Gateway Church's Podcast
Grace, Gratitude and Confident Cowgirls
I want to get right into the scriptures, right? Because I got this morning, I want to share and confident cowgirls. Grace and gratitude and confident cowgirls. How many of you know you know that from Texas, right? Grace, gratitude and confident cowgirls. And we're going to read in 10. Now these three scriptures, apart from the words of Jesus, apart from the words of Jesus, because those are the paramount scriptures in the Bible, but apart from the words of Jesus, these three verses that I'm about to read, I believe are probably the three most important scriptures in the Bible, apart from the words of Jesus. I think those are the most important. But these three scriptures are probably the most important words that Paul ever wrote. Paul was in a Roman prison when he wrote these words to the church in Ephesus, not only to that church, but to churches all over Asia Minor. And when he wrote these three scriptures, I think it summed up the gospel. It summed up all of Paul's teachings. I believe these three scriptures are extremely important for us, as Christ followers, to really get down deep in our heart. Now these three scriptures were the central focus of one of the world's most important events. Probably one of the top five historical events ever was the Reformation. And that began in 1517 when a young German monk named Martin Luther, taking these three scriptures, nailed the 94 theses to a wall in a church in Germany. That began the Reformation. Most historians, church and secular historians say that's probably one of the five biggest events in human history. And here's what happened with the Reformation. The Reformation changed the way church was done. The Christian church at that time had become a church that was based solely on works. All the major religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, even Judaism, the major religions on the earth were all about working your way to heaven. It's about being good. Good behavior earned your way to heaven. Christianity did not start off that way. Jesus, the message of Jesus was this, I am going to take your sins upon me. I am going to pay for all of your sins. The all you have to do now is believe and receive. No longer was it required to work your way to heaven. Jesus took our punishment upon the cross so that we didn't have to work our way to heaven. All we have to do is just receive and believe. However, the Christian church in 1500 years had gotten right back into the habit of working your way to heaven. And Martin Luther said, hold it, hold it, hold it, hold it. That's not the message of Jesus. That was not the message of Paul. And he quoted these three verses and the Reformation begun. And now after that, Gutenberg, apparently, he invented the printing press. The Bible went from being a very exclusive book, written primarily in Latin, read by only a handful of people, to now being translated into multiple language, available to millions of people. So Martin Luther, the Gutenberg printing press, changed the way church was done 500 years ago. That was a little brief history lesson. Don't give me that glazed overlook. This is not class. You need to know this. You need to know why these three scriptures are so critical to us as Christ followers today. Let's go to Ephesians chapter 2. Let's read 8, 9, and 10. For it is by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not from yourselves. It is the gift of God. Verse 9, not by works so that no one can boast. Verse 10, for we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do. This morning I want to look at three phrases, a phrase out of verse 8, a phrase out of verse 9, a phrase out of verse 10. And this is a part of the one prayer series. And here's my one prayer for us this morning. I want to tell you up front what I'm trying to accomplish. I want all of us to live under the umbrella of grace, to swim in the deep oceans of grace and quit working our way to heaven. Just receive it. Just believe it. Now let me ask you a question. How many of you have had a really good week? I mean, your behavior this week has been exceptional. How many of you are ready? It's okay if you had a good week, raise your hand. How many of you have had a really exceptional week where most of your behavior was pretty good? There's like two hands. This is a bat. What's going on here? All right, six hands, good. All right, how many of you have had a fairly good week? However, there's been a few days, a few instances where your behavior wasn't that great. Raise your hand. I figured that would be the vast majority of you right there. Now let's find out how honest and raw we can be in church. How many of you have had a consistently lousy week? I mean, you have been bad. You've messed up on a consistent level this week. Raise your hand. Come on. Any real people in the house this morning? Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Front row even, as she admits it, I appreciate that. All right, how many of you are glad that our behavior does not determine our eternal destination? How many of you are grateful that grace is what gets us to heaven? Grace is what saved us. Grace is what gets us there and that our works aren't, they do matter. By the way, our behavior matters. I am pro-good behavior. I think good behavior is better than bad behavior. I am just so thankful like the rest of you that it's by grace I've been saved, not by work so that no one can boast. Isn't that a good news? Very good news. It literally means news that sounds too good to be true. Let's look at verse 8 and this is what he says. It is the gift of God. It is not from ourselves. It is the gift of God. Let me ask you a question. How many of you are good receivers? How many of you enjoy receiving nice gifts? I mean, I am and I'll prove it to you. Okay, you want to test me? I'll prove it to you. I am really good at receiving nice gifts. You just test me in this, all right? I'm really good at this. All right, here's the point. Here's what happens though if we were really honest. How many of you like Christmas, you put your list together, you write out your list of people you want to buy gifts for your wife, your spouse. I mean, that should be the same person. Your spouse, your children, you know, close friends and you got this list, all right? So you go out and if you're like me, I don't go to the mall. I shop online. I send people to buy stuff. I don't like them all, but most of the time I have all my shop and done by like the first week in December and then I don't worry about it anymore. But go all my stuff. Now here's the problem though. What happens like on December 23rd, someone that you know gives you a really nice gift and they are not on your list. What's the first reaction? I'm aggravated. Now I've got to go out and buy them a gift because I feel like, you know, they bought me a gift. And the first response most of us have is I've got to repay them. Is that right? That's how if you aren't not talking about the white pretzel chocolate stuff that someone gives you. That's not the gift I'm talking about. I'm talking about a nice expensive gift. Our first reaction normally is what? I've got to repay them. I've got now, I've got to go out somewhere on December 23rd or 4th and buy them a gift because it looks bad if they gave me a gift, but I didn't give them one back. That's how most of us react and this is how we treat God. God says I want to give you a free gift and most of us, our first response is I've got to repay God somehow. Let me tell you what you're supposed to do when you get a nice gift. There's only two things. When you get a really nice gift, you're only supposed to do two things. What's the first thing you're supposed to do? Receive it. Now, if you have good manners, which you're from Texas, most of you do, what's the second thing you're supposed to do? Thank you. I receive it. Thank you. But here's how most of us feel about God's forgive. In fact, I was having lunch with a man who is very prominent minister. If I told you his name, a lot of you would know his name and he's doing some big, big, amazing things for God right now. He was telling me all these things that he's doing far God and he's doing some great things. I was overwhelmed by it. I was like, this guy is smart. He's got more energy than me because he is just doing amazing things for God. And so after about 20 minutes of him telling me about all these things he's doing for God, I asked him what I thought was a pretty simple question. I said, why are you doing all that? Why are you doing all that? And he looked at me like, what kind of question is that? I said, why are you doing so much stuff for God? And his answer was exactly what I thought he would say. He said, Brady, I was really, really lost and God found me. And I want to get to heaven one day and show him all this stuff I've done and repay God for what he's done for me. Now he's probably doing more than anybody in this room for God, but you cannot repay God for salvation. Work as hard as you want. Do as much as you want for God. But if you're trying to repay God for salvation you cannot repay God for salvation. You know why we should be doing good works? Because it says in verse 10 we're created to do what works. Why then should you be doing what you're doing for God? It's not a trick question. We can have a conversation here, right? Why should you be doing great things for God? Can you repay him? You cannot repay him. So why are we doing what we do then? To bring him glory on the earth. You only have two things on your job description as a Christ follower. There's two things you're supposed to do. You need to write this down by the way. This is worth writing down. Number one, worship him. Number two, bring him glory on the earth. That's it. That's our job description. That's what we're called to do. Worship him and bring him glory on the earth. I am a carrier of God's presence. I am a temple of the Holy Spirit. I cannot repay God for what he has done. I cannot give him back anything that would even come close to repay him for his grace and mercy on my life. Therefore, I do what I do to