This is the message that I was to preach last week, but unfortunately did not have the time to share so here it is as well as a thank you that follows to the people of Grace Community Church.
As most of you know it only has been a couple of weeks since Sharon and I returned from
spending 3 weeks in Lesotho.
We came with a mission to extend grace, to give out of the
riches and the abundance that we had been given. I went to Lesotho with a full heart to give
out of what God has given me. It was the
belief that I wanted to just give everything I had without any thought of what
I would receive in return. In reality I
received so much more than I gave which I believe is the majority of what
people experience when they go to another country to serve and help out. I experienced so much joy, laughter and
bonded so much with the people of Lesotho.
In the passages that I share on this morning, I want to show
how God’s glory leads us to His grace which in turns leads us back to His
glory.
1 Extending grace is learning to be “at home” in
a new neighbourhood!
The word became flesh and blood and moved into the
neighbourhood ( The Message)
John1:14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among
us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from
the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 (John testified concerning him. He
cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes
after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”) 16 Out of his fullness
we have all received grace in place of grace already given. 17 For the law was
given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has
ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest
relationship with the Father, has made him known.
We also know from Isaiah 43:18,19 that our God is a creative
God and that He is always doing something NEW!
So how do we do that?
How do we feel at home in a new neighbourhood? Think to where you have been in a culture
that was totally foreign to you.
Ø
We have to embrace it, engage it.
Ø
You can’t fear change
Ø
You have to be willing to listen more than speak
Ø
You have to be willing to let go of your
preconceived ideas of how to get things done.
Jesus left heaven for us, He left the throne of glory, He
left the presence of the Father to live with us.
Often we expect people come to our church, to be drawn to
us. We are called to be a light and a
presence in our sphere of influence and it has to be intentional. We pray Holy Spirit show us and then we look,
we listen and we act.
God gives you immeasurable grace when you make the step of
faith.
My sister in law Julie was watching over the fort here while
we were gone in Africa and she took Rylan to his hockey practice and prayed
God, is there anyone here that you would like me to speak to? It turned out that the Holy Spirit gave her
an incredible opportunity to share with one of the moms on Rylan’s team. She opened up about her life and Julie had
the opportunity to speak into her life by the grace of God.
When John in this passage adds the phrase "grace in
place of grace already given" at the end of verse 16 he is explaining the
experience of those who have by faith received of Christ’s fullness.
Grace = God’s undeserved favor in our lives. I can’t begin to be reminded of how many
chances God has given me!
And one thing is very clear that we are not simply sprinkled
with grace, or dipped in grace, we are immersed in His grace. The wording “in
place of” means exchange. It literally means, "grace instead of
grace." As the days come and go a new supply takes the place of the grace
we have already received.
Some days we feel like maybe God’s grace has run out, but
that is not the case.
The grace available in Christ is like a river flowing
constantly, overflowing its banks.
The call to relationship is also a call to be on mission
with God. That call to mission disrupts your entire life. As you listen for
God’s invitation, know its destiny is always: Point Unknown. Are you willing to
go?
The point is that as we experience God’s grace and seek to
do His will, it requires us to make adjustments in our lives and with our
lives.
It changes our priorities.
It changes the way we handle our finances. It loosens the grip.
It changes our time and people commitments. It loosens the
grip on me holding on to what I foolishly thought was mine.
Grace means that you want the best for another person. The Greek word for grace, charis, means to ‘show
favor or goodwill’. All of a sudden I’m
not so wrapped up in what I’m getting out of this situation.
Grace is the key to coming to Jesus and believing in him so
that you can experience life in this new neighbourhood. You have to believe
that God wants the best for you. You have to believe in grace, in God’s favor
toward you. There’s no way you’ll come to Jesus if you don’t believe in
grace. Grace is the key to living life
as a Christian. Let’s face it: life is hard. There are so many difficulties we
face:
Sickness, failure, broken relationships, accidents, our own
disappointment, and restlessness. Now
multiply that by x10 for the people living in Lesotho.
In fact that is how we knew the value of our
money there. 1 CDN = 10 Maloti.
How do we get by in
this world. How do they? We can only do
so by the grace of God. This is why grace permeates every page of the New
Testament. It’s why Peter tells his readers in 1 Peter 5:12 to “stand firm in
it.” Our lives have to be grounded by the favor of God. We need to experience His grace everyday!
