And this morning's passage is an especially tricky passage. And before we read it together, just to get us thinking, I want to ask some questions.
Firstly, really, what are your roots? What are your roots? I don't know if you've ever seen the kind of ancestry show on the BBC.
Who do you think you are? Where celebrities go on it to kind of discover what their roots are.
I watched an episode recently with the comedian Jack Whitehall, and he got all excited about one of his ancestors being from Birmingham.
He was expecting, I think, to be descended from like a Peaky Blinder or at least some minor aristocrat or something.
Instead, he discovered a man who had a taste for sleeping with prostitutes, who got syphilis, who gave it to his wife and who died in an asylum.
What are your roots?
One of my ancestors was the Bishop of London. I've always been quite proud of that fact.
And as far as I can tell, he was a pretty good guy, preaching passionately, working hard for social change in the East End of London.
But I discovered a couple of years ago that he wasn't just straightforwardly a good guy.
He was the Bishop of London during World War I, and he earned the nickname the belligerent bishop.
Apparently, he would regularly use awful xenophobic language about ordinary German people.
And he even promoted the idea that we should be bombing civilians, that that would be the best means of winning the war.
What are your roots?
If you're a Christian here today, I think it's also worth asking, what are your Christian roots?
I mean, you can think about the person who told you about Jesus and who told them and who told them and so on.
But go far enough back.
And if you're a Christian here today, it's probably partly because of this guy called Charlemagne.
You might have heard of Charlemagne.
He was the first man to unite Western Europe and Central Europe, the kind of first guy to do that since the Roman Empire.
And it was during his reign that the gospel was first brought to the shores of Britain.
If you're here today and you're a Christian, you've got a lot to be grateful to this guy for.
Sounds like a pretty good guy.
But really, things were very messy.
In the year 782, more than 4,500 Saxons were massacred by Charlemagne for refusing to convert to Christianity.
A bit like in our passage today, he had 18 children to seven different women.
And those are our roots.
If you're a Christian here today, it's also probably partly because of this guy, Oliver Cromwell.
Again, you've probably heard of Cromwell.
He was an important figure in the kind of continued reformation in Britain,
challenging the assumptions of divine monarchy and encouraging evangelical, independent Protestantism.
We've got a lot to be grateful to him for.
Sounds pretty good.
But again, in doing so, things were messy.
In Ireland, October 1649, and apologies for the history lesson here.
But in October 1649, troops under Cromwell's command killed more than 3,000 people, including 1,500 civilians.
As you can imagine, he was and in many places still is wildly unpopular.
But these are our Christian roots.
The Crusades, the 30 years war, transatlantic slavery, witch hunts, the Inquisition.
It was Christians that did all of that.
These are our roots.
In every century of Christian history, atrocity after atrocity has been committed.
And we can discuss whether these people really were Christians.
I'm sure some of them weren't, but I'm equally sure that some of them really were.
And either way, there's no denying it.
If you're a Christian here today, these are our roots.
As we look down the ages and as we assess the behavior of individual Christians,
maybe especially as we assess the behavior of the Christian church,
as we assess our roots, we have to say, don't we, there is something deeply rotten there.
In fact, friends of mine have often told me that this is exactly why they're not Christians.
Why they could never be Christians.
Just look at all the bad stuff that Christians have done.
And they're right.
And, you know, I think it's actually much worse than that.
Because those are our roots, but it's also true today, isn't it?
Friends of mine, they look at history and they say that.
But for them, it's also the hypocrisy in the church.
The hypocrisy of Christians.
You know, they look at us and they just see that we don't look like anything like the Jesus that we say we follow.
And again, they're right, aren't they?
They're right about me anyway.
Nothing like Jesus.
My friends know me well enough.
If they've ever seen me behind the wheel of a car, as simple as that,
they know that I can get very angry and that I'm extremely selfish.
And that in so many ways, I'm just like them.
Do your friends know that about you?
Maybe as you look around this morning, I guess it's possible that you feel like you're the dirtiest and rottenest person in this room.
And maybe you feel like if only they knew, they probably wouldn't have even let me in this morning.
