Well last week we kicked off a new series on the attributes of God starting with one of my favorites, a God of celebration! And I think we had a pretty good time last week didn’t we? Just so you know, that sort of excitement doesn’t need to stop now. Just because today we aren’t specifically talking about celebration doesn’t mean we should not be celebrating. Every day that God gives us is worth celebrating, because just as God is eternal, god is eternally worthy of our celebration. So I hope you’ve made it a daily habit to celebrate the goodness of God.
But today we’re talking about something different. Something that is mind-boggling and counter-cultural. It’s really the thing that draws a lot of us to Christianity and to our God. And that is our second attribute of God: we worship a God of second chances. And I want to start off as we talk about our God of second chances with the reading of a poem that I think sums up a lot of what it means to worship a God of second chances.
We have a lot of gifted people in the church, don’t we? I think that poem really captures the emotion of what it means to serve a God of second chances. Now there are three words that go along with serving a God of second chances, and those three words are three of the most beautiful words you will ever encounter in your life. They are the three words that cause us to celebrate, and the three words that cause us to have tears of joy. They are the three words that give us hope.
The first word is forgiveness. And actually, there is a big church word for forgiveness stemming from God, and that word is justification. Justification is a fancy word for making things right between you and God, bridging the divide that has separated you from God because of sin. When God forgives you, he justifies you. He reaches across the divide that has been created by sin. You remember a couple of weeks ago when we were talking about missing the mark, and I said that sin is what separates us from God. And it doesn’t matter how much you’ve sinned, any sin separates us from God, and any separation from God is bad. It doesn’t matter if you are separated by an inch or a mile, separation from God is a bad thing. And we can never reach across that separation by ourselves, we have to ask forgiveness, and when god forgives he justifies us and reaches over that gap, whether it’s an inch or a mile or a thousand miles, and he brings us closer to him.
And I just think that is an amazing image of God. God as the bridge builder. Forgiveness from God is essentially our giving God permission to build a bridge across the divide so that we are no longer separated. He’s standing there wanting to bridge that gap, but he needs permission from you first.
But forgiveness, though it is wonderful, is just the most basic of the amazing things that God has done for us. Forgiveness is a wonderful word and because of the forgiveness of the God of second chances, we have a shot at eternal life with him! But there is another word that actually comes before forgiveness, and it’s the reason we get a shot at forgiveness in the first place.
You know, God could deal harshly with us. One strike and you’re out. If you mess up, God is through with you. Boy, would we be in trouble! But that’s not how God is. God is patient and waits for us to find him. He sees sinners such as us and watches us and we grow farther and farther away from Him. But he doesn’t give up on us. And when we finally after all those years and all those sins come to him and ask forgiveness, He grants it without a second thought. Friends, that is called mercy. That’s the second word, mercy. Mercy is an act of kindness, compassion, or favor shown towards an offender. Mercy is not giving us the punishment we deserve.
In our scripture reading today, we heard a great story about mercy. A woman, a sinner, is about to be given the death penalty for her adulterous relationship. And of course Jesus gives the famous line, “Let he who has no sin cast the first stone,” and of course no one there but Jesus is without sin. I think what we often forget in this story is that Jesus has basically said, “I am the one who is allowed to throw the first stone, and according to the law, Jesus would be blameless and in line with the law if he himself stoned her. This woman is a sinner, it would be justice to take her life. But Jesus shows mercy. He sets her free, saying, “Go, and sin no more.”
That’s what God says every time he shows us mercy and forgiveness. He doesn’t say, “Alright, I forgive you again. See you in a couple days when you sin again.” No, his hope for us is that we will go, and sin no more. Stop messing up! Stop separating yourself from God! He has been patient with us, that’s mercy. He’s shown us forgiveness. All He wants in return is for us to go and sin no more.
But you all know what happens. We go, and we sin some more. Right? Isn’t it wild? What in the world is the matter with us that we continue to act this way towards a merciful, forgiving God? Whatever the reason, we continue to sin, and we continue to fall farther away from God, but God keeps calling us back and He keeps giving us mercy and forgiveness. Why?
