Welcome And Series Setup

Hello my friends and welcome to Everyday God for Your Every Day with Kathy, a space where we'll discuss real practical ways for life with God, especially for those days when life is hard, complicated, and messy. How do we apply biblical principles such as God's love, mercy, grace, and wisdom to our daily grind? Well, join me each week as we do just that together. So wherever you may find yourself today, please know that you are seen, held, accepted, loved, and never alone. So let's get to it. Hello and welcome to another episode of Everyday God for Your Every Day. I am Kathy, your host. So today we're going to continue our conversation or our series on acceptance. And today's episode is going to focus on grace applied. So episode seven, we looked at what grace is, the progressive work of grace in our lives, and of course, accepting grace. So today we're going to talk about application of grace in our daily lives. So not only as the grace of God that works in us, but also as it flows through us. And we'll also discuss the very active role that I believe that grace is meant to play in the life of a Christ follower. So grace functions both as a conduit and a conductor. So God's grace is the method or channel by which we receive the love of God, right? It is the delivery method of salvation. We looked at last week Ephesians 2, verses 8 through 9, I believe, which is it is through grace that we are saved. So grace is the way that we experience not only the love of God, his goodness, but also his mercies and his peace. So grace flows through us, and we in turn are called to show others the grace of God. So we're going to look at two scripture passages, Matthew 7, verses 1 through 5, and Luke 11, verse 4. And both of these, Jesus is really calling us to show and extend grace to one another. So grace is a sustaining power of God within us, which endows us with gifts, skills, favor, opportunities, and the capacity to do that which, quite frankly, on our own, we would not and could not do. Grace equips and prepares us for the doors that are opened by God, for the promotions, the assignments, the purpose, destinies, and callings, and of course, the newness that God is doing in every believer's life. Because the reality is God is constantly making us new. That's why we're called to not conform to the pattern of this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. And who do you think is doing that? God, of course, but through his grace. So Max Lecato says it best, and I do love this quote: Grace is the voice that calls us to change and then gives us the power to pull it off. It's perfect. That's one of the reasons I really love the Christian faith. I really do. Because we are not called to earn anything. We are called to simply accept what has been freely given to us. Because the reality is we cannot do it on our own. In our own strength, we cannot do it. And Jesus tells us apart from him, we can do nothing. So we're going to look at John 3.17, which is, I know, a very favorite verse of mine. It's not the only one I know, I promise. You all know this, but I want to look at it. So John 3.17, for God did not send his son to condemn the world, but to save it through him. So I want you to think about God did not send his son to condemn the world, but to save it through him. Then the previous verse in John 3, John 3.16, which by the way, everybody knows, and it's on every t-shirt, which states, For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only begotten son, that whoever should believe in him would not perish, but have eternal life. Many of us have heard these verses, maybe have read these verses, and I know you've heard them on quite a few of my episodes, but I don't know how many of us actually have really thought about some of the nuances in both verses. And I don't know that I was as cognizant of it until I started preparing for this episode. So let's look at John 3.16 for a minute. God so loved the world that he gave his one and only begotten son, that whoever should believe in him would not perish, but have eternal life. So those are the two things I want to emphasize: that whoever should believe in him would not perish, but have eternal life, which means that perishing is an option. Perishing is a consequence of sin, not an option. It's a consequence of sin, a real one. So God sent his son that whoever should believe in him would not perish, because the alternative is if you do not believe in him, you will perish. But that if you believe in him, you would not perish, but have eternal life. And then if we look at John 3:17, for God did not send his son to condemn the world, but to save it through him, which means condemnation is a real consequence. But Jesus did not come to do that, he came to save the world through him. And I do think that that's something that we don't really talk about a lot. That the concept of perishing and condemnation, those are realities. That without Christ, without the acceptance of the salvation which has been given, is a reality. The reason why I wanted to really emphasize that is not just you should accept Christ. I believe that you should. Everyone should be a Christ follower. That's what I would want. Not because of anything other than I want everyone to experience the amazing love of God. And that's what I want to talk about. These two verses tell us God's heart. And in John 3.17, God did not send his son to condemn it, but to save it. In John 3.16, God so loved the world that he sent his one and only begotten Son that whoever should believe in him would not