Pastor Josh opened with The Lord of the Rings, his favorite trilogy of all time (and The Return of the King his favorite movie of all time). What makes stories like that so compelling is a group of weak, fallen people who don't always get along, sent on a seemingly impossible mission to face the evil in the world and to suffer so that there could be a better future. We love watching stories like that. But even more compelling than watching one is living one — and that is exactly what God invites us into. He does not call us to settle onto the couch of comfortable Christianity. His grace is meant to get us moving.
In our verse-by-verse series through Ephesians, Grace for You, we come to Ephesians 3:1-13. The big idea is simple but life-changing: the same grace that saves you also sends you. Here are three ways grace gets you to go.
1. Grace gets you to go even if it means suffering
Paul wrote Ephesians from prison. He had been jailed, stoned, and beaten for sharing the gospel, and eventually gave his life for it. Yet he never recanted. Why? Because he understood that his calling was pure grace, and that calling was worth any cost.
"For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles... I ask you, therefore, not to be discouraged because of my sufferings for you, which are for your glory." (Ephesians 3:1, 13)
Notice the reversal: the prisoner is the one doing the encouraging. Paul tells the church not to be rattled by his pain, because his suffering is for their glory — so that people could come to know Christ and share in the hope of heaven. He had a heavenly mindset: heaven is real, hell is real, and forever is a really long time. So he shared the gospel like people's lives depended on it, because they do.
Here is the honest truth: sharing Jesus widely is impossible without a willingness to suffer. Our impact for the kingdom is limited by our threshold for pain. The gospel runs against the grain of the culture. The world says truth is whatever is true for you; Jesus says, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6). Swimming against the current isn't easy, and sometimes going against the grain leaves a splinter. But when eternity is at stake, that cost looks small. God doesn't call us to be comfortable. He calls us to be faithful.
2. Grace gets the worst sinners to go share the Savior
After a challenging first point, this one is a little more comforting.
"Although I am less than the least of all the Lord's people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ." (Ephesians 3:8)
Of all the people God could have made His leading messenger, He chose Paul — a man who, before he became a Christian, had Christians killed. In Pastor Josh's words, Paul was "a religious terrorist." If we are honest, we might struggle to trust a person with a past like that. The early church did, at first. It took Barnabas vouching for him, and some time, before they welcomed him. But this was God's guy.
That raises the first of two questions Pastor Josh answered: why can the worst sinners share the Savior? Because grace is about His love, not your worthiness. God does not choose people because they are worthy. He chooses by grace, and grace is getting what you do not deserve. If you've ever thought, "How could God use me? I'm not good enough," Pastor Josh's answer is: "Friend, it's not about you... it's about God and His grace choosing and forgiving unworthy people." He admitted that one of the things he wrestles with most is Sunday morning, when he thinks about the ways he has fallen short that week and asks God if he is really qualified to preach. And normally, he said, God tells him something like this: "Josh, it was never about you in the first place. It's by grace. Go and do it." God specializes in taking broken, imperfect, sinful people, filling them with His grace, and sending them out to pour it into a world that desperately needs it.
The second question: why should the Savior be shared? Because the Savior is boundless in riches. And what a grace it is. Paul calls it the "boundless riches of Christ." Boundless means limitless. We all live with limits: physical, emotional, financial. Even credit cards have limits. But God's love has none. No sin is larger than His grace. That is not just good news to receive — it is good news to share. Paul later wrote that Christ saved him, "the worst of sinners" (1 Timothy 1:15-16), as an example so that others would believe. Even your sin can become some of your greatest material, because you can say, "If God could save me, He can save you." Your testimony is what God wants to use. You don't need every answer to share the gospel; you just need to know how God saved you.
3. By grace you can go to God freely and confidently
Before grace sends you out, it draws you in.
"In him [Jesus] and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence." (Ephesians 3:12)
Why do we so often avoid this? Sometimes we are simply too busy. Other times we have put limits on God's love and assume He will reject us at our worst. But through Jesus you are forgiven, fully known, and fully loved — which means you can come to God with total honesty. You can bring Him your deepest fears, your darkest failures, and your most distressing doubts, without pretending.
And you can come not just freely but confidently. Pastor Josh said that if he knocked on the King of England's door at 1 a.m., he wouldn't expect a welcome, because he isn't family. But one of the king's own children could knock with confidence. Through faith in Christ, the Creator of the universe is also your Father. The writer of Hebrews puts it this way: "Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need" (Hebrews 4:16). That confidence isn't reserved for your good days after a quiet time and a cup of coffee. It is especially for your darkest days, when you've done what you knew you shouldn't. In those moments, you can still run to Him, because you belong to Him.
A takeaway to carry with you
God loves you exactly where you are — and He loves you far too much to leave you there. So the question for this week is simple:
Who is grace calling you to go to?
What is grace calling you to go and do?
Maybe it's going to Arroyo's Connect Class and starting to serve, asking forgiveness from someone you've wronged, inviting a coworker or neighbor to church, or sharing the gospel with someone in your life. Maybe it's going to God for the first time. You don't have to earn it or deserve it; go to Him and He will freely forgive you. Or maybe it's taking the step of baptism (five people were baptized after this message). Whatever your next step, take it by His grace.
If you're anywhere in Livermore or the Tri-Valley and looking for a church family to take that step with, we would love to welcome you at Arroyo Church. Come as you are — this can feel like home.