Let me tell you that the truth is the person sitting next to you probably feels exactly the same way.
And if they don't, maybe you're here this morning and that's not you.
And instead, you think you're doing pretty well, that you actually deserve to be here,
that you deserve his grace, that you've done everything necessary for God to be kind to you.
Either way, whoever you are this morning, wherever you sit, I guess, on that spectrum, you need to know this.
As we look at our rotten roots,
we have to say that the Christian church could only possibly exist today by God's grace.
And as we look at our lives, we have to say the only way that it's going to continue is by God's grace,
his utterly undeserved kindness to us.
God establishes his people by grace in spite of their mess.
And God keeps his people by grace in spite of their mess.
Grace is the way in.
And grace is the way on.
We've been in this series in Genesis over the last couple of months when God's grace meets our mess.
It's the story of Jacob.
Just before we read our passage this morning, a little bit of context so that you know where we've got to in this story,
if you haven't been here.
We've seen that the key to understanding this story are God's promises to his people,
especially the promises he makes through this family, the promises to Abraham.
We've just seen one of those with Ian and then to Abraham's son and then to Isaac's son, now to Jacob.
So four things, really.
Promises of a place to call home.
Promises of his presence with them.
Promises of a glorious purpose that they would bless the nations.
And then most importantly for us this morning, and as Ian has read,
the promises that they would be a numerous people.
In Genesis chapter 15, we saw God's promise of that in that way to Abraham.
In chapter 26, that promise is reaffirmed to Isaac.
He says, I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky.
And that is a very unlikely promise.
And not least because both Abraham and Isaac struggle to have children.
But God does just enough to continue their family line.
And the promise continues, as we saw just a couple of weeks ago in chapter 28,
the promise to Jacob.
All four elements were there.
Place, presence, purpose, and people.
Especially for today, your descendants will be like the dust of the earth.
And so as we come to our reading this morning, that promise begins to be fulfilled.
But it's not exactly sunshine and roses.
And so turn to Genesis chapter 29 with me.
You'll find it on page 32 of the Pew Bibles.
Genesis chapter 29.
We'll mostly be in chapter 30, actually, but we'll start in chapter 29.
See with me how God's grace was at work, even in a massive, massive mess.
So chapter 29 from verse 31.
When the Lord saw that Leah was not loved, he enabled her to conceive.
But Rachel remained childless.
Leah became pregnant and gave birth to a son.
She named him Reuben, for she said,
It is because the Lord has seen my misery.
Surely my husband will love me now.
She conceived again.
And when she gave birth to a son, she said,
Because the Lord heard that I am not loved, he gave me this one too.
So she named him Simeon.
Again, she conceived.
And when she gave birth to a son, she said,
Now at last my husband will become attached to me,
because I have borne him three sons.
So he was named Levi.
She conceived again.
And when she gave birth to a son, she said,
This time I will praise the Lord.
So she named him Judah.
Then she stopped having children.
When Rachel saw that she was not bearing Jacob any children,
she became jealous of her sister.
So she said to Jacob,
Give me children or I'll die.
Jacob became angry with her and said,
Am I in the place of God?
Who has kept you from having children?
Then she said,
Here is Bilhah, my servant.
Sleep with her so that she can bear children for me,
and I too can build a family through her.
So she gave him her servant Bilhah as a wife.
Jacob slept with her and she became pregnant and bore him a son.
Then Rachel said,
God has vindicated me.
He has listened to my plea and given me a son.
Because of this, she named him Dan.
Rachel's servant Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son.
Then Rachel said,
I have had a great struggle with my sister and I have won.
So she named him Naphtali.
When Leah saw that she had stopped having children,
she took her servant Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife.
Leah's servant Zilpah bore Jacob a son.
Then Leah said,
What good fortune?
So she named him Gad.
Leah's servant Zilpah bore Jacob a second son.
Then Leah said,
How happy I am.
The woman will call me happy.
So she named him Asher.
During wheat harvest,
Reuben went out into the fields and found some mandrake plants,
which he brought to his mother Leah.
Rachel said to Leah,
Please give me some of your son's mandrakes.
But she said to her,
Wasn't it enough that you took away my husband?
