The message from the February 19, 2023 gathering of Tapestry Church.
Autogenerated Transcript of the Message
Audio file
Random Message – 2 19 2023 – Clancy.mp3
Transcript
00:00:01 Clancy
Can everyone hear me?
00:00:05 Clancy
So my name is Clancy Kramer.
00:00:08 Clancy
For those who don’t know me, for those who do know me, just to reminder my name is Clancy.
00:00:13 Clancy
OK, Eric.
00:00:14
I can.
00:00:16 Clancy
So that video that we watched the video that we watched earlier.
00:00:23 Clancy
They’re both just so incredible.
00:00:25 Clancy
Like I you don’t need to really listen to me at all today.
00:00:28 Clancy
If you just heard anything from those two videos, it’s absolutely incredible.
00:00:36 Clancy
As Robert pointed out, this is my third time, not my 4th time, so hopefully I can bring the expectations down a little bit.
00:00:44 Clancy
I don’t know what I’m doing.
00:00:46 Clancy
Preaching sermons is really weird, so I want to first of all, just thank you for letting me practice and go through this, you know?
00:00:58 Clancy
It’s meaningful to me in preparation for all of this.
00:01:03 Clancy
It’s been just both a blast and a really huge challenge.
00:01:08 Clancy
So I just want.
00:01:10 Clancy
Thank you for letting me do this also.
00:01:15 Clancy
It’s weird.
00:01:16 Clancy
I hope all of you get a chance to preach at some time.
00:01:19 Clancy
For me, it’s been like, how do I figure out how to say everything I know about Jesus in 15 minutes?
00:01:25 Clancy
Like, that’s been my struggle, which is, I mean when you when you hear it said aloud, it’s really.
00:01:30 Clancy
Funny, but like, that’s what I’ve been trying to do and I can’t do it.
00:01:34 Clancy
So there it is.
00:01:37 Clancy
But I mean, today I just want to be an encouragement to you.
00:01:41 Clancy
So that’s that’s all I want to be able to do.
00:01:47 Clancy
To the scripture.
00:01:51 Clancy
So we’re going to be in Romans chapter 3 verses 21 for those of you that were at Inter varsity, you’re going to hear.
00:01:58 Clancy
The same thing twice.
00:02:01 Clancy
So if you have Bibles.
00:02:03 Clancy
Go to it.
00:02:04 Clancy
If not, read it.
00:02:04 Clancy
On the screen.
00:02:06 Clancy
Or just listen.
00:02:10 Clancy
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to.
00:02:18 Clancy
It the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe, for there is no distinction.
00:02:25 Clancy
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift.
00:02:31 Clancy
Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.
00:02:39 Clancy
This was to show God’s righteousness.
00:02:45 Clancy
Because in his divine forbearance he passed over former sins.
00:02:49 Clancy
It was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
00:02:58 Clancy
Then what becomes of our boasting?
00:03:00 Clancy
It is excluded by what kind of law?
00:03:03 Clancy
By the law of works?
00:03:04 Clancy
But the law of faith.
00:03:12 Clancy
So I was praying through this yesterday and trying to figure out how to talk about what I want to talk about and the difficulty I was having is what I feel like I have to mention is unpopular and I don’t want.
00:03:29 Clancy
To talk about it.
00:03:30 Clancy
I would frankly just rather avoid it and what I want to talk about is sin.
00:03:39 Clancy
Sin is complex.
00:03:41 Clancy
You know people speaking up here have used it in a way of talking about other people and how they’re wrong.
00:03:47 Clancy
And if you, you know, are involved in the club that I talk about, then you’re OK, but everyone else is bad.
00:03:54 Clancy
And that’s not OK and I don’t want to talk about sin in a way that.
00:03:59 Clancy
Leaves you feeling shame for the things that you can’t overcome or any of that.
00:04:04 Clancy
But the only way I can talk about what I believe Paul is describing in this passage is to mention sin, because everything is in comparison to the.
