TANSAATFL

Text: Galatians 5:13-18

Focus: Grace

Function: To help the congregation see how freedom from the Mosaic law is accomplished through living by the Spirit of God.

Form: Bible Study

Intro:

TANSTAAFL! Robert Heinlein coined that phrase early on in his prolific writing career. He writes a large series of books that envision a future without God. His books are political science fiction novels. In his future, there is only one political party. It is similar to the Libertarian party and its premise is simply this: If you do not work, you do not eat.

And again, as he imagines this future without God, this future that has grown out of the belief that there was no Creator that humanity has to answer to for the way they govern themselves. In this future, survival of the fittest means exactly that. If you are sick, weak, stupid, emotionally broken down, or handicapped in any way, not merely lazy, then you died because you couldn't fend for yourself.

So, he coined the phrase: TANSAATFL (SPELL IT OUT), it is an acrostic for: “there ain't no such thing as a free lunch!”

I tried to teach that principle to my own children. I told them if something seems too good to be true, then it probably is (too good to be true).

There is a great amount of character behind the concept of earning what you get by your own effort.

But again, that flies in the face of grace. Because Grace isn't grace if we have to earn it. It means that we do indeed get something for nothing.

At the beginning of Chapter 3, Paul uses some very strong language against the Galatians. He calls them foolish, he tells them that this spirit, this attitude, this heresy that you have to finish your salvation by your own efforts instead of grace is actually a bewitching spell.

It means, that the tendency that we have to reject the idea of grace comes straight from hell itself.

Hear the words of this verse: “You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? Let me ask you a question, did you receive the Holy Spirit by your own effort, or by grace through faith in Jesus? Did you start out your Christian journey with grace and now do you think you can to better that God and try to earn it after all?”

Paul uses some very strong words against those who think that you need to add something to grace in order to be saved.

In Englewood, there is a church with a sign that says: “Have you received the Holy Ghost since you were saved?”

Do you remember that Jesus died to set us free from our sin and our shame?

Let me try to list the ways that different believers have tried to add to grace with their own doctrine.

I have been told that if I am not involved in casting out demons, they I am not really a believer. Of course, the person never asked me if I had ever done that kind of spiritual warfare.

I have been told that if I haven't been “sanctified” then my salvation isn't real. I have been told that if I don't speak in tongues then I am not really saved. I have been told that if my baptism wasn't in the Brethren fashion, three times forward, by immersion then I cannot really be a believer.

And here is the best one: A client of mine asked me if my wife ever wore slacks since slacks are “mens'” clothes and therefore an abomination and if I permitted her to wear them, I was probably lost in a false church. The funny thing was back then, I was in a different form of holiness church and we would never have a television in our house. And she was watching a soap opera! At that time, I believed that watching soap operas was a straight ticket to hell. So I started preaching back to her and you know how that goes, I was bashing her over the head with “in reference to evil, be innocent” and she with “it is an abomination for a woman to wear man's clothing.” Of course, I was justified and more right because mine was a NT passage and hers was OT.

God help us! God deliver us from ourselves. I thank God that His grace kept flowing, even to me a self-righteous know it all. Praise God.

Now back to the first three verses of our scripture:

¹³For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. ¹⁴For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ¹⁵If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.

Verse 13: We are free! I love it in the NASV translation: It was for freedom that Christ set us free!”

I remember my English teacher telling us how wrong it is restate an idea with the same root word. I read that verse: “It is for freedom that Christ set us free” and thought that the author was just being wordy.

But that isn't the case. Jesus set us free so that we can be free to love, free to serve, free to actually be Christians instead of religious folks.

I talked at length about all these different additions to our faith, these additions beyond grace and the problem is, they lead us to feel less, they distract us from grace, they lead us back into bondage.

Jesus set us free from the fear of not making it, not stacking up, not working hard enough to make God love us.

He set us free in order to be able to actually be Christians, to actually be what He called us to be.

