Greg: You know, this was my cue to come out after that song, but
I came out too early and I stood up here while my wife talked.
Nothing theological about that.
It just rose my, uh, probably nervousness to talk to you this morning.
And so, uh, but I didn't want to leave once I figured out
I shouldn't have been here.
So, uh, I wanted to show my respect to her and listen to her.
And, you know, it all works out though because she's so pretty and
she's a good introduction to me.
If you like her, then maybe you can like me.
Amen?
And so that's the way it's been most of our life.
Uh, I am, uh, but I was a little embarrassed, so I wanted to get
that out to start with, alright?
I, you know, if I were more of a model, I wouldn't have minded.
I would have posed, but, uh, it's not really me.
Not really me.
But I did do something that I learned at a preaching retreat a couple weeks ago.
They said, when you speak, you need to make eye contact.
And so while I was up here, yes, I was looking at you.
And I was looking at you straight in the eye.
So you would look back at me.
And I'm looking even to the back.
I looked in the back.
I saw you up there.
I see you.
Alright?
I got cataract surgery so I can finally see you.
Alright?
You got an OG in the OC this morning.
Amen?
Alright.
And, here's the way I preach, guys.
I do good.
If you do good.
It's an intersection between the leader and the follower.
That's what I believe preaching is.
And so, the more you encourage me, the more I can encourage you.
So, it's symbiotic.
We're working together.
And I really like you guys have a great lapel mic.
So I can wander around, get my steps in, get a little exercise going.
It's awesome, you know.
Uh, you, you guys laugh, but when you get to my age, you're gonna
be remembering that, alright?
Anything to get those steps in.
This morning, I'm gonna talk about gospel grace.
All right, gospel grace, and I'm writing a book.
I've got it about halfway done, and it's about the encounters of Jesus with people.
Everybody that he encountered, how he gave grace to people.
And I believe this is one of the greatest needs in our movement.
For us to balance our theology.
We have great theology about lordship, about discipleship, about the
crucifixion of self, denying self.
You know, we have great conviction about the Bible and God's
covenant for us and his promises.
But we need to have a great theology and be able to embody, be able to just
feel, experience the mercy and the goodness and the grace of God, amen?
And I, I've known about it, I understood it intellectually, but to be able to
get it from the head to the heart, that's sometimes the greatest distance
you can travel in any endeavor.
From the head to the heart.
And so this morning, I invite you not just to listen to a
story I know you've heard before.
Alright?
I know you're familiar with this story.
But I want you to listen to it with your heart.
Jesus said in the parables, he's told parables because they see with their
eyes, they hear with their ears.
But they need to understand with their hearts.
And so open up your heart this morning to the Lord.
To the spirit of the Lord.
Cause he's here with us.
Where two or three are gathered in his name.
He's with us.
And the word of God is living and active.
So all I gotta do is read the word.
And it's gonna be living and active.
It's gonna affect you.
It's gonna affect me.
We need to commune and fellowship with one another.
But most of all with God this morning.
I don't believe in Greg's philosophy.
You didn't come this morning.
To listen to Greg's philosophy.
My dear daughter has been hearing sermons from me for years.
She didn't come this morning just to hear another one of Dad's sermons.
She came to be with God and his people.
And that's why you and I are here.
Amen?
And you never know when it's going to touch you.
Sometimes it's a song, right?
Some of us are very musically inclined.
Sometimes just a word and a song.
Ooh.
Oh, that's talking to me.
You know, sometimes it's a scripture.
Sometimes it's a sister's voice.
You can listen to the radio and the men's voice.
You sort of sing along as long as nobody else is in the car.
But if one of those women come on, sometimes that high voice
just goes straight to the heart.
It's like, ooh.
Wow.
So I don't know what's going to hit you this morning, but
I pray that you're blessed.
Amen.
Three words.
Three words made all the difference to the crucified crook.
The tale of the crucified crook is what we're going to talk about today.
