A Heart Full of Grace

A HEART FULL OF GRACE
Colossians 3:12-17

I heard this statement once, “If you find the perfect church don’t join it because it will no longer be perfect.”

I’m not sure, but I have a suspicion that something was being hinted at in that statement. What do you think? All across America, people are searching and longing to be part of the perfect church. I would tell you that no such church exists. Our dreams of ever finding the perfect church will crumble like a paper moon in our hands, but scripture tells us that the perfect church is a reality. Our definition of the perfect church has just been the problem.

What are the marks of the perfect church?

Our definitions of the perfect church are dominated by things like how we perceive the pastor and his or her sermons, worship music that stirs us, presentations that are flawless, programs that address our felt life needs, or a well-kept, finely tuned facility. Ultimately man’s definition concentrates more on the programs that make the perfect church, rather than the people who make the church perfect.

Since we have erred in defining what the perfect church is, we further err in determining those things that are really important to the life of the church. We get so busy with programs and plans, the property and possessions, that we forget that the church is really the people. Let’s look at what Paul had to say about the reality of the perfect church.

Colossians 3:12-14

“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”
The New Living Translation renders perfect unity as perfect harmony. In perfect harmony or in perfect unity. That is Paul’s assessment of what life in the church ought to be like.

It is the place where imperfect lives are brought into tune, through relationships with a loving community, resulting in a beautiful harmony.

What is the perfect church?

1. The perfect church is the place where everyone is loved.
How does a church accomplish this?

A loving community is a perfect church, a place where nobody stands alone. It is a place where grace abounds. A place where all are welcome and all are encouraged to allow God to touch their lives. Love is what holds Christians together in fellowship under the strain of everyday life. Love checks the selfish, hard tempers, which keep people apart and keeps us moving in a direction where we can be a maturing fellowship of believers.

Perfect harmony is the full expression of love in the Christian community, devoid of bitter words and angry feelings, and free from the ugly defects of immorality and dishonesty. Our hearts are made for community.

We hunger for the deep, authentic relationships Jesus had in mind when he prayed that his followers would be one. Yet in many churches, the connection we crave is lacking.

How can this church become a place where nobody stands alone?

It doesn’t happen by simply saying we love one another. Any of you who have suffered through a broken relationship or the loss of a loved one can testify that words often come easy. The perfect church moves beyond the spoken word.

2. The perfect church displays loving conduct.

Verse 13 said to bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. In this verse, Paul understands there are two ways that a loving community must conduct itself. A loving church bears with each other

Make allowances for each other’s faults. Perhaps the best way to translate this phrase is to put up with each other or to cut each other some slack. This means being patient, even when it might mean enduring possible difficulty.

To put up with catches the sense of an acceptance requiring an effort of will because the actions or attitudes in question are immature and tiresome. Such a positive response is of a peace with practical wisdom. The present tense emphasizes continual action. Cutting others’ slack becomes a way of life.

Mr. Wilson portrays a comical illustration of bearing with each other. In his daily dealings with Dennis the Menace, he is constantly put to the test. Dennis has made Mr. Wilson his best friend and is constantly destroying Mr. Wilson’s next grand design. Although Dennis is a menace, and continually puts him to the test, Mr. Wilson has a soft spot for Dennis.

A loving church displays forgiveness.

The verse says to forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. This is more demanding than just putting up with one another. This means that someone is at fault and deserving of blame, yet as Christians, we are called to forgive them. The implication of forgiving each other is that there will be more than a few occasions for which such forgiveness will be called.

There is a conditional nature to the phrase, “whatever grievances you may have” which recognizes that within community there will be grounds for grievance from time to time. At some point, all of us will be in the situation of having to forgive or needing forgiveness, and on occasion, there will be blame on both sides.

I have watched as some Christians have been hurt by other Christians over politics. Please don’t let politics get between you and your friends. Have mutual respect for one another.

With mutual respect and support, we recognize our mutual vulnerability. Then we can value one another beyond individual hurts and faults. If we do this, we can retain weaker or wavering members who otherwise might find the old way of life too attractive and give up and go back to it.

Forgiveness means something of richer content, emphasizing the gracious nature of the pardon. There is nothing the offending party has done to merit favor, yet the debt has been freely cancelled.

In 1982, Stephen Watt was a sheriff’s officer with the misfortune of pulling Mark Farnham over in a routine traffic stop. What he didn’t know is that Farnham was speeding for a reason—he’d just robbed a bank. Farnham shot Watt five times and left him for dead.

Watt recovered, but lost sight in one eye, and still carries a bullet near his spine. As you might expect, Watt became bitter towards Farnham. His anger grew until his wife intervened. She encouraged him to forgive his assailant, if he was ever going to be a true Christian.

In 1986, Watt attended a revival service at the prison and spotted Farnham across the room. He walked over to Farnham and hugged him. Watt says, I had basically been dead from the time I got shot until 1986. When he forgave Farnham, Watt says, It was just like God picked up a semi-truck right off me and I actually started living.

