May 11, 2025 • 24 mins
What does a mother's love on Mother's Day reveal about divine grace? Drawing this powerful parallel, today's episode explores grace as unconditional love that finds us even when we're struggling with our own imperfections.
Looking at cultural images of "perfect mothers" from June Cleaver to Roseanne, we acknowledge that real parenting involves both triumphs and struggles – just like our spiritual journey. The letter to Ephesians provides our scriptural foundation, reminding us we're "created in Christ Jesus for good works." This isn't about some distant heavenly realm but God's vision for transforming this world through grace-filled living.
John Wesley's three-part framework of grace offers profound insights into our spiritual development. Provenient grace comes before we're even aware – like infant baptism, where a community surrounds a child with such powerful love that they'll come to recognize God's presence through these human connections. Justifying grace helps us understand we're worthy in God's eyes despite our flaws. Rather than a single dramatic epiphany, most of us experience this through countless small moments of recognition throughout our lives.
Sanctifying grace draws us deeper, like spiritual "Pringles" or "carne asada" – one taste and we crave more connection with God. This explains why we move from attending worship to joining study groups to eventually leading ministries. We're "God junkies" seeking deeper experiences of divine love. Wesley even spoke of "Christian perfection" – those rare, perfect moments when we're exactly who God intends us to be. Like those instances when we parent exactly right, these glimpses of perfection sustain us through our ongoing transformation.
Ready to explore how grace is working in your life? Join us in discovering how these three types of grace are transforming you from the inside out. Where have you experienced a perfect moment of connection with God recently?
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Pastor Darren (00:00):
So, yeah, we're talking about grace, such an
important concept for a UnitedMethodist and I thought what is
a better example of grace thanthe love of a mother on Mother's
Day, am I right?
Is that a good one?
Right?
You know, being a parent myself, I feel like sometimes we love
(00:23):
them unconditionally andsometimes we're not even really
happy that we love themunconditionally, right, you know
, you have that sense, becausethey just there's this tie, that
there's something there in thebiology or what have you, in the
divinity of intimaterelationships.
(00:45):
And you know, I startedthinking of some of our images
of perfect moms that we haveculturally, the ones we all kind
of share.
You know, I'm thinking was itJune Cleaver from way back when?
Right, carol Brady, the perfectmoms?
I don't know.
Can you think of others?
I don't know.
(01:05):
Can you think of others?
I don't know, pastor got badears.
Harriet Nelson, right Now we'regoing way back there again.
Are there not?
See everybody today?
They're just on their.
You know, the TikToks andthings like that.
The moms are influencers that Iwouldn't recognize, right?
But other moms that you thinkof, like, oh, that was a good
(01:26):
mom, I'm trying to be a mom,just like that.
Nobody said, Roseanne, that onedidn't come up, see, and part
of it.
I really appreciate Roseanne asa mom, as a parent, because
there was this reminder thatwe're not quite perfect as
(01:48):
parents, right, you knowsomebody that was willing to
embrace that and not have it allthe rough edges evened out.
It was like it was just thereand it was, in that sense, I did
appreciate that because ithelped me to remember.
You know, I'm trying to be agood parent, you know, and I'm
working hard at it, and I thinkmoms probably would feel the
(02:10):
same way.
And every now and again, everynow and again, I get it right,
surprise, surprise, and we hitit strong and I celebrate that
when that happens.
So, taking that sort of model,that metaphor, into mind here,
as we go into Ephesians to learna little bit more about grace,
(02:32):
as Linda said, the letter to theEphesians is supposed to be
this kind of grand vision of aChristian future.
Right, this is what it's goingto look like for us down here
when we all start living intoGod's love better and more
passionately and morecontinually.
Now here is one little questionthat lurks in the midst of all
(02:58):
of that and it gets us here onverse 6, and raised us up with
him and seated us with him inthe heavenly places in Christ
Jesus.
Sometimes people will readEphesians and they'll start
thinking that Paul or thePauline writer here is talking
(03:18):
about something beyond thisworld.
And so we wrestle right, oh,this is the world we're going to
get to go to, you know next.
But I've always wrestled withthat idea that he's talking
about some other world, or atleast that that's all that he's
talking about.
I really feel like this writeris trying to get us into the
(03:42):
place where we are, are talkingabout how our behavior in this
world is affected, and I see ithere in verse 10.