So, verse 13: You are free, but don't take advantage of your freedom to live for yourself. We are now free to love one another. That is the point of the work that Jesus did while He was teaching. Those were the lessons that Jesus taught during those three years of ministry.

This is why Grace sometimes gets dismissed. People say that it means a license to sin. That is not what he means. He means, we have the freedom to serve without the fear of taking the chance of blowing the rules.

For example, a church having a cigarette disposal at its front door. For many years, I have heard: “if we put that there, it means that we condone the behavior.”

All of a sudden, we have added to the faith another rule. When I came back to Christ, my brother was in seminary. He was a form of mentor to me, very spiritual. Kathy and I went to visit him in Minneapolis where he was studying and as soon as we got settled, he looked me in the eye and asked me if I still smoke. I turned my gaze down, hung my head and got ready for a sermon. I said yes and he handed me an ashtray and said, “go outside if you need to smoke.”

My jaw dropped and he noticed. He said: “did I shock you?” I asked him why and he said: “that is the work of the Holy Spirit, not mine. God will do it in time.”

I gotta tell you, he graced me more than any other event in my life. I was reading the bible, praying, and my heart was changing. When I saw someone stranded, I stopped to help them, I picked up hitchhikers there were several changes in my behavior based on what the Holy Spirit was doing inside of me.

And God did/does His work in us according to His time, not ours.

Verse 15: “But if you bite and devour each other, take care lest you be consumed by each other.”

That is an odd verse in the middle of the grace brings freedom passage. Did he switch the subject all of a sudden, or misplace a parenthesis?

He uses this passage to introduce the contrast between flesh, selfish motivated actions verses Spiritual activities, the fruit of the Spirit.

He gives a plan to help live in this freedom.

So why this verse?

That afternoon, in that client's living room when I was proving to her that my special scripture made me better than hers is exactly what Paul is talking about.

It is just like Total Forgiveness. Forgiveness is between us and God and has nothing to do with the person we are forgiving. It isn't something we wait to feel, it is a choice that make. We make this choice so that we are no longer under bondage to that person. Someone once said: “Harboring bitterness and unforgiveness is like drinking poison and hoping the other person dies.”

Grace is the same way. We get grace, and we give grace just as freely. The problem in the Church is that others were coming in and making them upset by adding more rules to their faith.

Now, the rest of the passage:

The Works of the Flesh

¹⁶Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. ¹⁷For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you want. ¹⁸But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law.

What is he saying? Remember, he isn't saying that God has saved us for a self-indulged lifestyle. He has saved us to freely love one another and serve them, just as Jesus served us.

And it isn't accomplished by obeying the rules. The more we focus on the rules, the harder we work to overcome sin, the harder it is to overcome sin. That is the bondage from which Jesus set us free.

Walk by the Spirit, in love, by the fruits of the Spirit: Love, Joy, Peace... and we will be Christians.

The Holy Spirit will not lead you into sin. The Holy Spirit will not lead you into judgment of others. The Holy Spirit will not lead us back into fear of failure in our Christian life.

The Holy Spirit will lead us in paths that are good for both us and those around us. He will lead us to healthy lifestyles, set us free from the things that bind us. The Holy Spirit will lead us to do good, to prosper in doing well, to care for others.

So, there isn't any such thing as a free lunch. No, God has saved us to good works. The free lunch would be freedom to do whatever makes feel good, not right. And many times, those things that make us feel good are destructive to our personal lives, and our families. I have seen to many families torn apart by the abuse of alcohol, drugs. When one of my children thought they were mature enough to make life and death decisions about themselves and started smoking, I was doing a chaplain residency at the long term care facility of a downtown hospital. I took that child to see what dying from Emphysema was like.

The freedom isn't given to indulge ourselves to our destruction, or the oppression of others. Nope, we are free to love, free to live.

I’d Rather Have Jesus

Text: Galatians 2:15-21

Focus: Grace

Function: To help the congregation see how sin grace helps us to stop sin.

