to Caroline today, we're hoping that it's some kind of a revival of God's people. And so, as I was on the TV this past week watching a video, it's like just God seemed to quicken my thoughts.
Kelly Kinder:You know, if you think about the land of Israel, at the northern part of Israel there's a body of water called the Sea of Galilee. It comes out of the mountains and it flows down into the Sea of Galilee, and that Sea of Galilee has an outlet, that's the Jordan River, and that Jordan River is all fresh water. It flows down into the very south of Israel into another body of water and it's called the Dead Sea. And the thing about the Dead Sea it's called dead for a reason, because it has no outlet. And you know, it was interesting that nothing grows there, nothing, no life, anything, it's just dead. But I was watching the video and one of the tours with this gal that was on the video had a private tour of a guy who said I want to show you something. So he took her, he said we've just discovered this. And he had her walk down into the northern part of that body of water called the Dead Sea and he said look below the surface. And she came up and she said there's fish in the sea. And he said we found that, after discovering and looking down and exploring this, we found that there are fissures that are breaking open in the Dead Sea.
Kelly Kinder:Now, what a great analogy for what God might be doing in his church. And that's what my prayer is today that this would be something even today, as we hear God's word, that he would quicken your spirit to hear. What we have to hear today and the scriptures is John 1, 14 through 17. And if you'll grab your Bible, we'll read it together and see what God has for us. Okay, john 1, 14 through 17,.
Kelly Kinder:It says and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. This is John speaking and he says we have seen his glory. Glory is of the one, the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. John, that is, john the Baptist, bore witness about him and cried out this was he of whom I said he who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me, for from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace, for the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, the only God who is at the Father's side. He has made him known. Father, we're so grateful that we have your word today, because it leads us into your presence, lord, it reveals to us your mind and your heart. Lord, I pray today you would just remove the clouds of confusion that might be there as we consider what it is to be beneficiaries of grace. Lord, we ask you to open your word to us, holy Spirit, open our minds, open our understanding, and we pray for this in Jesus' name.
Kelly Kinder:You know the great literary scholar and theologian CS Lewis. Maybe you've heard some of his works, like the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Screwtape Letters. He was once invited to a meeting in England of comparative religions and the guys, the scholars, got there a little bit before he did, and they began to discuss the question. And so one of the questions that came up was what, if anything, is unique about Christianity? And so a lot of things were thrown around, a lot of ideas, ideas and CS Lewis was a little bit late when he arrived. They they said here's what we've been talking about.
Kelly Kinder:We talk about what is it in Christianity that makes it unique, if anything? He said, oh, that's easy grace. Grace and when we think about the gospel, we talking about the gospel, we're talking about the gospel-centered life and the gospel-centered community. Right at the center of our community we call the church, should be a person whose name is Jesus. And so we look and we see in these scriptures that the thing that we want and we need the most, the thing that saves us and the thing that gets us through our Christian life, is this thing called grace. So I want to talk about that this morning.
Kelly Kinder:And first I want to begin with this question. We talked last time, if you remember, about what it is to be a person of truth Derek shared with us, about being honest and speaking the truth in love. And today, as I say, we're talking about grace, having a grace-filled community. So I have a question for you. Are you let's take a poll, you don't have to raise your hand Are you more of a grace person or a truth person? Are you more of a grace person or a truth person? Do you live with a grace person or a truth person? So you got an answer there. Well, I will tell you that's a little bit of a loaded question because it's not either or. Really you need both. You have to have both, and we see it in this person we call Jesus. You know, the thing is by personality or upbringing. There's a whole lot of factors that kind of contribute to where we might land.
Kelly Kinder:We might have a bias to being a grace, truth or a truth person, but when we look at Jesus, we see that Jesus walked in a perfect balance of grace and truth. It's seen in Scripture here. As we read it John 1,. It says and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. And in verse 17, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. So we see in this person the model what grace ought to be, no matter what we have in our minds, we see the great example of what grace is and be, no matter what we have in our minds. We see the great example of what grace is and should be and must be if we're going to have grace in our lives. So we have to hold grace and truth together. That's incredibly difficult.