For we are what he has made us.
Created in Christ Jesus forgood works, which God prepared
beforehand to be our way of life.
(04:04):
Created in Christ Jesus forgood works.
I'm kind of thinking if goodworks are the priority, are the
goal, then that must mean here,that must mean building this
world that God wants built downhere, that our Pauline Ryder
wants built down here, that thatour Pauline writer once built,
(04:32):
and it would make sense for a,for somebody who was really
close to Paul, or even Paulhimself, this idea of the grace
of God and how important God'sgrace is.
Do you remember in in verse 3,when it started talking about
children of wrath?
I mean, that was kind of Paul.
Some of you know the story ofPaul, who was Saul, somebody who
(04:55):
was chasing Christians down,somebody who was oppressing
Christians.
And then has this awakening GodJesus comes to him, blinds him
and says I'm looking for you tochange your ways, paul.
And he fights it.
And then he gets awakened tothis new understanding of what
(05:16):
it means to live in this world,what it means to live life in a
more bountiful way.
And for him, being that kind ofcreature of wrath, this person
who wasn't very nice, in factdoing some un-nice things, for
God to come to him, well, whatother word is there but grace,
(05:39):
unconditional love.
You could argue he didn'tdeserve unconditional love and
yet he got it.
So it makes sense to me thatPaul would be talking about
grace and the importance ofgrace.
Even John Wesley right, whowe've been talking about last
week, we're going to talk aboutfor a few more weeks.
(06:00):
Grace would be so important tohim.
You were here last week, youmay remember, when I was talking
about how he had.
He had that experience.
His heart strangely warmed forme, an experience of realizing
God's grace, god's love for him.
He thought, if he worked reallyhard and he created this
(06:23):
absolutely brilliant method forfollowing Christ and
understanding scripture, thatthat was what was going to get
him into God's good graces, thatwas what was going to make God
love him.
And then he has that experienceat Aldersgate that says wait a
minute, I don't have to earnthis, I probably can't earn this
(06:44):
because it's already coming tome.
That's the type of grace thatwe're talking about here.
That's the grace that Paul,that John Wesley wants us to
know, the grace that God wantsus to feel as we walk our way in
(07:05):
this world.
So I use that as my avenue intoWesleyan grace.
Wesleyan grace it is grounded inthe grace that we have been
saved through faith and that weare created in Christ Jesus for
good works.
Both verses from our Ephesianspassage today and Wesley this
(07:30):
could be a good passage for himas he reaches into that
understanding.
He breaks it up into threedifferent types of grace, three
different types.
How many engineers out there?
All right, we got a couple,aren't you glad?
I'm numbering it.
You can take some notes.
(07:51):
Have some organization.
Finally, pastor, all right,this is for you Three.
I might even give you bullets.
I'm teasing the engineers butthey're just staring at me Like
right, you guys are very ordered.
John's not smiling at all.
Come on now, we're having funhere.
(08:13):
The number the first one thegrace that comes.
Before we call it provenientgrace.
I have a definition up here.
Provenient grace in Christiantheology is the grace of God
that proceeds and enables aperson to respond to the gospel
of Jesus Christ.
It suggests God initiates theprocess of salvation by drawing
(08:37):
individuals to God, making itpossible for them to choose to
believe.
So a little bit complex there.
The simple way to say it is thegift from God that comes to us,
of a love that finds us beforewe even know it exists, before
(08:59):
we even know that God loves usunconditionally.
That love is coming to us andit's coming to us in a way that
we start to understand that love.
I always think of baptism when Ithink of pervenient grace,
baptism, remember, we're makingsome commitment to God.
(09:22):
Do you ever wonder in baptism,that commitment to God that
babies are making?
When we do the infant baptism,do you ever ask yourself well,
wait a minute, how's that babymaking a choice Anybody.
No, you've all got it figuredout.
We're mature theologians.
(09:42):
Don't just patronize us, pastor.
All right, let's pretend I'mthe one who asks this question.
We ask ourselves okay, well,what promises are being made
then?
What's the commitment that'shappening?
And if you look at the actualritual, you look at the liturgy,
(10:04):
the baby's obviously not makingpromises.
It's the parents, it's thegrandparents, it's the community
around the child, it's theparents, it's the grandparents,
it's the community around thechild, it's the congregation
around the child.
