The Gift of Grace

Hello and welcome to the Live Bully Podcast, brought to you by Celebration Baptist Church.

I'm Jessica, and today I'm joined by Pastor Warren.

Pastor Warren is the worship pastor here at Celebration, and today we'll be discussing the gift of grace.

Pastor Warren, you didn't grow up in the church, did you?

So what were some realities that you had to face when you became a Christian?

Well, for me, it was at the age of 17 that all this began.

So it wasn't like I had to face the realities of eternal life and that sort of thing as a super young child.

But I think at the age of 17, it was just a great time for me to be able to hear the gospel and begin to understand what it what it was to receive forgiveness and then understand that it wasn't something that I had to work for.

So for me, receiving Christ was just a tremendous relief and seemed like an awfully good deal that I would be able to have my sins forgiven, not based on what I had done, but something that had been done on my behalf.

That's awesome, Pastor Warren.

So you mentioned in the Live Boldly magazine devotional that forgiveness is a difficult was a difficult idea for you at the beginning of your life as a Christian.

So how did you work through this so early on in your relationship with Christ?

The challenge that I faced was the scenario the life scenario I found myself in at that season when I encountered the gospel.

My family was just coming apart, and my dad had made some decisions that I wasn't happy with, had left my mother and stuff, and so I was quite angry with him and indignant, and when I became a Christian, I kind of even added fuel to the fire as what I thought a father should do and should behave like.

So in my anger and my resentment, and many of you listening can can relate to feeling betrayed by someone whom you expected greater things from.

But at the same time, as the truth of the gospel began to seep into my soul, and that wasn't by accident, that was because I was being taught the scriptures and taught the reality of my responsibilities in confessing my sin and forgiving others.

Because as you know, in the Bible, there is this very pointed passage whereby we are told that unless we are forgiving, we may find ourselves not forgiven by God, which I think is a rather scary passage, but nonetheless, it's there.

And so I had to take that seriously.

I really couldn't just ignore that.

And so I thought, you know what?

If I'm going to be authentic in my faith, if I'm going to be the Christian that I hope to be, I must find a way to forgive my dad for what he had done and figure out a way back through that relationship that had been so fractured.

The good news was that my prayers were answered, and that what I imagined to be this cavernous gulf of relationship between he and I was not as big.

And every time I reached out, there was this opportunity to get closer and closer, and we definitely found forgiveness and reconciliation, and most wonderfully, I had the opportunity to lead my father to Christ many years later.

So it's a happy ending.

That's awesome, Pastor Warren.

So, Pastor Warren, you've been living the Christian life for quite a while now.

So, how has your view of grace changed over the years from that first experience?

For me, I was really fortunate because I got good teaching right out of the gate as a Christian.

And so while understanding grace that I needed to apply toward others, and particularly my dad, was a was a process.

It was like a light switch or learning how to ride a bike.

That's not to say that my understanding of grace is perfect, but it wasn't a struggle that I had to go.

Because I really had to deal with the biggest and not that the sin was against me per se, but because it was a pretty butting heads kind of relationship problem.

Once I got past that, then the pattern of forgiving others and understanding grace, even in my own life, was kind of a path that was well worn.

And I think for me, one of the great things about being a Christian and about being a pastor is not having to struggle with some of these basic things just simply because they were established so strongly in my life, kind of like a galvanizing experience when you're young.

You can kind of carry that and and bring that into other experiences.

So I hope I'm forgiving.

And I hope that that people would find within me, both as a pastor and as a and as a dad and as a husband, a grace-filled attitude.

Yeah.

So what would you say to encourage someone who wants to grow their own character, kind of like you did?

I think when Jesus talked about the log in your own eye before taking the speck out of another's, I think that's a big piece of it.

Because if our perspective is about how that person has wronged me or they've not fulfilled my expectations, then I'm gonna be able to spend all day long being mad at them.

I will have no end of emotion against them simply because the reality is that that speck is in their eye or that deed that was done against me happened.

And so, in essence, I have this sense of justification for anger.

And for those of you listening, you may have a situation where someone did wrong you, they stole from you, or they cheated you, or they they deceived you, and and nothing can really take away that truth.

But as we know, as maturing believers in Christ, the issue is not so much about what someone else has done, it's about how we respond to it.

Similarly, when when we look at our own sin, our own difficulty, it's not so much about us making atonement or feeling sorry for it.

It's understanding that it's about the power of Christ to come and forgive and wash us clean and take that log out of our own eye.

So I would say for anyone that is dealing with trying to forgive someone or get over something that's bad, really draw into that relationship with Christ, understanding that He's gonna give us the power to forgive.

We may have to deal with the reality of not being able to forget something.

But what I would say in my own life and to others, whether it's my kids or beyond, if we can continue to hang on to the grace of God applied to us, we then can apply that same grace to others in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Yeah.

Pastor Warren, thank you for being so open with us today as we explore some pretty important topics.

To all of our listeners, don't forget, find Celebration Baptist Church on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.

That way you can keep up with our sermon series Live Boldly and explore everything else that's going on in our church today.

Pastor Warren, would you pray for us?

I will.

Heavenly Father, thank you for this moment where we can share wherever we are in understanding what it is to receive grace from you and apply the grace to others.

And we pray, Lord, that in these few minutes we've had just to talk about life, that you have ministered to us and you will continue to minister to us as we seek you in this season of our twenty-one days of prayer.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

Thank you, Pastor Warren.

Be sure to tune in again tomorrow to hear more of Pastor Warren's story.

We'll see you then.