October 5, 2014
Compelled by God's Grace
Doug Kallestad
Good morning. It is a thrill for me to be here today, a blessing to be here with you. First of all,
just let me tell you the reason I'm so thrilled to be here is to be able to express our gratitude to
you. On behalf of my wife, my family, myself, and the entire IAM and ICI team, I want to thank
you for your generosity, for your support, for your love over the years, but especially in helping
us build the church in Iloca. Last October you blew us away. You gave sacrificially, generously,
in an extraordinary way in order that we might purchase the property and finish the church
building there in Iloca.
We're now entering into the last phase of construction there to make that project a totally selfsufficient growing church, a vibrant ministry, because of your generosity and selfless giving. So
I'm here just to say thank you. We love you so much. Secondly, I am blessed today to be able to
share from God's Word with you. So if you would, would you please stand? Let's read God's
Word together. Second Corinthians 6:1-10.
"Now because we are fellow workers, we also urge you not to receive the grace of God in
vain. For he says, 'I heard you at the acceptable time, and in the day of salvation I helped
you.' Look, now is the acceptable time; look, now is the day of salvation! We do not give
anyone an occasion for taking an offense in anything, so that no fault may be found with
our ministry.
But as God's servants, we have commended ourselves in every way, with great endurance,
in persecutions, in difficulties, in distresses, in beatings, in imprisonments, in riots, in
troubles, in sleepless nights, in hunger, by purity, by knowledge, by patience, by
benevolence, by the Holy Spirit, by genuine love, by truthful teaching, by the power of God,
with weapons of righteousness both for the right hand and for the left, through glory and
dishonor, through slander and praise; regarded as impostors, and yet true; as unknown,
and yet well-known; as dying and yet––see!––we continue to live; as those who are
scourged and yet not executed; as sorrowful, but always rejoicing, as poor, but making
many rich, as having nothing, and yet possessing everything." Let's pray.
Father, thank you for your Word. Thank you for the gift of your Word, that we might grow in
you, learn to be compelled by your love and by your amazing grace. I pray that you would open
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Bothell, WA
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our hearts and minds today, that your Spirit would speak to us through the preaching of your
Word. We love you and thank you. In Jesus' name, amen.
We're continuing our theme this week, being compelled by Christ's love, but we're going to add a
small twist. I want to add to the whole idea of being compelled by his love and encourage and
challenge you today to be compelled as well by his grace in you. Christ's love should compel us
to live daily in his amazing grace.
Let me go back to that first verse, where Paul uses the phrase, "We urge you not to receive the
grace of God in vain." My kids loved balloons while they were growing up. To be honest with
you, they still do. At birthdays, the house would be decorated with balloons all over, literally
filled with balloons. There's something about a full, blown-up balloon that just brings laughter,
joy, and energy to children. But only when they're filled up.
Have you ever seen a kid try to blow up a new balloon? They huff and they puff and their faces
turn red, and finally they give up and ask Daddy to blow the balloon up for them. I think grace is
somewhat like that as well. God gives it to us freely, but he has to fill our lives with it for it to be
really useful. We must not only receive God's grace; we must allow him to fill our lives with it,
that we might extend that grace to a broken, lost, and dying world.
When we do this, when we bring the love and joy of Jesus to those we come in contact with, it's
like the difference between fully blown-up balloons bringing that joy and love to the children
and a balloon that lacks its air. So what does Paul mean when he uses that curious phrase, "Don't
receive the grace of God in vain"? Grace is a free gift, isn't it? How is it, then, that we can
receive it in vain?
The word vain literally means to empty, to be in a state of uselessness. In other words, taking the
grace of God in vain is equivalent to making it empty or rendering it useless, kind of like this
balloon with no air. It's still there. Our salvation is still there. The grace is still there. We've been
given grace, the unmerited, undeserved gift or favor of God, in order to use it and to be filled
with it.
We render it empty or useless (lack of usefulness) when we do not use it in gratitude to bring that
love, that peace, and that hope of Christ to others, when we don't engage in the ministry of
reconciliation, when we don't act as ambassadors of Christ, when by our actions, our behavior,
our attitudes, our words, we don't persuade others to fall in love with Jesus, to surrender their
lives to him and set out to follow him.