Those are the promises that arebeing made.
And why is that?
(10:25):
Except that they are promisingto live God's unconditional love
so powerfully, to live God'sunconditional love so powerfully
, so intentionally, that thebaby is going to know that love.
The baby's going to know thatit exists.
(10:46):
At a time when a baby can'treally understand the idea of a
God, or even that a God mightlove them, what they can know is
that their parents love themunconditionally, that their
congregation loves themunconditionally.
To me, that is the best exampleof what provenient grace is,
because in that unconditionallove that's delivered from God
(11:07):
through that community, thatperson's going to know that they
are loved, that community, thatperson's going to know that
they are loved.
The next type of a Wesleyangrace is called justifying grace
.
Here's the big words.
(11:27):
You know where I got the bigwords Google?
Google's like it's a prettygood tool, everyone you know.
I thought, all right, maybeI'll start writing something out
.
What does Google have to sayabout this?
And then it turns out they'reactually pretty good.
So what are you going to do?
Right, Justifying grace inChristian theology, particularly
within Wesleyan traditions LikeI said, wesleyan traditions,
(11:48):
very much integrated with grace.
It's an important concept for us, united Methodists and other
Wesleyan churches.
It refers to the grace by whichGod declares a person righteous
and forgives their sins,restoring them to a right
relationship with him.
This grace is a gift from God,received through faith in Jesus
(12:10):
Christ, and it's thefoundational step in the process
of salvation.
So again, thick words.
I wanted to give you the formaldefinition.
Let me simplify it for you alittle bit.
This is God's gift of our beingable to know that we are
justified in God's sight, thegift that we can know that God
(12:38):
loves us and know that we are Ilike to use the word worthy we
are worthy in God's eyes.
That's a gift that God gives us, an unconditional gift to be
able to recognize that love.
Personally, I think this is theexperience, this is the type of
grace that Wesley experienced atAldersgate.
(13:00):
Like I said earlier, he'ssitting there working really
hard, developing those holygroups that have this highly
routine method of following Godand learning faith and deepening
in your relationship, and he'sgetting really intense with
everybody around him.
You might think I don't knowDanny DeVito out there trying to
(13:24):
convince you to follow God.
You know that kind of image Hmm, you guys are laughing really
loud on the inside is what I'mhearing.
Yeah, he felt like he had to doit right, he had to do it
perfect, he had to work harderthan everybody else and that is
(13:48):
what God was going to see andthat is what was going to save
him.
And then he's at Aldersgate andhe realizes wait a minute, I'm
already saved.
God already loves me.
I just need to believe it, Ineed to have faith in it.
That's why he says we are savedby grace, through faith.
(14:11):
It only works if we believe it,if we live it, and I think that
is what happened with Wesley.
Then we think about that and wehear that story, I offer that
story, and then we think ofjustifying grace as some sort of
epiphany, some moment rightwhen God comes down and the
(14:32):
lights shine bright and we getthis ultimate answer to all the
challenges of our life, and Godbless them.
Some people get that, and Ihate them, because it was never
that easy for me.
It's been a long journey ofjust working with God and
walking with God, and so wethink of that justifying grace
(14:55):
moment as being such an epiphany.
But isn't it for most of us, alot of small epiphanies, a lot
of small moments where we startlooking at our lives and at
ourselves and we're reminded ofsomething that we haven't been
able to do right and we continueto do it wrong.
I'm not supposed to eat theseanymore, and yet here I am again
(15:21):
.
I'm not supposed to be gettingangry about these anymore, and
yet here I am again, thesemoments of questioning in
ourselves whether we'rejustified, whether we're worthy,
because we can't figure out howto be perfect, how to do it
(15:45):
right.
A lot of us wrestle with justthat self-love.
We think that this whole newmovement of loving yourself is
something new.
It's not new.
We've just changed the languageRight, where today we might say
something like instead ofsaying you've got to love
yourself, we would say.
(16:06):
We would say the creator of all, that is, the source of love
itself, loves you with all ofyour imperfections, so maybe you
should love yourself too.
Justifying grace is an importantgrace because it might be the
(16:30):
one we wrestle with the most.
All right, a third type ofgrace, sanctifying grace.
This is the big definition.
Sanctifying grace In Christiantheology, it's a divine gift
from God that dwells within thesoul, enabling it to live a life
pleasing to God and ultimatelyachieving eternal salvation.