Kelly Kinder:I don't know if you think about that, but you're either typically a grace person or a truth person, and Kevin Young talks about this. He says without grace, telling the truth can become an excuse for belligerence. You know anybody like that. If you're a grace person, you are most concerned about being loved. If you're a truth person, you are most concerned about being right, even if it means being unloved. Both have their dangers. Something is wrong if everyone hates you and something is probably just as wrong if everyone loves you. And I think, as we consider what Jesus went through and the things we see in the Gospels, we can see that he had to decide that he was going to be both, and it wasn't always easy. He did it perfectly.
Kelly Kinder:You know, I don't have a. I think I've told you this before. I don't have a green thumb. Sometimes I'll go to the grocery store and I'll buy something to add to my sandwiches. It's called basil. So I'll buy a basil plant there at Walmart, bring it home and I'll sit it down on the table and I'll say there, grow. And you know what? It always commits suicide, always.
Kelly Kinder:And my daughter comes over and she said well, dad, you know it's not hard. And I said well, yeah, you think it's not hard. She said, oh, you have to have the right ingredients, you have to have sunlight in the right amounts, you have to have sunlight in the right amounts, you have to have water in the right amounts and you have to have nutrients in the right amounts. And I thought, well, I know that I just don't really care to do any. I don't want to cultivate this plant. So I'm glad you're here, but how like that we are when it comes to cultivating grace, so we just don't think about it.
Kelly Kinder:You know so much that it's something we have to cultivate, and I've been in the ministry long enough to see that there are a couple of things that kind of stick out to me in just every church I've ever been in that really hindered grace is two things fear and pride. Fear and pride. Fear and pride are grace killers. In the body of Christ, in our pride. We don't just want to be accepted, you see, we want to be right. And our pride reveals itself really when we have this false sense that we have to be right. And our pride reveals itself really when we have this false sense that we have to be somehow better than the person right next to us. We have to be one up on them, and so we have to be right. We don't want them on our level or fear. We resort to hiding and disengaging ourselves from the very people that would heal us and we get offended and run away. Fear and pride, you see, they have root sins and these root sins manifest themselves in a number of ways. In fact, this is in your book, if you've got the book. But to make this practical for us here, I wanted us to kind of see how this might apply in our church. So brace yourself right.
Kelly Kinder:Okay, if you learned from the lesson last week on honesty and truth, I appeal to you to be truthful to yourself today. Tell yourself the truth. Do any of these things apply to you? Let me give you. These are specific ways that our pride and fear hinder community.
Kelly Kinder:Here's the first one favoritism. Favoritism, it's the saying that I show preference toward those I like or those who can help me, and so this means that if I have some kind of list of people that I prefer more than me, I defer to, I respect more or I listen to more than others in the church, that might describe you and I will tell you. I'll be honest, I had to work through this list too, so this was no fun for me this week, but it'll help us. Here's the thing. The truth is, god shows no partiality with us, and we can't afford. To be partial to each other Doesn't mean we don't have close friends, but how we treat one another, how we honor one another, how we respect one another, ought to be all the same across the board.
Kelly Kinder:Here's a second one not only favoritism, but control, control. Control says I exert my power to control or manipulate people or situations. Control, you see, has to do with fear, because we're afraid what might happen if things get out of control, and typically it has to do with something in our past. Why do we need to feel? Why do we have the need to feel that we have to control a situation or a conversation so that whatever that bad thing is won't happen again? So we control things to be safe. Here's another one, and we'll just go through these quickly Avoidance. Avoidance says I flee or avoid when relationships get difficult, so let me. Here's another. You don't have to raise your hand.
Kelly Kinder:Who enjoys a good conflict? Well, if you do, I would say you've got more serious problems. No normal person enjoys conflict unless you're in the MMA or something right. Person enjoys conflict unless you're in the MMA or something right. So you know, wherever there are people listen, you know this there's going to be disagreement. We don't all agree on everything and we often reason it's just easier to look the other way or to move on. And tons of people to move on, and tons of people, because they don't want to deal with what's going on, will move on A sign of immaturity. So, as believers in Jesus, we should seek instead to work out our differences while we can and to land where God lands on everything. And that's all in the Scriptures. I was thinking about how God treats us in this and he says, in more than one place come, let us reason together. And he's talking about it. It's almost like an invitation from him to say can we talk, can we have a dialogue? Before we separate, we need.
