S3 E19 - Bottomless Coffee. Bottomless Grace.

I love my coffee, and I love my coffee shop - it's where I do most of my study. Depending on how long I'm there my drink order differs; sometimes I order a cortado, sometimes I order a flat white. But if I'm there for a long time, I order a bottomless coffee. No matter how many times I empty my cup, they fill it right back up - I never run out of coffee. Well...God's grace is exactly like this. Sometimes we might feel like at some point, God is just going to cut us off - that we've sinned too many times over our life and he's run out of grace. But that's not how it works. He has lavished us with grace, and our cup runs over. We might run out of a lot of things, but we can be confident that we will never run out of grace. 

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Transcript

What if I told you that God could be seen in the most ordinary things every day? 

What if I told you that every day, ordinary events could teach us extraordinary eternal truths?

Would you believe me? 
 Hi, I’m BJ Sipe – and you’re listening to the Set Your Mind Above Podcast. 

I am a Christian, a preacher, a husband, and a father.

Thanks for tuning in!

It’s no secret that I love my coffee, and that I love my coffee shops. The truth is that if you were hoping to find me throughout the week, there is little to no chance you would be successful by swinging by my office or swinging by my house. Now, if you dropped into Dry Stack Coffee here in downtown Danville, there is a great probability that you will see me set up and engaged in Bible study on my own or with someone else. It was many years ago that this approach to study was modeled for me by some very good mentors. Why in the world, as an evangelist, would I ever stay confined to an office all alone when I could do the very same work in a public place? In a place where I can get familiar with my community, have opportunities for service, and engage others in spiritual discussion? Well, Dry Stack has become that very place for me. I am so thankful for the many different relationships that I have built here over the past couple of years, and I look forward to the many more that will grow out of my time spent here in the years to come. What could possibly be better than sitting down and immersing yourself in Bible Study? Doing so with an excellent cup of coffee in your hands! To quote my friend Mark Roberts, “Like the Scriptures, coffee is a blessing from God.” My routine on any given day is to come into the coffee shop, get set up for my studies for the day, and then go and order my drink. My drink order varies primarily on the time of day I am there as well as how long I plan on studying there. Several times a week, I am here as early as 6 am in the morning. When that happens, my usual order is something called a “1 & 1” – which is a shot of espresso as a chaser, followed by a cortado. It’s the exact little jolt that I need to get my day started. If I am just meeting someone here for a session, my usual order will be my favorite go to coffee drink: a flat white. It’s the perfect size, perfect texture, perfect flavor. But on the days that I’m coming to study for many hours, perhaps even the better portion of the day, you can guarantee that I’m going to order they best deal on their menu: a bottomless coffee. Priced just slightly above a regular cup of hot coffee, the bottomless option is exactly what it suggests to be – as many free refills of coffee that your little body can take. Some days I only end up drinking 2 cups, but some days I’ll have as many as 4 cups of coffee while I’m sitting and working. As a matter of fact, as I am writing this one of my baristas just dropped off my third cup of coffee for the day. Today I am drinking a single origin coffee, a Peruvian coffee called “Chasqui” that is somewhere between a medium and dark roast – and it’s roasted right here in the shop. A washed process, this particular coffee boasts of tasting notes of walnut, raisin, green apple, and brown spice. It is exceptional. And the best part? It’s bottomless. When my cup runs out, I can run right back up to the coffee bar, slide my mug across the granite countertop, and they will fill me right back up. So, while somedays I may run out of energy, out of ideas, or be out of my mind, I can have confidence that I will never run out of coffee. 

You want to know what’s even more incredible than bottomless coffee? Bottomless grace. While I might jest from time to time about how I desperately need coffee, it is no joking matter that all of us desperately need the grace of God. Without grace, each of us are hopelessly lost in our sin. We stand condemned on account of our unrighteousness, and no amount of good works will ever change that. Paul would write in Romans 3:21-24, “But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been revealed, attested by the Law and the Prophets. The righteousness of God is through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe, since there is no distinction. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” What Paul has written here is the very heart of the good news, the gospel of Christ. We are hopelessly lost on account of our unrighteousness, and yet despite this, we can be justified and declared righteous through the gift of God’s grace by the blood of Jesus. But just how great is God’s grace? I know there have been many times in my own life that I have asked questions like, “How could God forgive me? I have this long, long list of things I have done…of things that continue to resurface in my life or in my heart…at what point does God run out of grace?” How you ever thought this way before? Well, staying in Romans, I want us to fast-forward now to the 5th chapter. As we read through these select verses in the text, I want you to take special notice of the abundance of grace that Paul speaks of repeatedly. In Romans 5:15-17 he would say, “But the gift is not like the trespass. For if by the one man’s trespass the many died, how much more have the grace of God and the gift which comes through the grace of the one man Jesus Christ overflowed to the many. And the gift is not like the one man’s sin, because from one sin came the judgment, resulting in condemnation, but from many trespasses came the gift, resulting in justification. If by the one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive the overflow of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.” Again, Paul would say in vv. 20, “The law came along to multiply the trespass. But where sin multiplied, grace multiplied even more.” The word that this translation renders as overflowed is literally to mean “excessive…abundance…more than enough.” This gift of God’s grace is not just to barely supply what we desperately need…our cup runs over! Paul would tell the Ephesians that, “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he richly poured out on us with all wisdom and understanding.” (Ephesians 1:7-8) Jesus has not just given us a little grace...he has lavished it upon us! Now please don’t misunderstand what the Scriptures say – God’s grace is not something that we can abuse or take advantage of. Paul would go on to make this very point in the immediate context of Romans 6 when he would ask, “What should we say then? Should we continue in sin so that grace may multiply? Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it?” God’s grace is not our license to sin, and continuing in sin willfully results in a complete rejection of God’s grace. But this is what the text is telling us…in as many times as we come to God asking for his grace in humility, at what point will it ever run out? And the answer is…never. When we come to God empty, through his grace he continues to fill us back up until our cup runs over. His grace is limitless, unending, and everlasting. John would say in his first epistle that when we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us from all sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So, while we may run out of a lot of things in this life, the one thing we can be truly be confident in is that God never runs out of grace. Let us conclude with Hebrews 4:14-16, “Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens—Jesus the Son of God—let us hold fast to our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin. Therefore, let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in time of need.”

Thank you for tuning in for this week’s episode, and I would invite you back every Thursday for a brand-new episode each week. If you haven’t already, be sure to find us on Facebook for future announcements or even some special video sessions. If you have benefited from this podcast, share it with someone else that you think would benefit from it also. Until next time, know that I love you, that God loves you, and may we all each & every day set our minds above.