Three words can change your life.
Three words can make all the difference.
Help us turn corners.
As a professional counselor, it's amazing how people have aha moments
with just the simplest of thoughts.
And it changes them, helps them get over a challenge in their
life, helps them stop being stuck.
How about these three words?
I love you.
Some of us longed to hear that from that special somebody, didn't we?
And once we heard it, pitter pat, pitter pat, pitter pat.
I mean, it's changed everything.
I love you.
Kathy and I met at 13 years old.
7th grade.
I sat on the front row.
Because I was a good student.
No, really, because I couldn't see very well.
And she walked past me.
And went to the end of the aisle behind me, because that was the only open seat.
It was foreign language class.
And boy, did I go Peter Pan.
Didn't talk to her for a couple years, but, oh, you
know, I noticed her right off.
We were head boy and head girl together.
And then, you know, I was such a thug, she ran away.
She went off to Texas to college, I went to Colorado.
But then, I became a Christian.
And it made all the difference.
And I started calling her.
We didn't have cell phones back then.
And Sunday night was the cheapest time to make a long distance call.
And so I'd call her, and we'd study the Bible.
And her stepmother was a stewardess for American Airlines.
So she'd fly up to Colorado, stay with the sisters in the dorm,
study the Bible, go to church.
Eventually she became a Christian.
And the rest is history.
She came to Boulder.
We graduated together.
We got married.
And live happily ever after.
That's my side of the story.
And I'm sticking to it.
Alright?
I love you.
You gotta get good at saying I'm sorry.
Especially us men.
Oh, come on, man.
There's a couple amens right here.
Especially us men.
Yeah.
There you go.
Get that deep voice going on.
You know, you brothers that want to preach someday, sing bass.
It'll lower your voice.
You'll get a voice like Marcel.
Alright?
I mean, I wish I had a voice like Marcel.
I, I can get there if I think about it, but then that's a little weird, isn't it?
I was wrong.
If you're a parent, you gotta get good at that.
You gotta tell them.
I had to tell my little grandbaby last night, I was wrong and I'm sorry.
She, she said, Papa, you need to go give me a chocolate shake.
I said, I'm not getting you a chocolate shake.
It's time for bed.
You can't have a chocolate shake.
And she's, she started crying.
My mommy and daddy let me have a chocolate shake, take it and take it to bed.
She goes, yes.
And I said, I'm not going to go get you.
I'll get you a chocolate shake tomorrow, but I'm not getting you a chocolate shake.
Well, it's an energy drink.
And yes, mom and dad let her.
Kathy corrected me.
So I had to go down and get the shake and bring it up and apologize to her.
She goes, I told you my mommy and daddy let me have a check.
And I said, honey, you're right.
Papa was wrong.
I need help.
I forgive you.
I will change.
Please forgive me.
What are the three words that I want us to focus in on this morning?
Jesus, remember me.
Remember me.
Then the crucified crook said, Jesus, remember me when you come in your kingdom.
Jesus answered him.
Truly, I tell you today, you will be with me in paradise.
Just three words.
Remember me.
I want to start with a poem entitled The Gift.
It's a famous poem.
And because I can see so well in the back, I can't see so well up front anymore.
I told my, my optometrist, you know, I appreciate the cataract
surgery, so I can pass my driving test, but I can't read as well.
Oh, just buy readers.
That was not a good answer for me.
To pull the metal splinter from my palm, my father recited a story in a low voice.
I watched his lovely face
and not the blade.
Before the story ended, he'd removed the iron sliver I thought I'd die from.
I can't remember the tale, but I hear his voice still.
A well of dark water, a prayer.
And I recall his hands, two measures of tenderness he laid against my face.
The flames of discipline he raised above my head.
Had you entered that afternoon, you would have thought you saw a man
planting something in a boy's palm.
A silver tear, a tiny flame.
Had you followed that boy, you would have arrived here, where I
bend over my wife's right hand.