Kelly Kinder:That Avoidance is one of the things that hinders grace. And then peacekeeping you say I thought that sounds good peacekeeping. Well, we're not talking about peacemaking, that's different. Peacekeeping basically says I'm hesitant to confront the sins of others. You know, we're called blessed when we are peacemakers. But peacekeeping, as I say, is different. Peacemakers, but peacekeeping, as I say, is different. Peacekeeping means we ignore the sins of others and we don't want to face rejection, we don't want to make waves and so we don't talk to anybody about anything. That's wrong. You can't do that in the body of Christ if you want to extend grace to other people. And so what does peacekeeping do? It makes us compromise the truth. So this is important.
Kelly Kinder:Here's another one party spirit, party spirit, and it's not like, yeah, I love parties. It means I just relate better to these people rather than those people. Some people in the old terms, call it a clique. If you were in your youth group you probably called it a clique. But this is a hindrance to grace, because we're choosing a group to the exclusion of another group, and the New Testament talks about this all the time. So when we give our time, our attention, our best efforts and our affection to one group over another group. We are basically having an issue with grace. Grace, what does it do? It crosses over these superficial boundaries that we create for ourselves and gets us out of our comfort zone to go across and mingle and mix with those who are not like us, who maybe make us a little uncomfortable. And one of the things I think is that we're supposed to be a generational church. How many people do you know that will cross those kind of boundaries and spend time with a person who's greatly different in age? But maybe we can learn something from each other.
Kelly Kinder:Here's the last one. It's maybe the most significant one unforgiving spirit. It says I just can't forgive this person or these people. Their offenses against me are too willful, too consistent or too hurtful. And I said this may be the most dark one, because the enemy gets involved in this. Unforgiveness hinders the flow of grace in our fellowship and it can lead to a bitter spirit in the body so that we are at odds with each other. Sometimes we hold on to that so tightly. We have to forgive each other Because why we all were forgiven in Christ.
Kelly Kinder:A lot of times, you see, these barriers to grace, I just think, are so. They're unseen, they're below the surface, and so we dismiss them as being not that important, but their effects on the community are devastating. So we want to become a grace-filled community, and so what can happen is we may look spiritually healthy on the outside, but below the surface or maybe inside, we can be spiritually unhealthy, even sick, and so, as I say, it's interesting how the enemy gets in there and works his little things to get us to hinder grace. So with that, I want to just kind of give you that idea that we've got some things we need to maybe look at. See, when we grow in the grace of God toward us in Christ, our fear and our pride they're put to death and we are brought to life spiritually by the Spirit, by God's Holy Spirit.
Kelly Kinder:Becoming a grace-filled community isn't easy. It will require each of us to identify our tendencies toward pride and fear. Are you willing to do that? Look to Jesus to be freed from your pride and your fear. He's the only one who can allow us to have the grace and give us the freedom to learn to love each other as we should in the body. And how do you do that? Well, before we see how to do that, I want us just to look and see how essential it is to understand this idea of grace. You hear that term.
Kelly Kinder:We throw around terms in our church like, well, everybody knows what it means, and we might think, well, we know what grace means Heard that before just like love and peace and all those other things. But grace actually is very comprehensive in the Bible. In the New Testament it's like mentioned over 125 times, 124 times a lot and especially in the letters of Paul. Paul is actually even called the apostle of grace. So what is grace? And let me give you this definition Understanding or undeserved favor given as practical help in time of need.
Kelly Kinder:Undeserved favor given as practical help. Let's break that down. It's undeserved favor, meaning you didn't deserve it, you couldn't earn it, there's nothing you could do. It's a gift, god's gift to you and that's most significant as we come to Christ. The thing that we have to have before we come to Christ and know Christ is we have to be recipients of his grace. Grace is the thing that saves us and it saves us by our faith, by grace. We are saved through faith and it's a gift. It's not of ourselves, so that nobody can boast about it. Practical help in time of need. Undeserved favor given as practical help in time of need.