This is a global call as much as it is a local call. To receive God's grace but refuse to participate
in reconciling the world, all nations, to God through Christ is tantamount to making the gift of
his grace empty. This doesn't mean it's not valid. Please don't misunderstand me. It doesn't mean
it's not valid, that it's not sufficient for our salvation. Just like the balloon, it is still here. Our
salvation is intact. His forgiveness is complete. That is God's grace.
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Bothell, WA
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It doesn't matter what we have done or where we've been. His grace is sufficient for us. I read
this advertisement that was found on the side of a plumber's van in South Africa. I think it's a
great analogy of grace. This is what it said: "There is no place too deep, too dark, or too dirty for
us to handle." That's grace, and I am so thankful God has given me his grace, because I need that
cleansing so much.
God's grace is unmerited favor. It's a gift from him. We do not work to get it, nor pay for it, but it
is freely given to us as we put our faith in Christ and his redemptive work on the cross and also
in the certainty of his resurrection. Yet God's intention is that once it's received, his grace he has
given us should be used for his glory and the reconciliation of his creation to himself. It should
fill our lives so much that when the world sees us they see the joy, the peace, and the love only
Jesus can give.
We are his agents to bring reconciliation about. If we do not use his grace in us as he intends,
then we take it in vain. We render it empty. However, if we receive his grace and become his
ambassadors, reconciling others with him through Christ, participating in making disciples
throughout all nations (as well as around the corner, by the way), then we will truly experience
his amazing grace as he truly intends us to experience it.
It's what Paul experienced and it was how he was transformed. Paul even told the Corinthians in
his earlier letters so much. He said in 1 Corinthians 15, "But by the grace of God I am what I
am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them––yet
not I, but the grace of God that was with me."
It was the grace of God filling Paul's life that not only secured his salvation but also compelled
him to become an agent of reconciliation. That agent of reconciliation began to transform this
world through the message and the ministry of reconciliation. It's our responsibility to live the
Christian life with this intentionality. At the same time, the ability to do this is a gift of God's
grace for us. It is God's grace working in us as we cooperate with him in his purpose for our lives
and the world.
Paul said to his disciple Timothy in 2 Timothy, "For God did not give us a spirit of timidity,
but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline." It was God working in him. The Christian
life always invites us, brothers and sisters, into this dynamic tension of God's gracious activity in
our lives that empowers us, enables us, with resources, with the giftings, with the energy we
don't possess on our own, and our personal responsibility to do everything God has commanded
us to do. We must choose to be obedient. That's why Paul tells the Philippian church in chapter
2:
"Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed––not only in my presence, but
now much more in my absence––continue to work out your salvation with fear and
trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose."
Together with Christ's love compelling us, it is God's grace in us that should compel us to love as
he has loved us, to live in his grace and extend that grace to others, to forgive as Christ has
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forgiven us, to love the unloving, and it's God's grace in us that should compel us to love even
our enemies. How can we do that without the grace of God? It's impossible.
Paul urges us not to receive the grace of God in vain, because by God's grace, according to that
first verse, he has made us his fellow workers. How cool is that? God has chosen us to join him
in his work to reconcile this world to him. What a privilege and responsibility we have. Last
week, Pastor Steve showed us that in Christ we were made new, that in Christ we were
reconciled to God through Christ.
We were given the ministry and the message of reconciliation. That's ours to give. We were
made ambassadors of Christ, all by God's grace, folks. If you have accepted God's grace, then
don't let it go for nothing. He has given you his grace, his salvation, his eternal life, but that life
began the moment you surrendered your life to Jesus Christ. It's not something that just begins
after we physically die. Our life in Christ, our eternal life, is to be experienced here and now. His
amazing grace.
Jesus said, "I have come that they might have life, and life to the fullest." So take that grace and
make the most of it. It's as if Paul is raising up the banner of battle and the battle of victory at the
same time and saying, "Carpe diem. Seize the day. Strike while the iron is hot. Put God's grace
in you to work." As you do, you will be compelled by God's grace to join God in his work.
Look at verse 2 with me again. "'I heard you at the acceptable time, and in the day of salvation
I helped you.' Look, now is the acceptable time; look, now is the day of salvation!" Why are
we compelled by God's grace to join him in his work? Because by his grace we've come to this
realization that the day of salvation is here in our lives, and now we are to take it to the lives of
others.
God is saying yes to the prophecies. He is saying yes to the fact that he came to bring life, yes to
the fact that salvation is now available to all, not just to a small group of people, yes to the fact
that he has established a new covenant in our hearts, yes to the fact that we are now his body
here on earth, and yes to the fact that we are now called to join him in ushering in his kingdom.