Look how I shave her thumbnail down, so carefully she feels no pain.
Watch as I lift the splinter out.
I was seven when my father took my hand like this.
I did not hold that shard between my fingers and think, metal that will
bury me, christen it little assassin.
Or, going deep for my heart.
And I did not lift up my wound and cry, death visited me.
You know how children are dramatic.
I did what a child does.
When he's given something to keep forever, I kissed my dad.
What did this father give to this son?
A memory.
Precious, tender gift.
He remembers his father's hand.
He doesn't even remember the story that distracted him.
He just remembers his father relieving him of pain.
Brothers and sisters, that's what our Father in Heaven
wants to do for us every day.
Relieve us of our pain.
You know, for years in the ministry I thought, everything's good.
Most people don't have any problems, a few people do.
But, it's just good.
And now it seems like now that I'm older, everybody has problems.
And a few people have it like it's good and not a problem right now.
But we all know that isn't going to last, that everybody has problems, right?
And so we need this foundation of God's tender touch, tender care.
Let's read our text this morning.
You can look along.
You can look in your, your, uh, phone.
You can look in your Bible.
It's just a short passage and you know the story.
But listen to the Word of God.
The sacred, holy Word of God.
One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him.
Just threw things at Jesus while he's dying on the cross.
That sounds a little cruel to me.
Aren't you the Messiah?
Save yourself and us.
But the other criminal rebuked him.
Don't you fear God, he said.
Since you are under the same sentence.
We are punished justly.
For we are getting what our deeds deserve.
But this man has done nothing, nothing wrong.
Then he said, Jesus, remember me when you come in your kingdom.
Jesus answered.
Truly, I tell you today you will be with me in paradise.
We need to parse this story because we can learn so much.
One of the criminals who hung their hurled insults.
But what did he say?
Prove yourself, God.
Answer this prayer.
Show me yourself.
Do a miracle for me.
Bless me.
I'm not going to believe unless you come more my direction.
He's come a lot towards us.
But it seems like instead of taking the step of faith, we
want God to take that other step.
And prove himself.
Prove that you're the Messiah.
Prove to me personally that I should follow you.
That I should love you, that I should confess you.
This is the voice of the world, folks.
SAVE US!
Oh, and save yourself, too.
This is not a good heart.
This is not a prayer.
This is not humility.
This is pride.
Poking at Jesus.
Insulting Jesus.
Mocking Jesus.
This is what the crowds were doing to Jesus.
Crucify Him.
Save yourself and us.
Prove you're the Messiah.
I don't know about you, I need to be honest though.
There's times when after I prayed something for a while, maybe months,
I start getting a little impatient.
I start getting a little demanding.
I'm sorry.
I'll just confess.
You know, I've been praying a prayer for four years.
Hasn't been answered yet.
Oh, it's been answered.
Later.
God can say yes.
God can say no.
Or he can say later.
Just like when your husband asks you to do something, your wife asks you
to do something, you can say yes.
You can say no, or can we negotiate?
Right?
Got a little marriage counseling there for you, alright?
Let's not demand of the Lord.
The Lord doesn't make deals.
He doesn't make deals.
The next part.
Oh, this is good.
This is good.
But the other criminal, this is the crucified crook.
The first was the unrepentant thief.
This is the repentant thief.
Rebuked him the unrepentant thief.
Don't you fear God?
You don't say that unless you're having some sense of fear of God in your heart.
See, hard times crucifixion taking up your cross can soften you or harden you.
One thief was hardened.
One thief was softened.
There was all these contrasts, always, the right picture, the wrong picture,
Jesus always paints a picture for us.
The pictures stay in our minds, the words leave us, but we have these
word pictures that we never forget.
And we need to embrace that crucified crook, the one that rebuked the other one.
Don't you fear God, since you are under the same sentence?
I mean, we're up here because we deserve it, the man's saying.
But this other man doesn't deserve it.