Will you take my son's mandrakes too?
Very well,
Rachel said,
He can sleep with you tonight in return for your son's mandrakes.
So when Jacob came in from the fields that evening,
Leah went out to meet him.
You must sleep with me,
she said.
I have hired you with my son's mandrakes.
So he slept with her that night.
God listened to Leah and she became pregnant
and bore Jacob a fifth son.
Then Leah said,
God has rewarded me for giving my servant to my husband.
So she named him Issachar.
Leah conceived again and bore Jacob a sixth son.
Then Leah said,
God has presented me with a precious gift.
This time my husband will treat me with honor
because I have borne him six sons.
So she named him Zebulun.
Sometime later,
she gave birth to a daughter and named her Dinner.
Then God remembered Rachel.
He listened to her and enabled her to conceive.
She became pregnant and gave birth to a son and said,
God has taken away my disgrace.
She named him Joseph and said,
May the Lord add to me another son.
Earlier this year,
just a few months ago,
I read that section of Genesis with Ben,
Ben Vesa,
a member here at the church.
And we got to this passage literally the week
before he married Cater.
And so you can imagine how we felt
as we read this chapter together.
But before we go any further,
let's put ourselves in the shoes of the original readers,
the people that this was written for.
Let's ask how they were feeling
as they read it or heard it read.
Because this book,
it was written by Moses for the Exodus generation.
So it's something like 500 years after the action,
after Jacob.
God has rescued this people out of slavery in Egypt
and they're now in the desert.
Notice how those promises that we talked about are going.
They don't have a place to call home.
They certainly aren't fulfilling their purpose of nation blessing.
They are going to have God's presence with them.
That will be the tabernacle.
But really only one man once a year will get access to that.
But crucially,
they have become numerous.
From a family of around 70 people
when they first went into Egypt,
now over a million when they leave.
The people promise,
in many ways,
the people promise has been fulfilled.
But it's actually not going very well.
They're not having a great time in the desert.
They might have been slaves in Egypt,
but at least they were well fed.
At least they had a home.
And we're told about their grumbling
and their moaning and their infighting.
We're told about their idol worship
and their rebellion against God.
And so as they hear this story about Jacob,
as they hear about their roots,
the beginnings,
the genesis of their people,
the message was this.
God established you as his people by grace
in spite of their mess,
in spite of your mess.
And God will keep you by grace
in spite of the mess.
It is the way in
and it is the way on.
And so here's the story.
As we read it, did you see?
It's sort of like a twisted competition.
You've got Leah in one corner.
You've got Rachel in the other corner.
Two sisters,
each competing for what the other sister has.
Now have a look at verse 30 of chapter 29.
We didn't read it just before our passage.
Back in verse 30,
Jacob loved Rachel more than he loved Leah.
Really that's instead of,
in place of Leah.
So Rachel is odds-on favorite
in this competition for love.
But notice in verse 31,
Leah may not be loved,
but Rachel is childless.
And we'll see in chapter one of verse,
sorry, verse one of chapter 30,
that that is what Rachel desperately wants.
Children.
Leah wants love.
Rachel wants children.
Each competing, as we'll see,
for what the other sister has.
Competing really for their husband.
Both of them desiring happy families.
And so the competition begins.
The first point goes to Leah.
See in verse 32,
Leah became pregnant,
gave birth to a son.
She named him Reuben.
One nil.
And if you're not sure that this is a competition,
and I'm just making that up,
notice Reuben's name.
You probably have a footnote in your Bible.
I think in the Pew Bible,
it says that it means see a son.
So Leah has struck the first blow.
And this name is like a celebration.
And it's a celebration designed to kind of show off,
to make sure that everyone knows and remembers
that she is winning in this competition.
Every time they speak about Reuben,
it's look, a son.
Every time they call his name,
look, a son.
It's a celebration.
Leah is winning.
And yet in verse 32,
can you hear her heartache?
Surely my husband will love me now.
She desperately wants him to love her.
She desperately wants happy families.
And then immediately, verse 33,
another son, two nil.
Another in verse 34, three nil.
She's definitely winning,
but the heartache continues.
Now at last,
my husband will become attached to me.