Kelly Kinder:You know, several years ago I was gosh. This was when our kids were small and we had two or three and my wife was pregnant and I had to be at the hospital. I remember during this period of time when she went to, I think, lowe's that day with all the kids, piled up the kids in the van and carrying a baby still not delivered yet, just on the way, and I was at the hospital with my dad who'd had a recent heart attack, and one of the things they said is you can't leave him, somebody's got to be here all the time. I was the only one there with him and I got a phone call from my wife and she said she's at Lowe's. She walked out and she said my water just broke. Can you come get me? And can you come get me? And I kind of paused. I was like, oh no. It's like oh no, this is happening. And oh no, I can't leave. And I said we'll figure it out, I'll call you back in a minute, as soon as I can. It's like, okay, this is totally not good. I don't know what's happening.
Kelly Kinder:As soon as I got off the phone, my uncle walks in and he says to me he said I just felt like I needed to come over here for a reason. That's grace, that's grace. So here's what the Bible invites us to. He says in Hebrews the writer of Hebrews says let us then, with confidence, draw near to the throne of grace. We do that through prayer that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. And I almost picture that like as okay, here's the throne room of God. We've been given all the grace that's available. It's available through Christ. And I almost like picture myself by faith, I can walk into the throne room and, by prayer and faith, grab hold of the things that I need. They're available to us.
Kelly Kinder:And so let's go back now to our opening text. We read it from John 1 this morning. The gospel tells us our greatest need was to be rescued from sin, and that's so wonderful. So, through faith, we're recipients of his grace, and I want us to think of this as a divine rescue from ourselves. It's a divine rescue. It gives us what we need when we need help. But it wasn't just when we came to Christ. It's now for us, as a church. Whenever we need help, we have grace available. Verse 16 specifically gives us an explanation of how. Listen to this, for from his fullness we have all received nobody left out grace upon grace.
Kelly Kinder:I read over that really fast this week and I thought there's something more here. And as I began to look at it I saw that phrase grace upon grace literally says grace instead of grace. Yeah, you got the look that I did. It's like what? What in the world does that mean? You say I don't understand. And I didn't either. And in fact, the question of what does this mean has been the subject of some discussion, and there are a couple of ideas of what grace instead of grace can mean.
Kelly Kinder:Instead, grace Instead of grace could mean that it's the grace that we need today. It may actually be different tomorrow. I need grace for today for the thing I'm going through, but tomorrow I may need a whole different grace for whatever struggle I'm going through. So we get up and we need grace for one thing, and then it's supplied to us, and the next day we put our heads on the pillow, wake up and we've got a whole new problem facing us and there's grace for that too. So we need that kind of grace grace instead of grace.
Kelly Kinder:There's a second way of looking at this. Grace instead of grace could also mean that grace is kind of like have you ever driven through the mountains or walked on a mountain trail and you're walking along, say it's on a hike, and you're up, say you're at one of the beautiful places in the Smokies, and you get around the corner and you stop and it's like, wow, this is beautiful, couldn't get any better than this. I might hang around here a little and you have to walk on because you're not. So the next corner, you turn the corner and it's something else. It's like, wow, this is better than where I was. And that's kind of like grace is for us.
Kelly Kinder:We have new views of what God's grace is for us. In every time that we have needs, we see something else of the person, of Jesus. So we have what we might call healing grace, or maybe financial grace, or maybe relational grace, and all these things that we have need of God supplies. Things that we have need of God supplies. God will supply them in practical ways to meet our deepest needs, not because you deserve it, but because he loves you more than you could ever imagine, for from his fullness we've all received grace instead of grace. So, from the overflow of God's nature, we're all given what we need. Let's move on now and look and see how do we become, as believers, strong in grace? Because this is what we're talking about being a community full of grace, becoming strong in grace.
Kelly Kinder:That comes from 2 Timothy 2.1. Paul is telling his young protege, timothy he calls his son in the faith. He says you, therefore, my child, in 2 Timothy 2.1, you, therefore, my child, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. So this is a command that Paul is giving to Timothy, his son in the faith, and he suggests that Timothy, by saying that, could indeed be weak in the faith. If you know anything about Timothy, he was sort of a timid fellow and Paul had to encourage him to be more than he thought he was. But he's telling Timothy he could be weak in grace if he didn't take advantage of the resources that were already his in Christ. So the same is true for us.