bring him glory on the earth, not to repay him for some kind of guilt offering. You understand what I'm saying this morning? Are you following me? I don't know what's motivating you to do what you're doing for God. But here's one indicator of whether or not you're living under this umbrella of grace. Can you receive the free gift of God and just say thank you. Thank you Lord. I'm so grateful. I am so thankful. Now what I'm going to do for God in return is not to repay him. What I'm going to do for God in return is to bring him glory and fame on the earth. I am here as a carrier of his presence to bring him fame on the earth. And then in verse 9 it says that no one can boast. He says not by works so that no one can boast. You ever been around someone that brags a lot about their good behavior? They're called Pharisees. Jesus had the same group of people. They were pretty impressed with how disciplined they were, how good a rule followers they were. And here's the problem though when you began to become impressed with your self-discipline, when you become overly impressed with your ability to do good works and to follow the rules, when you become impressed with yourself, literally what happens is you begin to push away the very people that God has called you to help. You set impossible standards for yourself and then you expect everyone else around you to meet those same impossible standards. It's called legalism. Here's a legalistic person is someone who puts rules on themselves and others that are not in the Bible. They've added to the rules of the Bible and they expect everyone else to not only follow the rules of the Bible but to follow the added rules that they've given themselves. Now here's literally what happens is when you live like that, you become impressed with your own ability to follow the rules instead of living a grateful life for what God has done in your heart. Now I believe in following the rules. Again, I'm not condoning bad behavior. I'm not condoning cheap grace. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about being impressed with yourself instead of being grateful for what God has done in your heart. And when you're not grateful for what God has done in your heart, you cannot be grateful for what God is doing in someone else's heart. That was really good by the way. That was better than what I had written down. If you're not super grateful for what God has done in your heart, you will stop being grateful for what God is doing in someone else's heart. People that are impressed with themselves and have lost their sense of being grateful to God, they don't hang around meth addicts. They have the rotting teeth and the skin that's been scratched off. They don't hang around people like that. People that are impressed with themselves don't hang around someone who's been divorced four times and is now living with a man probably for the fifth time. They don't hang around people like that. They don't hang around recovering alcoholics because they still smell of bourbon and beer. They don't hang around those kind of people because they actually push those people away and tell those people, "When you can act like me, I will hang around you." And that's not what God has called us to do. God has called us to put our hands in the dirt of humanity and to be the lifter of people's soul, to come around people who are broken and to bring them to redemption and to not push them away. Church people are notorious for taking their sick out back and shooting them instead of creating hospitals where they can get well. Amen. And this is what happens. We raise our standards. We all start talking this different language, church language. We call each other brother when we don't mean it. Brother, I thought brothers were there for adversity. Our brother was made for it. Don't call me brother unless you're going to be with me in my dark days. Unless you're going to walk with me through the valley, not just on the mountain. When you start boasting of what you have done to earn your salvation, you literally push people away that God has called you to walk alongside. I call this the older brother syndrome. Turn with me to Luke chapter 15. This is the story of the prodigal son. And most often when we read this story, we stop the story at the barbecue. There's a barbecue in this story. They kill the fat and calf. They didn't kill it just to kill it. They killed it to eat it. So most of us tell the story. The young son, he's the arrogant son. He gets the money from dad. He goes off. He spends it all on wild living. He comes back to dad and embraces him. A big barbecue breaks out. That's where most of us stop the story. And that is the good part of the story. But there's a last part of the story where there's another son that comes into the story. And Jesus tells the story of the older son to reveal the heart of a lot of human beings that are on the earth today. Luke chapter 15 verse 28. The older son has come back. There's a party going on in the house. A big barbecue is broken out. But the older son will not come in the house. He's