Folks, hear this clearly. As a God of second chances, God is a God of forgiveness. When we separate ourselves from him, He draws us closer. He does this over and over again, because as a God of second chances, He is also a God of mercy. But when we ask why this is, why is God a God of second chances, a God of forgiveness, and a God of mercy, the answer is that God is also a God of Grace. We serve a God of grace.
You know, we talk and sing about grace a lot. “Amazing Grace,” and we talk about grace, and we say grace. But do you know what grace is? I’m going to tell you, and I want you to know that once you know this, it should change your world. If it hasn’t already, the definition of grace can and should change your world.
Grace is…the freely given…and unmerited…favor…and love…of God. I’ll say that again. Grace is…the freely given…and unmerited…favor…and love…of God. By definition, you can’t earn it. By definition, you don’t deserve it. Grace is the reason for mercy and forgiveness. Why is God a God of mercy and forgiveness and second chances? Because our God is a God of grace. Our God gives love when we don’t deserve it. Our God shows us favor when we’ve done nothing to earn it.
In other words our God loves us and showers us with his blessings despite the fact that we are doing everything in our power to separate ourselves from him. Think of this in the terms of a parent. You love you kids. But you know sometimes there’s a bad apple. And they do everything they can to irritate you and go against your will. At some point, they go too far, and you kick them out of the house, right? Not God. With God, you can never go so far that he won’t welcome you back.
Have you ever heard the term “saved by grace?” If you are a Christian, you are saved by grace. Do you understand what that means? It means that you don’t deserve ANYTHING from God! You have separated yourself from him. You have turned your back on him. But even though you didn’t deserve it, God extended mercy and forgiveness to you, because of his grace. Because he loves you. Anyone can show mercy. A judge might let a convict get off easy because of mercy. Not because of grace. He has no special love for that convict. If that convict shows up in his court again the next day for committing a new crime, you can bet the judge will lock him away and won’t be showing him mercy this time. But God’s mercy is never ending because his love for us is so strong even though we don’t deserve it. That’s called grace. That’s what saves us. Forgiveness alone doesn’t save us. If that’s all it takes, then I could save any of you because I can forgive all of you. I can even show mercy to all of you, a couple of times. But only God possesses the unending grace that allows for his mercy and forgiveness to save us.
Forgiveness is bringing us back to God. Mercy is forgiving after we have messed up so many times and not giving us the punishment we deserve. Grace is the unfailing, undeserved love that allows God to have mercy and forgiveness. Those are the three most beautiful words a person can hear in their lifetime. Forgiveness. Mercy. Grace.
And you know, every day we need God’s grace. Even on our very best days, we are still just sinners saved by grace. Even on the days when we do some wonderful things, like work on a Habitat home or help a brother or sister in need, even on those days we fall short, and we need forgiveness, the kind of forgiveness that comes through mercy, the kind of mercy that can only be given because of grace. We are still just sinners saved by grace.
So, I’d like to sing a song. And by the request of a few of you whose names I won’t mention – Don – this is a gospel song. And actually, it was the song that fit best with what we were talking about today. And sometimes I feel like I have to end my messages with a song, because songs do a much better job than just words of portraying the emotions and feelings that go along with something. And something like grace can’t just be talked about, it has to be celebrated. It’s an emotional thing to be a sinner saved by grace. To be given a love you don’t deserve does something to your heart, and like the song last week said, how can I keep from singing? Well, I can’t. So this is a song originally done by the Gaithers called “Sinner Saved by Grace.”
Sing.
As we go into our closing song, if you have never
experienced the forgiveness, mercy, and grace of our God, now is a great time.
It doesn’t matter what you have done in your life, God wants a relationship
with you because God loves you. God is a God of grace, a God who gives love that
is undeserved. In fact, you CAN’T deserve grace, or it isn’t really grace! You
have to be undeserving to get it! So give God permission today during this last
song. Tell him you want him to bridge that divide. Tell him you want his grace
in your life. Tell him you want to live your life for him.
Van Buren United
Pastor Dan Metzger