Kelly Kinder:We have everything the Bible says we need everything we need for life and godliness. Do you really believe that the gospel gives us everything we need for life and godliness? And so here in this verse, you, therefore, my child, the you there is emphatic In other words, you, timothy, it doesn't matter what anybody else does, you be strong in grace. And he's telling all of us personally to be strong in grace in our walk with the Lord, and we need to understand it. It wasn't in Timothy for him to do this. It wasn't in Timothy to supply what he needed, but by faith he could experience God's amazing grace simply by ready obedience to what he knew. We think that the little things in obedience don't matter that much, but we're going to find out that there's more to our passing off those little things that the Spirit of God tells us than we might know, and this is why I'm saying we're tweaking grace here.
Kelly Kinder:Let me give these things to you, seven biblical truths that will help us to become strong in the Lord's grace, and number one is this. Number one the source of grace is always from a holy God, a holy and perfect God, towards sinful and imperfect man. You have to begin here. In fact, the very first mention of this idea of grace is found in Genesis 6a, where Noah, who is hoping to escape the flood of God's judgment by building the ark you remember it says there in Genesis 6a Noah finds favor in the eyes of the Lord. That's the very first time in scripture that you see that. And I'll just give you a tip for Bible study Look for the times that things are mentioned first in the Bible. It may lead you to some grand truths.
Kelly Kinder:So when we think of grace, we should think of a rescue from danger or trouble or disaster, or even judgment, and this idea sort of plays out through Scripture when we think of things like election and salvation and mercy and forgiveness. These are all expressions of grace. These are all linked to what God has done for us in Christ. Grace is always God's unmerited favor toward us in a time of need. So we think, even though we know we can somehow earn God's favor Every time you sin, what is the tendency? I've got to get back in God's good graces? Right, that's a lie. You are accepted in Christ. Say it again you are accepted in Christ today. You don't have to earn his favor, you already have it, you just have to live in it. And so our salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone. Our salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone. Grace, you see, is an expression of the love of God towards sinful man.
Kelly Kinder:And I think of the song, and we sing it sometimes here. I think of that song by Corey Asbury what is it? I couldn't earn it, I don't deserve it. Still, you give your life away. So this is an essential truth, an essential truth to know and believe that the source of all grace is found in a person and his name is Jesus Christ and not you. So stop working like you had to earn something. You've already been given what you need. So this divine favor overflows to us in powerful, practical ways, helpful to us in our daily lives, transforming grace.
Kelly Kinder:And if I want to experience God's amazing grace, I have to look to Jesus alone. I can't ever think that I can do it without him. I have to be cultivating this dependence on him every day when I get up For my job, for my marriage, for raising my kids, for whatever it is. I can't think I can do this. God, I need your help, help me, help me and pray that. Jesus said, apart from me, what you can do everything. Is that right? Apart from me, you can do nothing, nothing. Did he mean that? I think so. He is called, in fact, the God of all grace. Well, let's move on.
Kelly Kinder:The second thing grace is strongly associated in Scripture with the ministry of the Spirit. Grace is strongly associated in Scripture with the ministry of the Spirit. Grace is strongly associated in Scripture with the ministry of the Spirit. In Hebrews 10.29,. The Holy Spirit and the grace of God are closely linked together. In fact, he is called the Spirit of grace. Grace is dispensed by the Holy Spirit. But I would say to us that we have to be careful here, because if I want to be led by the Spirit, I have to what I have to live by the Spirit. It means I have to do what he says. I have to pay attention to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, and we learn this as we walk the Christian life. The Scripture says that the Holy Spirit is willing and able to work in us if we'll simply obey Him and cooperate with Him.
Kelly Kinder:Do you know that you and I can offend the Holy Spirit? In fact, in numbers of ways. The Holy Spirit, you see, is not a thing, he's not a shadowy force, he's a person. As a person, he can be offended. And so we're warned in Scripture about offending Him in three different ways. Let me give them to you. The first is we must be careful not to resist Him. That's Acts 7.51, if you want to reference it. We must be careful not to resist Him. You can't resist the Spirit and have a life of abounding grace in God. Here's a second we must be careful not to quench him. 1 Thessalonians 5, 19.