perish. He doesn't want us to perish, but that we would have eternal life. It is amazing because if we think about it, even as human beings, we can love people from afar, right? Like we can watch them as they destroy themselves or even sometimes destroy the things that we've built. And just for our own sake and protection, we will walk away and we will leave them to their own demise. But God doesn't do that. Throughout the Bible, yes, there are consequences, very real consequences to our actions and to sin. But over and over and over again, God rescues his children. He delights in saving you and in saving me. You know, one of the reasons I discuss John 3.17 so much, it's because it's the crux of this podcast. It's the episodes raison d'être. I mean, it's it's the reason why I believe that you can have an everyday God for your everyday. You can't do life with God if you fundamentally don't believe that he is good and abounding in grace and wants to save you. If you believe that God just wants to condemn you, then all of this is for naught. You know, God is good and he's perfect. He's not about condemnation, but about redemption. And that's what John 3.17 reminds us that our God, that our Christ did not come to condemn, but to save us. So through Jesus' birth, his life on earth, his death and resurrection, our sin-led fall, which caused our separation from God, that was salvaged. Through Christ's birth, his sacrifice, that was the grace that God chose to bring us back to himself. Yes, salvation is freely given, offered to all. But nonetheless, you, we have to accept this gift of salvation. So, yes, grace is freely given, but we must be willing to receive it, to accept it. And as we receive it, we must in turn be willing to give it. See, if we don't believe that God wants to save us, if we think that he is this God who, again, wants to judge and condemn us, then what's to use? Who could survive? I mean, I wouldn't be able to live my life without knowing that God wants to save me, without knowing how much he loves me, without God's grace. I could not do it. Who could live under such scrutiny and tyranny? Because that's what it would be. If you have a God, a deity that only wants to condemn and only wants to judge, there's no mercy there. There's no grace. Those concepts, those words would not exist. It really would mean that our efforts would be pointless. I mean, the concept of everyday God for your everyday would be hollow. I think that daily life would be meaningless if all God wanted to do was to condemn. You know, it makes me think of the book of Ecclesiastes from the Bible, which explores, you know, the futility of life under the sun, meaning life without God, a life that is devoid of God's love and his grace. And the beginning and throughout the book, the author, who many believe is King Solomon, details how all that we do and chase after is meaningless without God. And at the end of the book, he concludes that wealth, pleasure, and wisdom are all fleeting. They're like vapor, advising us as the readers to fear, to have reverence, to be in awe of God and to enjoy simple joys because all else is ultimately chasing the wind. So I'm going to go a bit Shakespeare here because one of my favorite monologues is from Macbeth after the death of his wife. Life is but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. I love it because number one, it's beautiful. I mean it's Shakespeare. Without some inherent belief that God means us good and that he just doesn't want to do away with us, life holds little meaning. And most certainly, if I think about just our circumstances, suffering, loss, pain, sorrow, all of that becomes unbearable without the hope of being saved, without the hope, the real living hope of Jesus Christ, without God's grace. So an example of God's grace applied in our daily lives, I'm gonna look at it in terms of this podcast. Now, I've shared before I had no want, no desire to do this podcast. Not only did I have no desire to do it, I really didn't have the knowledge. I didn't. I really hadn't listened to podcasts, and I was quite overwhelmed by the technical components of having to do a podcast. And, you know, I've talked about the fact that I can be terribly regimented and I like things to be perfect. I also have stage fright. So it means, you know, this is not something that I would normally do. But the very fact that I have done it, that I am doing it right now, that's God's grace. It is by God's grace that I've been able to do that. That is God's grace at work in me. And whether you realize it or not, the fact that you are listening to this podcast, especially if you're someone who didn't even realize that you were seeking and seeking this God, it is God's grace at work in you that is facilitating you to listen to this. Something drew you to it. And whatever lessons or message you get from it, whatever knowledge you might gain, is also grace at work, both as a conductor working in me to both act and do the podcast, and as a conduit, my sharing God's grace, my knowledge, my relationship with Him, the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ, his goodness, that is God's grace. And even when you then decide to share this with someone else that you think might need it, that is in turn you being a conduit of grace. So I know we've talked about this. It isn't enough to just have an intellectual knowledge of God. It is not enough to simply know there is a God. Scripture tells us that even the demons know there is a God. It's about the relationship that we get to have with this God, this wonderful loving