The Last Word | Grace “Today, You Will Be With Me.”

Thanks for checking out this podcast from Carterville Christian Church.

We're so glad you're here.

Our hope is that through these messages you'll grow deeper in your faith and experience the life-changing hope of Jesus.

Now let's jump into this week's teaching.

Well, good morning, C3.

Good to be with you this morning as we uh open the word together.

Man, what a powerful moment of worship there as we we lead in uh today.

So glad to be with you today.

Um we got a couple things, a couple just kind of housekeeping things that I want to uh cover with us before we really jump into the sermon this morning.

Uh first thing, I'm man, I got I had the pleasure this last week of going with our C3 Youth students, a group of our C3 Youth students, down to Honduras on a on a mission trip.

Um I know Danny's gonna talk about this a little bit more as uh as he comes back up to end the service, but uh I just want to tell you a couple things.

First, uh first, you should know this.

We are blessed as a church to have Jordan and Danny as our youth ministers.

Uh talk about people, yeah, sure, that's great.

Yeah, you can give it up for them for sure.

Talk about people who are just intentional and purposeful and joyful and and caring.

They love students, they've got hearts for discipleship, but most of all, they've just got a heart for the Lord uh and for his church and for his people, man, and it's it's evident in how they lead our students.

Um, and many of you are know that firsthand because you you send students into their programming week after week and you know the kind of impact they have.

Uh, some of you don't know that, and I'm I'm just here to tell you we are we are blessed to have them.

Uh also I want you to know, man, I was just filled with pride as I got to watch and interact with students throughout the whole week and just see uh all the different things they were uh asked to do, all the different things they had planned to do, and then all the stuff that they that was kind of just thrown on them last minute to do.

Uh they like took everything on the chin and just had great attitudes and just served with with great uh with the joy of the Lord the whole week.

Um, we should be proud of the students that went as well.

And then, man, honestly, I just want to say, man, we are honored to get to partner with uh organization like Mission GriBay, who's uh just planting churches in Honduras and trying to help them grow in the Lord, trying to help people grow in the Lord.

We we got to serve with five different churches throughout our week um that are all connected to the mission.

Um and they're just shining a light and sharing the hope of Jesus.

Actually, part of our end of the year offering, our more to be done offering went to bless several of our of our outreach partners.

And Mission Kree Bay is one of those outreach partners that we got to partner with as well.

I give an extra gift to um, man, just honored.

We're just honored uh to be able to do uh ministry uh with people who are just who are just such faithful servants of the Lord and who are who are just so joyful to be around.

They're doing incredible work down there.

Uh so man, it was a great, great trip in Honduras, excited, excited for the opportunity to go back um and and maybe you get to join us the next time we go back.

We're excited about that.

Uh second thing I want to tell you, Danny already mentioned it, Easter's a couple weeks away.

We're right around the corner for Easter, uh, excited to celebrate the resurrection together, which we do every time we gather, but excited for Easter Sunday.

Um but uh there are a couple things I want to encourage you to come to our Good Friday service.

Danny already talked about it a little bit.

We're out at the Dawson property again.

If you haven't been the last couple years when we've done this, I mean you're missing out on an incredible experience uh just to focus on the crucifixion together, just kind of uh just take a holy moment together as a church and a breath together and reflect on the sacrifice of Jesus.

Man, a great opportunity.

Want to tell you a little bit, just one more detail about that.

You can see it says 6 p.m.

there, uh, but you need to know uh for planning purposes, at 6.45, at 6.45, we'll gather for a time of worship all together.

Okay, so you can either plan to say, I'm gonna be there at 6.45, do the worship, and then do some interactive prayer stations after, or you can show up at 6 and do the prayer stations before and then gather with us uh to uh to worship together at 645.

But you need to know that 645 time is when we plan on gathering all together and and uh singing a few songs of worship and taking communion together all together.

So uh if you're planning with your life group or with your family or whatever, uh just make sure that if you haven't come to that event, you also need to plan accordingly to give yourself some time to park and either walk or wait for a shuttle to bring you up to the property as well.

So just plan accordingly, all that kind of stuff.

Um and then our Easter services are coming up, 8, 9.30, and 11 on Easter Sunday.