00:04:16 Clancy
Uh, and one of the difficulties in talking about sin is that I don’t fully understand it.
00:04:23 Clancy
I can’t comprehend all the different ways that it exists in the world or in my heart or in my neighbors heart or in this congregation or in this nation, or in the other nation, you know, down the street.
00:04:38 Clancy
And but I think.
00:04:41 Clancy
For those of us who have said, you know what, Jesus, I want to do, I want to follow you.
00:04:46 Clancy
I want to pursue you and with my life, we have to say that sin is an issue that needs to be dealt with and that we can’t do it.
00:04:59 Clancy
And Paul in describing.
00:05:05 Clancy
Oh, thank you.
00:05:06 Clancy
Paul, in describing to the Romans.
00:05:10 Clancy
Describes it this way that there is no distinction.
00:05:14 Clancy
He’s writing to both Jews and Gentiles, and in that church at that time the church was probably started with Christian Jews that were kicked out of Rome for like 15 years, and then came back.
00:05:30 Clancy
And Paul’s writing to them at this point. So.
00:05:36 Clancy
You know the Christian Jews leaving, you know, the Gentiles actually taking leadership of the church and then the the Christian Jews coming back this letter, you know, when I was first save, I would I would read it and I would think about it as this like, great pillar of systematic theology.
00:05:55 Clancy
And there would be like a sentence or two and.
00:05:57 Clancy
People would argue about it and.
00:06:00 Clancy
You know struggling through this text the last couple of weeks, it’s been a good reminder to me that Paul was writing to them because he loved the people who went to the church in Rome and he wanted them to understand the grace of God.
00:06:15 Clancy
So what I’m talking about today is not just one thing, it’s an entire.
00:06:20 Clancy
A letter that will help understand what Paul is trying to say so.
00:06:30 Clancy
So there is no distinction he’s describing between Jews and Gentiles.
00:06:36 Clancy
There is no distinction between you.
00:06:38 Clancy
It’s all kind of the level playing field.
00:06:41 Clancy
And he also says for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and.
00:06:50 Clancy
For me this is kind of a confession I am.
00:06:55 Clancy
Able to see.
00:06:57 Clancy
The sin in others before I’m able to see the sin in myself.
00:07:00 Clancy
Even on the walk over here, you know I passed by this neighbors yard every time I pass by that neighbors yard, I see the new sign that makes me, you know.
00:07:10 Clancy
To judge them and think well, I’m not going to vote for that person because that’s in, you know, in your yard.
00:07:15 Clancy
And I know what you believe.
00:07:17 Clancy
I’ve never met this.
00:07:19 Clancy
And I have contempt in my heart against them because of what’s in their yard and then later, just to put more fuel on the fire, I see someone else who really kind of did me and my family wrong, and I still have unforgiveness in my heart towards them and.
00:07:38 Clancy
What I believe Paul is describing is that.
00:07:43 Clancy
They and myself are in the same boat.
00:07:48 Clancy
We’re on the same playing ground.
00:07:50 Clancy
If what God says is true here, it’s also true for them too.
00:07:55 Clancy
And I have no leg up.
00:07:57 Clancy
I’m not, you know, better than they are.
00:08:00 Clancy
And it’s really difficult for me to say that because I’m I get angry, you know, and I get self-righteous and I see that person.
00:08:08 Clancy
And I say you don’t understand how you’re wrong, you know, and that’s not helpful and nor is that, you know.
00:08:16 Clancy
Is that is that you know?
00:08:18 Clancy
Yeah, nor is that helpful.
00:08:21 Clancy
But I find that it’s easier for me to see that in others than it is to see it myself.
00:08:29 Clancy
So one of the things I want to say today.
00:08:35 Clancy
Is there is no US versus them?
00:08:40 Clancy
There are.
00:08:42 Clancy
People in your life.
