People of Grace: The Optimism of Grace - June 8, 2025

It is my privilege to invite you to today's sermon podcast.

I have made the Apostle Paul's prayer request my own.

When he states in Ephesians 6, 19, pray also for me, that whenever I open my

mouth, the words may be given to me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel.

May today's sermon come alive to you and aid you in your understanding of God's plan for your life.

Well, as the children are going, I just want to thank you for your grace today

and how we've done things and how we do things.

And if someone wants to be baptized, we want to not prevent them from taking that step of faith.

And so, so very grateful to that, to you for that today.

And just really quickly in the short amount of time that I have,

I just want to talk to you about the optimism of grace, the optimism of grace.

And if you'll stand for the reading of the word this morning,

and if you're able to and willing to, I want to read Titus 2,

11 through 15. Here's Paul's letter to Titus He says For the grace of God has

appeared that offers salvation to all people.

It teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled,

upright, and godly lives in this present age while we wait for the blessed hope,

the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ,

who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself

a people that, that are one, his very own, eager to do what's good.

These then are the things that you should teach. Encourage and rebuke with all

authority and do not let anyone despise you.

Father, thank you for your word this morning. May we find encouragement and

hope and challenge in these verses.

And God, we just are so grateful for how you're moving in our midst today.

Continue to do so, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.

Thank you all for honoring God's word today. You can be seated.

When I was in high school, I did track Doug, I know you were a track guy too.

There's one event that I hated. I did the short distances for a reason.

I was faster more than I had endurance. But one of the events I never attempted was the hurdles.

I hated the hurdles. Even when coach made us go and do them.

Part of my problem was I don't have any rhythm.

And in order to do hurdles, you have to have rhythm because you have to count

your steps between the hurdles that come along. Well, I've injured myself more

than a few times when the coach said, go do the hurdles, then I want to count.

And no, I don't want to talk about my injuries. I just want to say that hurdles are not my friend.

And I think for most of us in life, we could say the same thing just about life

in general. Hurdles are not our friends.

It seems like when we have to overcome something in life, sometimes we can get

tangled up just like if we're trying to jump over one of the hurdles on the track.

Sometimes the hurdles can come down and hit us. Sometimes it's not even our

own fault trying to jump a hurdle in life and someone else's hurdle gets in

our way and then it just causes a chain reaction.

Hurdles were not my friends. They're still not our friends today,

but I do want to tell you that hurdles can build character in our life.

Hurdles in our life can give God an opportunity to move, can give God an opportunity

with which to show something great.

And so I've learned in life maybe to look at hurdles more optimistically,

to look at hurdles as an option, excuse me, not an obstacle,

but an option for God to do something great,

something for God to move in such a way that his grace is shown and that others are built up.

And so this morning, very quickly, because you've been just a great crowd here,

I want to talk about this optimism.

When we talk about grace, what grace is, I know it's a New Testament word, really.

It's charis is in the Greek, but when we think about that word,

we've defined it before as undeserved or unmerited favor.

And I've shared this definition with you before.

Grace is God's no strings attached, gift of forgiveness, relationship,

and kindness that's offered to us. I like the more robust definition.

Yeah, we understand what grace is, and grace and mercy are so closely tied together.

If you think about the relationship between them, it kind of goes like this.

When you receive mercy, it's like you did something that merits a punishment.

Or a consequence, but if someone is merciful to you, then you don't get that consequences.

For an example, you're speeding down the highway trying to get to a doctor's

appointment, and you know you're breaking the law and you're doing it, and you get pulled over.

And when you get pulled over, you are fully deserving of that speeding ticket

because you were breaking the law knowingly you were breaking that law,

even though you had another motive, maybe a pure motive, because you didn't

want to have to pay the late fee getting to a doctor's appointment.

Nevertheless, you pull over and when the officer comes to you,

gets your information, and that officer hears your story and decides to let

you go without a ticket, that's mercy.

That's when he gives you mercy. He's been merciful to you.