Uh super excited about this.

I want to encourage you just to think about making room for somebody else in this space.

Uh last year, our 9.30 service was actually just over half of our total attendance on Easter was represented at our 9.30 service.

So I want to ask you to think about, could to consider making room for somebody else at the 9.30 service.

Uh so if it's possible for your family to come to the 8 or the 11 o'clock, man, I'm gonna ask you to do that.

I'm gonna ask you to do that to create space in this room for somebody to come and hear the hope of Jesus to have space, have an open seat uh for them for them to come.

Each service is identical.

Each service is good has uh children's programming, great children's programming for birth through fifth grade as well.

Um we're looking forward to a great Easter Sunday morning.

Uh, can't wait uh for what the Lord has for us that day and continue inviting friends and family.

We all know uh there is there are so many people that we're connected with that need the hope of Jesus as well.

And we know that it's not just here in Southwest Missouri that that um people need the hope of Jesus.

And that's why I'm so thankful for so many of our outreach partners.

Mission Kree Bay is one of them, but there's another one, uh uh Mustard Seed Global Network in Japan.

Jay and Caitlin Greer have been partners with us for for several years now.

And they're uh the the lead, he's the lead pastor at the at the church in Tokyo.

Um, and they've been there for six years now in Tokyo, and this church has just continually just grown.

It just keeps to grow, uh keeps continuing to grow.

Uh the second largest unreached people group is is the people of Japan.

Um they haven't they haven't heard the gospel, responded to the gospel, and they're they've asked us to pray specifically for their Easter services.

They're doing a joint service.

First time they did a joint service, they were averaging about 170 people over three services, and they they decided to bring them all together, rent out a bigger space for Easter, and when they did, over 230 people came to their Easter service.

Now, a couple years later, they're averaging 280 people over all their services on a Sunday morning, and they're asking that we would pray that 500 people will come to hear the gospel.

I mean, that's a that's a worthwhile prayer, isn't it?

That that lost people would come to hear the good news, the hope that we have in Jesus.

I want to pray over Mr.

Kribay, I want to pray over Mustard Seed right now, I want to pray over our church right now that we would that we would be a place where lost people can come in and hear the hope that we have in Jesus.

Let's pray to that end right now.

Lord, we're we're so thankful for who you are.

And Lord, we're so thankful for the hope that we have in you.

It's a sure and steadfast hope.

And Lord, there are so many people who are like us before we found you, before we met you, before we heard of you, who are without hope in this world.

And Lord, I pray that you would bring them to this church, you would bring them to the churches in Japan, through Mustard Seed, you would bring them to the churches in Honduras, through Mission Kribe, you would bring them through our brothers and sisters across the world who are sharing boldly and faithfully the good news that we have in you?

Lord, would you do an incredible work this Easter?

Would people turn to you and find their hope forever in you?

Well, we we give you all the glory because you're the only one who deserves it.

It's in your powerful name that we pray.

Amen.

So I got a question for you.

How many, by show of hands, how many of you are fans of uh Family Feud?

How many of you guys are fans of Family Feud?

You know what I'm talking about?

Okay, Steve Harvey rocking it, you know, that mustache is is iconic, you know?

And you know that you know the gist, like how it goes, you know how it goes.

There's seven answers on the board.

We asked a hundred people, you know, to answer this question.

You're standing outside the pearly gates, and God asks you, Why should I let you in?

What do you say?

Actually, I think that is on your bulletin right now, and I want you to write down your the first thing that comes to your mind.

God asks you, What do you say?

Like when he says, Why should I let you in?

You're standing outside the pearly gates, why should I let you in?

What do you say?

How do you respond to that?

Maybe you say, Well, I I went to church, you know, I was involved in my in my local church.

I was nice to my siblings, I didn't cuss, I respected my parents.

Uh, you might be standing there saying, Well, I want to come in, you know, that's why you should let me in, because I want to come in there, you know.

Maybe you're thinking I I I read my Bible every day.

I mean, I ate Chick-fil-A, right?

Come on, I'm a good person, right?

I heard a preacher ask uh his five-year-old grandson this question.