Now. Today is the day of salvation.
What did Jesus pray? "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." The
grace he has given us should compel us to join him in bringing this prayer to fruition. We are
carriers of the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, and this good news is meant to change the
world. We are, by definition, agents of change. God desires to use his grace in us to transform
this world, that this world might be filled with his glory.
Verse 2 is really a set of phrases quoted from the prophet Isaiah and alludes to the fact that
whoever seeks God, he hears that person and responds in mercy and grace. We are to rejoice in
his salvation and join him in bringing that salvation to others. These are not just references to
God's love and mercy upon Israel, but also his love and mercy toward the entire world and to the
nations.
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Bothell, WA
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Look at what Isaiah says in Isaiah 49 about a reference to Jesus. "It is too small a thing for you
to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I
will also make you a light for the Gentiles…" That's us. "…that you may bring my salvation
to the ends of the earth." Too small of a thing to bring the good news only to the nation of
Israel. It was given to him to bring salvation to the ends of the earth.
I wonder if God would say the same words to us today, that it's too small of a thing to call just
the people of Bothell back to Christ, or too small of a thing for us just to call the people of
Washington or the US back to Christ, or too small of a thing just to call the people in Santiago,
Chile, to Christ. "No, I am calling you to follow the example of my Son Jesus and take his good
news of my salvation to the ends of the earth."
Are we compelled by his grace in us to love the unlovable, to reach out to the unreached, to go
beyond our borders and local needs to take this good news in word and by deeds to those in
desperate need of experiencing Jesus' love and forgiveness? The Pehuenche people are an
indigenous people living in the mountains of the south of Chile, and traditionally, historically,
they've been discriminated against. They've been looked down upon. They've been stereotyped.
Unfortunately, even by many Christians.
They're considered to be drunkards and lazy, even though they're some of the kindest, hardest
working people I've ever met. Chanta was the typical Pehuenche, and he did struggle with
alcohol. My good friend and Chilean church planter, Tonio and his wife Jeanette had been
working with Chanta for over two years. When others rejected him because of his drinking
problem, Tonio and Jeanette loved him and respected him, and many times they themselves were
looked down upon by the way they treated Chanta, with respect and honor and love.
I remember one late night finding him in a local tavern and literally having to carry him back to
his house (to his ruka, we call it) and have him sleep it off. We had to break into his ruka, and
then he slept it off. The next day, we took him up to the top of the slope of the volcano where he
needed to administer insulin shots to his mother who was tending the animals up on the slope of
the volcano.
Tonio and Jeanette's persistence and love and genuine friendship led Chanta to fall in love with
Jesus. So this July, in the dead of winter, in a glacier-fed, freezing cold river, Tonio gave me the
blessing to be able to baptize him. So here he is, a sinner saved by grace, transformed by the
power of a God who shows no favoritism. God does not show favoritism. He loves all of us. It is
seeing the transformed lives of people like Chanta that causes us to be compelled by his grace to
walk the walk not just the talk.
In verse 3, Paul goes on and says, "We do not give anyone an occasion for taking an offense
in anything, so that no fault may be found with our ministry." So often as Christians we talk
about the need to follow Jesus, yet by our actions and attitudes, sometimes, we turn people away.
Paul was careful. In all that he did, he always, through word and deed, showed the love of Christ.
He was careful not to put any stumbling block in the way for others to surrender their lives to
God.
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Bothell, WA
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Paul acted in this way because he would not allow anything to stain his reputation, thereby
staining Christ's reputation. When people look at our lives, do they see integrity? When they look
at us, do they see what they get, or is it something else? There are many areas where we work in
the world today where we can't just go in and openly proclaim the good news with words first.
We must proclaim the good news first with our lives. Rather than proclaim what we say, it must
be done initially with what we are and what we do.
Francis of Assisi said, "Preach the gospel at all times, and when necessary use words," and "The
deeds you do may be the only sermon some persons will hear today." Remember that when
you're walking out the doors today. This is obvious in places in the Middle East where we work
and places like North Africa. We must first gain the trust and love and respect of the people we
go to serve before they're willing to listen to the good news we have to share.
Shelly and I were just recently with one of our workers in charge of our Family Center in the
Middle East, and she told us of this plight of so many refugees right now, fleeing the terror of
ISIS. In addition to their daily activities, our team over there ministering to the people is now
helping the refugees relocate themselves, helping them with much needed food, supplies, and
above all, the love of Christ.