God. The way we get to abide in him and know that he then abides in us. It is living with him, it is walking with him daily. See, the basis of accepting grace is first believing and recognizing that you need grace. And then, secondly, believing that God at his core is a gracious God who wants and desires to extend his grace to you because he loves you and wishes to save you. This means that we must be willing to face, acknowledge our own sinful nature, our brokenness, our lack, and specifically our need to be saved. So I think sometimes that what can make us incredulous of scripture, you know, this whole concept of God's perfect love and grace is, of course, our limited understanding as human beings. But it's also to our flesh, the idea of a perfect being that, despite his perfection and complete dominion over all things, loves us. And he isn't judging us every second of the day. That is the antithesis of who we as human beings tend to be. It's not a concept that we can understand. There's a quote by Anais Nin, which I think I've shared with you guys before, maybe not, because it's one that I often talk about, that says that we do not see things as they are. We see them as we are. See, we do not love as God loves, we do not show grace as God does. I know that all too well. You know, there's one particular passage in scripture that for most of my life I've struggled to not only understand, but to live out. It's Matthew 7, verses 1 through 5. And this is from the very famous Sermon on the Mount that Jesus delivered. And Jesus says, Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, let me take that speck out of your eye, when all the time there is a big old plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. So, from a self-professed judgy person, which I am, I can be highly critical. I like to be right, I don't like to be wrong, ask my family or anybody that's worked with me. Um, accuracy is almost like an OCD thing with me. I've mentioned the fact that I can be, you know, super regimented. I've also been self-righteous in my past, in my current life, and maybe more than a bit. So this passage was hard for me until Grace's work in my life, especially recently. So if we think about the quote from Anais Nin, which is we don't see things as they are, but as we are. The more I've learned and I've leaned into my need for God, the more aware that I have become of my many shortcomings, my own moral failures, my sin nature, the more humbled I have been by it, the more I can start to see people as I am, broken, messy, in need of a savior, just like me. See, these verses in Matthew 7 are Christ speaking about grace, not only our need of it, but specifically our need to extend it to others. We need grace because we're sinners. We fall short of God's glory. We, no matter how learned in the ways of scripture, no matter how seemingly pious and connected to God we might appear, we are not perfect. We are far from it. None of us, none of us are deserving of the grace that God has chosen to bestow upon us. That again is not to shame us or to make us feel guilty or to make us feel less than. It is simply the truth and taken with the right perspective. Friends, it is a truth that sets you and me free. Free from the need to be perfect, free from needing to strive and earn love and grace and a salvation that, again, is freely given. The very phrase, if we think about how grace is divine, is defined, is God's unmerited favor. It means not earned. Unmerited means you didn't merit it, you didn't deserve it, you didn't earn it. It is given without merit. A good example of that is imagine if at work your boss called you in one day out of the blue to talk about giving you a raise. And you're like, what? A raise? And a healthy one at that. I mean, I mean a really healthy one. And then you're like, well, this is not, I mean, it's not annual review time. It's not a cost of living, it's not an inflation, it's not any of that. It's not a retention bonus, it's not merit-based, it's not based on your performance, it's not based on how much he likes you. It's not based on anything that you have done. Nothing that you did deserved that raise. It wasn't because of you. Had nothing to do with you, it's simply because your boss was a good and gracious boss and wanted to bless you. That is grace. That is what God extends to us on a daily basis. So, no, we're not to stand in judgment of one another. And quite frankly, we're not to stand in judgment of ourselves. I, that inner critic, can sometimes, I mean, beat me. It's really hard when you're beating yourself up to not beat others up. Sometimes it doesn't, you we're not even cognizant of it. But when we abide in God, when we practice the way, when we truly let grace do its work in us, then we get to really understand this, my God, phenomenal, indescribable concept of grace from the perspective of being so wholly convicted and aware of our own sin nature that we cannot but be in complete. Surrender in all of God's unmerited favor towards us, that we respond in any other way than to extend that same grace to another who has wronged us or whose behavior may offend us. Because if we look at them as we are, then we're reminded that they too are broken, that they too are hurt, that they too are seeking and being transformed. So instead of judgment, we should be moved to pray for that person, to implore heaven on their behalf, to respond with empathy, knowing what it was once like to live separate from God until grace found you, until grace found me. See, I don't do that every time, but I will tell you that as I