We're punished justly.
For we are getting what our deeds deserve.
You know, usually, if you stole in the ancient world, you got your hand cut off.
You stole again, you got the other hand cut off.
I guess after you steal three times, you get put to death.
I mean, in the old west, if you stole a horse, it was over
right then, they hung you.
Alright?
You stole cattle.
Certain things just, you know, lines you don't cross.
They had done so much that they had been sentenced to death.
This was the extreme punishment of these men.
We are getting what our deeds deserve, but this man has done nothing wrong.
You know, if you think about this, this is the only person
that stood up for Jesus that day.
The only one.
I'm going to take off my glasses so I can see you.
See, if I see you, it's a conversation.
If we can't see each other, then it's a speech and you drove off
and your mind goes other places.
But now you're all paying attention because you're like, he's going to look
at me and I need to be looking back.
Yeah.
Good face.
I like that smile.
Yeah.
Yeah, and I used to, when I preach, only look at the smiling faces.
Now I look at the, all the faces.
Because I have one of those faces that I wouldn't look at
if someone was preaching to me.
So now I look at everybody.
We're punished justly.
He said, this man has done nothing wrong.
You know, the disciples were thinking that.
Pilate even knew it, but he didn't say it.
Nobody said it, but the crucified crook.
The disciples stood there silent.
Some of them weeping.
The women were weeping, but nobody said, This is wrong!
This is shouldn't be!
This is ungodly!
This is unjust!
But this one man said, this isn't just,
we're getting what we justly deserve, but not Jesus, not Jesus.
And so when then he asked in the next frame, Jesus, remember me?
Jesus just met him.
What's he going to remember?
Those few words, those few sentences.
This man has done nothing wrong.
We are punished justly.
Jesus remembered his confession of his sin and his confession of faith.
And because of those two confessions, Jesus said, today,
you, yeah, good looking you.
Yeah, you sister.
Yes, you.
smiling at me.
Praise God for you.
God bless you.
You back there who I met as I came in.
Amen.
Today, you will be with me in paradise.
You know, I first read this in the eighties.
I came up to a lectureship at Pepperdine University before
I ever went to school there.
Went to school there a long time.
But a friend of mine that I had met at a conference in Manaus, Brazil, was doing
morning devotionals in the amphitheater.
Max Flocato.
I met him years ago.
I probably shouldn't say this, but he and his wife were having a few bumps.
They lived right acr they were in the room right across from us.
So they asked the elder that I was rooming with from San Diego, George
Havens, if He would get with them and so they told me to take a hike and
they had a little marriage counseling and so we developed a friendship.
And so I heard he was speaking early in the morning.
I didn't get excited about getting up that early and
missing my breakfast, but I went.
And I heard this.
The only thing more outlandish than the request was that it was granted.
Just trying to picture the scene is enough.
To short circuit the grandest of imaginations.
A flat nosed ex con asking God, Son, for eternal life.
But try to imagine the appeal being honored.
Well that moves us even beyond the realm of reality into absurdity.
But as absurd as it may appear, that is exactly what happened.
He who deserved hell, got heaven.
And we are left with a puzzling riddle.
What, for goodness sake, was Jesus trying to teach us?
What was he trying to prove by pardoning this thug, who, in all probability, had
never said grace, much less deserved it?
This is the beginning of a chapter in No Wonder They Call Him the Savior.
It's one of my very favorite books of all the hundreds and
hundreds of books I've read.
I love this book.
It's Jesus statements from the cross.
It's about the grace and love of God.
And the title of the chapter is The Tale of the Crucified Crook.
And for some reason, that morning devotional touched me.
For some reason, I identified with that crucified crook.
I have genes of
convicts in me.
If you've ever done a genogram, what you do is your mom's side of
the family, you, you build out all the relationships on that side.
And then you build out all the relationships on your father's side.
And when I was in graduate school, they made me do a genogram of my family.
And on my mom's side, in every generation, there's a lawyer.