Verse 35,
the sons keep coming.
It's four nil.
And then at the end of chapter 29,
then she stopped having children.
Halftime in the baby making competition.
And so Rachel is four nil down at halftime.
She goes in to have a chat with her husband
in verse one of chapter 30.
See what she says?
Give me children or I'll die.
Leah's desire for her husband's love is heartbreaking.
But so is this, isn't it?
Rachel desperately wants children.
She too desperately wants happy families.
And Jacob's response is really good theology.
Not that sensitive, but good theology.
Am I in the place of God?
He recognizes that conception
is ultimately in God's power.
Obviously, man and woman need to do their thing
and timing needs to be right and whatever else.
But ultimately,
whether a baby is produced is always a miracle.
And so it's not my fault, says Jacob.
Rachel isn't satisfied with that answer.
And so she makes a substitution.
In comes Bilhah, her servant.
Apparently, that was actually quite normal,
kind of ancient practice
for a servant to step in
and give it a go
when the couple aren't able to conceive.
And the resulting child
would actually legally belong
to the one that they serve.
And that's exactly what happens.
In fact, Bilhah has two sons.
Score is 4-2.
And notice again,
if you're not convinced
that this is a competition,
have a look at verse eight of chapter 30.
What does Rachel say?
I have had a struggle with my sister
and I have won.
She's very confident here
that the comeback is on.
But Leah, Leah remember,
has stopped having children.
She sees that the substitution
is quite a good tactic.
So she subs in her servant, Zilpar.
And Zilpar conceives twice as well.
So it's 6-2.
A time for another change of tactic then
from Rachel,
a kind of nutritional boost,
a performance enhancer.
In verse 14,
Reuben heads out to get some mandrakes.
That is, I think,
as if to underline Leah's
absolute dominance in this game.
She brings out her son
to help her have more sons.
See, in the ancient world,
the mandrake plant
was apparently good for fertility
and probably superstition.
Notice the text doesn't really deal
with any of that,
doesn't confirm
whether that's true or not.
It doesn't tell us
if mandrakes are a good thing
or a bad thing.
It just says,
this is what the woman did.
And it's a blunt reminder,
I think,
in the middle of this competition,
as Leah and Rachel
fight for their husband's love
and his babies,
as they fight for happy families,
there's an awful irony here,
as Leah uses Reuben in this way,
that children are caught
in the crossfire,
that children are literally
growing up in the mess
of this awful competition.
And worse than that,
because as Reuben gets
some of the performance enhancer,
Rachel makes this dreadful bargain
with Leah.
See in verse 15,
give me the mandrakes
and you can sleep
with Jacob tonight.
She essentially sells
a night of sex
with Jacob
in exchange
for these performance enhancers.
Notice how the author repeats
that Leah has stopped
having children.
We get it at the end
of chapter 29,
as we've seen,
but then again in verse 9 here.
I think we can assume
that she was probably
too old to have kids,
that nature had run its course.
And so Rachel thinks
it's safe enough
letting her sleep with Jacob.
Rachel can then get the mandrakes,
get the performance enhancer
and have children.
And her tactic
just massively backfires.
See in verse 16,
Leah with the ultimate chat up line,
you must sleep with me
because I have hired you.
She's basically turned her husband
into a sex slave.
It's so grim.
And then despite the repetition
that she stopped having children,
God gets to work
and she has another child.
Seven, two.
Somehow in verse 19,
she's persuaded her husband
back for another.
Nine, two.
And then she has a daughter
in verse 21.
Sorry, eight, two.
And then a daughter,
nine, two in verse 21.
It looks as though Leah
has well and truly won
this competition, doesn't it?
And yet her heartache
right at the end of the chapter
is still there in verse 20.
This time my husband
will treat me with honor.
Nine children later
and still Leah is crying out
for the love of her husband.
And then finally,
almost as a sort of
consolation prize,
Rachel does conceive herself
for the first time
in verse 23.
Final score,
nine, three.
It's quite a story, isn't it?
And it's a strange competition.
I think it's really hard to know
who we're supposed
to be rooting for here.
