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Location:
6425 Jefferson Hwy. For
directions, click
here. Joseph
Slife, lay speaker January
30, 2011 Amazing
Grace is a wonderful
song. Even people who
don't profess to be
followers of Jesus seem
to like it for some
reason. Some people, I
guess, see it more as a
folk song rather than
what it really is. And
what it really is a song
of Christian testimony
– told in the first
person: "that saved a
wretch like me." "I was
blind, but now I
see." Most
of us probably could
sing the first verse
from memory – but
what about the second.
How does it start?
That's right: "'Twas
grace that taught my
heart to fear." Strange
juxtaposition of words
isn't it? For
a long time, I really
didn't understand that
lyric. But I think I do
now — not only in
the way the composer
intended it, but also in
another very important
sense. And this is what
I want to talk with you
about today. 'Twas grace
that taught my heart to
fear. Let's
pray. Fear
is word none us have
warm fuzzy feelings
about. But fear is
important. Fear keeps us
out of a lot of trouble.
Early in life we develop
a healthy fear of
falling down stairs or
touching a hot stove or
walking across the
street without looking
both ways. This
kind of fear helps
protects us. About a
year ago, I was reading
a book by Andy Stanley
called The Principle of
the Path. He writes
about how he and his
college buddy Louis
Giglio decided to take a
short cut back from
Alabama one evening
— a short cut they
shouldn't have
taken. The
Interstate highway
— I guess it was
I-20 — wasn't
entirely finished back
in those days, but it
was under construction.
So they decided that
since it was after hours
and probably no one was
around, they would get
on this unfinished
section of highway and
cut lots of time off
their trip back to
Atlanta. I
guess at the time they
were too stupid to have
the right kind of fear
about doing that,
especially at twilight.
Fortunately, after they
had gone several miles,
someone who was out
there on the road
flagged them down —
just before they got to
a place where there was
not yet a bridge built
over a swampy area.
Shaken, Andy and Louis
they turned around and
went back the other way.
Once
they understood their
situation, they were
afraid to keep going
— and that was a
good thing. Did
you know God wants to
make us afraid to keep
going in the wrong
direction? It's not
because he wants to
spoil our fun, but
because he knows there's
no bridge ahead and
we're headed for danger.
By
his grace, he awakens
our fear to reality of
our
situation. I'm
sure this is what John
Newton had in mind when
he wrote those words,
"'Twas grace that taught
my heart to
fear." Grace.
We Methodists love that
word. We talk about
grace all the time.
There's the grace of God
that reaches out to us
before we even know who
God is — John
Wesley called that
"prevenient
grace." We
don't use the word
prevenient much anymore.
But we do use the word
convenient. Convenient
simply means to come
together. You can
come together with a
tank of gas or a gallon
of milk at the
convenience store.
Convenient. Prevenient
means to come
before.
Prevenient grace is the
grace that comes to us
before we have done
anything to pursue God.
In other words, God
takes the
initiative. How
does he do that? Well,
there are countless ways
that begin even before
we're born, much less
born again. But I think
one of the key
manifestations of his
prevenient grace is that
he — as we used to
say — puts the fear
of God in us. Have
you ever heard anyone
say that? "I'm going put
the fear of God in
you!" Well,
no one puts the fear of
God in us better than
God Himself. This was
part and parcel of the
ministry of John the
Baptist. Do
you remember his main
message? "Repent, for
the kingdom of heaven is
near!" Repent simply
means to turn around and
go in the other
direction, like Andy
Stanley and Louis Giglio
did on that unfinished
highway. In
fact, the Bible is
filled with warnings.
God wants us to
understand the reality
of our
situation. Hebrews
9: Hebrews
10: Colossians
3: And
do you remember Acts 2,
the Day of Pentecost,
Peter is preaching and
the Scripture says the
people "were cut to the
heart." In other words,
they understood the
seriousness of the
situation they were in
— and they ask
Peter, "What shall we
do?" And
he gives them this
answer: "Repent and be
baptized, every one of
you, in the name of
Jesus Christ for the
forgiveness of your
sins." And
then Acts 2:40 says
this: "With many other
words he warned them;
and he pleaded with
them, 'Save yourselves
from this corrupt
generation.'" You
see, God wants to rescue
us from danger —
but we have to want to
be rescued. The warnings
exist — as part of
the prevenient grace of
God, the grace that goes
before — so that we
will realize the reality
of our
situation. Of
course, a diagnosis
doesn't help you a lot
if there's no cure. If I
tell you the bridge is
out, but I'm sorry, you
can't turn around,
you've definitely got
the "fear factor" but
you have no hope, you
have no way of escape.
You are chained to an
unhappy
destiny. But
what else did John
Newton write in the
second verse of
Amazing Grace?
"'Twas grace that taught
my heart to fear and
grace"? What? "Grace my
fears
relieved." How?
We sang about it
earlier. "Jesus sought
me when a stranger"
– there's that
prevenient grace, he
came in search of us
before we even knew who
he was. "Jesus sought
me" and to "rescue me
from danger, interposed
his precious blood." He
put his life's blood in
between me and the
danger." Here's
was it says in Titus,
chapter 3: Revelation
1 refers to Jesus as the
one "who loves us and
has freed us from our
sins by his
blood." "'Twas
grace that taught my
heart to fear, and grace
my fears
relieved." Because
of Jesus, there is a way
out. In the church we
call it salvation —
or we say that Jesus
saved us. But this
salvation isn't just a
one-time thing. It is a
daily thing, even a
moment by moment thing.