You're standing outside of heaven and God asks you why I should let you in, and his grandson responded, Well, because I'm dead.

And I that's fair enough.

I mean, I think that's a pretty good reason, you know.

We're continuing this series, uh, The Last Word, and and James Bond kicked this off last week for us.

Um, and it was uh, man, a powerful, encouraging message.

I want I want to encourage you this week, if you weren't here with us last week, because spring break travels or whatever, you missed it, man, go to our podcast, go to our YouTube page, and listen to James's message from last week.

I guarantee you will be challenged and encouraged by his message.

But throughout this, throughout this series, what we're doing is we're looking at these last words, these last phrases that Jesus speaks on the cross as he's going to the cross and then and then after the resurrection, we're looking at these these last phrases recorded in the Gospel of Luke.

And Luke records several of these things that Jesus is speaking to those he's interacting with, but they're not just words for them.

They're words for us.

They're words for us.

And the goal of our series over these next few weeks is that we want Jesus' words to be the last word in our lives.

Like we want him to have the final say in our lives.

We want our and the truth is our enemy is a deceiver.

The enemy wants to dictate the last words in our lives.

He wants us to be stuck in our own circumstances and isolated in our feelings.

He wants us to believe lies that ultimately just enslave us.

They put shackles on us.

But the truth is our enemy doesn't have any authority to do so.

Like that's what Jesus said.

He says, All authority is mine, is what he says in Matthew chapter 28.

Matthew 28 · chapter mention

All authority has been given to me.

And because Jesus has all the authority, he gets the final say.

He gets the final word.

He gets to declare what is true about us.

He gets to tell us what's true about our world that we live in, he gets to determine the way that we live.

And we're gonna be in Luke chapter 23 this morning.

Luke 23 · chapter mention

So if you got your Bibles, open up to Luke chapter 23.

Luke 23 · chapter mention

That's where we're gonna go.

And what I want to do is just kind of read over this, these just few verses that we're in in Luke chapter 23, um, and then make a few observations and then really kind of jump into the meet where we're going.

Luke 23 · chapter mention

So let's let's read together in Luke 23, starting in verse 39.

This is what it says.

Now, one of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, Are you not the Christ?

Save yourself and us.

But the other rebuked him, saying, Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation?

And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds.

But this man has done nothing wrong.

And he said, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.

And Jesus said to him, Truly I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.

Now I kind of picked up, it almost felt like a mid-sentence pickup, so I need to like kind of back up a little bit.

This is where James' sermon will help a little bit in giving you a little bit of the context of what's happening.

But Jesus at this point is hanging on the cross.

He's already been lifted up and hanging on the cross.

King of the Jews is written inscribed on the board above him, and he's already being crucified there.

And all along the way, as he was walking, as he carried the cross, and then as Simon carried the cross for him, like he the people were blaspheming him, they were jeering him, they were reveling at him.

And this is where we picked up off of last week.

He says, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they're doing.

As they're casting lots for his clothes, as they're spitting at him and mocking him.

The crowds, the soldiers, all present are mocking him.

James pointed out that they didn't fully realize who this man is.

They didn't fully realize.

They thought it was just another guy that is being crucified.

Another guy that is going through this same process that we have kind of perfected.

But our text zooms in on the criminals who are being crucified on either side of Jesus.

What's interesting is that our text in Luke is different than the other synoptic gospels, Matthew and Mark, and how they how they record it.

Because in Matthew and Mark it says that both of these other criminals, both of these criminals mocked Jesus.

Both of them joined in with the reveling, both of them joined in with the slander of the one on the middle cross.

Both of them started jeering at Jesus.

But Luke's Luke's gospel presents a slightly different perspective.

You saw it.

And the other one speaks up like in Jesus' defense and rebukes him.

It says, Do you not fear God?

Do you not realize who this man is?

Do you not have any understanding of what's what's going on?

Like we deserve the punishment we are facing, but this man is innocent.

That's an interesting thing.

It's an interesting thing that this thief on the cross declares.

You remember what James said last week?

James said that three times leading up through the trials, three times with Pilate and Herod, three different times, Jesus is declared innocent by the leaders that are that are trying him.

And yet the people say, give us Barabbas instead.