You deserved what was coming, but because of the mercy of that officer,

you did not receive that ticket.

Now, grace is a little different than that. It's not just mercy.

It's not just not receiving the speeding ticket,

But grace would be The officer says Hold on a minute Follow me And he gets back

in his cruiser And he turns on the lights And he speeds down the road You following

him To your doctor's appointment That would be grace.

Getting a police escort that you really don't deserve. And I don't really think

that happens. That's where the illustration breaks down.

But nevertheless, you kind of get the idea of that relationship.

Mercy is not getting what you deserve.

But grace, on the other hand, is getting something and getting something great

that you definitely don't deserve.

And we think about the optimism of that grace. It's expressed here in this passage from Titus.

As we think about and we go back through it, Listen to some of the things that were said here.

The grace of God brings salvation to all people.

Titus, the scripture says that the grace of God has appeared to all people.

No longer is it just for one chosen group of people in one area of the world,

but it's worldwide available to everyone.

That's the generosity of God's grace, is that God is willing to give it to whoever

would follow him. This morning, we saw children. This morning, we saw teenagers.

This morning, we saw an adult get baptized.

They each experienced or are experiencing the saving grace of God.

Have you experienced that today?

Have you experienced God's grace, this gift of forgiveness, that no matter what

you've done in life, God's willing to wipe that slate clean when you come to

him, when you seek that forgiveness,

that God is willing to restore his relationship with you because of what Jesus

did, and that God is continually wanting to help give you a life that's worthy

of living, give you a life that blesses others while you get blessed.

That's God's saving grace. The grace of God brings salvation.

Secondly, the grace of God teaches us how to live.

When we look back in verse 12, it says, It teaches us to say no to ungodliness

and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age.

Oh, how powerful is that? sometimes we just think, man, life's never going to get better.

It just seems I keep trying to jump these hurdles, and they just keep hurting

me, and I just can't ever get to the finish line.

And over and over again, we try, and we just fail. And it seems like we could

never live like God wants us to.

Well, the scripture here says, God's grace enables us to say no to ungodliness.

To say no to sin. God's grace enables us to say no to those worldly passions,

those desires within us.

The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, the pride of life,

those things that vie for our attention.

We're able to say no to those because of what God has done, because of God's

grace. teaches us how to live a sin-free life, how to live beyond and above

the fray of sin to truly follow after Jesus.

That's what God's grace allows us to do. Hey, you might be running and jump

that hurdle and that just might catch you in a not a good place and you fall

flat on your face, but God doesn't strike you down there as you're trying to get up.

He doesn't send a lightning bolt to poof and just make you a pile of ashes.

He gives you an opportunity to get up and not fall again. Get a different hurdle to go over.

Overcome that temptation. There's another one waiting for you to overcome.

God's grace enables us that, to do that, to live, to teach us how to live,

not always by trial and error, but by saying that hurdle's too high for you, stay away from it.

There's too much temptation in this area of your life. You're not strong enough

yet to overcome it, so stay away from it. Don't go near there.

As one preacher once said, Mark, put a cone where that mud hole is and don't go near it.

If you know you're going to fall in it, then don't do that. God's grace is powerful.

It brings salvation to all people. It teaches us how to live,

live a life that glorifies God.

And also it teaches us how to look for the return of our great God and Savior, Jesus.

Again, verse 13, it says, While we wait for the blessed hope,

the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ,

So we're just not sitting around like you all are doing today,

Just waiting for jesus to come back No, while we learn how to live a godly life

as we follow the holy spirit's move and conviction in our life We're just not sitting around.

We're doing so with the hope. Hey, jesus is coming back Jesus is coming soon morning night or noon.

We don't know but we know he's returning We know there's signs of the times

that we see that are pointing that it could be eminent.

It could be any time But we shouldn't fear because Jesus is coming back.

It should light a fire under us.

Light a fire under us to not only continue to grow and to live into who Jesus

wants us to be by his grace, but also to share with others. And I'll talk about that in a minute.