Form: Bible Study

Intro:

As we are studying grace, I hinted at this last week. I hinted that we will look at how grace gives us the power to overcome the brokenness in our lives that the bible calls sin.

I want to do a teaching today. I am not merely trying to get deep to demonstrate what I know.

But I want to talk about how we present grace in this day and age, how we present the gospel in this culture. So, during the message there is going to be a little bit of history about the major influences that have guided our culture in the last 150 years.

The concept of grace starts with the idea of sin. Sin. That is an ugly word.

You have heard me complain about how there are many in this day and age that reject the concept of sin.

It is a modern psychological dynamic. Sin implies shame. Shame creates hopelessness. Shame can keep a person from attempting restoration, reconciliation, deliverance from addiction, forgiveness -of both self and others- and it leads to stress and many medical problems.

So, psychologists would say: “stop shaming yourselves and you will be free.” And a secularist would also say, “if you stop religion and you will not face any shame.”

Guess what. I agree.

But I want to qualify it from a Christian world view. I want to explain it from the view of God's amazing grace.

There have been times when I have wanted to respond to someone who tried to shame me with the words: “no thank, you, I don't think I will let you shame me today.”

People have the need to both shame themselves and or others. That is why gossip has always been a problem. Satan's lies lead us to shame and hopelessness. I believe that shame is demonic. I believe that it is a part of the spiritual warfare we are to contend with as Christians.

(first service) I love that tag line on Wonderful Grace of Jesus... “Sin and shame!”

So, let us look at sin and shame, the sin and shame that Jesus set us free from.

That term, “a sense of shame” and its companion question: “Have you no shame?” are references to what happened to Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden.

God said, why have you covered yourselves? They said, because we were naked and ashamed. God answered: “who told you the you were naked?”

Shame is from the Devil. The phrase “have you no shame?” is harmless enough because it involves a sense of personal pride.

But shame is different from being guilty.

If I come home from the office and I am stressed out and Kathy's day in inevitably worse and I react to her with a quick temper, then I am guilty of not loving, honoring and cherishing her, the vow I made to her over 33 years ago. I am guilty and I say, “honey, I was wrong, I am sorry, please forgive me.”

When she sees the sincerity of my words, she forgives. Sometimes, just by human nature, that forgiveness may take a little while, because it can be a teaching moment, a moment of intimacy, where we learn the fears and insecurities that we both have.

But the thing is this, I am guilty. I ask for forgiveness and she grants it. I have hope in her forgiveness. It isn't presumption that excuses my bad behavior. It's a mutual understanding of our common brokenness.

Shame is Satanic. Guilt can be self-inflicted, or it can be from God.

Don't confuse guilt with shame, or shame with guilt. When we are convicted by God, we know that God forgives, we know that by confession, God will deliver us from our sin.

We have that promise in 1 John 1:9: If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us and (THEN) to deliver us from the sin.

Repenting from sin is implied in that passage, but it is deliberately left out. Because the power of repentance does not come from us, this passage of scripture makes it clear that the power and strength for change does not come from our will, but from God's power.

Grace sets us free from our sin.

Confession is saying the same thing about sin that God does. Sin is indeed sin.

The word: “Confession” is homolegeo. It is a hybrid Greek word. Homo, the word we get homogenized milk, Homo -the same, genus -kind Homogenized milk is milk that all the same kind. Homo: “the same” and Legeo, “statement.” If we say the same thing about sin that God says, if we confess that we have sin, if we confess that we cannot overcome it ourselves, if we confess our need for a Savior by agreeing with God that we are broken people, then God will forgive us and HE, God, will set us free.

So, what is sin?

In this post-modern age, and as many agree that we are in a post-religious, the concept of sin is not politically correct.

There are many who would say that using the word sin always implies the concept of shame, not the concept that we made a mistake, we did something wrong, we made the wrong choice, we could have made a better choice and etc.