(16:51):
Pleasing to God and ultimatelyachieving eternal salvation.
It is often called habitualgrace or deifying grace, as it
becomes a permanent part of thesoul, transforming it into a
child of God.
You got it.
Would you pass the test rightnow?
Right, if I pad the quiz?
I threw it out there.
Does it all make sense?
Here's a simplification, pastorDarren's simplification.
(17:14):
To me, it means God has givenyou the gift of the capacity to
grow in your depth of faith.
You are able to work in yourown way towards getting closer
to God and what God wants foryou, to being the person that
God wants you to be, to reachingthe people God wants you to
(17:37):
reach.
There is a part of the divinein you that draws you to the
deeper, the depths of ourexistence, and it shapes our
soul.
And God is always inviting usinto those depths, not only from
outside ourselves inviting usinto those spiritual depths, but
(18:01):
it's also coming from inside, adesire to want to be in a
deeper intimacy with the sourceof love for this world, an
intimacy that leads to somepeace, to some comfort, to some
feelings of justice and context.
It's like God is alwaysinviting us into that depth and,
(18:26):
as a Wesleyan, that invitationto me is driven by justifying
grace.
We get a little affirmationYou're worthy, worthy of God.
God loves you.
We get a little affirmation andwe want more of that.
(18:46):
Why do people grow?
As a Wesleyan?
It's because we get a taste ofjustifying grace and we want
more and we start working intothose ways of sanctifying grace
and what you find is that themore you want that, the deeper
you want to go, the more you gotto engage in it.
(19:07):
So you'll come to church andyou'll learn and you'll be being
fed by that.
And then all of a sudden you'relike you know, I might, I might
need to do a study, I mightneed to do a mission project to
get to, to get you know we'rewe're god junkies now and we
need to get our fix of thataffirmation of that love.
(19:29):
And then we do that for a whileand then we realize, you know,
I really I think I could runthat thing.
I feel like God maybe wants meto go even a next level and
start organizing the mission,leading the Bible study.
That's kind of how it rolls out.
We United Methodists we'recounting on that.
That.
You get a little piece of thatand then you just start moving
(19:53):
closer and closer because we'vegot that capacity, the gift of
God to be able to work on it andwe're just drawn into that
depth and we want more and moreand more.
It's like Pringles, really Right, you get into that, can you
know?
It's barely food, and yetyou're like one.
(20:16):
And then there's two, you know,and before long you're halfway
through the tube.
Or maybe for you it's likecarne asada.
You ever had really good carneasada?
It's like it's candy and you'relike I'll just have a little
bit.
Are you with me?
(20:36):
Say amen, if you're with me.
Oh, yeah, you've been there.
What else would be on your list?
I got carne asada on mine.
Chocolate oh no, geneticallyengineered to grab us.
Yeah, it takes hold of us andI'm making light of it in a
(21:01):
certain way, but that's the ideafor United Methodist.
That's the draw for us is thataffirmation, that context, that
is a loving context.
It just draws us in.
Now I want to finish by talkingabout perfection, because this
is a provocative thing.
It's mostly a Wesleyan thing,because most faith movements
(21:23):
don't want you to talk aboutperfection.
They want to steer you awayfrom arrogance and feeling like
you have too much control.
God is the source.
Stay focused on God.
But Wesley did not shy away fromthe idea that there was a state
of perfection that can bereached, and I think the reason
(21:44):
he was able to do this isbecause he realized that it was
temporal.
You could reach a state ofperfection, but then life would
move on and you may not be inthat state, but you could, for a
moment, be exactly who Godwanted you to be, doing exactly
what God wanted you to do,reaching exactly who God wanted
(22:07):
you to reach, living deeply inthat spirit.
Wesley felt like you could getthere.
But there are moments of thatand my guess is the people in
the room have had similarmoments like that where you're
like ah, this is it, this iswhere God wants me to be, this
(22:30):
is where God has me gettingnourished, this is where God
wants me to be, this is whereGod has me getting nourished,
this is where God has me livingout my call using my gifts.
And there was that moment, andyou were fed by that moment in
deep, deep ways and it was, inits own way, perfect, if just
for that moment.
(22:50):
Perfect if just for that moment.
To me, I can feel that metaphor,that understanding, when I
think about parenting.