Kelly Kinder:You see, the Holy Spirit is like a fire, and if he begins to do his work, what we can do is suppress everything he's doing, question everything he's doing, instead of going okay, lord, show me the truth here. This is what has happened a lot of times in revival. It's like there's a question mark. What has happened a lot of times in revival. It's like there's a question mark. What is this? Is God or not? Sometimes it's shut down, and so we can't do that and still expect grace to flow unhindered. We can quench him, we can resist him. And then the third way is we have to be careful not to grieve him, and this may be the most serious of all. This means the Holy Spirit can literally be heartbroken over us because of our sin, whenever we choose to live in sinful attitudes and actions and just ignore those things. What the Holy Spirit is telling us and he's convicting us? You need to look at this and we go ah, it's just a little sin. Look at this and we go ah, it's just a little sin. So we can resist him, we can quench him, we can grieve him and therefore offend the spirit of grace That'll shut down grace in a community. As I say, these things are subtle.
Kelly Kinder:Pastor Chuck Smith, in his book why Grace Changes Everything, gives us a great example of how this ministry of the Spirit works. In his book he shares that a friend of his one time had left his wife and his wife called Chuck to ask him can you go talk to my husband? And he tells a story. I'll just read it to you. It says I agreed to go and found my friend living in a shabby garage apartment on the bad side of town. When I saw his filthy little home I was struck by how much he had lost. As I looked around at my friend's new life I thought, oh God, how could he give up so much for so little? My heart was breaking because I loved this man. The side of what he had fallen into tore me apart. I found myself unable to conceal my feelings and, much to my embarrassment, I began to weep. I finally got so embarrassed I said I'm sorry, I just can't talk right now. I got up, left and went home feeling like a fool. Here's my good friend's wife here. My good friend's wife wanted me to visit him and make an appeal for reconciliation, and all I could do was sit there and cry. The next morning I received a phone call with news that left me in shock. My friend had returned to his wife and family just hours after my visit.
Kelly Kinder:What did God use to achieve this miraculous healing of a fractured relationship? Not a holier-than-thou attitude, to be certain. His spirit had created in me a spirit of meekness and brokenness that led to a joyful reconciliation. I thought I'd blundered this terribly, but I discovered that whenever we choose to walk in the Spirit, god delights to work powerfully in stunning and unexpected ways. You see, what the Holy Spirit was doing through Chuck was. He was weeping through this man, this pastor, and sometimes God can use that in ways we could never have imagined when we walk according to his spirit.
Kelly Kinder:Here's a third one how grace can help us be strong, for we can be strong in God's grace. Grace is always distributed according to God's purposes. Grace is always distributed according to God's purposes. Ephesians 4, 7 tells us that grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. Now, that word measure means a specific portion. God gave you what he wanted you to have.
Kelly Kinder:And so I think about this when I cook, when I sometimes will cook a meal, something I will never use, a recipe. This irritates my wife to no end. It's like why don't you just use it? You're going to mess it up. And so when I cook, I just throw a little bit of this in there and a little bit of that in there, taste it a little bit, and anything can happen. And sometimes good things happen, sometimes bad things happen and I can't even eat it. So, but see, a recipe ensures that the right ingredients and the right amounts blend together for a good result every time.
Kelly Kinder:And Paul, you see, is calling the church to blend together so that Christ might be present in all his fullness. Is this what we want? Christ's presence in all his fullness? Grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. So, in order for the body of Christ to become all that it's meant to be, we must follow the recipe, which means every joint must be working properly. We're not flying by the seat of our pants here and just hoping things work out and church is just kind of like, well, we can do whatever. No, there's a recipe we follow is just kind of like, well, we can do whatever. No, there's a recipe we follow. It does matter what you throw into the mix, and so we want to follow the recipe. You say, well, what's the recipe? Here's the recipe. Are you ready?
Kelly Kinder:God gives gifted men to equip gifted believers to become mature believers, to build up the body of Christ in love. I'll read it again God gives gifted men pastors, teachers, prophets, evangelists to equip God's people, god's believers, gifted believers, to become mature believers, to build up the body of Christ in love. You'll find that in Ephesians 4. If you want to go back and read it, it's a great passage. This means, though, that you and I are directly affected by the spiritual growth of the person next to us. Mark is teaching a class on the fit class fitting in at Trinity. It's all about how do you find your gifts and become everything God meant you to be. Every person ought to be in that class at one time or another Every person. Yeah, you expected that, didn't you? So Let me just add one more thing.