00:08:44 Clancy
I’m guessing like mine that you are able to see the sin you’re able to see how they’ve fallen short, how they’ve either been hurtful to themselves or to those around you.
00:08:55 Clancy
And I just want to say, because of what Jesus did, there is no US versus them.
00:09:00 Clancy
The playing we’re on the same playing field, we’re not playing against them.
00:09:04 Clancy
We are all accepting what Jesus did for us.
00:09:09 Clancy
And sin is too much for any of us.
00:09:14 Clancy
We can’t do this on our own.
00:09:17 Clancy
And when we make enemies of our neighbors.
00:09:22 Clancy
We’re saying I expect this to do on your own and I expect what you don’t see or what you believe to be, what disqualifies you from the love of God.
00:09:37 Clancy
So up, up, up, up, up.
00:09:45 Clancy
OK.
00:09:46 Clancy
So earlier this month and the state of Ohio, there was a a train wreck, literally.
00:09:55 Clancy
Train wreck.
00:09:57 Clancy
Have you guys heard of this?
00:10:00 Clancy
And uhm, my brother lives like 15 minutes away from here and.
00:10:08 Clancy
The people of this community are struggling because, you know, I think the people in charge did what they could after this train was, you know, on fire.
00:10:20 Clancy
And there was chemical in it that was hazardous and they had to like, set it on fire, otherwise it would have exploded.
00:10:28 Clancy
And they thought everything was OK, but some of the chemicals got in the water table and that water table is making its way throughout the community.
00:10:37 Clancy
And it’s now in the Ohio River and that Ohio River the chemicals are making its way towards the city of Cincinnati.
00:10:45 Clancy
So water is difficult and I think this is a great image.
00:10:53 Clancy
For at least for me to understand that sin is not something that we can win.
00:10:59 Clancy
We can’t.
00:11:00 Clancy
We can’t overcome it like we just can’t.
00:11:02 Clancy
And this is, I think, a great representation of how things can happen, like the world as it is, is too much for us.
00:11:11 Clancy
We need each other and we also won’t be able to overcome all of it forever, and I just want to say that it’s.
00:11:20 Clancy
That’s OK.
00:11:21 Clancy
It doesn’t make it any less brutal or horrifying.
00:11:24 Clancy
Or uhm, troublesome.
00:11:27 Clancy
But like we we can’t overcome this stuff.
00:11:42 Clancy
So Paul continues to say.
00:11:46 Clancy
We are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
00:11:56 Clancy
One of the tricky things for me is I’m a performance based person.
00:12:02 Clancy
I love to achieve.
00:12:03 Clancy
I love to do all the things and.
00:12:07 Clancy
The entry point for me and Jesus is not that I can achieve or believe the right things or think the right thoughts or know all the trivia like Brendan Manning said.
00:12:18 Clancy
It’s the fact that I admit that I I can’t do it.
00:12:23 Clancy
And my wife yesterday texted me.
00:12:28 Clancy
Uh, you know how it is.
00:12:33 Clancy
And sometimes we can read things like this in Scripture and go.
00:12:38 Clancy
Yeah, I got it.
00:12:39 Clancy
I’ve heard that before, but we actually don’t internalize what it actually means.
00:12:46 Clancy
I just want to say, even though you’ve probably heard it before.
00:12:50 Clancy
Potato, potato.
00:12:52 Clancy
Is that the entry point that we have for Christianity, for following Jesus is admitting we can’t do it all?
00:13:01 Clancy
We can’t be that person that eats us up in the middle of the night.
00:13:04 Clancy
We can’t overcome the sin.
00:13:07 Clancy
You know that we have in our hearts, so I just want to say it, make sure everyone hears it so you don’t have those thoughts because Jesus wants us to know who he is and what he’s done.
00:13:42 Clancy
So when Paul is writing about, there is no distinction for all fallen short of the glory of God.
00:13:48 Clancy
God, we are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.
00:14:00 Clancy
The equation that we have is to receive this thing by faith.
