Changing Your World:
Through Amazing Grace
Ephesians 2:3-14
[Shared with the people of Friendship Church, July 13, 2003]

For several weeks now, we’ve been talking about changing our world. Today I want to talk with you about the one thing that is guaranteed to change the world in which we live: grace.

Our Bible lesson for this morning is all about grace. It tells us that out of an attitude of grace, God long, long ago planned to free us from our slavery to sin and death by sending Jesus into our world to die and rise for us. But what exactly is grace?

In his book, Grace Awakening, Chuck Swindoll has a way of explaining grace that really hammers its meaning home for me. He writes:

"...imagine you have a six year old son whom you love dearly. Tragically, one day you discover that your son was horribly murdered. After a lengthy search the investigators of the crime find the killer. You have a choice. If you use every means in your power to kill the murderer for his crime, that would be vengeance. If, however, you’re content to sit back and let the legal authorities take over and execute on him what is proper—a fair trial, a plea of guilty, capital punishment—that is justice. But if you should plead for a pardon of the murderer, forgive him completely, invite him into your home, and adopt him as your own son, that is grace."

The parent who chose the difficult course of giving up their right for vengeance or justice would, at the very least, change their own life and the life of the killer he or she set free. This is exactly what God does for us through Jesus Christ. We are, according to the Bible, sinners who deserve to be damned and separated from God eternally. But through Jesus, God extends grace to us. Through Christ, God gives us acceptance and forgiveness we don’t deserve. The New Testament says, “...while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” The undeserved acceptance and forgiveness of grace changes our lives and the lives of those with whom we share it!

In the World War Two saga, Saving Private Ryan, a group of American soldiers give their lives in order to save the life of one private whose brothers have been killed in battle. Just before he dies from wounds sustained in saving Ryan, the crusty commander of the mission, played by Tom Hanks, tells Private Ryan to go and live a life worthy of the sacrifices that had been made for him.

It’s a weird thing. Before we receive grace, we have the crazy notion that if we do enough good things, maybe we’ll be acceptable to God. Some people, like Benjamin Franklin, I’m learning from the new biography of him written by Walter Isaacson, then set out to do as many good things as they possibly can.

Other people though, aware of their own faults, just give up, figuring that no matter what they do they’re going to hell anyway. They adopt a kind of “eat, drink, and be merry” attitude. But they’re rarely ever truly merry.

When grace enters people's lives though, they’re so grateful for the second chance they’ve been given, that they live differently. Like Private Ryan, they set out to live lives that display their gratitude for their undeserved gift.

The God of all creation left heaven and died for us and then rose for us. He did this to give us a second chance at life forever, God’s original plan for us. Grateful for such amazing grace, people who follow Jesus then live differently.

Jesus told a story or parable once about the final judgment of the world. He said that two different categories of people will stand before Him: the goats and the sheep. To the goats, Jesus will say, “You didn’t feed me when I was hungry, didn’t give me water when I was thirsty, didn’t clothe me when I was cold, didn’t welcome me when I was a stranger, and didn’t visit me when I was in prison. You’ve chosen hell. Go there now.”

To the sheep, Jesus will say, “You fed me, gave me water, clothed me, welcomed me, visited me. You’ve chosen God’s Kingdom—heaven. Go there now.” The goats will protest, “But, Lord, when did we ever fail to do these things for You?” Jesus will say, “When you failed to do all these good things for the least important people in your lives, you failed to do them for me.”

Many people look at this story from Jesus and say, “A-ha, you see, if you’re a nice enough person, God will bless you.” But when people say that, they completely misunderstand the story! You know that because of the reaction of the sheep to Jesus' words to them. They’re as incredulous about their good fortune as the goats are about their misfortune. The sheep say to Jesus, “Lord, when did we do all these good and wonderful things for You? We don’t remember them at all!” Jesus will tell them, “When you fed, clothed, visited, welcomed, and gave water to the most insignificant nobody, the people everybody else thought didn’t matter, you were really doing it for me."

Now the reason that the sheep—the believers in Jesus—won’t be conscious of the good things they’ve done is simple. They weren’t keeping score. They were just living their lives. Grateful for the new and everlasting life Jesus gave them, they just did what came naturally: they loved as God had loved them...they served as they had been served...forgave as they had been forgiven...gave as they had been given to. They loved and served unstintingly, without pre-conditions or expectation of repayment. Grace is amazing, isn’t it?

Author Keith Miller tells of how he once planned to commit adultery. He arranged to meet a woman at a hotel, out of state. But when he got to the hotel room and prepared to make a telephone call to the woman, his mind filled with passages of the Bible. But interestingly, the passages he remembered weren’t those dealing with adultery; they were those that talk about the love of God. God was telling Keith Miller that whatever happened that night, He would still love Keith like His son. Miller slammed the phone down. He felt as though he couldn’t go through with his plans because he was overwhelmed with God’s love for him. He tried two more times to pick up the phone and call the woman. But each time, the sense of God’s grace and love flooded his heart and Miller put the phone down. Finally, he called out, “It’s no use! God—I am hopelessly in love with you.”

In this life, there really is a war going on inside of us. It’s a war between those things we want to do at any given time because they may feel good or be convenient and on the other side, those things we know we should do because they’re right. Sometimes, even people like Keith Miller, committed followers of Christ, lose that war. They cave into temptation and sin.

But there is reason for hope! The greatest story of all time was Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son. You know it well. A man, representing God, had two sons. The youngest begged his father to give him his inheritance right away. The dad consented and the boy took his newly-received wealth to go out into the world. He went to a faraway country. There, he wasted all his money and he spent it on prostitutes, booze, and idle living. Broke, hungry, and miserable, the boy takes a job with the local pig farmer and is in such a bad way, he looks at the pigs’ slop with envy. He decides to go back home, beg for his father’s forgiveness, and ask if he can get a job. When he returns, it turns out that dad has been waiting for him with desperate yearning ever since the boy left home. Before the son can apologize or beg, his dad has his arms wrapped around him and is ordering the servants to prepare to party down. “This son of mine was dead and he’s alive once more; he was lost and now he’s found!” Don’t you just know that boy lived his life differently from that moment forward? Grace would have changed him for certain!

Maybe you came here this morning thinking that you would do your religious duty by showing up. Or maybe you came here under pressure from someone else and thought this whole worship thing was meaningless. But I’m here to tell you that no matter what you’ve done, no matter where you’ve been, no matter what mistakes you have made, God loves you! Our Bible lesson tells us that “long before He laid down earth’s foundations,” your heavenly Father had a plan. He planned on being a loving daddy who would welcome you into His loving arms. He planned on giving you undeserved grace. We can walk away from God and His grace. But for as long as we live on this planet, no matter what, we can still receive it. We can still receive Him. Whenever we do that, there’s a party in heaven...and our lives are changed forever.

[This series of messages is inpsired by one being presented by the pastors at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Burnsville, Minnesota. The story of Keith Miller is found in John Maxwell's 'One Hour with God' devotional materials.]