You know, we're talking withall the moms today.
You know, on Mother's Day andabout parenting and about being
a mom, and maybe you're like mejust a little bit.
(23:11):
You want to love themunconditionally.
And sometimes you do Fullconfession.
I'm not a perfect parent.
My daughter's here, she canattest Don't do too much
(23:41):
attesting though, friends hereafter all but I'm not the
perfect parent, but I, you know,I'm doing the best that I can
and hopefully, with with God'shelp, with God's grace in all
its forms, I get better as I goalong.
Every now and again I make theright decision.
Every now and again I say theright thing and sometimes I get
it just right, if only for amoment.
(24:04):
But aren't those the momentsthat we live for, the moments
that we cherish in life?
And we have that moment and wego back to God and we say give
me some more of that, amen.
Amen.
So, yeah, we're talking about grace, such an
important concept for a UnitedMethodist and I thought what is
a better example of grace thanthe love of a mother on Mother's
Day, am I right?
Is that a good one?
Right?
You know, being a parent myself, I feel like sometimes we love
(00:23):
them unconditionally andsometimes we're not even really
happy that we love themunconditionally, right, you know
, you have that sense, becausethey just there's this tie, that
there's something there in thebiology or what have you, in the
divinity of intimaterelationships.
(00:45):
And you know, I startedthinking of some of our images
of perfect moms that we haveculturally, the ones we all kind
of share.
You know, I'm thinking was itJune Cleaver from way back when?
Right, carol Brady, the perfectmoms?
I don't know.
Can you think of others?
I don't know.
(01:05):
Can you think of others?
I don't know, pastor got badears.
Harriet Nelson, right Now we'regoing way back there again.
Are there not?
See everybody today?
They're just on their.
You know, the TikToks andthings like that.
The moms are influencers that Iwouldn't recognize, right?
But other moms that you thinkof, like, oh, that was a good
(01:26):
mom, I'm trying to be a mom,just like that.
Nobody said, Roseanne, that onedidn't come up, see, and part
of it.
I really appreciate Roseanne asa mom, as a parent, because
there was this reminder thatwe're not quite perfect as
(01:48):
parents, right, you knowsomebody that was willing to
embrace that and not have it allthe rough edges evened out.
It was like it was just thereand it was, in that sense, I did
appreciate that because ithelped me to remember.
You know, I'm trying to be agood parent, you know, and I'm
working hard at it, and I thinkmoms probably would feel the
(02:10):
same way.
And every now and again, everynow and again, I get it right,
surprise, surprise, and we hitit strong and I celebrate that
when that happens.
So, taking that sort of model,that metaphor, into mind here,
as we go into Ephesians to learna little bit more about grace,
(02:32):
as Linda said, the letter to theEphesians is supposed to be
this kind of grand vision of aChristian future.
Right, this is what it's goingto look like for us down here
when we all start living intoGod's love better and more
passionately and morecontinually.
Now here is one little questionthat lurks in the midst of all
(02:58):
of that and it gets us here onverse 6, and raised us up with
him and seated us with him inthe heavenly places in Christ
Jesus.
Sometimes people will readEphesians and they'll start
thinking that Paul or thePauline writer here is talking
(03:18):
about something beyond thisworld.
And so we wrestle right, oh,this is the world we're going to
get to go to, you know next.
But I've always wrestled withthat idea that he's talking
about some other world, or atleast that that's all that he's
talking about.
I really feel like this writeris trying to get us into the
(03:42):
place where we are, are talkingabout how our behavior in this
world is affected, and I see ithere in verse 10.
For we are what he has made us.
Created in Christ Jesus forgood works, which God prepared
beforehand to be our way of life.
(04:04):
Created in Christ Jesus forgood works.
I'm kind of thinking if goodworks are the priority, are the
goal, then that must mean here,that must mean building this
world that God wants built downhere, that our Pauline Ryder
wants built down here, that thatour Pauline writer once built,
(04:32):
and it would make sense for a,for somebody who was really
close to Paul, or even Paulhimself, this idea of the grace
of God and how important God'sgrace is.
Do you remember in in verse 3,when it started talking about
children of wrath?
I mean, that was kind of Paul.
Some of you know the story ofPaul, who was Saul, somebody who
(04:55):
was chasing Christians down,somebody who was oppressing
Christians.