She remains in the middle of the action there, a single Chilean woman in the midst of war and
chaos in a city just outside the zone held by ISIS. Thousands of refugees have fled now into her
city. She told us of this one family of nine that had to be separated on that mountain you saw so
much about in the news. Four boys, the oldest of whom was 13 years old, separated from their
parents, who had to take the three younger children in order to separate themselves and not be
caught by ISIS.
They barely survived the mountain with no food and no water in blistering heat over 100 degrees
daily. Finally, the boys were rescued by their uncle and taken near to our center. For 10 days
they thought their parents and siblings had been murdered by ISIS, but by the love and
persistence of one of those workers in our center there, their parents and other siblings were
found, and the entire family was reunited.
The love of Jesus and the peace and grace of God have compelled this committed woman, this
disciple of Christ, to be in the midst of the horror in order to show the love of Jesus in tangible
ways. She was interviewed a couple of weeks ago by a pastor here in the States. He asked her
why she had gone to this particular country in the Middle East. Her response was, "Because I'm a
disciple of Jesus." Then he said, "What are you doing there?" She said, "Making disciples."
It's plain and simple, folks. We are disciples of Jesus Christ and have been called to make
disciples, but make disciples of all nations. Even in certain areas of Latin America, where
children go hungry or simply don't have enough nutrition in their meals to be able to concentrate
in school and lead healthy lives, our workers are alleviating this by providing good, nutritional
meals for these kids.
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It's difficult for the children and the parents to really hear about a God who loves them when
they're going to bed hungry every night. By providing physical nourishment, we have the
opportunity to share spiritual nourishment, the true bread of life, Jesus. Therefore, we are
compelled by God's grace to share Christ's love in spite of the conditions, in spite of the
circumstances.
Look at what Paul was going through in verses 4-5. He says, "But as God's servants, we have
commended ourselves in every way, with great endurance, in persecutions, in difficulties, in
distresses, in beatings, in imprisonments, in riots, in troubles, in sleepless nights, in
hunger…" Paul commended himself to the Corinthians, being honest about the conditions and
circumstances he had to face, but it didn't matter. He was compelled to go, compelled to share
Christ's love.
Two team members in charge of our team in Sierra Leone recently visited us in Chile. They're
here with us today. These are my heroes. Chad Courtney and John Campbell. These guys have
been compelled by Christ's love and by the grace in them to share the love of Jesus Christ there
in Sierra Leone. They recently had to leave. They were on scheduled visits back to the States
right before the Ebola crisis broke out.
They're there digging wells, providing clean drinking water for thousands of Muslim villagers,
but not only do they bring clean water to those villages; they also bring rivers of the water of life,
Jesus Christ, preaching the gospel. They can't yet get back to Sierra Leone for a number of
reasons, so they've used their time to go to Chile while they've been here to continue recruiting a
team that'll take the love of Jesus to the people of Sierra Leone.
We're now encouraging candidates in Chile, in Peru, in Ecuador, and we have Chileans who
have been in Sierra Leone who are now going to Peru and to Ecuador to encourage and train and
motivate, so that when Sierra Leone does open up again, we're going to have people ready and
trained and prepared to go, to be compelled to share Christ's love.
So Iraq, torn by violence and war, refugees being raped and slaughtered, Sierra Leone, torn by
disease, poverty, the scars of war, children in Ecuador who are undernourished, families in Peru
without adequate opportunities for education, indigenous people groups in Chile that have
suffered from discrimination, neighbors in Seattle with broken marriages and broken
relationships. Are we compelled to make a difference? Are we compelled to fulfill Jesus' prayer?
"Father, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."
It was Teresa of Avila who said, "Christ has no body now on earth but yours, no hands but yours,
no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes through which Christ's compassion is to look out to the
earth, yours are the feet by which he is to go about doing good, and yours are the hands by which
he is to bless us now."
So church, are we, Christ's body, compelled to make a difference all around the world, to work
together with him no matter the circumstance, no matter the conditions, to join with him to
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expand his kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven? How are we to do this? We are compelled
by God's grace in us to express Christ's love by our conduct.
Sometimes we assume our efforts of evangelism are simply sharing a gospel equation. Those are
all good, but the good news was meant to change and transform our lives and the lives of this
world. Our view of God's kingdom can't be just limited to what we will receive after this life is
over. If we exclusively focus on the afterlife, we reduce the importance of what God expects of
us in this life as we work together as his fellow workers with him in ushering his kingdom in.