Speaking of new neighbourhoods, I have to admit that I felt
really at home in Lesotho.
·
LXP Youth camp.
I could have been satisfied with just making an appearance, playing
soccer for an hour and then going back to “Grace Place” AM’s bungalow to sleep
for the night. However, something
stirred in me to stay overnight with the kids and there I was on a mattress on
the concrete floor of a HS classroom sleeping with 45 other guys. It was a great experience and it drew me even
closer to the youth that were there.
What is your ‘new’ neighbourhood? It doesn’t necessarily mean you sell your
home and move to a new location like Lesotho, but it could be!!
You have a destiny and a purpose and you need to step in to
your workplace, your sphere of influence…as I spoke about the 7 mountains of
influence in our culture. (business, arts, media, family, govt, education,
religion). The HS is with you as you go
to your family function, the bar after the game, the playgroup you take your
kids to, the people you cheer with at your kid’s game, the woman behind the
cash register till, this is your
neighbourhood.
2
Extending grace is listening to life stories
and being gracious in conversation.
Colossians 4:2 Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful
and thankful. 3 And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message,
so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. 4 Pray
that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. 5 Be wise in the way you act
toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. 6 Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt,
so that you may know how to answer everyone.
·
Grace is embracing the good in the culture.
One of the services went for 3.5hrs. We sang one song for at least 10min. Pastor
James birthday party was supposed to start at 6pm. It started at 8:30pm and
then there was the red carpet that they rolled out for him followed by speeches,
dancing, more speeches, more dancing, the reveal of the present – a beautiful
dining room table. They didn’t have a
proper table to eat on in their house.
It felt like a wedding in that place except the only difference was that
you don’t get to eat the food until after the speeches are done!! We didn’t eat till after midnight!!! However, it was the best birthday party I
have ever been at and one that I will never forget.
·
Grace is attempting to learn and speak the
language of the culture. I felt utterly
ridiculous doing it, but to them, I was trying and they laughed, but they
appreciated it.
Ø
Sounds like Dumela ndate - dumela me -greeting
Ø
Sounds like O pella juang – k pella anclay – how
are you, I am fine….this is basically what I got around on!
Ø
The
language of soccer! At first the
children were shy and not sure what to think of us; however, when I pulled out
the soccer ball, we were speaking their language and there was an instant
connection.
·
Grace is appreciating the personal struggle, the
personal pain and joy.
.
Ø
Lackey 18
He shared with me how he made a commitment to wait till marriage before
having sex. He told me how this decision
had been the result of “Beat The Drum,” the group that came to the schools and
did presentations on abstinence. The
message on purity really spoke to him; however, as soon as his friends found
out, they really mocked him. He said it
had been very hard as he was called a coward among other names, but he was
staying strong. He basically told me
that the norm for guys is to try to sleep around with as many girls as possible
and that shows that you are a real man.
However, he had new confidence and has been able to see through the
lies.
Ø
Thato, 18.
She opened up with me and shared how she had just started coming to LXP
Youth as a result of “Beat The Drum”.
She shared how she was behind in school a couple of years as she broke
her arm and then also got pregnant when she was 16. Initially her parents were very upset but the
family rallied around her and she had a baby boy, Christopher Samuel. However, Christopher got very sick this past
April and the doctors were not able to diagnose him and he passed away. As the tears rolled down her face, she shared
how the whole family grieved his loss and also saw her brother cry for the
first time as well. While she doesn’t
understand why this happened, she is coming here and discovering real love and
also learning so much about God’s amazing plans for her life. She takes time to underline promises in the
Gideon’s Bible that she has and takes His promises to heart.
Ø
Innocentia, 17
She came to LXP from a Catholic home and has also learned so much
here. She has been attending the youth
group for 4 years and tells me she needs to not care so much what other people
think of her and be confident in being herself. Students just randomly came to
me to talk about their desire to follow God and exclaiming “I’m out of the
box!” The message is taking root.
Embracing the good in the culture, learning the language of
the culture and listening to the stories of the people in your surroundings
takes time!
It takes time and intentionality to do these things. Don’t wait.
Everyday you wake up in the morning and that is your sphere of
influence. Don’t think future. Look right now everywhere you go that you
carry the presence of the HS.
The message of the
camp was pushing back against a negative predisposition whether it is
depression, addiction, abuse, negativity that might run in their family
background.