And then has this awakening GodJesus comes to him, blinds him
and says I'm looking for you tochange your ways, paul.
And he fights it.
And then he gets awakened tothis new understanding of what
(05:16):
it means to live in this world,what it means to live life in a
more bountiful way.
And for him, being that kind ofcreature of wrath, this person
who wasn't very nice, in factdoing some un-nice things, for
God to come to him, well, whatother word is there but grace,
(05:39):
unconditional love.
You could argue he didn'tdeserve unconditional love and
yet he got it.
So it makes sense to me thatPaul would be talking about
grace and the importance ofgrace.
Even John Wesley right, whowe've been talking about last
week, we're going to talk aboutfor a few more weeks.
(06:00):
Grace would be so important tohim.
You were here last week, youmay remember, when I was talking
about how he had.
He had that experience.
His heart strangely warmed forme, an experience of realizing
God's grace, god's love for him.
He thought, if he worked reallyhard and he created this
(06:23):
absolutely brilliant method forfollowing Christ and
understanding scripture, thatthat was what was going to get
him into God's good graces, thatwas what was going to make God
love him.
And then he has that experienceat Aldersgate that says wait a
minute, I don't have to earnthis, I probably can't earn this
(06:44):
because it's already coming tome.
That's the type of grace thatwe're talking about here.
That's the grace that Paul,that John Wesley wants us to
know, the grace that God wantsus to feel as we walk our way in
(07:05):
this world.
So I use that as my avenue intoWesleyan grace.
Wesleyan grace it is grounded inthe grace that we have been
saved through faith and that weare created in Christ Jesus for
good works.
Both verses from our Ephesianspassage today and Wesley this
(07:30):
could be a good passage for himas he reaches into that
understanding.
He breaks it up into threedifferent types of grace, three
different types.
How many engineers out there?
All right, we got a couple,aren't you glad?
I'm numbering it.
You can take some notes.
(07:51):
Have some organization.
Finally, pastor, all right,this is for you Three.
I might even give you bullets.
I'm teasing the engineers butthey're just staring at me Like
right, you guys are very ordered.
John's not smiling at all.
Come on now, we're having funhere.
(08:13):
The number the first one thegrace that comes.
Before we call it provenientgrace.
I have a definition up here.
Provenient grace in Christiantheology is the grace of God
that proceeds and enables aperson to respond to the gospel
of Jesus Christ.
It suggests God initiates theprocess of salvation by drawing
(08:37):
individuals to God, making itpossible for them to choose to
believe.
So a little bit complex there.
The simple way to say it is thegift from God that comes to us,
of a love that finds us beforewe even know it exists, before
(08:59):
we even know that God loves usunconditionally.
That love is coming to us andit's coming to us in a way that
we start to understand that love.
I always think of baptism when Ithink of pervenient grace,
baptism, remember, we're makingsome commitment to God.
(09:22):
Do you ever wonder in baptism,that commitment to God that
babies are making?
When we do the infant baptism,do you ever ask yourself well,
wait a minute, how's that babymaking a choice Anybody.
No, you've all got it figuredout.
We're mature theologians.
(09:42):
Don't just patronize us, pastor.
All right, let's pretend I'mthe one who asks this question.
We ask ourselves okay, well,what promises are being made
then?
What's the commitment that'shappening?
And if you look at the actualritual, you look at the liturgy,
(10:04):
the baby's obviously not makingpromises.
It's the parents, it's thegrandparents, it's the community
around the child, it's theparents, it's the grandparents,
it's the community around thechild, it's the congregation
around the child.
Those are the promises that arebeing made.
And why is that?
(10:25):
Except that they are promisingto live God's unconditional love
so powerfully, to live God'sunconditional love so powerfully
, so intentionally, that thebaby is going to know that love.
The baby's going to know thatit exists.
(10:46):
At a time when a baby can'treally understand the idea of a
God, or even that a God mightlove them, what they can know is
that their parents love themunconditionally, that their
congregation loves themunconditionally.
To me, that is the best exampleof what provenient grace is,
because in that unconditionallove that's delivered from God
(11:07):
through that community, thatperson's going to know that they
are loved, that community, thatperson's going to know that
they are loved.
The next type of a Wesleyangrace is called justifying grace
.
Here's the big words.
(11:27):
You know where I got the bigwords Google?