00:14:04 Clancy
We don’t have to necessarily do anything.
00:14:07 Clancy
He has made us right with God.
00:14:09 Clancy
He has justified us.
00:14:10 Clancy
He has.
00:14:12 Clancy
Made us be OK, uh, and I think it’s a great thing.
00:14:17 Clancy
Uh, and later in the next chapter, Paul writes describing Abraham as a good understanding of what it means to be.
00:14:33 Clancy
To have faith, and this is in the message translation and it says This is why the fulfillment of God’s promise depends entirely on trusting God in his way.
00:14:44 Clancy
And then simply embracing him and what he does, God’s promise arrives as pure gift. That the only way everyone can be sure to get in on it.
00:14:56 Clancy
Those who keep the religious traditions and those who have never heard of them for Abraham, is father of us all.
00:15:02 Clancy
He is not our racial father.
00:15:03 Clancy
That’s reading the story.
00:15:04 Clancy
Backward. He is our faith, Father. We call Abraham father. Not because he got God’s attention by living like a St. but because God made something out of Abraham when he was nobody.
00:15:28 Clancy
I I don’t know about you guys, but when it comes to when I think about faith, I always think about I need to believe more.
00:15:37 Clancy
I need to, you know, read the Bible more.
00:15:40 Clancy
I need to have God more central in my thoughts.
00:15:45 Clancy
And I think what Paul is saying is, is actually the opposite.
00:15:50 Clancy
It doesn’t mean that it excludes those things.
00:15:52 Clancy
It just means that our faith is received as a gift.
00:15:56 Clancy
It’s us saying yes, Lord versus us coming up with the bright idea to follow him.
00:16:05 Clancy
From my understanding, he’s saying that faith is grace and it is a gift.
00:16:11 Clancy
It’s something that we’re able to just agree with and say yes and it’s not something of our own invention.
00:16:17 Clancy
It’s something that we’ve been able to come alongside that God has given us and I think that’s just great.
00:16:24 Clancy
I really do.
00:16:28 Clancy
And from that, because this is a gift that we are given, we have no ownership over God or other people because of what we accomplish.
00:16:41 Clancy
Meaning I don’t have possession of God.
00:16:44 Clancy
It’s not the Clancy.
00:16:45 Clancy
God, I’m saying yes to to him through faith because of the gift that he has given.
00:16:52 Clancy
Me through grace.
00:16:54 Clancy
That doesn’t mean that I am in a bad place.
00:16:57 Clancy
It just means that.
00:17:00 Clancy
The gift that he has given me is a wondrous thing, and it doesn’t make me better than my neighbor.
00:17:06 Clancy
It doesn’t make me better than you.
00:17:08 Clancy
It doesn’t make me better than someone else.
00:17:11 Clancy
Everything that I have been given is grace and.
00:17:17 Clancy
If you can leave with anything today, it’s just that.
00:17:21 Clancy
And it’s a it’s a very simple and it’s a beautiful thing.
00:17:25 Clancy
Uh, but.
00:17:28 Clancy
The one of the tricky things is I can’t claim credit for that.
00:17:31 Clancy
I can’t be more special.
00:17:33 Clancy
I can’t be more spectacular.
00:17:36 Clancy
I can’t overperform, I just have to say yes.
00:17:42 Clancy
And I think.
00:17:43 Clancy
One of the reasons that uh, it could be like that is that.
00:17:51 Clancy
Paul describes God as wanting to be the just and the justifier, and I think it is in God’s nature to be absolutely perfect and God loves us so much and in order for his perfection to be able to to deal with us, he had to.
00:18:11 Clancy
Take on flesh, suffer sacrifice, have his blood cover the sins of us and uh.
00:18:23 Clancy
And that is just.
00:18:24 Clancy
That’s an awesome thing.
00:18:26 Clancy
The fact that he wanted to be both just and the justifier so we wouldn’t have to actually overcome the things that we can’t overcome.