Today the two men are best friends. In 2002, Republican Stephen Watt was a candidate in the Wyoming gubernatorial campaign and had promised that if elected, one of his first acts would be to release Farnham from jail.

The point is, there is interdependence between forgiving and being forgiven. The two go hand in hand.

A community has hope of holding together and growing together only when the need for forgiveness is both offered and received.

Christ’s sacrifice on the cross is set forth as a example of the lifestyle to which the believer conforms. Today, we live in a society that wants to fight back, whether it be with harsh words, flying fists or blazing bullets, over any perceived injustice. We see rioting and picketing everywhere. Protest is the word of the day. Yet, what would happen if we would choose to cut others some slack? Loving conduct springs forth from a loving character.

3. The perfect church exemplifies loving character.

If you ever watch golf on TV, the players are decked out with apparel from their sponsoring company. For instance, Tiger Woods is a head-to-toe Nike man. He wears Nike footwear, clothing, gloves, and hats, and uses the Nike Precision Tour Accuracy Balls.

We need to practice being head to toe Christians. The apostle Paul told the church in Colosse that as God’s chosen people we must dress head to toe in Christ’s wardrobe.

Colossians 3:12

“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.”

Here, in a list much like Paul’s defining the Fruit of the Spirit as love expressed through joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self-control, Paul gives us another list of character traits that are to be worn within a loving community.

A. Be clothed with compassion

This means to practice mercy and concern along with sensitivity and compassion.

B. Be clothed with kindness

Practice kindness that extends tangible benefits to the other person. Sadly, we live in a society where we have lost the simple graces of courtesy and kindness and replaced them with rudeness.

The owner of a drive-through coffee business in southwest Portland, Oregon, was surprised one morning to have one of her customers not only pay for her own mocha but also for the mocha of the person in the car behind her.

It put a smile on the owner’s face to tell the next customer her drink had already been paid for. The second customer was so pleased that someone else had purchased her coffee that she bought coffee for the next customer. This string of kindnesses, one stranger paying for the mocha of the next customer, continued for two hours and 27 customers.

When you reach someone with a random act of kindness, you may never know how much you touched them but you do it anyway.

C. Be clothed with humility.

Convicted for possession of drugs, lead singer of rock band Stone Temple Pilots, Scott Weiland, talked to Rolling Stone Magazine about how being in jail impacted his life:

Weiland keeps repeating the word humility. It’s not me thinking less of myself, he says. It’s me thinking of myself less. A lot of my ways of thinking have backfired on me. My stubbornness. My pride. My arrogance. The difficult thing is that those defects of character become assets in my business, the rock and roll world.

He understood that being a rock star doesn’t give you the license to view yourself as more important than anybody else.

D. Be clothed with gentleness.
Gentleness is not to be confused with weakness. It is about being considerate to others, and willing to waive one’s rights.

In the movie, The Horse Whisperer, Tom Booker, played by actor Robert Redford, employs his special gift of “gentling” horses. A tense, New York magazine editor can’t believe her eyes as she witnesses the gradual transformation of her daughter’s horse from traumatized to tamed.

In one telling scene, the horse, frightened by the editor’s ringing cell phone, gallops off into the far end of a large pasture. Booker walks into the pasture and sits down, where he waits for what appears to be hours. The horse, drawn by its curiosity, inches closer and closer. Finally, it cautiously approaches close enough to touch the whisperer, and allows itself to be led back to the safety of its stall. That’s the way it is with the people of God, as we “gentle” the untamed or traumatized people who run among us.

E. Be clothed with patience.

It should also be noted that none of these character traits are really fully exhibited during our Sunday morning worship gathering. It is not enough to simply be a warm, and welcoming congregation. If you think that your investment in relationships at regular events is enough, you are terribly wrong.

It is in the depth of relationships outside of Sunday that these loving traits are exemplified. In order to be an authentic loving church, we must constantly be investing in building loving relationships with one another outside of our regular gatherings. What produces this extreme character make-over? The love of God.

4. The perfect church reflects a loving God.

Loving character flows from our relationship with a loving God. In the first part of verse 12, we see the essential foundation of a loving community. I love how this verse begins in the New Living Translation. “Since God chose you to be the holy people whom he loves…”

Wrapped up in that verse are the foundations that Paul had already shared with those in Colossae. Since Jesus died to remove your problem with sin, since you have been set free from your sins to live a new life in Christ, since your old nature has been replaced with Christ’s nature, just go out and love others the way God loves you.

The unselfish, sacrificial, compassionate love we are to have for one another is inherently and irrevocably tied to the love God has for us. The perfect church is the place where the perfect love of God is perfectly refining relationships.

If you don’t believe that having a heart full of grace will change you and your outlook on life, just try it out. This week, whatever happens in your life, find something in that situation for which you can give thanks. You may have to look pretty hard but look for something. Find something to be thankful for each and every day. Then, once you’ve found that thing to be thankful for, don’t keep the thanks inside. Let it spill over. Then, your attitude will not only affect you and your outlook on life, but it will also affect the people around you. God will fill your heart with His Amazing Grace, if you will let Him. Will you?