sit here today, I do it way more often than I ever did in my life. I'm still working on the driving part. I really am. I am, but God knows. Even in the Our Father, you know, in Luke 11, in verse 4, when Jesus, when asked by the disciples, you know, rabbi, teacher, teach us to pray. And we're gonna look at just verse four. It says, forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. So Jesus is teaching us that in our prayers to God, we can absolutely and should absolutely come before God's throne of grace and ask and expect forgiveness. However, this is with the understanding that we should not expect or ask of God what we ourselves are not willing or prepared to do for another. As a matter of fact, Jesus expressly says as much in Matthew 6, verses 14 through 15. For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your father will not forgive your sins. These are Christ's words. This is about grace. Grace that is expected is also grace that is extended. Grace that is received is also grace that is given. This isn't about condoning other people's sins. Remember, we cannot stand in judgment of others. I don't have to condone your sins. That's between you and the Father. What this is calling us to do is to look at others with grace, the same way that God has looked upon us in our sins. This is about looking at another and responding in a way that is demonstrative of what Christ Himself has done for us. That's why it's supernatural, because we cannot accomplish this within ourselves without the help or the intervention of the Holy Spirit. The concept of grace, which includes the forgiveness of sin and not judging others, but loving others as ourselves, not treating someone as they deserve, showing them favor, delight, goodness, compassion, especially when they are undeserving, especially when they have wronged us. See, the foundation of grace is that we deserved punishment, separation from God because of our sin nature. But instead, God gave us what we did not deserve. Acknowledging and owning our brokenness is a, it's it's really, it's it's like the gateway to receiving grace, to fully experiencing grace. The transformative power of grace is that we are aware of our brokenness. But even more significantly, that we are aware and wowed and humbled by the grace that God has shown us, not only through the forgiveness of our own sins, but the forever redemption and absolution from the penalties, the eternal penalty of those sins. So, because of God's heart for us, because of the grace we've been given and experienced, we ought to reciprocate, respond in the like to those around us. God gives us grace to persevere through hardship. God gives us grace to endure the things that can seem unfair and bring us to the brink of ourselves. You know, as someone who was sexually abused, for years in my life, I had a very complex and complicated relationship with men. Just, you know, sex, which in a healthy relationship as God meant it to be, is a healthy thing. It's meant to be enjoyed. Intimacy is meant to be enjoyed. For years, it was complicated for me. It it just held such, it just was complicated. And even the thought of someone else being sexually abused would just make me, would trigger me, but I'm going to explain. I would have a physical reaction to hearing about someone else's experience with sexual abuse until I would say about five or five or six years ago. It's grace, it's God's grace. And it really helped me to realize that sexual abuse, having an absentee father, you know, I've talked about my daddy issues, that through Grace's work in my life, through Grace's power in my life, those things no longer have a hold on me. They can no longer hurt me. So it really does help me to understand when Joseph said to his brothers, what was meant for evil, God has used for good. I have a heart for children who are sexually abused. I have a heart for anyone who's abused, anyone. And it has made me soft and gentle in ways that normally I'm not. Having not had a father in my life for years, colored every relationship with men, every relationship, period. I had, I suck at relationships. I'm not gonna lie, I really have, I suck at relationships. Because I could not process nor understand how your own father could not love you. Because if you're not in my life, you don't love me. And it's something that I suppressed for years, but it still impacted me in so many ways. But again, through grace, through God's grace, through his work in me. I sat the other day this week and I said, I am grateful to my father, to my earthly father. I am grateful. I don't know that I ever felt that I needed to be, that I needed to forgive him because I was apathetic towards my father. I had no feeling. He was worse than a stranger. He really, I felt I felt not one way or the other about my dad. My father. I can't call him my dad. That's for God. But the other day, I don't know that I could have I've ever said in my life any one positive thing about my earthly father that I was grateful for. And the other day I said, and I meant it. That was the crazy thing. I like truly meant it. That I truly, honestly believe that the greatest gift my earthly father ever gave me was not being in my life. And let me explain that. It's not excusing it, it doesn't need to be excused. Remember, I don't have to, it's not about condoning, but I cannot sit in judgment of my father, because now I have truly gotten to understand how neglect begets neglect. Abuse begets abuse. Hurt people, hurt people. But apart from that, if I had an earthly father, if I had someone who actually filled