I consider all of those statements: “I made a mistake, I was wrong, I did something wrong...” as actual confessions of sin.

But the post-Christian world kind of rejects the whole concept sin, because they -and they are right in this – reject the concept of shame.

I use the term brokenness instead of sin. And I have been criticized by some of my theological peers because they say I am changing the message.

I am not. I tell them this: “my job is to communicate the good news, the gospel, to this culture. And if this culture can understand the concept better with a different word, then I am going to be more concerned with getting the message across than I am with wasting time debating the meaning of words with people who already know what it means.”

Personally, I like the term sin better, because the word “sin” reminds me that God is an absolutely just God, with definable standards of right and wrong. Sin speaks of God, and God is holy, and sin keeps us from experiencing the wonder of a relationship with Him.

But, I started out the sermon with the statement: “Sin is an ugly word.”

To the unbeliever, the word “sin,” in this day and age, does not have as much to do with the concept of God, as it does with perceived abuses of religion.

The concept of sin, they say, has been used by the church to keep people in subjection to an human institution.

Well guess what? It isn't new!

And this passage of scripture addresses that very question.

Remember last week? Paul, one of the world's leading scholars in the OT law, is now saying those rules don't work. They never did work. They don't help. In the Book of Romans, he goes as far as saying, all they really did was remind us of our guilt and our need for Jesus.

This sermon is about how Grace gives us the power to obey, without shame, but in loving response to God.

So, back to sin. The use of the term “sin” has become even more obscured since it is now 151 years after the publishing of the book by Charles Darwin “On the Origin of the Species.”

I am not going to get into the argument over evolution, except to reiterate what I said a few months ago that it appears to me that I see a lot of evidence for the concept of Theistic Evolution.

The problem is, morality was turned on its ears if God did not have His hand in creation. Morality is turned on its ears if after all, it wasn't a Creator who endowed every single human with certain unalienable rights such as the right for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

It isn't the argument of Evolution, but the ethical theory of Social Darwinism.

It is basically this, If the human species evolved, and evolution is the survival of the fittest, and evolution created predatory species, species that live by killing others, then there is nothing immoral with the strong oppressing the weak.

The ethics of this first played a major role in the world with Adolf Hitler and his Nazi henchmen. Nazis, short for “National Socialism,” were first called “the Christian Social Party.” And no, this has nothing to do with Christian Social Justice. Christian Social Justice has always been the passion of Jesus Christ and the mission of the Church. The Great Commission, to go into all the world and preach the salvation of Jesus is a part of the Great Commandment to love one another. It isn't “either/or,” it's “both/and.”

Atheistic evolution, the concept that there is no Creator has no basis for morality, or any real concept of sin. Theistic Evolution, Intelligent design, or flat out Creationism all teach that someday, we will have to answer to God for the way we governed ourselves, for the way we treated our neighbors, our spouses, our children and even “the least of these.”

Sin is rejected in our modern culture because in the modern-mind, there is no such thing as a Creator we have to answer to.

And the reason for it is not so much because of the intellectual argument that no one can scientifically prove that God exists, but because the concept of sin, has been abused by religion to justify the real concepts of sin that they claim to support.

Ask a contemporary Jewish person what they think of Christians, and the first answer will be: “Your religion tried to exterminate us and yet your preach, `love each other.' We are not buying it”

The secularist will say, “almost every war fought has to do with religion.” It is similar to the secular psychologist who would say, “eliminate religion, and you will eliminate shame.”

But most wars were not fought for religion, almost every war is about money, power, domination and ethnic struggles. They have used religion to justify their ends, but it truly is about the money. Look at the American civil war, the wealthy ruling class in the South didn't want to give up the profit from the slave trade, so they coined the phrase “states rights” and 1.1 million boys died so they could keep maintain their greed. We hear states rights now, and I want to remind everyone of the similarity of the situation today, as well as then.