To share with others that Jesus is coming soon.

Boy, the sunset's coming.

We're ready to continue to follow Jesus, to love on him, to share with our brother, our sister.

Jesus is coming back. Are you ready for him? Are you ready?

That's another sermon for another time on several examples Jesus has given us

in the scripture, parables even, to be ready and why we should be ready.

Well, God's grace, we know, is demonstrated in the death of Christ.

Again, verse 14, we're waiting for the glory of our great God and Savior,

Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem all wickedness and to purify

himself for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.

Jesus died so that we could do what is good. You know, without Jesus, you're dead.

Dead in your trespasses and sins, the scripture says. When you accept Christ

as your savior, when you jump into the life he has planned for you by faith,

boy, it's a life planned to do good for others.

It's a life where God has given you these gifts. They're activated.

You're able to use them to bless other people. And in the process of doing that,

you yourself are blessed.

You yourself are built up. Your spirit grows as you're able to do that.

Grace of God was demonstrated in that Jesus died for us.

While we were dead in our trespasses, those are the things that we know that we did that were wrong.

And the sins, whether by commission or omission, that God, Jesus,

through Jesus, forgave us of those.

Remember what I said? We're deserving punishment.

Romans says the wages of sin, what you earn because of sin is death.

All of us, every single one of us in here. But it says the gift of God is eternal life.

All right, well, how in Jesus Christ, our Lord?

It's Jesus that died because of his grace, because we are so undeserving,

because we couldn't do anything to save ourself.

I know there's a lot of religions, they say, do this, this, and this,

and you'll be okay with God.

Well, you can't earn your salvation. You can't do anything to have favor with

God. It's a free gift. He just wants to give it to you.

But you have to place your faith in him. You have to trust what he did on the

cross to pay for your sin.

What we demonstrated this morning was a death. When the kids went down into

the water, it represents the grave, going into the grave.

It represents what Jesus did when he died on the cross and was put into the grave.

But then later, three days later, he rose again.

That's the coming up out of the water, represents the new birth,

the coming up victorious over sin, victorious over death.

And this step that everyone took this morning here in the baptistry illustrates

the life they want to have with Jesus, which is one of victory.

Which is one of eternal victory and eternal life. The only way that's possible

is because of the grace of God that was demonstrated by what Jesus did for us

on the cross. Have you received that grace?

There's optimism in there that God's got more for you than just a life where

you're tripping over the hurdles of life, more than just the troubles that you

have in life, but a life that can be used to bless other people,

a life that you use with the gifts that God has given you.

No matter how great or how small they seem, God wants you to use those to make

the life of someone else better, to lead other people to him.

And that's the next point here. The grace of God is a message to be proclaimed.

Each and every one of us. Look at verse 15. These then are the things that you should teach.

You should teach the grace of God, what it does, the optimism in that.

But he says to encourage and rebuke with authority.

Do not let anyone despise you or look down on you. just because you're a follower

of Jesus who's experienced the grace of God.

If you've received from God forgiveness, you've received from God a relationship

where you have open communication with him.

You've received from God the kindness that comes from God.

Oh, this message, God wants us to share it. That's what my whole job is. I love it.

I can share the goodness of God with you.

Sometimes it's bitter because I've got to talk about sin, but I got to talk

about sin because that's what separates people from God.

And we don't gloss over sin. We bring it to the forefront and we take care of it.

We ask God to forgive it and we move forward not again to be encumbered by that.

That's the optimism of grace is that we can deal with that problem once and

for all because Jesus already dealt with it once and for all.

So how are you living this morning? Or how do you want to live?

You want to live encumbered, cumbered by the sin and trespasses that you haven't

dealt with, that are back in a closet in your heart, and you just,

you can't seem to let go of them. My grandparents were hoarders.

That's not an insult to them. I understand why they came from the Great Depression

era, when you had to scrounge for stuff, literally.