Look at the beginning of Jesus' ministry. In Luke 4 it says, "The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim
freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to
proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." This was Jesus' ministry, and now, as his followers, it
is ours as well, because we're called to imitate Christ. As we do so, he compels his followers in
redemptive engagements with the world he loves.
God so loved the world that he sent Jesus into this world, and Jesus so loved this world that he
gave his life for this world. According to John 20, as the Father sent the Son, the Son now sends
his followers, you and me. The great commandment to love God and love others results in the
Great Commission, to go into the whole world and make disciples of all nations, disciples of
Jesus, followers of Christ, subjects of the King.
Richard Stearns in his book The Hole in Our Gospel puts it this way: "Belief is not enough.
Worship is not enough. Personal morality is not enough. And Christian community is not
enough. God has always demanded more. When we committed ourselves to following Christ, we
also committed to living our lives in such a way that a watching world would catch a glimpse of
God's character––his love, justice, and mercy––through our words, actions, and behavior."
Strong words.
We are God's ambassadors, representatives, ministers of reconciliation. We have not been called
only to proclaim the good news with words, although we have to do that, but we are called to be
the good news to a world that desperately needs transformation, God's transformation. Living
your faith privately is not, and never has been, an option for the disciple of Jesus.
Departmentalizing your faith and walk with Christ is also not an option. Our faith needs to guide
and permeate every area of our lives and is to be shown through our actions, our attitudes, our
motivations, our behaviors, and our words.
As we live for Christ in this way, we'll go into the entire world, bear fruit for our King, and join
him in redeeming this broken and fallen world. This is what Paul was getting at: being a radical
follower of Christ in every condition and circumstance by our conduct in every area of our lives.
The love of Christ compels us to go into the world and be agents of transformation. As we do so,
then we are compelled to rejoice in the contrast of the Christian life as well. Look at the end of
this passage. Verse 8 says:
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"…through glory and dishonor, through slander and praise; regarded as imposters, and
yet true; as unknown, and yet well-known; as dying and yet––see!––we continue to live; as
those who are scourged and yet not executed; as sorrowful, but always rejoicing, as poor,
but making many rich, as having nothing, and yet possessing everything."
The Christian life is filled with dichotomies. We must die in order to live. We must deny
ourselves in order to be satisfied. We must love when we are hated, give in order to receive,
surrender in order to have victory, and the list goes on. Paul lists a number of these opposites and
rejoices in this diversity in this passage here.
You can be in the most dangerous place in the world, but if you are in the middle of God's will,
you're in the best place you can be. If you are there giving it all for his sake, there is no better
place to be. Many regard the life of a Christian worker or missionary as a great sacrifice, but
Jesus said, "…no one who has left home or wife or brothers or sisters or parents or children
for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this age, and
in the age to come eternal life."
I know not everyone here in this room is called to leave their homes and families and move
overseas to some other country to preach the gospel, but each one of us, every single disciple of
Jesus Christ, is called to be a follower of Jesus, an imitator of Christ. Each one of us is called to
love God, love others, and make disciples of all nations.
So as we are going (and that is the command), wherever that may be, Iraq or Issaquah, Seattle or
Sierra Leone, Ecuador or Everett, Chile or Canyon Hills, we are to give, we are to send, and we
are to pray for the fulfillment of the Great Commission. It is not optional. It is what God desires
and intends for his body. Amazing grace at work. So rejoice, because we have been blessed.
Now let us go and be a blessing to this world.
Paul received God's grace and put it to work. He did not make it empty. He did not render it
useless. Rather, he received it, was filled with God's amazing grace, and he put it to work and
experienced life to the fullest. That is amazing grace. So let me end today asking you a question.
What will it be for you, grace made empty (it's still salvation) or amazing grace lived to the
fullness of life? The choice is yours. Let's pray.
Father, we love you so much, and we are so grateful for your amazing grace. Thank you that you
have gone to the deepest, darkest, dirtiest parts of our lives, and you have saved us, forgiven us,
and blessed us with your amazing grace. May you now compel us, because of that grace in us
and because of the love of Christ for us, to go out into this world and share your grace and your
love with a world that so desperately needs you. We love you and we give you all the glory and
honor. In the name of our Lord and Savior and Redeemer Jesus Christ, amen.
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