So here is our problem, we need to preach the gospel of grace to forgive sin to a culture that isn't sure sin really exists.

And I am going to say it this way, they know that sin, brokenness, human weakness, messiness of lives, and even evil exist. What they don't know, what they don't trust is that Christians have the answer.

And, I pointed out just a few instances that give genuine credibility to their suspicion.

But one more proof, Google the words “Christian Identity.” On Thursday, the 5^th entry was “www.kingidentity.com.” You better be completely offended, these heretics claim that the true descendants of Abraham are the Caucasian and the blonder and taller they are, the purer they are.

There is nothing Christian about it. These people are merely Nazis with a new name.

So, the secular person has only seen a false form of religion.

How do we preach the gospel to them?

We are trying to preach grace, and at the same time we have to overcome the wrong, negative perceptions.

Let me read the scripture from “the Message.”

Galatians 2:15-21 (The Message)

^15-16We Jews know that we have no advantage of birth over "non-Jewish sinners." We know very well that we are not set right with God by rule-keeping but only through personal faith in Jesus Christ. How do we know? We tried it—and we had the best system of rules the world has ever seen! Convinced that no human being can please God by self-improvement, we believed in Jesus as the Messiah so that we might be set right before God by trusting in the Messiah, not by trying to be good.

^17-18Have some of you noticed that we are not yet perfect? (No great surprise, right?) And are you ready to make the accusation that since people like me, who go through Christ in order to get things right with God, aren't perfectly virtuous, Christ must therefore be an accessory to sin? The accusation is frivolous. If I was "trying to be good," I would be rebuilding the same old barn that I tore down. I would be acting as a charlatan.

^19-21What actually took place is this: I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn't work. So I quit being a "law man" so that I could be God's man. Christ's life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not "mine," but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that.

Is it not clear to you that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do that, to repudiate God's grace. If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily.

Paul is preaching, I'd rather have Jesus, I'd rather have grace than a national pride in this set of laws.

We have the answer, in Jesus Himself. We have the answer that God indeed is in the world in Jesus, and in us, Jesus' body, reconciling the world to Himself. We believe that Jesus has given to us the ministry of reconciliation.

I'd rather have Jesus than the code of rules that never worked.

I'd rather have Jesus than some Satanic concept of racial purity.

I'd rather have Jesus, and His love than all the things the world has to offer.

Jesus' love is eternal.

The grace, the forgiveness that He has given us does overcome our sin and shame.

It sets us free to actually live like Christians.

I remember a line from a Christian song in the late 70's, it said: “when at last you are tired of being a Christian, and you have come to the end of all you can see and do. Remember, He still loves you.”

You see, if the law works, if the concept that my effort makes me better, if the concept that my obedience singles me out as someone more special in God's eyes, then Jesus did not need to die to save me.

There is nothing I can do to save myself. I/we need Jesus as a Savior.

We can call it sin, we can call it brokenness, we can call it moral failure, we can call it a hiccup along the road of life, we can call it a momentary indiscretion, in all of those things we admit this: God, I need a savior.

But if we continue justifying ourselves by what we do or don't do, without reference to Jesus statement: “The whole law is summed up in the statement, Love one another.” then we have abandoned grace and sin and shame will dominate our sense of peace.

Love doesn't mean that we automatically tolerate every human behavior. It means that we aren't merely intolerant. (repeat last)

That, I am afraid, is the concept that non-believers have about believers.

Sometimes love demands that we tell the truth, even if it is difficult. I love someone when I kindly tell them, “if you keep drinking that much, your liver will fall out.” Or if I tell my grandchildren, “don't play in the middle of the highway.” They have have no concept of mass, kinetic energy, the hardness of steel or the finality of death. Saying the truth is loving.

But I don't tell my grandchildren to stay out of the middle of the highway because it makes me look spiritual because I took a stand for truth. I tell them that because I love them.

The brokenness of sin, the problems that we all face in the messiness of living lives are things for which we need grace.