00:18:33 Clancy
Does that make sense?
00:18:35
OK.
00:18:41 Clancy
When we’re, at least for me, when I think about this, I think about this as something that happened in history and it happened, and then it’s done.
00:18:49 Clancy
And then today it’s like, OK, intellectually understand, it happened, you know, 2000 years ago, but what does it mean for today, you know, and?
00:18:57 Clancy
What happened through the cross and through resurrection is not done yet.
00:19:03 Clancy
Yes, we are justified, but we’re also being sanctified because of who Jesus is and what he did.
00:19:09 Clancy
And in Scripture it talks about how Jesus, even now is interceding for us.
00:19:17 Clancy
And there is a passage in Hebrews that I really like.
00:19:26 Clancy
And it says consequently he is able to save the uttermost.
00:19:30 Clancy
Those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession, intercession for them.
00:19:37 Clancy
And God, although we are justified, is still interceding for us.
00:19:44 Clancy
Meaning Jesus is praying for us even now, which is just a head trip.
00:19:49 Clancy
If you think about that.
00:19:51 Clancy
Like it’s bananas, absolutely bananas and.
00:19:59 Clancy
One of the things. Uh.
00:20:04 Clancy
To go back to faith as a gift.
00:20:10 Clancy
In this passage, the word faith is a Greek word described as pistis.
00:20:16 Clancy
And Pistis is always a gift from God.
00:20:19 Clancy
It never can be produced by us, which is also a head trip and absolutely bananas.
00:20:26 Clancy
Meaning, when we have faith, it’s not necessarily just us doing it, it’s a constant gift from God.
00:20:34 Clancy
So we’re receiving that while we’re we’re saying yes.
00:20:38 Clancy
Uh, the image that I like to think about is if we can imagine Jesus in the other room and hearing Jesus praying for each one of us individually.
00:20:50 Clancy
That I can hear him praying my name on behalf of me to his father, like that sort of intimacy of Jesus is absolutely remarkable.
00:21:01 Clancy
The fact that God wanted to be both just and justifier, yet he still interceding for us, that the faith, the faithfulness of.
00:21:10 Clancy
Of Jesus Christ for us did and stop.
00:21:13 Clancy
Then it’s continuing now.
00:21:22 Clancy
So if anything.
00:21:28 Clancy
Some takeaways for this week is Grace is a gift.
00:21:33 Clancy
Faith is a gift.
00:21:35 Clancy
Just receive it.
00:21:37 Clancy
Take it in.
00:21:38 Clancy
Don’t worry about believing more or not believing enough.
00:21:42 Clancy
Your sin is always going to be a problem, but it’s been dealt with and Jesus is interceding for you.
00:21:49 Clancy
While this happens, he knows what you suffer.
00:21:52 Clancy
He’s been through it all and it’s not just potato, potato.
00:22:00 Clancy
Uhm, and before I end, does anything?
00:22:02 Clancy
Does anyone have any questions?
00:22:03 Clancy
Anything I miss that you guys want to talk about anything worth mentioning?
00:22:16
And then today isn’t good.
00:22:20 Clancy
Ohh yeah, you because you’re in the whole thing.
00:22:22 Clancy
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:22:25 Clancy
That’s sweet. Thank you.
00:22:27 Clancy
Anything else?
00:22:30 Clancy
All right.
00:22:31 Clancy
Well, you guys, uh, join me in the closing prayer.
00:22:36 Clancy
I don’t know if.
00:22:37 Clancy
You have a slide.
00:22:42 Clancy
Praise God from whom all blessings flow.
00:22:50 Clancy
Praise him.
00:22:52 Clancy
All creatures here be go.
00:22:58 Clancy
Praise him above ye.
00:23:02 Clancy
Heavenly Host praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
00:23:19 Clancy
Thank you all for being here today.
00:23:21 Clancy
Have an absolutely wonderful week.