Google's like it's a prettygood tool, everyone you know.
I thought, all right, maybeI'll start writing something out
.
What does Google have to sayabout this?
And then it turns out they'reactually pretty good.
So what are you going to do?
Right, Justifying grace inChristian theology, particularly
within Wesleyan traditions LikeI said, wesleyan traditions,
(11:48):
very much integrated with grace.
It's an important concept for us, united Methodists and other
Wesleyan churches.
It refers to the grace by whichGod declares a person righteous
and forgives their sins,restoring them to a right
relationship with him.
This grace is a gift from God,received through faith in Jesus
(12:10):
Christ, and it's thefoundational step in the process
of salvation.
So again, thick words.
I wanted to give you the formaldefinition.
Let me simplify it for you alittle bit.
This is God's gift of our beingable to know that we are
justified in God's sight, thegift that we can know that God
(12:38):
loves us and know that we are Ilike to use the word worthy we
are worthy in God's eyes.
That's a gift that God gives us, an unconditional gift to be
able to recognize that love.
Personally, I think this is theexperience, this is the type of
grace that Wesley experienced atAldersgate.
(13:00):
Like I said earlier, he'ssitting there working really
hard, developing those holygroups that have this highly
routine method of following Godand learning faith and deepening
in your relationship, and he'sgetting really intense with
everybody around him.
You might think I don't knowDanny DeVito out there trying to
(13:24):
convince you to follow God.
You know that kind of image Hmm, you guys are laughing really
loud on the inside is what I'mhearing.
Yeah, he felt like he had to doit right, he had to do it
perfect, he had to work harderthan everybody else and that is
(13:48):
what God was going to see andthat is what was going to save
him.
And then he's at Aldersgate andhe realizes wait a minute, I'm
already saved.
God already loves me.
I just need to believe it, Ineed to have faith in it.
That's why he says we are savedby grace, through faith.
(14:11):
It only works if we believe it,if we live it, and I think that
is what happened with Wesley.
Then we think about that and wehear that story, I offer that
story, and then we think ofjustifying grace as some sort of
epiphany, some moment rightwhen God comes down and the
(14:32):
lights shine bright and we getthis ultimate answer to all the
challenges of our life, and Godbless them.
Some people get that, and Ihate them, because it was never
that easy for me.
It's been a long journey ofjust working with God and
walking with God, and so wethink of that justifying grace
(14:55):
moment as being such an epiphany.
But isn't it for most of us, alot of small epiphanies, a lot
of small moments where we startlooking at our lives and at
ourselves and we're reminded ofsomething that we haven't been
able to do right and we continueto do it wrong.
I'm not supposed to eat theseanymore, and yet here I am again
(15:21):
.
I'm not supposed to be gettingangry about these anymore, and
yet here I am again, thesemoments of questioning in
ourselves whether we'rejustified, whether we're worthy,
because we can't figure out howto be perfect, how to do it
(15:45):
right.
A lot of us wrestle with justthat self-love.
We think that this whole newmovement of loving yourself is
something new.
It's not new.
We've just changed the languageRight, where today we might say
something like instead ofsaying you've got to love
yourself, we would say.
(16:06):
We would say the creator of all, that is, the source of love
itself, loves you with all ofyour imperfections, so maybe you
should love yourself too.
Justifying grace is an importantgrace because it might be the
(16:30):
one we wrestle with the most.
All right, a third type ofgrace, sanctifying grace.
This is the big definition.
Sanctifying grace In Christiantheology, it's a divine gift
from God that dwells within thesoul, enabling it to live a life
pleasing to God and ultimatelyachieving eternal salvation.
(16:51):
Pleasing to God and ultimatelyachieving eternal salvation.
It is often called habitualgrace or deifying grace, as it
becomes a permanent part of thesoul, transforming it into a
child of God.
You got it.
Would you pass the test rightnow?
Right, if I pad the quiz?
I threw it out there.
Does it all make sense?
Here's a simplification, pastorDarren's simplification.
(17:14):
To me, it means God has givenyou the gift of the capacity to
grow in your depth of faith.
You are able to work in yourown way towards getting closer
to God and what God wants foryou, to being the person that
God wants you to be, to reachingthe people God wants you to
(17:37):
reach.
There is a part of the divinein you that draws you to the
deeper, the depths of ourexistence, and it shapes our
soul.