Do you have that grace?

Grace – Everywhere!

Text: Galatians 2:1-10

Focus: Grace
Function: To help people see the wide availability of grace (in a metaphor to poverty).
Form: Bible Study
Intro:

J. Hudson Taylor, a missionary hero of mine has a chapter in his autobiography titled: “The Button in the Honorable Back.”

• He was trying to share the gospel with the Chinese, but he was also confusing it with the English culture.

• The English Gentry wore topcoats with a button in the middle of the back that served absolutely no purpose.

• The Chinese had a hard time listening to him because that button made no sense to them.

• They thought that he was more interested in his mission than them.

• So, the title of the chapter is the turning point of his ministry.

• At that point, he put on traditional Chinese dress, adapted the 5 note scale of Chinese music to his Christian message and people started trusting in Jesus.

• His faith was about Jesus, not his culture.

That has been a difficult problem for Christians to overcome as they have shared their faith. I think a good thing has happened in the celebration of Easter and Christmas. The Orthodox Church celebrates Easter based on the Jewish Calendar, which is a truer time compared to when it actually happened. But the Church in the West changed the date to coincide with the coming of Spring and the celebration of Esther, the goddess of fertility, symbolized originally by the egg and the rabbit. The actual season of the year of Jesus' birth is anybody's guess, but the Church in the West, again, decided to celebrate it near the time of the Druid celebration of the beginning of Winter.

Some, of what you might call the more fundamentalist branches of Christianity have spoken against this with the argument that it was mixing paganism with the Christianity.

In an effort to maintain “purity of the faith” some have abandoned Christmas, others have called Easter “Resurrection Sunday” and others forbid anything not specifically commanded in the New Testament like musical instruments, birthday parties and etc..

And all of that is a lengthy introduction to this passage of scripture.

For this entire month, we are focusing on Grace.

And maybe you are wondering about the history lesson about different practices among Christians as an introduction to this scripture.

Well, that was exactly what is happening in this passage.

Brother Paul had been out on a missionary journey sharing the good news with the Roman world. Wherever he went, he met some opposition to his doctrine both by traditional Jewish followers and Christian Jewish followers.

He decides to check himself.

The text says: “by revelation, he went back to Jerusalem.”

He was consulting with the apostles who actually walked with Jesus. He explained to them just exactly what he was preaching and he asks them for their approval.

They acknowledged a few things to him.

1. First, he was called specifically to preach to Gentiles while Peter, and the rest in Jerusalem were called to the Jewish believers.

   1. Understand that the first Christians, by the thousands were Jewish.

   2. The faith isn't about one creed being better than another.

   3. The faith is about the completeness of the plan God had when He first called the Jews to be a blessing to the entire world.

2. Second, the expressions of those faiths would look different, and that was okay.

J. Hudson Taylor learned this:

• THE GOOD NEWS IS NOT ABOUT BRINING PEOPLE UP TO OUR STANDARDS OF LIVING AND IMPOSING OUR CULTURE ON THEM. THE GOOD NEWS IS THAT GOD HAS PROVIDED SALVATION FOR THE ENTIRE WORLD THROUGH JESUS CHRIST.

The Jewish Christians came from a rich and proud history. There is a lot of beauty in their symbolism and meaning in their liturgy.

They did not want to give that up. But most of it didn't make sense to Gentiles.

God had already showed Peter that the Jewish dietary restrictions, the Jewish ban on entering a Gentile house, the Jewish practice of offering a sacrifice for sin, the Jewish practice of polygamy and many other things were done away with in the New Covenant.

Paul says it clearly in Romans 13: 8-10. (read)

So, all the Jewish functions of the law are done away with, and we will look at that a little farther in our study of Galatians.

So here he is in Jerusalem checking himself, asking the people who actually walked with Jesus if it really was okay.

Why did he doubt it?

I'll tell you why.