And on my dad's side, guess.
There's a convict that went to prison.
Opposites attract.
Right?
Beauty and the Beast.
Kathy, the Beauty, the Beast.
Alright?
Opposites attract.
I mean, I looked at this and I never realized that.
I have an Uncle Buck.
If you don't have an Uncle Buck, I'm sorry.
I have an Uncle Buck.
And he went to prison.
For cattle wrestling.
Now he says Grandpa made him do it, but he still did it, alright?
So I have that gene.
I don't know why it touched me that morning.
But I felt like I'm that crook.
I'm that guy that doesn't deserve grace.
I'm that guy that's not naturally spiritual.
I have a lot of anger in me.
I got a lot of bad thoughts.
Mean thoughts.
I was the youngest of four boys and my older brothers picked on
me until I was 18 and I went away to college and I never moved home.
They still, all three, lived in the same town until one of them died.
But I had to get away.
I was like Charlie Brown.
Why is everybody always picking on me?
Some of you are laughing.
You remember the song.
The rest of you are looking up on YouTube.
But I, I stuffed all that.
And I knew inside I had a darkness.
I had one minister that worked with me.
He said, Greg, you scare me.
You have a cold part of your heart.
Don't let anybody tell you things like that.
Because they're not true.
Because I'm made in the image of God.
And I don't have any more coldness than he does.
Alright?
We all got sinful nature, right?
Until we get to heaven, we all got struggles.
We all got issues.
And if you're faking it this morning that you're perfect, we
know you're not Jesus Christ.
We know.
So don't fake it.
But Jesus says today, you and me
will be together in paradise.
I'm looking forward to my paradise.
I like Psalms 23.
I've attended 500 deaths, over 500 deaths as a chaplain for 8 years.
At least once a week I had to attend a death.
So in 8 years, over 500 deaths.
So I've seen a lot of people die.
And I've seen good death and I've seen bad death.
I've seen peaceful death and I've seen anxious, anxious death.
I'm gonna have a good death.
Because I'm going to sit there in that bed until Jesus comes and
takes my hand and walks me through the valley of the shadow of death.
And so I'm going to fear no evil.
I'm going to be so excited.
I'm not going to be a burden on my family.
I pray that I don't get sick in this long, prolonged death.
I just pray that at 85 I dropped it.
And I've told my daughter, that's my DNR.
I'm not, I mean, don't resuscitate me.
Let me go.
Alright?
Cause I know where I'm going.
Cause the tale of the crucified crook is the tale of Greg.
Now I really didn't have, don't have a problem with stealing.
I will confess, I stole some cigarettes when I was young.
You know, the little store by my house, they didn't lock the window.
So you just slide open the window, you can reach in, the only thing you could
get was cigarettes, so we'd reach in, then we'd get sick, so we quit doing that.
That's personal, I probably shouldn't have said that.
But when you preach, you just move on, so.
Christ pardoned the thief for eternity.
To confirm to everyone that grace, and here's my point, is a gift.
The contrast between the bitter thief and the humble thief describes the
choice between faith and unbelief.
Salvation can be received on our deathbed even if our sincere faith is expressed.
Real quickly to end this sermon, I want to go through a history of grace.
Because I want to expand your thoughts and help you truly understand grace is a gift.
You know,
I've been, for some reason, what's been catching my attention
is that commercial by Red Bull.
Red Bull gives you wings.
I don't believe that.
I went and bought a Red Bull.
I drank it.
I didn't get wings.
I like Red Bull Racing Formula One.
My son in law introduced me.
I love it.
I'm glad they finally beat those Mercedes guys.
You know, I, I, I really like Red Bull Racing.
I don't really like Red Bull drinks.
I drink water or, uh, Crystal Light these days.
Alright?
My wife scolded me for buying a Red Bull.
She's gonna keep you up tonight.
Scared me, so I took some Tylenol PM, so I didn't.