mad. Listen to this verse 28. The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, "Look, all these years..." Now notice the language here. "All these years I've been slaving for you." That sounded like a young man that was having a very good time. That sounded like a young man that had discovered the joy of being a son. No, he was a slave. And he saw himself as a slave. Listen, we know this dad is not a bad dad. This is a good father. This is the father that just embraced the prodigal. This is the father that loved his son. This is the generous father. This is the loving father. But this young man, this older son had never discovered the joy of being a son. Instead, he had become a spiritual slave. All these years I've been slaving for you and then he lies. There's the flat out lies. And never disobeyed your orders. Whatever. Come on. There's no kid that's ever gone their whole life and never disobeyed their parents. You notice how impressed he was with himself. I've been slaving. I've been working. And I've never ever broken the rules. You know anybody like this? Are you that person? All right, just keep reading. And he says, "Yet you never gave me even a young goat, so I could celebrate with my friends." But when this son of yours, he's what should he have said. His brother of mine. That was his brother. His only brother that we know of in the story. That Jesus is telling the story right to his disciples to reveal to them what God the father in heaven is like and how we respond to him. He says, "That son of yours." That sounds like church people to me. You know when somebody goes bad, they're no longer your brother. That's that son of yours. Oh God, that kid of yours? We call each other brother when we like each other when everything's going good. But when things go bad, that son of yours, God, deal with him. That son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes, comes home. You kill the fat and calf for him. In verse 31, this is the dad, man, the father in heaven. He says, "My son, the father said you are always with me. And everything I have is yours." You're asking for a young goat. Everything here belongs to you. All of it is yours. Why can't you catch that? It's all yours. He said, "But we had to celebrate and be glad because this brother of yours." What a great reminder, huh? This brother of yours was dead and as alive again, he was lost and now he's found. Now here's an indicator. By the way, first indicator is, can you receive? Are you a good receiver? Do you feel guilty for what God's given you? Are you trying to repay God? Here's the second indicator this morning of whether or not you are living under grace. Can you celebrate when other people around you who are broken are taking small steps to becoming like Christ? They don't look like you yet, but they're making steps. Did you know that God knew we would be messy before he created us? Do you know that we are messy, but we're not messes? God knew you'd be messy. God knew you'd have bad days. He created you anyway. He knew Brady was going to have some bad days. He knew that Brady was going to be a mess sometimes. Messy, messy, messy. He created me anyway. That's good news. And God celebrates when I take even small steps to becoming more like him. I don't have to take the giant step every day. There are days when I've taken giant steps. I mean big steps, big leaps forward, but there are days I've taken steps back and there's days where I've taken small steps forward. Every time I take a small step, even when I'm messy, God celebrates who I am. That's when you know you're living under grace, when you can celebrate those around you, the broken around you who are taking even small steps to becoming more like Jesus. Can we celebrate with one another instead of condemning, rebuking, rejecting? Why can't we just celebrate when someone takes even a small step? Here's the third thing he says. We are God's workmanship, literally meaning that God has put his hands on us. He has shaped us. We're not some cosmic accident. We're not some mistake. Some of you have heard that you were a mistake. You were a surprise. No, you were not a surprise to God. The Bible says before the creation of the world, he predestined us to be adopted as his sons and daughters. He has called us into his family, and the Scripture says that it gives him great, great joy to even think about that. That he called us into sonship, to being sons and daughters. See, we've reduced Christianity down to behavior modification, and that's not what this is about. God does not want a bunch of robotic rule followers. He wants sons and daughters. He's adopting us into his family. We are his workmanship, created to do good works. But we first, before we'll ever do the good works, we have to settle in our hearts. I am God's workmanship. It is God who created me. Let me tell you the greatest thing you can do for the kingdom of heaven. The greatest thing you can do for the kingdom of heaven today is to be yourself. To embrace how God made you. To embrace your spiritual gifts. To embrace the God's workmanship