Because you can see
how Moses is giving us clues
all the way through
what these people are like.
Every character in this story
is sinning
and being sinned against
as they fight
for happy families.
And it is anything
but just broken,
messy relationships
everywhere.
If you've been wondering
through all of this,
why the Bible doesn't
just explicitly condemn
these things,
why doesn't it make a comment
on the fact that Jacob
has more than one wife?
Or the fact that
they're literally paying
for sex or using wives'
servants as sex slaves?
I hope you can see
that though the Bible
doesn't explicitly condemn them,
it is pretty clear.
It has always been God's plan, right?
From the first pages
of the Bible
in Genesis chapter 2,
God's plan is that
one man would marry
one woman
and that they would be
together for life.
That was always God's plan.
That remains God's plan today.
And I don't think
Moses needs to tell us
that Jacob and Leah
and Rachel aren't doing that.
I don't think he needs
to explicitly condemn it
because the consequences
of living out with God's plan
are just really clear
in this story, aren't they?
It's a mess.
And the truth is,
sin always leads to a mess.
The more you ignore God's plan,
the more you walk away from him.
You may get away with it
for a while,
but the more that you do that,
the more of a mess
you're going to end up in.
It's what we see here, isn't it?
And I think if we're honest,
we all know that's true,
even if it's just in small ways.
For that wilderness generation,
the people that we said
that Moses was writing this for,
the application is really clear,
isn't it?
You have become a numerous people,
but look at your roots.
Look at how much of a mess it is.
You need to know that God established
his people by grace,
not just in spite of,
but in and through their mess.
This is his wonderful,
undeserved kindness.
If you can see that about your roots,
then you will know
that God will keep his people by grace
in and through their mess.
It is the way in
and it is the way on.
Do you know,
God is more active in this section
that we've just looked at,
more active here
than in any other place
in the story of Jacob.
And so just two details quickly
before we put the whole thing
back together for ourselves.
See how God acts.
See his grace to the people
just in this story.
Firstly, God hears his messy people
and then we'll see that
he also helps his messy people.
So first, God hears his messy people.
And notice that both Leah and Rachel
make statements
about what they think God is doing
in the midst of their competition.
There are lots of examples of this.
Here are a couple.
In verse 32 of chapter 29,
Leah says,
the Lord has seen my misery.
Again in verse 33,
she says,
the Lord heard that I am not loved.
Rachel too does the same sort of thing
in chapter 30, verse six.
God has vindicated me.
He has listened to my plea.
Leah again in verse 18,
God has rewarded me
for giving my servant to my husband.
Over and over again,
these two sisters make statements
about what God is doing.
But I don't think we're supposed
to take their word for it.
In fact, I think we're probably
supposed to be skeptical
about what their theories
about what God is up to are like.
In their mess,
I'm pretty sure God
is not vindicating them.
And I certainly don't think
God is rewarding them.
But they are definitely right
that God is working.
I see in verse 17,
Moses, the writer,
he tells us in verse 17
that God listened to Leah
and she became pregnant.
And in verse 22,
he tells us,
God remembered Rachel.
He listened to her
and enabled her to conceive.
What can Moses possibly mean
that God listened to these sisters?
We don't see them pray.
These sisters who had bought
and sold their husband for sex,
these sisters who had pawned off
their own servants
as sex slaves for their husband,
these sisters who have been
battling with one another
for their husband's love
and babies,
these sisters,
like I say,
as far as we can tell,
have not uttered a single prayer
to their God.
And yet,
how is God at work?
He hears them.
He hears their unspoken pleas
to be loved.
It's the only thing
that Moses tells us
that God is explicitly
doing for them.
These unspoken pleas
for family.
And they may have sprung
from the worst of motives
and in the midst
of the worst of messes.
And yet we're told
God hears them.
It's the utterly undeserved
kindness of grace.
The way in
and the way on.
And that is wonderful news
for all of us
in the room today.
And maybe you think
you've got prayer sorted,
that you would never pray
with such twisted motives.
Your life definitely
isn't this messy.
But if we're honest,
certainly if I'm honest,
my life can be pretty messy.
Very often,
my motives get twisted
when I pray.