I
looked up the word
salvation in a Bible
dictionary — and
here's what is says,
"The root idea in
salvation is deliverance
from danger or
evil." How
many of you want to be
delivered from danger or
evil only once? What do
we pray in the Lord's
prayer? "Lead us not
into temptation but
deliver us from evil."
It's a present-tense
thing. And
this brings us to the
other kind of
grace-induced fear that
I want to talk
about. Without
God's grace, we are
subject giving into
temptations that all
around us. Every
generation of believers
has had to deal with
temptation, but the
digital age has expanded
the number of
temptations and the ease
with which we can give
into them. If
ever a generation of
believers needed the
grace of God to be led
away from temptation and
delivered from evil,
it's us. 'Twas
grace that taught my
heart to fear. Not just
fear about sin and
judgment. But God's
grace gives us a healthy
fear about the power of
the enticements of this
world to pull us away
from God's path for
us. He
leads us in a path of
righteousness. What is
the world doing? It's is
pulling us toward
another path —
every single day. And we
need God's grace to be
faithful in following
Jesus. We
sang about this earlier:
"Oh to grace how great a
debtor daily I'm
constrained to
be." You
see, God doesn't rescue
us only to then leave us
to our own devices. As
someone once said,
"Grace doesn’t just
find us when we're lost,
grace leads us in a new
way." There's
a lot more that could be
said about this, but
let's cut to the chase.
How do we get this
grace? How do get what
we need? And
how do we help other
people — people who
are still out there
driving on a dangerous
unfinished highway
— receive God's
grace for
themselves? Well,
let me take the second
question first. I am
sure that you know
people — including
people who are very near
and dear to you —
who are not yet
followers of Jesus
Christ. They need that
first kind of fear. The
fear that there is no
bridge ahead. The fear
that they need turn
around – or as John
the Baptist and Peter
the apostle put, to
repent. Here's
what Paul says about
this is 2nd Corinthians,
chapter 4: The
god of this age could be
Satan, or it could just
be a culture that lies
to us — that tells
us that what is really
valuable is money or
power or position. That
tells us there is no
personal God and no
coming judgment.
John
Newton, the writer of
Amazing Grace,
was once like that. He
tells us so in the song.
"I once was blind, but
now I see." Well,
you and I can't cure
anyone who's blind to
their situation. We
can't remove the veil
from their minds. But we
can ask God to do
it. We
can pray, "Lord, please
teach my brother's heart
to fear. Show my cousin
the danger she is in.
Help my co-worker
understand that you are
there to rescue him. Put
the fear of God into
them, Lord — the
kind of fear that makes
them eager to turn
around and head toward
safety." That's
one way we can help
people receive that kind
of grace — to
intercede for their
blindness to be cured,
and their minds to be
opened. And
what about us, how do we
get that daily grace we
need so that we can
resist temptation and
pursue holiness, so that
we are faithful
followers of the Lord
Jesus Christ? Well,
in the Methodist
movement we sometimes
refer to the "means of
grace" — the
avenues through which we
receive the grace of God
into our lives, this
grace we need day by
day. John
Wesley talked about two
major means of grace:
works of piety and works
of mercy. I
won't give you the full
list but he works of
piety include prayer,
studying the Scriptures,
receiving Holy
Communion. The works of
mercy include feeding
the hungry, visiting the
sick, and trying to
correct wrongs in
society. When
we are about these sorts
of things — things
we know to be the will
of God, done in the name
of Christ and by the
power of the Holy Spirit
— they create
pathways into our hearts
and minds through which
God pours his grace into
us. It becomes a
virtuous cycle, God's
grace moves in us, we
respond to it, and as we
do he gives us more
grace. And,
y'know what? The more
grace-filled your life
becomes, the more
fearful your heart will
be — not in the
sense of that initial
fear when you realize
how lost you are and
that the bridge is out.
But in the sense of not
wanting to do anything
that would in any way
wound the heart of
God. When
your heart and life are
filled with grace, that
grace teaches your heart
to fear sin, to fear a
lack of faithfulness, to
fear stepping off the
path of righteousness.
Not because you fearful
about getting caught or
being embarrassed. But
because you're afraid
you might bring sadness
to the one who loves us
and gave himself for us,
so that we who were once
dead in sin might walk
in newness
life. I
am going to conclude now
with two Scriptures. The
first is something Paul
wrote in 1st Timothy
chapter one, starting at
verse 13. He
wrote: Or
as John Newton might put
it, "'Twas grace that
taught my heart to fear,
and grace and my fears
relieved." And
then in the second
chapter of Titus, Paul
wrote this: And
then he describes that
hope — "the
glorious appearing of
our great God and
Savior, Jesus Christ,
who gave himself for us"
— listen carefully
— "who gave himself
for us to redeem us from
all wickedness and to
purify for himself a
people that are his very
own, eager to do what is
good." 'Twas
grace that taught my
heart to fear —
about sin and judgment
— and grace my
fears relieved. But if
we let God have his way,
grace will continue
teach our hearts to fear
in a different sense
— to fear anything
in our lives that would
grieve the Father's
heart. That's a good
thing. It's
a sign that we are being
conformed to the image
of Jesus Christ and
growing in our love for
God. We
ask for your grace
today, the grace that
not only finds us
when we're lost, but
that leads us in a
new way. In
the name of Jesus the
Messiah we pray.
Amen. |
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