And now the criminal on the cross joins in with this declaration.

This man is innocent.

Like we deserve this punishment that we're going through.

This man is innocent.

Now, I don't know what this thief had witnessed over the last three years prior as Jesus is doing his ministry.

I don't know what he had heard.

I don't know if he was stuck in a cell waiting on death row, waiting for the sentence to come down the pipe.

I don't know what he experienced with Jesus, but what I do know is whenever he looks to Jesus and says, Hey, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.

Like it's a it's a statement of faith.

It might be a statement of desperation, but isn't that kind of where faith starts for all of us, anyways?

Like this is this is where he's at, right?

Like he's a statement like, like, remember me, you're my only hope at this point.

You're my only hope.

Like, I deserve what's happening to me, but man, if you really are who you say you are, maybe you can do something for me.

Remember me when you come into your kingdom.

And Jesus' response to him is the last word that we're zooming in on this morning.

Truly I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.

This is the last word of grace that Jesus speaks.

To the unworthy, he says, There is a place for you.

I don't know if you need to hear that this morning.

To the unworthy, Jesus says, There's a place for you.

And we it's kind of it can be kind of confusing when we talk about grace, like to define it.

It can be kind of confusing, kind of hard for us to wrap our minds around it.

We've talked about mercy before and define mercy as not getting what you deserve.

And sometimes we like exchange mercy and grace as the same thing, but mercy is kind of not getting what you deserve.

Grace is getting something that you don't deserve.

Do you see the difference?

Like grace is getting something that's completely undeserved, mercy is not getting what you actually do deserve, the punishment that you actually do deserve.

And this is this is how A.W.

Tozer said it.

He said, Grace is God's goodness directed toward human debt and demerit.

It is by his grace that God imputes merit where none previously existed, and where God declares no debt where one had been before.

Can I just say this?

I want I want to I need to address something really quick.

It could become almost second nature, especially those of us who have grown up in church, who have been around church for a long time, who have been around this whole Jesus Christianity thing for a while.

We can naturally kind of fall into one of these two, one of these two camps when it comes to grace.

And maybe we say, like maybe the first one is just we say we don't deserve it.

And I already said that, right?

That's the definition, right, of getting something you don't deserve.

Yeah, of course we don't deserve it, but you don't understand, preacher, I really don't deserve it.

Like you don't understand how bad I've been, you don't understand the life that I have lived, what my past is like, you don't understand the depth of my sin.

Like, there's no way that God's grace is for me.

And so sometimes we can get stuck there, like just saying, like, yeah, I just don't know.

I just don't know.

Like, I don't know if I can really accept this.

This seems too good to be true what Jesus is offering to me.

Or maybe we fall into a second camp, and the second camp is maybe even more dangerous to say we don't really need it.

And I don't think we do this intentionally, but I think it can subtly shift in our minds and our brains to think I'm doing pretty good.

Like I'm I feel like I'm I'm following every every metric that the Bible's laying out for me.

I feel like I'm I'm checking off every box, I'm I'm doing everything on the list of what it means to be a good, faithful follower.

Like, like I don't know if I really need that grace that you're talking about.

Like I'm pretty good.

I feel pretty good.

I think I've got it figured out.

But something we believe here at C3 is that we realize we all need Jesus.

Every single one of us.

Like that is like you've you know, we've seen that, like those shirts, y'all need Jesus.

Yeah, it's not it's not you all that need Jesus, it's we all need Jesus, right?

Like this is something we all need.

We all are in desperate need of his grace.

There's not a day that goes by that we are not in desperate need of the grace of God.

I love how Jerry Bridges said it.

He said, Our worst days are never so bad that we are beyond the reach of God's grace.

And your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of God's grace.

You hear that?

Like we are we are never in a spot that we don't need this desperately from God.

One author described it this way.

Um, how many of you in the room are are huggers by a show of hands?

How many of you are huggers?

Okay, I'm I am a self-proclaimed hugger as well, okay?

So um, and I think sometimes it can be hard to like it.

I mean, sometimes when I ask that question, you might be like, I mean, I'm not not not a hugger, but I don't think I'm like a hugger, you know, like it might be hard to identify.

