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This Week’s Connection Topic
Salvation by Grace: We are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 2:8-9
8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9not by works, so that no one can boast.
We are in week 6 of our 9 week message series entitled “Amazing Grace: Welcome to Graceland.” The goal of this series is to help us understand and experience the grace of God in our lives.
Connecting to Us: Lamentation 5:21
In 1983 on Motown’s 25th Anniversary Television Special, Michael Jackson first performed the Moonwalk dance while singing his smash hit song “Billy Jean.” For those of us who aren’t familiar with the dance please check it out YouTube. The dance looks a lot like a person walking backwards with style. More specifically it looks like a person sliding backwards. While the dance is thrilling, there is nothing lunar or gravity defying about the dance. Perhaps, “backsliding” would be a better name for this dance. Likewise, in our text today Lamentations 5:21 the people of Israel were guilty of backsliding. The people of Israel are God’s chosen people. They were chosen to be a blessing to the world. Instead of choosing the way forward towards God, they chose to slide backward into the sin. As a consequence of their sin, they experienced famine and found themselves brutally oppressed by a foreign military power, the Babylonians. It is important to note that Lamentations is composed of five poems. Each chapter represents a new poem. The purpose of Lamentations is bear witness to the depth of human suffering and to give us the freedom to express our grief to God. Lament is not simply a complaint but it is recognition of God’s power to change our circumstances or in some cases change us in the midst of our circumstances. The good news is that God’s restoring grace can restore us to a proper relationship with God. On our Christian journey, our highest goal is to reach Christlike maturity, which brings us into complete union with God and the Spiritual body of Jesus Christ. If our goal is simply to make it to heaven then we have totally missed the point of the gospel message. Heaven is real and I definitely want to go there but there is so much we are called to do in the here and now. The Christian Life is not simply about our own personal salvation. It is about the holiness of heart and holiness of life that moves us to be channels or conveyors of God’s grace for the world. We are not on this journey alone. We have the grace of the Triune God and we have other believers. On this journey forward toward Christlike maturity we will experience times of great difficulty, frustration, hardships, trials and tribulations. Basically, the Christian journey forward toward Christlike maturity isn’t easy. Consider these words from the song “Can’t Give Up Now” by gospel recording artists Mary Mary:
“There will be mountains that I will have to climb
And there will be battles that I will have to fight
But victory or defeat, it’s up to me to decide
But how can I expect to win if I never try.
I just can’t give up now
I’ve come too far from where I started from
Nobody told me the road would be easy
And I don’t believe he brought me this far to leave me”
God’s grace empowers us to climb the mountains, to make it through the hurricanes, to cross the boundaries created by fear. There are three major threats to Christians on this journey forward toward Christlike maturity that I believe cause us to backslide: spiritual arrogance, spiritual complacency, and spiritual fixes.
To Mature Christians. Spiritual arrogance can cause us to backslide. Sometimes this occurs because we feel we have reached a point where “we know it all.” We can’t remember the last time when the sermon, bible study, our group discussion had anything relevant to say to us. Our passion for searching the scriptures for transformation and understanding becomes attempts to find scriptures to support our own agendas. Our desire to be right is more consuming than our desire for truth. We have all the answers. No one can lead a particular ministry the way we lead it. No one can pray they way we do. The community of faith would be much better off if everyone would just listen and do whatever we say! We often confuse our years of church service with genuine Christlike maturity. In my years of ministry I have seen many babes in Christ who have been actively involved in the church 30 or more years, yet they have not grown up. If we think we know it all then there is no room for us to experience growth and reach Christlike maturity.
To Those in the Middle. Spiritual complacency can cause us to backslide. Some of us recognize that we have not reached our potential spiritually, however; we are not babes in Jesus Christ either. We find ourselves in a nice comfortable place. A move forward might require us to give more of ourselves which we are not quite ready to do at this stage. A move forward might cause some discomfort and change. Since we are comfortable at this point of our journey, it does not make much sense to mess up a good thing. “If it ain’t broke, why fix it?” The problem is that this way of thinking causes us to be stuck in a spiritual rut. We will never become who God designed us to be if we are stuck in rut.
To Babes in Jesus Christ. Seeking spiritual fixes can cause us to backslide. We have our conversion experience through justifying grace. Through the power of the Holy Spirit we experience a spiritual high. In the beginning this high is enough to get us through the week. This experience is like receiving manna from heaven (Exodus 16). However, after a period of time the manna ends. The honeymoon period is over. We recognize that many of the problems that we had before our conversion experience are still present. We find out quickly that going to worship on Sunday does not produce lasting effects. We find out that it’s getting harder and harder to get our spiritual fix. So we often backslide into sin to obtain our fix through some unhealthy worldly coping mechanism or we go from church to church trying to obtain a spiritual fix. The problem is that worship isn’t enough. We must immerse ourselves in the word of God daily and our prayer life must intensify. We should join a small group of mature Christians for accountability and growth.
All three of these attitudes can lead to backsliding. None of these attitudes move us forward. The point where we fail to move forward is the point where we begin to slide backward. None of these attitudes are consistent with persons having the mind of Jesus Christ. (1 Cor. 2:6-16) Lamentations reminds us that there are dire consequences when we backslide into sin. The good news is that when we backslide, God does not turn God’s back on us. God extends to us restoring grace. God extends restoring grace to everyone, it does not matter what we have done. There is no sin too big for God’s restoring grace. People may not like us because of our sin but God loves us unconditionally. Restoring grace cannot be earned. However, we must respond in faith or lay claim to the gift of grace. We lay claim to restoring grace by confessing our sins, repenting or turning away from sinful behavior, and believing God for spiritual healing in our lives. So what are some basic things we can do to move forward toward Christlike maturity?
- Realize that you are empowered by the Holy Spirit
- An intense prayer life (private and family)
- Public Worship
- The Lord’s Supper
- Daily Reading and Studying the Scripture
- Small Groups
- Fasting
- Acts of compassion and justice
Connection Points
Connect Heads:
- What is backsliding?
- What is restoring grace?
Connect Hearts:
- What spiritual disciplines (prayer, fasting, small groups, acts of compassion, etc.) do you practice to nurture Christlike maturity and guard against backsliding? Be specific and share how they have impacted your life.
- Share a time when you experienced God’s restoring grace?
Connect Hands:
- Pick a ministry or nonprofit organization to partner with in the community.
- Pray!
Connect Homework:
Make a commitment to practice a new spiritual discipline daily