He was raised under the Jewish system of laws. He knew the story of the Old Testament and the Jewish people ignoring the law of God and God permitting them to be destroyed because they took His word lightly.

He knew the diligence which his sect, the Pharisees, carried out in allegiance to the law of Moses.

He didn't want to make a mistake. He has Jesus teaching to understand in light of this when Jesus says that not one crossing of the “t” or dotting of the “i” will be removed... … and if we break even the least of these commands...

Those are powerful words, and they do not contradict his statement that every command is summed up in the command to love God and love our neighbor as ourselves.

No, Jesus says, He fulfills them. And He fulfills them by grace.

This is scary stuff.

God severely disciplined the Jews for not keeping the “least of these commands.”

Aaron, the High Priest, right at the beginning of the Old Covenant has two sons who offered incense to God in an inappropriate manner, either it was the wrong formula, or they weren't ceremoniously clean, or, as my OT professor told us, the Jewish words meant they were drunk at the time. But the upshot was, as soon as it happened, they were stricken dead.

Saul, the first king of Israel was commanded to destroy the animals of the Amalekites when God extracted revenge on them because they wouldn't open their borders to the Jews. It seemed to be a small transgression, but God took away the kingdom from him.

It seemed to the Jewish people that God was a very harsh judge and pretty particular about obeying the OT law.

And Paul is teaching people they don't have to anymore. He has his doctorate in the Law. He was one of the best educated men in the world about the Law of Moses. And he is telling people it doesn't matter.

Now, I am not talking about a license to sin.

But the 1300 commands in the law were translated into over 13,000 commands in the Talmud so that the Jewish people could codify just exactly what was right and what was wrong.

They missed it. Jesus said, the code to get it right is one new, overarching command: Love one another. He is just re-stating, in very clear terms that Jesus meant what He said.

But he has a doubt. Is it because he remembers too much the history of his people? Is it because God wants him to go to Jerusalem to settle the question, not only for him but for Peter and the rest of the apostles as well?

We already saw that He went there to ask the question because of a revelation, a vision, or a dream or a word from God.

He brought a Gentile, and God was clear to him that Titus, the gentile did not need to be circumcised.

I think the doubt that he faced is the same one that people face today when they doubt that it is okay to call Resurrection Sunday: “Easter” or celebrate Christmas.

The doubt is this. Grace is too good to be true.

It is. Grace makes no sense. It goes against our whole ethic of living.

Nothing is free. I raised my kids with a strong work ethic. I taught them to always give more to their employer that what was expected because in the prosperity of their employer, they in turn would prosper. We did not tolerate laziness or excuses. If you had a job to do, you must get it done. We taught them to enjoy the reward in accomplishing something they didn't think they could do.

So here is Grace, free. We cannot earn it. It is free. But we are trained that we must earn what we receive. To get something for free is to take advantage of the one who has given it.

We are afraid of grace, because it makes us think that we are not being responsible. I have met several people who reject the entire concept of Christianity because of grace. They are convinced that grace means that there is no personal responsibility for ones actions.

And people not taking responsibility is a big part of our national crisis. I remember a woman who, after wrecking her Porsche 911 while driving it under the influence of alcohol, sued the company for making a car that was too hard to control if you were drunk!

We need to take responsibility.

I remember counseling with a crack addict once. She would call me: “Pastor, I did drugs again today, what do I do?” And I would respond with, have you tried “not taking drugs.”

One day, she said: “I just cannot take care of myself. Someone else has to be responsible for me.”

I asked her how she ate her last meal. After a few minutes of wrangling over words, she realized that she was the one who lifted the fork to her mouth and chewed her food. Taking care of herself was just as simple as that.

We need responsibility.

Am I saying that grace means we don't have to take responsibility?

When the apostle was asked the same question he said: “May it never be!”

God is counting on us to respond in live, with grace, to the grace He has given us.

But it is true, it could be. Because salvation is a gift. It is free. We cannot earn it.