So let me ask the opposite.

How many of you are not huggers?

Raise your hand.

See, hands shot up way faster on that one, because if you're not, you know that you're not.

You know what I'm saying?

Like you're like, yep, stay away from me.

That'd be great if you would just back off a little bit.

And I need to just go ahead and say I'm sorry, because I saw several hands shoot up there on the not huggers that I know I've hugged you, okay?

And I'm just super sorry.

I don't know, like maybe it's it's probably a combination of I'm oblivious to the fact that you don't want this hug right now, and you feel bad for saying no to the preacher uh for this hug.

I don't know.

But I'm sorry about that, okay?

But here's the deal like some people just aren't good huggers.

You know, it's not their fault, right?

They they just never learned how to hug back, so you try to give them a warm hug, and they just get kind of, you know, like tense and rigid, and it's like hugging a mannequin, you know, with a robotic arm.

Like that's what it feels like.

Just really awkward hugs.

And that's like kind of how we react when it comes to grace.

Like when grace comes at us, it's this awkward God is offering something that is just too good to be true.

Like this just doesn't make sense.

Like, why would God be extending this to me?

I'm undeserving of this.

Like this is unearned, unmerited, like total forgiveness, and we kind of, so maybe we just accept it kind of half-heartedly, you know, we hug back like this, you know.

And like, you know, I just like reluctantly because we don't feel like this is really for us.

Or we stand there stiff and uncomfortable, waiting for the embrace to stop so we can just get back to the business of earning our own way to heaven.

Like what is what we do, one of one of the two things.

And rather than, here's here's my hope this morning.

My hope this morning is as a result of today, rather than viewing grace as this awkward hug that we can't wait to end, my hope is that as a result of the rest of this morning, that we would just take this opportunity to marvel at the grace of our God, at how wonderful and incredible and unsearchable his ways are.

Like just take a moment and breathe deeply the mercy and grace of our God.

That's my hope.

That's my prayer for us this morning.

This unmerited, unearned gift that we do not deserve.

But man, do we need it?

Let's marvel at that this morning.

Because the truth is, because of grace, you and I have a companion.

We have a companion.

I don't know if you saw this.

Jesus says this to the man, his last word, he says, Truly I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.

I want you to think about those words.

What comes to your mind when you hear Jesus say those words?

What comes to your mind?

See, because I think it's common for us to hear these words of Jesus, today you will be with me in paradise, and to just immediately go to heaven.

Like go to our thoughts of heaven, right?

I don't know if that's where you went.

Maybe that's where you went as you heard those words.

Maybe that's the first image that comes through your mind.

You think about seeing loved ones who have gone to be with the Lord.

You think of, you know, I think like every day in heaven is gonna end with like a perfect sunset walk on the beach.

You know, that's what it feels like.

It's gonna end with, you know, just like an incredible thing.

It's gonna, you're gonna have these breathtaking mountaintop views, but not breathtaking because you lost your breath on the hike on the way up, you know, like you didn't have to hike on the way up.

You just got these breathtaking views the whole time.

And then there's this endless buffet of Chick-fil-A, but the calories don't count in heaven, you know?

Like that's that's what I think.

Maybe those are just mine, right?

See, good or bad or otherwise, we tend to go in that direction, but I think when we tend to go in that direction, we miss the point altogether what Jesus is getting at with this final word.

Because the best part of that final word, today you will be with me in paradise, is not in paradise.

It's you will be with me.

Do you hear it, church?

Like you will be with me.

Actually, the word paradise is getting at that same point.

Like the word paradise is only used three times in the New Testament.

Each of each time it's referencing heaven, but there's a deeper meaning behind it.

One commentator pointed this out that this is a Persian word for a walled garden.

And this is what he says.

He says, When a Persian king wished to do one of his subjects a very special honor, he made him a companion of the garden, which meant he was chosen to walk in the garden with the king.

It was more than immortality that Jesus promised the penitent thief.

He promised him the honored place, the honored place of a companion of the garden in the courts of heaven.

Do you guys remember what happens in Genesis chapter 2?

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

In Genesis chapter 2, when when the Lord breathed, when God breathes life into Adam and creates Adam, right after he creates Adam, he creates this garden.