Kelly Kinder:There are times when, when we get, we look at our gifts that God's given us and we think, well, I don't have very much. Why did God shortchange me? Why, like that guy has every gift under the sun and I'm just you know, what did I get? And it's less than we desire. That measure is less than we desire, and so we pray for God's help and have more of a measure.
Kelly Kinder:You know, this happened to Paul. He says okay, I'm sick, god, would you heal me? He prayed Silence, I'm sick, god, would you help me? Silence, I'm sick, god, would you help me? Silence, I'm sick, god, would you help me. And God says Paul, my grace is sufficient for you. You see, the measure that we get is the measure that we need, and sometimes the measure that we need will get us through better than we think it will. God has a bigger design than we can ever see, and so my grace is sufficient for you. My strength is made perfect in weakness. Sometimes the little grace that we think we have is intended by God to show his greatness in you, and certainly that's true. When grace seems to overflow, we are often at our weakest.
Kelly Kinder:Number four, as followers of Christ, we are to be trustworthy stewards of this grace. Here's the question Can you be trusted with his grace? We have that old acronym grace, g-r-a-c-e God's riches at Christ's expense. And here's the verse that applies to that 1 Corinthians 4.2,. Now it is required of stewards that they may be found faithful.
Kelly Kinder:You see, a steward is someone who manages the resources of someone else, resources that don't belong to them. And what might God be doing? Even how he's apportioned out the gifts and talents and abilities he's given to you. Well, in the process, he is actually doing this. He's exposing subtle pride in us Whenever we compare ourselves with somebody else and we either feel like we got the short end of the stick or we think I'm better than that guy because I have this gift and they don't have it and everybody needs to have it. Because I've got this gift and I'm really proud about it. In fact, it makes me more spiritual than that guy. You see the attitudes here Subtle form of pride. So how do we respond?
Kelly Kinder:1 Peter says Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms, in its manifold forms, and if we cooperate with him, listen, he will actually entrust us with more. This is the whole point of the parable of Matthew 25, the parable of the talents. And listen to what Jesus says here. Jesus' words at the end of that parable say it all. To those who use well what they're given, even more will be given and they will have an abundance. But from those who do nothing with what they have, even what they have will be taken away. Nothing with what they have, even what they have will be taken away. So if I want to be useful to God, I have to be trustworthy with what he's given me financially, health-wise, time-wise, talent-wise, whatever God has given you.
Kelly Kinder:Number five the conduit of grace is a Christ follower who has decided to become a pipe instead of a pot. The conduit of grace is a Christ follower who has decided to become a pipe instead of a pot. What in the world are you talking about? What does that mean? Well, you know, a pot is simply just a container with stuff in it, but you have to decide to pour it out. But a pipe? Well, a pipe, it flows all the time, it has a continuous flow all the time. And so, when it comes to grace, I want to be a pipe and not a pot. See, listen, I can turn on the faucet but I can't make the water flow. I can flip a switch but I can't make the electricity happen. That's out there. That's not in my control, but you know what I can do. I can turn the faucet on and I can flip the switch. God is able to make all grace abound to you so that, having all sufficiency in all things, at all times, you may abound in every good work.
Kelly Kinder:And I saw this this past week. My daughter has a friend named Rachel and Rachel she was invited to a bachelorette party and to end the night the group went downtown to a bar to grab some food. And this friend didn't really care for drinking in the bar. So she heard music playing in the nearby room in that place and so she decided her and her friend would go in there, and they found a table and it was kind of packed. So the table they found was near a guy that said here, sit next to me. And she said well, okay, I'll just sit down. The music's all playing and the place is packed, you see, from wall to wall, nowhere to sit, hardly. So when the man offered a seat there. She said well, let's sit down here.
Kelly Kinder:And so the place, as I say, was extremely loud and everybody was talking and the man kind of scooted over to Rachel and she goes oh gosh, what do I do? So she entered into conversation with him and he asked her first thing what did she did for work? And she said do you really want to know? He had shared, or she had shared, how she had recently moved to the city to be a part of a church here in Knoxville and to lead worship. And he responds he says he had actually planted a church 10 years before and he had walked away from it all. He kind of laughed and said there's no way you're going to heaven. And he kind of laughed and said there's no way you're going to heaven. And all of a sudden Rachel tells me she says this boldness came over me. And she said oh, I know I am, I know I'm going to heaven.