And, that flies in the face of responsibility. As I mentioned, half the problem is that people no longer take responsibility for their own actions.

But before you say amen too much, I want you to look with me at the last verse of this passage.

The apostles approved completely all of Paul's theology, but they wanted to make one thing completely clear, “take care of the poor.”

(READ verse 10)

The sermon is about grace. “Grace -Everywhere!” is the title.

I just got through a long statement about the need for personal responsibility.

But understand this, you cannot earn salvation. In the case of eternal salvation, there is no price we can pay to redeem ourselves.

Grace is free.

So why end with this verse?

Well the obvious thing is this, and this relates to our current national crisis. There was only one thing that all the apostles wanted to make sure Paul understood. That the Church existed, on behalf of Jesus, to take care of the poor. Remember, they walked with Jesus for 3 years. And since Paul had the rest of it right, the one thing they wanted to stress to Him was that Jesus was very concerned with the welfare of the poor. They told Paul, the poor are the responsibility of the Church.

Hmmm.

Paul didn't walk 3 years with Jesus, so they didn't know if He understood just how important it is to Christ. They didn't know if he understood how much of the purpose and ministry of the Church was revolved around taking care of the poor.

Has that changed?

You, in order to be biblical will probably say “it shouldn't have.”

But why did it?

Well, the Church became the State Church in the third Century. It was funded by the Roman government. And, through the state church, which was an extension of the government, social welfare became the responsibility of the government.

And you know what happened to the Church?

That is when the church stopped growing so rapidly.

What looked like a blessing because a curse.

Up until that time, 95-100% of the churches assets went to the poor. That meant the churches met in homes, and most of the pastors served while working to support themselves.

People in the world saw what Jesus said come true when Jesus said: “They will know that you are My disciples when you have love for one another.”

Christians lived for heaven instead of retirement. Pastors shared authority with very competent lay leaders. The church was an organism and every member really was a minister.

That, I believe is still God's ideal.

And that speaks to our commitment as Christians to the poor. It is a metaphor for grace.

I wasn't flippant when I mentioned how I trained my own children to care for the poor. Because last week, when we were sitting around talking they began to question some of the statements I have been making on Facebook.

They wonder if I am being way to gracious and generous to the poor. They wonder if when I say those things that I don't mean that they should work hard.

I keep telling people, everyone is our neighbor. The prisoners I worked with 3 weeks ago, the undocumented resident, the crack addict, the undeserving welfare bum.

They wonder that if I say love them, does that mean that I don't believe in the hard work ethic I taught them?

I hope many of you have wondered the same thing about me. It would show that you are really thinking about it all.

So, let us talk about grace to the poor.

Do they deserve it? I mean, the lazy poor, not those who simply have no opportunity.

We are taught that there is no such thing as free lunch. If there is a deal too good to be true then it is.

If someone gives us something for nothing, we are not to take it because it isn't right.

Except, that is what we believe about grace.

And right here, in this passage about grace, and Paul himself wondering if it is too good to be true, we have this problem.

I am not going to answer this question, because I don't know the answer. I agreed with my sons when they pointed out inconsistencies with my logic. I don't have all the answers.

I was inconsistent with the young woman who was a crack addict. I told her I could not help her until she was willing to help herself. I was not going to let her addiction be my responsibility. It would not have helped her. I am not Jesus. In a sense, I stopped giving her grace.

So, I am going to leave you hanging with unanswered questions. You are all smart enough to figure it out for yourselves and your answers will be as diverse as this crowd.

Here are the questions:

• “Just how far does grace go?

• Does grace extend to someone we think is lazy?

• Does grace extend to someone we think is truly evil, whose sin is completely unacceptable?

• Does grace extend to my own sin?

• And if grace does extend to my darkest sins, how far do I have to go to extend it to others?

When I think about what grace actually means, I have one response, I raise my hands in worship to a God who loves His creation so much.

God gave grace to bring people back into His family. Have you come to Him?