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

And he places Adam in the garden and he walks with him in the garden and he communes with him in the garden, and he's in a relationship.

He's a companion to Adam.

And this is the promise of Jesus to the thief on the cross and to you and to me.

You will be with me.

I will be your companion.

We will be in relationship together.

I'm gonna walk with you.

Because of grace, you and I have a companion.

You can have a relationship with the Almighty King Jesus.

Because of grace, he invites you into a restored relationship where he will walk with you once again.

That's available to you and I today.

But there's another implication to it.

Because because of grace, you can also, you can pray.

You can go to this companion.

Actually, the author of Hebrews describes him as the great high priest.

This is what the author of Hebrews says in Hebrews chapter 4.

Hebrews 4 · chapter mention

Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God.

Let us hold fast our confession.

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

Listen to what he says in verse 16.

So let us then, with confidence, draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Here's the truth: because of Jesus' work on the cross, he is forever interceding for you and I.

Like he is the bridge between us and God forever.

And as a result of the grace that we have received, we can pray.

Like we that's why we pray in Jesus' name.

That's why we go to the Father on behalf of this great high priest.

This is what we do.

We keep going to Jesus.

Like he's approachable.

So we go to him with everything.

We we pray when it's morning and when it's evening.

We we approach God when we're happy and when we're joyous and when we're filled with guilt and regret.

We pray when we're calm and collected, we and when we're stressed out, we pray when we're sad and discouraged and when we're blessed and prosperous.

We pray when we're fearful and when we're hopeful.

We pray together and we pray apart.

We seek God when we feel like it and when we don't.

We approach God with our thoughts, with our feelings, with our anxieties, with our doubts.

We approach him with everything, not just a filtered version of everything.

I love how C.S.

Lewis said it.

He said it this way: as we pray, we lay before him what is in us, not what ought to be in us.

Did you hear that?

We lay before him what is in us, not what ought to be in us, because we know about our high priest, because we know about what he has done.

We don't need to filter our prayers before him.

We don't need to come to him like fixed up.

We don't need to try to gather ourselves together.

No, we just kind of bring him all the pieces of our life that's falling apart and say, I don't, I don't know how this jumbled mess all fits together, but I know you do.

Like I'm just gonna bring it all and place it all in your hands.

We just bring him everything, and we can have confidence that as we do, as we approach him, as we come to him, what we what are we gonna find?

We're gonna find grace to help us in our time of need, is what the writer of Hebrews says.

We find this same grace every time we come, every time we pray.

Man, that's easier said than done, isn't it?

To bring to the Lord everything that's in you?

Not just a filtered version of everything that's in you.

So let me ask this question.

Maybe you just need to reflect on this for a little bit.

What are you not approaching the Lord with?

What are you trusting in yourself or in this world around us to fix?

That really God is the one who has the has the ability to fix.

Like, are there are there things in your life that you're not just freely approaching the throne of grace with?

I don't know, maybe for you it's like trivial things.

Like, because you have this in the back of your mind, there's this there's this thought that God is is too busy for you.

Like, I don't have time for your your petty little prayer requests here.

Like, don't waste my time.

Maybe that's the maybe that's the view you have of God.

Like like so you you don't even you don't even approach him with how work has been stressful lately and your kids are driving you insane?

Right?

Like you don't even bring like these little petty little things to him.

But but he cares for you, you know that.

So approach him.

Or maybe maybe you just don't you don't bring him the good things enough.

Like you've you've experienced, I think this could happen to us, is we experience so many blessings from from the Lord that it just almost becomes assumed that he's gonna bless us.

So we never take time to recognize what he has done, what he has provided, what he is blessing us with.

We don't sit and just marvel at what like the scope of what he has provided over years and years and years of him walking alongside of us.

And when's the last time you just sat and just said, Lord, thank you for all that you have done?

Like bring bring back in the act of worship, like this praise back to him.

Maybe you don't take, I don't know, like elementary things back to the Lord.

Maybe you're like, I should have graduated beyond this.

I shouldn't be struggling with this anymore.

I shouldn't be, like, I've been studying the word.

I shouldn't have this creeping thought come back into my mind over and over again.