Iniquity will pass
from generation to generation until someone rises up and says ‘no more’. I will be different and by God’s grace, I
will break the chain. We have the power
to break negative cycles because we have the DNA of an Almighty God. Shake off the self-pity, don’t blame your
circumstances. It may be the reason why
you are where you are, but it doesn’t have to be the place where you stay or
make your bed so to speak! Every right
choice is an opportunity to override a bad one.
We are victors, not victims.
There is nothing by God’s grace that we can’t overcome….
3. Extending grace is reflecting the glory
of the Lord
2 Corinthians 3:16-18
Whenever, though, they turn to face God as Moses did, God
removes the veil and there they are—face-to-face! They suddenly recognize that
God is a living, personal presence, not a piece of chiseled stone. V16 The Message
Whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken
away. In order for this to happen, it
takes the grace of God. Without God
moving the veil none of us would experience the grace of God.
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord
is, there is freedom. 18 And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the
Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory,
which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. V17,18 NIV
There are very few times that I have been in a place where I
have seen and felt true freedom. In our
NA culture we are all held back in varying degrees by what other people might
think of us. I saw grace filled people
in the AFM Butha Buthe church worship God with such incredible freedom.
It wasn’t just a song that they sung, the joy of the Lord
was so evident in the way that they served others and lavished love on each
other.
Purlacio is the girl in the center of the group.
·
stories of worshippers - It was a great house of God full of
passionate worshippers singing and dancing and pouring their hearts out to
God. They even mixed in a few English
songs for us. After the music, there was
a group of young adults enter the church dancing to celebrate their graduation
from university. Purlacio Rakoti led the
celebration and spoke of the strength God has given her to overcome as she is
the first AFM foster child to graduate.
She was an orphaned child who was taken in by AFM. She spoke as being “one who was born to fight
the darkness!” She wrote a song that she later sang with all the youth behind
her singing backup and dancing. It was a
very moving and powerful moment. In attendance that day were all the children
currently from every AFM foster home to inspire them as well.
·
big tent revival - We arrived there and Pastor
Apollo Creed (his English name of course) was there to greet us out outside a
large 30x60ft tent. PJ had led this man to the LORD at a student outreach. We got in there and it was all set up with
mics, speakers, keyboards and lights. A
group of young girls and ladies were singing and leading worship. I looked behind me and saw a handful of people;
however as the singing continued more and more people kept flooding in till the
place was packed out. I continued to
look behind and noticed a group of guys dancing to the worship songs so I
thought well I might as well join them. It turned out to be quite the workout
as we were jumping up and down, moving side to side, right down to the ground
in a twist like fashion. It then turned into a conga line that went up and down
the main aisle. For the record, I did
not start this conga line! After the music,
the pastor had some people came forward to share testimonies and stories of
healing. There had been meetings taking
place there all week. During the sharing time,
PJ leans over to me and says, ‘do
you have a message brother?’ At this
point I am full of sweat wiping my face with my t-shirt and my
answer…’sure’! So, I shared on Matthew
6:19-21 and where real treasure is found as well as on the theme of living
water. I shared the gospel and about 50
people came forward for prayer. PJ,
Apollo Creed and I prayed over them and
then PJ had people who needed healing come forward, more prayer and then prayer
for those who had lost a family member and again a time of prayer ensued.
These are just a few of the stories that revealed the glory
of God through the message of grace and freedom.
The Takeaway
Grace teaches us to shift the focus away from the mentality
of what am I getting out of this and what’s in it for me.
As we focus on others and extending grace and love, it is
life changing. As we share the message
of God’s unmerited favor, it really brings so much lasting joy and fulfillment
to them and to us.
Finally, a message to the Leadership Board and the people of
Grace.
I want to thank you for your leadership and grace in dealing
with me. I respect all of you and
recognize that you lead also with a heart for the Lord. I have learned a lot here about who I am and about
a pioneering spirit that God has placed within me. There is still a lot for me to process and the
Leadership Board has been more than generous in giving me the time to discover
where my best fit will be as well as time to listen for His leading. Let us all continue to stay the course and
pursue peace. Please do not feel awkward
around me, I still consider all of you as friends and I'm not angry or
resentful. God has given me amazing
peace over the past couple of days.
Blessings on all of you!
Jack Ninaber
.jpg)
.jpg)