Kelly Kinder:And right about that point the music got loud where they couldn't talk anymore. It was just so loud and you couldn't hear each other. And so she walked away from the table and then, when the concert ended about 1130, it was later in that evening she felt drawn to go back over and continue the conversation. She sat down with that man she sees him still sitting there, she sits down with him there and the topic of work came up and he said he began to share that he himself was now working in the medical field and had devoted his life to that as of late, to helping treat cancer patients. And she says it sounds like you and I kind of do the same thing. She said I grew up in a family who traveled and did healing services where we've seen many people healed.
Kelly Kinder:And his demeanor began to change. He began to pay attention more than he ever had. And suddenly, she said, I saw tears coming from his eyes. He began to weep. He said would you pray for me? He said I recently got divorced and I told God tonight that if he didn't answer my prayer and send me a sign, I was going to end my life by midnight. I don't understand. I don't understand why God waited until the last minute. But you walked up to me at 1130. And after praying for him, he said that he was going to attend church the next day. And what Rachel said to me about this? She said it was an ordinary moment.
Kelly Kinder:I didn't go in there intending to reach anybody for Christ, but I sat down next to this man and I was willing to engage in conversation with him, even though I really didn't want to. And by God's grace I rescued this man. Lord Jesus rescued him through me, through me. See, if I want yeah, thank the Lord, yeah. So if I want my life to extend beyond my little circle of influence, I have to be open to becoming a channel of his grace. I don't know what that means for you, but I know the Holy Spirit will apply those things to you. A couple other things and we'll be done. I know it's a little bit long. We are six.
Kelly Kinder:Called to grow in grace, he says, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. It basically simply means I have to be intentional to be a God-designed channel of his grace. We're called to grow in grace and the way we do that is we take advantage of all the means of grace or channels of grace like do you expose yourself to the word of God on a regular basis? Are you involved in prayer whenever you can get on your knees and pray to God? Are you involved in and are you worshiping, both privately and corporately? When we come together, are you being part of fellowship, all these things, even when we have baptism, in the Lord's Supper there's grace, there's something intangible that happens, that gets transferred when we put ourselves in those channels of grace. That we can't control, but God can control if we'll just put ourselves in those places. Let's go on to the last one. That's number seven.
Kelly Kinder:The beauty of grace is intended for God's glory. The beauty of grace is intended for God's glory, wherever grace is found. I don't know about you, but it's beautiful. When I look at the life of Christ, I go wow, wow, that's beautiful. His life is beautiful, it's attractive, it's winsome, it has drawing power. And I think if you had been able to be with John, you would have Jesus, would have been the kind of person you'd love to hang around, to put it that way, if we'd had that privilege of seeing him in the flesh. But I think that how do we think about grace and being graceful? We talk about being graceful. What do we think of? Well, an eagle in flight? We call that graceful. Or maybe a ballet dancer? We call her. Well, that was what a graceful dancer, or we may describe a person's demeanor as well. That person is so gracious, they're so gracious, but you know, you and I would never, never know what true grace was without knowing Jesus. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. What true grace was without knowing Jesus? Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ, and so God-designed beauty is meant to point us to him. So you see that you, hopefully, will get God's mindset on these things.
Kelly Kinder:John Piper uses a grand illustration of this, of a telescope, and he says he explains that a telescope. It points to the stars, but people don't gather around the telescope to marvel at the telescope and stop right there. They might look at it, but they don't marvel at the telescope. Instead of the telescope, what does it do? It becomes a conduit allowing people to marvel at the stars. Beauty was given to draw us, to draw people to glorify God, as Jonathan Edwards said. He said grace is but glory begun and glory is but grace perfected.
Kelly Kinder:Do you want God to perfect grace in you? Do you want God to perfect His grace in this fellowship? See as the body of Christ comes to know Christ more and more and we allow Him to transform our lives more and more, we will be strengthened, with God's grace, by the love of Christ and he will prepare us as His bride. Ephesians 5.27 makes this point that we're done, makes the point in the context kind of husbands what they're supposed to be to their wives, but he compares it to the church. He says why? To present her to himself as a radiant church without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. That's what we need, folks, to be a grace-filled church. Amen, yeah.