that space in my life, I could not and would not know God as my dad the way that I do. It is an intimacy that I would not exchange for a thousand awesome earthly fathers. I would not exchange it. God, as my dad, saved me, rescued me, completed me, made me whole in ways that I could never express. I know that he loves me with every fiber of my being. I know that he loves me, and that he cares for me, and that he holds me, and that he thinks the best of me, and that he wants the best for me, and that he has never left me, he has never forsaken me, he has held me. That's why I do this podcast. Is that so whoever listens, whatever void you have in your life, I know I speak from experience that God fills it like no one else can, that his grace does something miraculous and powerful in our lives. And I am grateful. I am so grateful for it. There's this song by Elevation Worship that has become my anthem. God, I'm so grateful for you. I sing it with everything in my being because I am. I am grateful for God. Grace is both beautiful and distressing. Grace can be uncomfortable. It requires a death to self and an acceptance of something far greater than ourselves, something truer, nobler, purer, stronger, lovelier, something praiseworthy, something inexplicable and indescribable, but yet undeniably real. Grace compels us to love, to transform, it compels us to utterance and professing of God's love and mercy to one another. Grace compels us to look outside of ourselves and beyond that which our natural eyes beholds. Grace compels us to believe, to hope, to trust that goodness awaits us despite and in spite of the machinations of the prince of this world, which work to undermine and breed fear and despair in us. Grace shapes our perspective, gives us spiritual lenses through which we should view ourselves, that we should view others and view the world. Grace relinquishes control to God over and over and over again. Grace knows and enables us to accept hardship as the pathway to peace. That's from the serenity prayer. Grace helps us to accept this sinful world as Jesus did and not as we would have it. Grace compels us to a confident assurance and trust in God and in his promises, even when they are not physically visible. Grace is the watering, nurturing, developing of our spirit life, of our dependence and focus on God. Grace is the enabling of consistent dying to self, of carrying our crosses daily. Grace is the beginning of divine wisdom, which enables us to ask of God, to seek God, and to knock, believing that the door of heaven's gates will open simply at our knocking. Grace is the knowing that we need Christ, that we need God's daily bread, that we need community even when we don't even understand its significance or role in our lives. Grace is the ever-present prompting which fans the flame of our yearning for God in His Word, the need for his very presence and essence in our lives. Grace is the quiet force working steadily within us to reframe and reshape our desires and wants to mirror God's will for our lives. Grace is the strength within us which gives us courage to stand when our own power fails us. Grace is the strength at work within us, propelling us forward despite obstacles that are against us. Grace is the strength that gives us the fortitude to surrender all that is within us to God when our own flesh threatens to betray us. Grace is the still small voice that guides us to the place where we prostrate ourselves before God when we have failed. Grace is the wisdom that enables us to obey God's voice. The wisdom which says, I surrender my right to be upset, I surrender my right to be resentful, I surrender my right to be offended, I surrender my right to be hurt, I surrender my right to be right, I surrender my right to you, Lord. Have your way in me. Grace is the sustaining power of God within us, which gives us everything. So when I think of grace, especially in terms of the forgiveness of our sins, the cross was a dear and costly price paid for us. It makes me think of Psalm 8. What is mankind, Lord, that you are mindful of them, of us, human beings that you care for them. You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor. You have made them rulers over the works of your hands. You put everything under their feet. That is grace. That is grace. So thank you for joining me for this episode. I hope that you experience God's grace in your life. We are going to end with a prayer as we normally do. Lord God, thank you. Thank you for your work, your grace at work in my life right now, Lord. Thank you for everything that you do, Lord, to bring us closer to you. Thank you, Lord, for thinking so much of us that you did not choose to condemn us. You did not choose to end our story with the fall in the garden, but instead that you sent your son, your only begotten son, that anyone who chooses to believe in him would not perish, but have eternal life with you, that we would be saved. Lord, thank you for being such an awesome father, such an awesome rescuer. Lord, thank you for loving us so much, that you grace us with your presence, that you grace us with your love. Thank you for dwelling in us, Lord. Thank you for all that you do. Lord, I pray for every listener, I pray for every ear, for every life, for every person who is listening, that Lord, that they would have an encounter with you, that Father God, that they would know you, that they would have an intimate relationship with you, that they would know the love of God. It is in your Son's holy and matchless name, I pray. Amen. Look forward to seeing you guys soon.