Maybe whatever it is, like we just, we kind of just like, we we feel like we can't go back to God with a with a same request that we asked him before.

Or maybe you just, maybe it's for you it's the same sin.

Like for whatever reason, after a while, it's just like like you just feel like the the God that you're gonna encounter is one that's just disappointed in you because you keep bringing the same sin issue back to him.

And like, like just like this, here I am again, God, with in the same spot that you found me three years ago.

I'm in the same spot dealing with the same thing.

Here I am, 15 years later, dealing with the same temptation.

Here I am, God, just making the same mistakes over and over and over again.

Maybe you don't approach God because of that.

Maybe you're like Jonah.

Because I know what you're gonna say.

I know you're a God of mercy, so no, I'm not gonna bring that person to you, because I know you're gonna forgive them.

And I secret I really don't want you to forgive them.

I'd really rather them not have your grace.

Maybe we like we come to God with our solution and just ask him for his endorsement sometimes.

Rather than just coming and saying, Lord, I'm all in your hands, I'm completely in your hands.

Where do you want me to go?

What do you want me to do?

What's your will in this situation?

Maybe you're sitting here and there's things you don't approach God with because you have approached him before.

And the answer wasn't what you wanted.

He didn't bring healing the way he thought you thought he should.

He didn't restore that relationship like you thought he should.

He didn't show up for you the way you thought he should.

So you're just like, I don't trust that he's actually gonna move for me.

What are you not approaching the Lord with?

The truth is because of grace, you and I can go to the Lord with everything that's in us.

Everything.

The good and the bad and the ugly, the hurt, the pain, the deep feelings of insecurity that you've tried to push down and suppress.

You can take them to him, and you know what you're gonna find every single time?

Grace to help you in your time of need.

That's the promise of scripture.

You can go to him with everything, and you'll be met with grace every time.

Here's what we know.

Because of grace, you have a companion, one that you can go to with everything.

But because of grace, you and I were saved.

Because of grace, you and I have been saved.

Uh one commentator pointed out that Paul, who wrote half of the New Testament over half of the New Testament, he never talks about the grace of God without talking about the cross of Christ.

They're always connected.

They're always connected.

It makes sense if you think about it.

But Paul is very intentional.

He doesn't just like throw off some random sentence about grace without bringing it back to because of what Jesus has done on the cross.

This is what he has done.

And maybe the most famous one is in Ephesians chapter 2.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

This is how he ends Ephesians chapter 2, for it is by grace you have been saved through faith.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

And this is not from yourselves.

It is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one may boast.

What are we saved by?

We're saved by grace.

Like Paul shoots straight with us right here.

We're saved by grace through faith.

And there's a clarifying statement right after that.

He says, not of your own doing.

It's the gift of God, not by works, so that no one may boast.

Tim Keller points out that it's important for us to realize that this gift is given without a cause.

Like this gift is given not because we have done anything.

This gift is just given.

And faith is just an open hand that freely receives what is given.

Faith is just receiving with an open hand what the Lord is giving.

This clarifies for us what Paul intends by faith.

Like Eugene Peterson coins this phrase, acquired passivity.

Like this is what it is.

God has this active role in our salvation.

We have a passive role in it.

We simply accept the gift of salvation that He is freely offering to us.

Faith is the hand that receives the gift of grace.

We aren't earning this free gift.

Faith is receiving personally what Christ has accomplished and is offering to us.

And here's what we believe here at C3.

We believe that receiving Jesus personally, that receiving Him with an open hand by receiving this grace, it looks like going into the waters of baptism.

That's what it looks like to receive this gift of grace, to have an open hand that receives it.

We respond like full immersion into Jesus, not as a way to earn favor with God for our salvation, but as an outward expression of this open hand taking hold of the gift of grace that is offered to each of us.

Because of grace, you and I have a companion who walks with us.

Because of grace, you and I can approach his throne whenever with whatever, and we will receive grace every time.

And it is because of grace that you and I have been saved.

So, question for you You're standing outside the pearly gates of heaven, and God asks, Why should I let you in?

How do you respond?

Alistair Begg is a retired Scottish pastor.

I wish I had his accent.

