Generous Grace

Text: Revelation 21:1-6

Focus: Grace

Function: To help people be generous with grace

Form: Story telling

Intro: Back in the early days of the Charismatic renewal, some interesting things were happening. It brought me closer to Jesus and helped me to develop a deep and nourishing prayer life.

I spent a day in prayer, a week and a half ago. And, I spent it at the base of a waterfall, laying on the earth, connecting with the two elements that I am drawn to, water and earth.

I was having one of those odd days where I wondered if my prayers were doubts expressed out loud, our sincere questions brought before God.

And in that time, I realized a few things, a few moments that I can refer to where I know that God is real. One of them seems important to share, as a testimony of faith, to you.

My eldest son has faced some rather difficult medical problems with the bones in his right leg. It seems as if the bones are invaded with multiple nodules of nerve tissue which substantially weakened its structure.

The condition was extremely rare, and it had no effective cure.

There was an experimental treatment that might work for which he qualified. But the hope was very slim and it fell on me to tell him the news.

He was 6 with big, trusting eyes that looked at me as if I was a god to him. We were, and are, very close. I took him to the Muncie Mall and bought him some ice cream. As I was telling him that we were going to do everything would could to save his leg, I was also trying not to create a false impression of hope.

So, I asked him his permission to go ahead with the experimental procedure, a big, long, detailed process with the option that that if it didn't work, he might lose his leg.

I looked down the mall at a pair of young men walking toward us. This was back in the day of short, pleated, athletic shorts, the kind made famous by Tom Selleck in Magnum, P.I.

They guy on the right had a real athletic gate. Every step bounced with life and rhythm. He was beautiful. And athletes also wore these terrycloth sweat bands which accentuated the fluidity of their movements.

Except, the one on the right had a sweat band in an odd place. It was on his right leg, just above his knee.

But he kept on walking until as he passed us, I finally realized that the sweat band on the right thigh was actually a sock over the stump of a leg and from the sock down, his leg was artificial.

I cried out and asked the man to stop. I desperately explained that at that exact moment, I was informing my son of the possibility that he would lose his right leg below the knee and I had noticed his superior athletic gate and would he please give my son some encouraging words in case the worst case scenario occurred?

The man graciously and happily complied.

And the video tape of those two men walking and my raising awareness, my compulsion to keep staring at the men, I was transfixed on them when I should have been transfixed on my son, but something was burning in my gut, and I am convinced that on that day, God sent two angels to comfort, and I used to say, my son, but now I am pretty sure they came for me.

Angels? They may have been two gay men who, in that day and time, were boldly expressing their relationship, this was 30 years ago. But then, maybe of God did send angels, God would send them in the form of gay men.

They expressed kindness. Although they were athletic, they weren't macho. They had class.

And during that prayer time last week, God took time to remind me of that event and God's provision for me.

And at that beginning of the Charismatic renewal, there was this song we sang which was a mixture of the beautiful image of the river of water flowing freely and every single person can drink freely from this river.

Let me re-read the scripture: 21:¹Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. The first heaven and the first earth disappeared, and the sea vanished. ²And I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared and ready, like a bride dressed to meet her husband. ³I heard a loud voice speaking from the throne: “Now God's home is with people! He will live with them, and they shall be his people. God himself will be with them, and he will be their God. ⁴He will wipe away all tears from their eyes. There will be no more death, no more grief or crying or pain. The old things have disappeared.”
⁵Then the one who sits on the throne said, “And now I make all things new!” He also said to me, “Write this, because these words are true and can be trusted.” ⁶And he said, “It is done! I am the first and the last, the beginning and the end. To anyone who is thirsty I will give the right to drink from the spring of the water of life without paying for it.

Jesus said it at another place when He said, “Out of your bellies shall flow rivers of living water.”

But when Jesus Himself spoke of the how the God, the Holy Spirit, revealed Herself to people Jesus quoted Isaiah 61: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. She has anointed me to bring about the recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the captives, make the lame to walk and to set free the oppressed.”

And the song we sang spoke of the river that is exposed here in Revelation. The song went: “There's a river of life flowing out of me, makes the lame to walk, and the blind to see, opens prison doors, sets the captives free, there's a river of life flowing out of me.”

To anyone who is thirsty I will give the right to drink from the spring of the water of life without paying for it.

Anyone. Praise God.

And this isn't just a future event that happens after time is done away with in Chapter 20. No. This is a real event today.

He sees the Holy City, which is a metaphor for the Church. It is a metaphor for us.

And out of the Church flows this river of life.

And ANYONE who wants to drink can come and drink freely.

Who does he mean when he says anyone?

Isaiah 58 tells us to give to the poor without judging them, or literally, without pointing the finger at them.

I was preaching that sermon one Sunday and this was the second time I am sure I saw an angel.

(Tell the angel story)

We are the river and water of life. God supplies our need.

Listen, this is grace. And it affects every aspect of life. It affects how we give, how we judge, how we help, and how we live.