in your life. Quit comparing yourself to others. Quit wishing you were somebody else. Quit thinking you're somebody else. The best thing you can do for God this morning is to say, "Lord, I accept the fact that I am who I am. You are the one who created me. I am your workmanship." And once you settle that, then God can use you to do great things in the kingdom of God. About five years ago, Callie, I have a nine-year-old girl named Callie, an 11-year-old named Abram. She's already way taller than her brother. And she's growing like a weed. But about five years ago, Callie got invited to actually pastor Todd's daughter, Olivia, had a tea party. A princess tea party, birthday party. And Callie, his friends with Olivia, and so Callie got invited. And this is a big deal at our house because Callie had never been invited to a tea party. And so somebody gave us this princess dress for her to wear, and you know, you put a little T.R. I don't know what they do at these parties, but they dress up real nice. And so these little girls are having this princess party. And I remember it was on a Sunday afternoon, and I was on the couch, and Callie comes down the steps, and this is the picture of her and her princess dress. Now look at her face. That's not a happy camper. I mean, she just got her shoulders slumped forward. And I said, "Callie." I took the picture. I said, "Callie, you're beautiful. Look at how beautiful you are. Why are you crying? What is wrong with you?" That's how sensitive dads do that kind of thing. What's wrong with you? And Callie goes, "It's itchy. It's itchy." Well, I don't know what to do for that. I don't know what you put on underneath all that stuff. I'm like, "Pam! Pam, come here!" She's itchy. Pam goes, "All right, come on." So she takes her upstairs, and she puts something underneath her, like a t-shirt or something, and Callie comes back down the steps, and here's what she looks like when she comes back down. She's not happy. Now that T.R. is going to wear the t- -- we've lost the T.R. She's crying. She's itchy. She's -- we're like five minutes away from having to get in the car and go to the party. I was like, "What is going on here? You look beautiful. All your friends are going to be there. I don't want to go to the party. I don't want to -- itchy. I don't want to go to the party. You don't want to go to the party. We talked about this party for a month. I don't want to go to the party. And just like that, Pam, the wise one in our house, the sensitive one, says, "You don't want to be a princess, do you?" And Callie goes, "I don't want to be a princess." Callie -- well, Callie, this is a princess party. This is a tea party. All your friends are going to be dressed like princesses. I don't want to be a princess. So Callie takes her upstairs. I mean, Pam takes Callie upstairs. And we just bought Callie this cowgirl outfit. And this is what -- so she comes down looking like this. [ Laughter ] She's very feminine. She's all woman now. But pink cowboy hat, pink bandana, pink western shirt, pink belt, and pink tipped boots. [ Laughter ] And now she's happy as a lark. Just excited as she can be. And they, Julie, jump in the car and we take her over to the house. And she has this wonderful time. And this picture I'm about to show you in just a second is one of my favorite pictures of Callie. In five years old, she's at a party with 15 other little girls who are all dressed like a princess. And here she is on the stairwell. [ Laughter ] One cowgirl in a sea of princesses. [ Applause ] Happy as she can be. Now I ask her for permission. I've got lots of stories on Abraham and Callie. But I don't tell that because that would uncover them a lot of times. But I ask for permission. I ask them, "Can I tell the story?" And so just a few weeks ago I sat down with Callie and said, "Hey, this is one of my favorite pictures of you. Can I tell this story at church?" She goes, "Okay." I said, "Nakali, listen. That doesn't bother you that you're the only cowgirl. I felt like I'm in junior high making somebody feel bad. That doesn't bother you? That you're the only cowgirl in a sea of princesses?" She goes, "No." I said, "Callie, when I grow up, I don't want to be just like you. I mean, this is amazing. That you have settled in your heart at five years old. That it's okay not to be a princess. It's okay to be a cowgirl." And she goes, "Well, yeah, Dan." [ Laughter ] I mean, literally, I mean, seriously, I took them to Disney. And we're walking around all the little Disney girls. You know, "Hey, everybody dresses up at the princess?" Callie goes. [ Laughter ] Whatever. [ Laughter ] Here's what I'm calling you to this morning. And a lot of you ladies need to receive this this morning. It's okay not to be a princess. You can be really feminine to be a cowgirl. And somebody told you all your life, "You need to be a princess. You need to be a princess. That's not who you are. It's not who you are." I'm so thankful for Callie that she's settled in her heart. This is who I am. This is who I am. And I'm okay going to the princess party