That'd be way better right now.

But he he said that if we answer that question when when God's saying, Why should I let you in?

If we answer that question in the first person, then we've got it all wrong.

Because of what I have done, because I have been faithful, because I have been good, because I have obeyed, because I have done all these things, because I am continuing.

He says, No, the only proper response is in the third person.

Because he, because of what he has done, because of what Jesus has accomplished.

And he says, think of the thief on the cross.

He said, I can't wait to find that fellow in in heaven someday and say, How'd that work out for you?

You know, because like one minute you're cursing the guy with your friend next to him, and the next minute you're here, like like what happened?

You know, like you didn't go to church, you weren't baptized, like like what what happened?

He said, think about him going to heaven.

He gets there and he's he's there, and the angel says, What are you doing here?

And he just goes, I don't know.

He says, What do you mean you don't know?

He says, Well, because I don't know.

And the the angel's kind of dumbfounded and just kind of stumbles over his words.

Well, let me go get my supervisor.

He goes and gets a supervisor angel and they come out and he goes, Okay, sir, I've got a couple questions for you.

Are you are you clear on the doctrine of justification by faith?

And the thief just says, Yeah, I've never heard of it.

And he says, Okay, well, let's just skip straight to the the doctrine of scripture alone.

Are you are you are you are you clear on that?

He says, and he's just silent.

And finally, the supervisor angel is is like frustrated and exhausted, and just says, On what basis are you here?

And the thief responds, the man on the middle cross said I could come.

Church, let me say this as clearly as I can.

No one has ever been saved other than by grace.

It's something that you and I don't deserve.

It seems too good to be true, it's something that you and I cannot earn, and yet it's something that the Lord, in his goodness, in his love, in his grace, he provides freely and fully.

And the truth is, if you have not accepted that gift of grace and submitted your life to the Lord, man, there's not a more important decision that you could do this morning.

There's not a more important thing that you can do this morning than to open your hand to receive the free gift of grace that is offered to you today.

Man, there's gonna be people on the back who would love to have a conversation with you, who would love to pray with you about that decision.

There's gonna be people up front who would love to talk with you about that decision.

Because apart from grace, you and I, you and I are hopeless.

But praise be to God, He has given it freely.

That's what we celebrate every time we come to come together.

We go to the tables around the room and we take these two little emblems that by themselves, like the onlooking world, is gonna look at us going to take these emblems and be like, that's crazy.

That's weird.

What are they doing?

But to those of us who are who are being saved, to those of us of us who have been saved, who have been redeemed by our God, we know what these emblems represent.

This little piece of bread that represents the body of Christ that was given for you and for me, that willingly went to the cross for you and for me.

We take it and we remember what he did.

And this this cup of juice that represents his blood that was poured out for the forgiveness of sins, for all who would call on his name.

As we go to the cross, as we go to the as we go to the tables, we remember that it's because of the the man on the middle cross that you and I have access to the Father once and for all.

That you and I can be in a relationship, that you and I can be saved.

It's offered to you this morning.

Let's marvel at the grace of God.

Let's pray.

Lord, we are just in awe of what you have done, of what you have provided.

God, when I reflect on my own life and my own sin, this can seem too good to be true.

The Lord, I know it's true.

That you willingly went to the cross on my behalf, on our behalf.

And that if we would just come to you with open hands, you're freely gonna fill them with grace.

Who has not just come to you in complete surrender?

Spirit, would you work in them right now?

Lord, Spirit, would you would you work on the hearts of us who have begun to rely on our own our own works to earn your grace and your salvation?

Lord, help us to put that away.

Help us to turn to you, the only true source of life and of grace.

And then Lord, help us to live in response to what we have freely received in you.

Lord, as we go to the tables, would you help us just to be reminded in new and fresh ways of your grace that is just washing over us, that you are providing finally and fully.

We love you.

It's in the powerful name of Jesus I pray.

Amen.

You can go to the tables this morning.

Thanks again for listening to the Carterville Christian Church podcast.

Our prayer is that today's message has encouraged you and drawn you closer to Jesus.

To learn more or get connected with our church family, visit CartervilleChristian.com.

We'd love to walk alongside you in your journey of faith.