As our hearts cry out,
how wonderful then
is this promise
from Romans chapter 8.
In the same way,
the Spirit helps us
in our weakness.
We do not know
what we ought to pray for,
but the Spirit himself
intercedes for us
through wordless groans.
when our motives stink,
when we pray
completely the wrong thing,
when we don't know
what to pray,
and despite all of our mess,
this is the utterly
undeserved kindness
of God to us.
It's grace
as God hears
our deepest hearts cry.
But not only does God hear,
he also helps
his messy people.
in verse 31
of chapter 29,
right at the start
of this competition,
how is it that
Leah is able
to conceive?
Not only does God
see that Leah
was not loved,
but he also helps her,
he enabled her
as the language
to conceive.
And more than that,
if you notice,
who is that Leah
gives birth to?
In verse 34,
she gives birth
to a son called Levi,
and in verse 35,
to Judah.
If you know anything
about the subsequent history
of the tribes of Israel,
Levi was the forerunner
to the priestly tribe,
Judah was the forerunner
to the kingly tribe.
You see what God does?
He takes Leah,
the unloved
and the unlovely,
and he gets to work.
And through her,
he produces the priests
and the kings
of his people.
And wasn't that way
of working
just exemplified
in Jesus?
When God became man,
who did he go towards?
Did he go towards
the powerful?
Did he go towards
empire or kings?
Did he go towards
the religious elites?
No, he relentlessly
pursued and loved
the unloved
and the unlovely.
The outcasts,
the crippled,
the sinners,
he loved them.
He had compassion on them.
He heard them
and he helped them.
Can I just make
a really quick
and very specific application
at this point?
Just to those in the room
who wish
that they could be parents.
Maybe you've been
trying for years.
Maybe you have tried
and it didn't work out
and those days
are well behind you.
Maybe you're single.
Maybe you're attracted
to people of the same sex.
Maybe you suffer
from a chronic illness.
If that's you,
if you desperately
want a family
and it isn't
or it hasn't happened
for you,
let me firstly say
how sorry I am.
And let me say,
please don't feel like
you can't mourn that here
just because it's something
that we can't see.
As a church,
we want to share
in each other's pain
like that,
that you would find
a family here.
And let me encourage you
that God hears
our cries in that.
He doesn't say
that you will definitely
have children.
He doesn't promise that.
But he does have a plan
and he does have
a purpose for us
and he does hear us
and he does help us.
God saw the unloved Leah
and he saw
the childless Rachel
and he got to work.
And God does continue
to work in the world today.
Just a little bit broader,
if you're here this morning
and you feel like
you've got very little
to offer,
if you feel unloved
or if you know
that if anyone
really knew you,
they couldn't possibly
love you,
that you wouldn't possibly
be welcome
in a place like this,
you need to know
this morning,
Jesus really does
know you.
And he knows
exactly how you feel.
And he also knows
all the ways
that you have rejected
the God who created you.
He knows the deepest
and darkest cries
and the deepest
and darkest secrets
of your heart.
And yet, by grace,
he loves you.
He doesn't promise
that that means
you'll have a totally
trouble-free life
or get all the things
that you want.
But he does promise
that he hears
his messy people
and he promises
that he will help
his messy people.
He gives us everything
that we need
so that we might have
the most wonderful gift
of all,
which is to know him.
That is the totally
undeserved kindness
of our God.
It's grace.
And so just before we finish,
let's go back
to the original readers.
this is what they needed
to hear.
As they stumbled about
in the wilderness,
convinced that they had
got things really
very badly wrong,
they were sure
that a return
to the comfortable life
of slavery in Egypt
would be the solution.
But Moses would say
to them,
see how God
has been gracious to you.
Look at your roots.
If you've tuned out now,
please tune back in now
just for the last few minutes.
This is really the key.
See your roots
and know
that God established
his people by grace
in and through their mess.
And so know
that God will keep
his people
in and through
their mess
only by his grace
because grace
is the way in
and grace is the way on.
And especially tune in now
because that remains true
for the Christian.
If you're here this morning
and you wouldn't call yourself
a Christian,
this is right at the heart
of it all,
it's grace.