But Red Bull doesn't give you wings.
That's my point.
Smart water doesn't make you smart.
Jesus gives you wings.
In the Old Testament, grace came through what?
Obedience to the commands of God, right?
During the patriarchal period, during the mosaical period, grace came through
obeying the law and temple sacrifices.
Jesus.
All right.
And then in the New Testament, grace came through faith in the deity of Jesus.
You read the gospel of John.
You believe that Jesus was the Christ, the son of God.
Then you were saved.
The sacrifice of Jesus during the church period.
You could join the community if you embrace that Jesus died on
the cross for you and you would confess that Jesus is Lord.
And then unfortunately, during Catholic Christianity, the pendulum
swung from being in the middle of balance between grace and truth.
It went way over to the truth side.
And the church controlled grace.
The only way you could get grace was through the sacraments.
Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Communion, Anointing of the Sick, Confession
and Penance, Holy Orders, Becoming a Nun or a Priest, or Holy Matrimony.
And then, the pendulum swung all the way the other way during
the Prostitute Revolution.
During the Reformation, Lutherans said, especially Martin Luther,
because he was an agonized soul.
He was so guilt ridden, always.
If you read his autobiography.
That he was longing to feel God's grace.
And so he said it was a gift, but then he still didn't feel it.
So then he said that faith even was the gift.
That everything's a gift.
And unfortunately that cheapened grace.
And then Calvin took it a step further with the whole idea of tulip.
Total depravity of man.
Unmerited favor and election.
Limited atonement.
Irresistible grace and the perseverance of saints.
All that just made Grace cheap.
Made it cheap.
And so a lot of us, Evangelical Protestant type people, we've
been a little shy on grace.
Because we didn't want grace to be a license for sin.
And in our movement, I'm finally getting to us, so perk up!
Perk up!
We're almost done!
But now I'm talking about us!
We got grace.
From the Restoration Heritage, from the Stone Campbell Movement, through
conversion, the Great Awakenings.
That people became alive again spiritually if they had an experience.
And it was a conversion experience.
First through repentance and then through baptisms.
And so if we would hear and believe and confess and repent and be baptized,
follow the formula, then we got grace.
But then what do we do after that?
Feels great to be converted, but then you got to live the whole Christian life
Right, and we haven't done a whole lot of motivating each other through grace
We we converted each other by grace, but then we haven't motivated each other
completely by grace Grace is a gift.
It's a gift and then discipleship Conversion we took it a little higher
than the restoration movement You say you get You get grace through lordship
if Jesus is Lord of your life, and that's true, but that's not all there is That's
sort of our part But he gives grace as a gift and so a lot of us haven't felt
secure in our salvation I got you know I don't know if I deserve grace because
the you know the Lord Wasn't totally Lord today Because I bought a Red Bull
And I didn't get wings We are always looking, testing, aren't we?
Am I good enough to have this prayer answered?
Have I done enough?
Have I shared enough?
Have I read enough?
Have I prayed enough?
Have I And we never feel like it's enough, right?
And so, this morning, let's just adjust our theology a little bit.
Grace is a gift from the tender hands of that Father.
It's a gift.
And so all you need to do is kissing back.
Kissing.
Accept that gift, folks.
Accept it with all your heart, because God is faithful, he's righteous, and
he's merciful, he's so very good, and he wants to give you the gift.
Today, you will be with me in paradise.
I'm going to close with a kiss.
A poem.
But I want you to remember from this sermon, grace gives you wings.
Grace gives you wings.
So now, every time you hear that commercial, the truth comes to your mind.
Grace gives you wings.
The Greatest Gift by Sue Ellison.
The greatest gift could be to believe, to understand, to accept all that you see.
The greatest, it will surely decline if you don't use it.
The greatest gift is to breathe and to flow and to share with the
world your inspiring inner glow, which is the gift of the Holy
Spirit when you became a Christian.
And the church said, Amen.
God bless you.