as a confident cowgirl. I love that about it. That's a strength that I want to nurture at her. I want to call that out of her as she becomes an adult. I don't want her to ever lose that. Because somehow, I don't know what happened in her. It wasn't because of genius parenting I can promise you. There's something happening to Callie's heart where she says, "I am God's workmanship." Now, I believe now, Callie is going to be light years ahead of most of us and doing something great for God one day because she's not wrestling with who she is. Some of you wrestled because it's something a coach told you, a parent, a teacher, a pastor. Tried to put something on you and an identity. Got to put a mask on you that didn't fit. Listen, God's not calling us to live our sinful selves. God's calling us to live this new redeemed person. You are God's workmanship. You're created in Christ to do good works, but you have to settle the issue first that you're His workmanship. And if you can, God's about to launch you into the greatest realm of influence you've ever had, but He will not launch you if you don't know who you are. Settle it. This is the third indicator of who not you're living under grace. I'm not Robert Morris. I'm not Jimmy Evans. I'm not any of those guys. I'm Brady Boyd. And when I become okay with that, who I am, what I do, my giftings, that's when God can use me. But if I always try to live up to somebody else and be like somebody else, I'm only going backwards. Settle it. You're God's workmanship. Let me give you one more thing today. I want you to really, here's what I believe about grace and works. Grace is breathing in. Everybody breathe in. You're going to have to breathe in at some point. Come on, breathe in. And breathe out. Works is breathing out. This is a natural rhythm of life that God wants us to get into. Grace is breathing in. Works is breathing out. The Charismatics are notorious for doing this. We breathe in a lot. Well, that's not healthy. And those who are works-oriented, who are full of guilt, they're always breathing out trying to please God. We get dizzy like that. You'll pass out. Here's the natural rhythm. Grace is breathing in, receiving. Works is breathing out. Breathe in. Breathe out. See how natural that feels? See how good that feels? Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breat out. I'm okay with who I am. I can celebrate with others who are messy when they make good choices. I can celebrate. I'm far you, even when you're messy. And I can receive a free gift and say thanks. That's when you know you're living under grace. My one prayer for you today and for me is that we live under this umbrella of grace, swim deep in the oceans of grace, and we never go back to trying to work our way toward heaven. We do good works, not to repay God. We do good works to bring Him glory on the earth. We breathe in. We breathe out. Grace, gratitude, and confident cowgirls. Can I pray for you this morning? Just close your eyes with me just for a second. And would you ask yourself a very honest question, are you living under grace? Have you slipped back into the old habit of trying to earn your way to heaven? Are you a man or a woman who is swimming deep in the oceans of grace, receiving the free gift from God, not trying to repay God, obviously very thankful, super grateful for what God has done in your life? Are you free from guilt this morning? Can you hang around messy people, cheer them on, love them even when they're messy? Do you really believe this morning that you are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works? Are you confident with who you are? Has something stolen your confidence this morning? God wants to give you back, your confidence. God wants you to settle this issue in your heart, that you are His workmanship. His hands are the ones that formed you. His spirit is the one that's breathing on you. His grace is what's consuming you. Would you like the Holy Spirit to speak to you just for a second? He's here with us today. He's in us. He wants to speak. He wants us to listen and just respond to the Holy Spirit, not to me. Respond to what the Holy Spirit's saying to you this morning. I pray for you Father, thank you so much, for we receive your grace today as a gift. Lord, I pray I repent today for any boasting that we've done. I pray that we would be free from boasting so that we would not push away the very people that you're bringing into our lives. I pray that we would put our hands down deep in the soil of humanity and not be embarrassed or ashamed to hang around with messy people. Father, I thank you today that we are your workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works. Father, I pray that we'd be who we are. That we'd be secure in our Creator and in your creation. Father, I thank you today that humanity is the crowning achievement of your creation. Lord, I thank you that we're your bride, we're your sons, we're your daughters, we're your family. Adopt it into your family. Thank you so much for that. Thank you for grace in Jesus' name. Amen. God bless you.