Hello my name is James and welcome to Monday’s Foundations podcast. A huge thank you to my colleague Dave Saxton who did a fantastic job last week sharing a thought each day. As a church family we are intentionally using these recordings to draw close to God through Lent. So well done for getting into this new week.

REFLECTION

A theme or topic that will appear from time-to-time over the next few days will be God’s grace: what it is and what it means. Especially today and tomorrow as we come to the end of Paul’s letter to the Philippians. It has been said that Grace is the core message of the Bible. It is certainly one of the most unique and important ideas of the Christian faith. Many of us have different snappy phrases to help us understand what it means. You might have heard the acronym: God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense. Or that Grace is the unmerited favour of God. I heard a new one recently: grace is the opposite of karma, which is all about getting what you deserve. Grace is getting what you don’t deserve, and not getting what you do deserve. As we heard from the wonderful Nikky Sentance at the Ash Wednesday service last week (which you can listen to again through our website!)… looking at John 3:16… it is because he loves us… God sent his son… even while we were still sinners… to rescue us… not condemn us… That is what is so special about grace.

God’s love and justice at his own expense. Sometimes hard to receive but exactly what we need and not what we deserve.

Recently, my wife and I had a baby, Joshua. We are loving getting to know him. Our mid-week community and extras at STC Sheffield showed us amazing kindness when he was born. They prepared a meal-rota for us that we might not have to think about preparing meals and have a bit more space to adjust to the change in our household. It was above and beyond kindness. Not only did people load us up with carb heavy mains for those late nights but some individuals even had the heart to hand make us a dessert. All we had to do was clean a pot or two… glorious. Until the second week and to be honest, I started feeling a little guilty. We had begun to find our feet and spent most of our day sleeping and pressing on with our box sets. And then there would be a knock at our door around 6 and another friend would bring a meal in, lovingly made a night before, often after a busy day at work… I’m talking a GP, teachers, charity workers… I know the deadlines and expectations these people have in their different jobs… There was an element of embarrassment on my behalf receiving this food but to them it was a chance to show grace to us. We didn’t deserve the gift. But our friends got a chance to show us love and kindness.

In the verses today Philippians 4 ends by saying “I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.” It strikes me how amazing God’s grace is. I’m aware often we fall into the temptation to think of our relationship with God based on what we deserve… Where these words remind us today, that there’s something of grace that makes God the priority. There is something about grace that focuses on God first. His choice to love me came before any opportunity to earn it… which sets us free today from any opportunity to lose it. It’s some part of the bigger picture of the secret to a content life Paul talks about in verse 12: that grace is about what God is doing in me, not what I am doing for God. There is an assurance… a freedom… a peace… when this truth begins to take hold of our life.

Over the next few days we’ll hear more about grace… what it tells us about God, ourselves and how we live in response to grace. In a moment we will pray together… responding in thankfulness fo...