And God is always inviting usinto those depths, not only from
outside ourselves inviting usinto those spiritual depths, but
(18:01):
it's also coming from inside, adesire to want to be in a
deeper intimacy with the sourceof love for this world, an
intimacy that leads to somepeace, to some comfort, to some
feelings of justice and context.
It's like God is alwaysinviting us into that depth and,
(18:26):
as a Wesleyan, that invitationto me is driven by justifying
grace.
We get a little affirmationYou're worthy, worthy of God.
God loves you.
We get a little affirmation andwe want more of that.
(18:46):
Why do people grow?
As a Wesleyan?
It's because we get a taste ofjustifying grace and we want
more and we start working intothose ways of sanctifying grace
and what you find is that themore you want that, the deeper
you want to go, the more you gotto engage in it.
(19:07):
So you'll come to church andyou'll learn and you'll be being
fed by that.
And then all of a sudden you'relike you know, I might, I might
need to do a study, I mightneed to do a mission project to
get to, to get you know we'rewe're god junkies now and we
need to get our fix of thataffirmation of that love.
(19:29):
And then we do that for a whileand then we realize, you know,
I really I think I could runthat thing.
I feel like God maybe wants meto go even a next level and
start organizing the mission,leading the Bible study.
That's kind of how it rolls out.
We United Methodists we'recounting on that.
That.
You get a little piece of thatand then you just start moving
(19:53):
closer and closer because we'vegot that capacity, the gift of
God to be able to work on it andwe're just drawn into that
depth and we want more and moreand more.
It's like Pringles, really Right, you get into that, can you
know?
It's barely food, and yetyou're like one.
(20:16):
And then there's two, you know,and before long you're halfway
through the tube.
Or maybe for you it's likecarne asada.
You ever had really good carneasada?
It's like it's candy and you'relike I'll just have a little
bit.
Are you with me?
(20:36):
Say amen, if you're with me.
Oh, yeah, you've been there.
What else would be on your list?
I got carne asada on mine.
Chocolate oh no, geneticallyengineered to grab us.
Yeah, it takes hold of us andI'm making light of it in a
(21:01):
certain way, but that's the ideafor United Methodist.
That's the draw for us is thataffirmation, that context, that
is a loving context.
It just draws us in.
Now I want to finish by talkingabout perfection, because this
is a provocative thing.
It's mostly a Wesleyan thing,because most faith movements
(21:23):
don't want you to talk aboutperfection.
They want to steer you awayfrom arrogance and feeling like
you have too much control.
God is the source.
Stay focused on God.
But Wesley did not shy away fromthe idea that there was a state
of perfection that can bereached, and I think the reason
(21:44):
he was able to do this isbecause he realized that it was
temporal.
You could reach a state ofperfection, but then life would
move on and you may not be inthat state, but you could, for a
moment, be exactly who Godwanted you to be, doing exactly
what God wanted you to do,reaching exactly who God wanted
(22:07):
you to reach, living deeply inthat spirit.
Wesley felt like you could getthere.
But there are moments of thatand my guess is the people in
the room have had similarmoments like that where you're
like ah, this is it, this iswhere God wants me to be, this
(22:30):
is where God has me gettingnourished, this is where God
wants me to be, this is whereGod has me getting nourished,
this is where God has me livingout my call using my gifts.
And there was that moment, andyou were fed by that moment in
deep, deep ways and it was, inits own way, perfect, if just
for that moment.
(22:50):
Perfect if just for that moment.
To me, I can feel that metaphor,that understanding, when I
think about parenting.
You know, we're talking withall the moms today.
You know, on Mother's Day andabout parenting and about being
a mom, and maybe you're like mejust a little bit.
(23:11):
You want to love themunconditionally.
And sometimes you do Fullconfession.
I'm not a perfect parent.
My daughter's here, she canattest Don't do too much
(23:41):
attesting though, friends hereafter all but I'm not the
perfect parent, but I, you know,I'm doing the best that I can
and hopefully, with with God'shelp, with God's grace in all
its forms, I get better as I goalong.
Every now and again I make theright decision.
Every now and again I say theright thing and sometimes I get
it just right, if only for amoment.
(24:04):
But aren't those the momentsthat we live for, the moments
that we cherish in life?
And we have that moment and wego back to God and we say give
me some more of that, amen.
Amen.
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