And so when they got stuff, they liked to keep it. Well, I remember there was

a fire in the barn that they kept everything in and wiped all that stuff out.

And all of a sudden, all that stuff was not very important anymore.

Sometimes maybe we feel like what we're holding back, we don't want to deal

with, or we don't know how to deal with it.

We think it's really important to us. But if we give that to God and let him

forgive us, let him take care of that, then it can be wiped out.

And we'll find, you know, I really didn't need that after all.

I didn't really need to carry that weight around in life with me,

the weights of unforgiveness the weights of guilt or shame.

The weights of regret. We could go on and on, but you get the idea.

These things are hurdles that not only weigh us down, but don't free us up to

overcome and really follow Christ like He wants us to.

Folks, there's an optimism with

grace. I hope you're optimistic about what God wants to do in your life.

If you're new to Christ this morning, your life is just beginning with Him,

then you watch out. God's going to do some amazing things with you.

Have you been in the faith for a while. Are you asking God to do something new within you?

Boy, spark a new flame.

Set me on fire for you, God, with your Holy Spirit fire. That's what Pentecost is all about.

The giving of the Holy Spirit is presence with people. And that wasn't just

a one-time thing 2,000 years ago.

Well, when you're open to the reception of the Holy Spirit, he's going to move then and there.

When he comes into this, he's going to clean up house. If you let him,

will you let him? I want to show you a quick video as I close.

It wasn't a five-word sermon this morning, but maybe a little shorter than normal.

But this past week, maybe a little bit more than a week, there was the state

championship in Oregon for track and field.

And the video you're going to see is just of one state champion.

I don't know if she made it to state championship, but it teaches us a lesson

on how to overcome the hurdles.

Remember what I said about optimism and grace? When you're a hurdler,

you don't want to be disqualified from your race by knocking down the hurdles

and then running into a different lane.

But we're going to see how one gal in Oregon, a high school girl,

was optimistic in how her race finished up. So let's watch that together.

As Brooklyn Anderson cruising out in front, who can finish behind Brooklyn, though?

Brooklyn, somersaults her way to the lead. Isn't that amazing?

Okay, I got to play it for you in slow motion again. This is Thurston High School's Brooklyn Anderson.

Yeah, she is a junior at the Springfield, Oregon High School.

Just insane athletic ability to not only get that much of a lead,

but then to stay in her lane as she performs a gymnastics routine to finish

and secure that state title.

Praise the Lord. I sure would like to know how she ended up in the final meet

there, if that wasn't it, the final race.

But you see how we're supposed to react when life trips us up.

She barely tripped on that last hurdle, but she gracefully finished it off.

Folks, you may have tripped in life. You may have tripped in your Christian walk.

Let God help you end it gracefully, to continue it gracefully,

and God will be glorified in that.

This girl finished optimistically. My prayer is that we would do the same in that.

Let's pray together. Father, thank you so much for the opportunity we've had

to spend some time in your word,

spend some time worshiping you, God, to spend some time in fellowship together

here as we turn our attention toward the festivities afterward,

God. We ask that you would bless the food in our time together.

And Lord, right now, we just ask that as we close out our worship with the final

song, God, and with the Lord's Prayer benediction.

God, you'll help us to remember these words, that grace is optimistic.

And God, what you can do in our life should lead us to that place,

to where we look not to the negative, but God, the positive of what you're doing.

And so, Lord, we ask that you'd move in our hearts like that.

God, would you move in such a way that we are like this girl that was on the

screen, even if we get tripped up by a hurdle of life, that Lord,

we somersault to the finish that you intend.

And so, God, we trust you with this. Lord, we leave this with you today,

Lord, trusting you're going to move in our life. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

I want to thank you for joining today's sermon podcast. You can find a copy

of today's sermon, as well as other sermons, and the sermon outline from today

on our church's website,

www.mvcnaz.org.

It is my prayer also that you will seek out a church home that recognizes the authority of the Bible.