God's utterly undeserved
kindness to us
and it is the way in.
As humans,
we need to recognize
we are not perfect.
That is true
as we think about our roots
but it's true of us today.
We have not lived
the way that our creator
intended us to live.
And the world
that we live in
is a mess
and we contribute
to that mess
in so many ways
we just can't avoid it.
And actually
there's also nothing
we can do
to clean it up.
Truth is
there are things
that we've done,
there are things
that I've done
that I know
that I could never
pay for.
And so the only way
to be accepted
by this God
is for someone else
to pay that price
on my behalf.
And his grace
to you and to me
is Jesus
paying that price
on our behalf.
That's the cross.
Grace is the way in.
But grace is also
the way on.
Right?
Our roots,
the bishop,
Charlemagne,
witch hunts and slavery,
this has always been true.
For God's people
to keep on being
God's people,
for the Christian church
to have continued at all
despite all of the mess
is only by his
wonderful grace to us.
Anything good
that the Christian church
has done over the years,
anything good
that we have done
here at Brunsfield
over the years,
that is not us.
It's only because
God has done it
by his grace
and because we are
privileged to be used
by him in that.
It's true in the big picture
like that,
but it's also true
individually for us
as the world remains
a mess.
And again,
as we continue to contribute
to that mess,
the message has always been
that yes,
grace is the way in,
that Jesus died for you
and now you're a Christian,
but the message is not
that you therefore need
to start acting like it.
Instead,
the message is that
grace is also the way on.
That each and every day,
living in and contributing
to a messy world,
we continue to desperately
need and rely on that grace
in Jesus.
Being a Christian doesn't mean
that we've been made perfect,
but it means that by his grace,
we continue to grow towards him.
In Philippians chapter 3,
Paul puts it like this,
not that I have already
obtained all this
or have already arrived
at my goal,
but I press on
to take hold
of that
for which Christ Jesus
took hold of me.
You see what he's saying?
It's not that he's already perfect,
he's on a journey.
He's straining toward
what is ahead.
He's heading in the right direction.
This,
Paul says,
is what it means
to be a mature Christian.
Not that you are less sinful,
though you are really growing
in that sort of direction,
but actually that you're more aware
of your sin.
I think it's true
in conversations
with some of you
who have been Christians
for a lot longer than I have.
The further on you get,
the less sinful you actually are,
the more you grow.
And yet,
the more sinful you actually feel.
And as you experience
that strange paradox,
would you just let it drive you
back to the cross?
For grace is the way in,
but it is also the way on.
And just very practically,
last thing as we finish,
one thing that all of us can do,
what this means
is that this church
that we're part of,
this family that we're part of,
is the one place
where we should be able
to be most honest
about our sin.
because it is
and should be
the one place
where grace is readily
and always available for it.
You know,
if a brother or a sister
at church tells you
about some sin in their life,
what's the first thing
that you're going to do?
Do you immediately tell them
how foolish they are,
how stupid they've been?
Maybe more practically,
you're going to try
and find ways
that you can help them
to make sure
that this doesn't happen again.
There might actually be
a place for both of those
in time,
but the first thing
has got to be this.
If someone comes to you
and says,
I've been messing up
in this way,
the first thing
has got to be this.
Look to Jesus
because here is grace
for you.
He loves you
and we love you
because grace
is the way in,
but it is also
the way on.
These are your roots.
God establishes
his people by grace.
God keeps his people
by grace.
It is the way in
and it is the way on.
We're going to sing together
and so let me just invite
the band up
as we do that
and as they come up,
let me pray.
Heavenly Father,
we thank you so much
for your grace
to us in Jesus.
Lord,
we're so sorry
for the mess
of our lives
and the ways
that we contribute
to the mess
of the world.
Lord,
we're so sorry
for when we try
and do things
on our own steam,
try and clean up
our own act
and Lord,
I pray that for each
of us this morning,
if nothing else,
we would know
that in our sin
there remains grace
for us in Jesus,
that in every area
of our lives
you would help us
to repent,
to turn to him,
to look to the cross
and to experience
his grace,
your grace
for us in him.
in Jesus' name,
Amen.