Ep. 81 | Grace Flows Down | Louder Than Words

Listen in as Pastor Chip Parker shares today’s daily devotional featuring the song "Grace Flows Down." Let’s be Formed by The Word together!

Ready to connect? You can send us a message through our website theorchardcc.org, or email Pastor Eddie Blalock at eddie@theorchardcc.org. You can also follow The Orchard Community Church on Facebook and Instagram to stay connected, and find more content on our YouTube channel.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Music has a unique way of touching the heart. A song can bring back a memory, lift our spirits, comfort us in a difficult season, or help us express what words alone cannot. That's one reason music has always been an important part of worship. Through the songs we sing, we celebrate God's goodness, declare his truth, and remind ourselves of his faithfulness. Over the past several weeks, we've been formed by God's Word as we've journeyed through Genesis. Over the next two weeks, while Pastor Eddie is away on a mission trip, several leaders from the Orchard Community Church will guide us through a special formed by the Word series called Louder Than Words. Together we'll explore the scriptures, truths, and personal stories behind some of the worship songs that have shaped our faith and encouraged our walk with Christ. Our prayer is that these devotions will help you listen more carefully to the songs you sing and deepen your appreciation for the God those songs celebrate. So wherever you're listening today, lean in and open your heart. The God who spoke in the beginning is still speaking today. Let's listen together.

SPEAKER_01 1:10

All right, well, welcome in to this special series of Formed by the Word, where you're going to get to hear from a lot of the staff of the Orchard, a lot of leaders at the Orchard, about songs that have shaped our faith. My name is Chip Parker. I'm the lead pastor here at The Orchard, and I'm excited to get to go first and share with you about a song that has really meant a lot in my life. It's a song that maybe you're familiar with, maybe you're not. It's a song way back from the 1900s, specifically right around 1997-98. And it's a song called Grace Flows Down. Now, the song really caught my attention when I first heard it because it was Amazing Grace. It was just different than I'd ever heard it before. As a matter of fact, what happened is I was at a Christian concert in the newly opened gymnatorium, you know, a gym and an auditorium combined into one at Taylor County High School. And we had a young guy who came in to do this Christian concert and kind of a disciple now weekend, and he began to lead us in this song. Years later, this young man named Chris Tomlin would go on to be a mega worship leader, work with passion, have multiple Dove Award-winning and even Grammy Award-winning songs. But in this high school, before any of that, before any of us knew who Chris Tomlin was or would be, he sang this song, Amazing Grace, that just sounded different. The song started, Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound. Amazing love now flowing down. From hands and feet that were nailed to a tree, Grace flows down and covers me. I'll never forget hearing him sing that. And the reason why I'll never forget hearing him sing that is because it was in that moment that for the first time in my life, I felt the convicting and drawing of the Holy Spirit that I needed to surrender my life to Jesus and trust him as my savior. I remember singing that song. I was in the seventh, eighth grade and had invited a lot of my friends to come to this concert with me. And uh there were a ton of people on the rows beside me. I was actually with them sitting on the front row there in the gym. And as we begin this song, and I began to be convicted of what God was doing in my life, showing me my sin, showing me my need for the savior, that I was overwhelmed and went down front and knelt and just began to pray that God would, you know, save me, do something, God help me. And I remember when I opened my eyes and looked up that man, the front was full, the altar was full of other kids who had come down and began to, you know, cry out to Jesus. And so a lot of the leaders who were there took us over to the side of the gym and kind of began to walk through and talk with us who were, you know, sorting through what God was showing us, what God was telling us. Do we need to be saved? Do we need to, you know, whatever? And I'll never forget that in that moment, the reason I went forward is because for the first time in my life, I understood that good was not good enough, that it took amazing grace and amazing love from hands and feet that were nailed to a tree to come and wash away my sin. I think the scripture that jumps out when you think about that is for you are saved by grace. This is Paul in Ephesians chapter two, verse eight. It says, For you are saved by grace through faith, then this is not of yourself. It is the gift of God, not from works, so that no one can boast. And I remember being overwhelmed by that as a seventh, eighth grader, because up to that moment, I knew I was a pretty good kid. I wasn't doing a lot of bad things. I wasn't in trouble all the time. I was in church, I was making good grades, I had good friends, you know. But yet I began to be aware that it was in that very goodness that I was trusting for my own hope of salvation. And I had to understand that I'm saved by grace through faith, not by my own goodness. And that just hit me like a ton of bricks. And so as we sang about that grace, that love that flowed down to cover our sins, and I went forward and I got ready to trust Jesus, my savior. Another thing happened that I'll never forget. As the chaperones were going while we were over there in the side of the gym talking to us, beginning to counsel, one of the chaperones who meant well was serving the Lord, came and they looked at me and they said, Oh, I know you. You go to our church. And then passed over me to go and talk with another student. Again, I am not criticizing this adult. I know that they were overwhelmed with the response that they were seeing. I know they were trying to talk with kids that they didn't think they'd ever get a chance to talk to again to tell them about the hope that they found in Jesus. But in that moment, I was just kind of bewildered because just the fact I was a church kid meant nothing. The fact that I was a good kid meant nothing. The fact that you knew me meant nothing because being saved has nothing to do with whether you're good or bad. It has to do with whether you're lost and I was lost. And so I know that I went home and going to bed, not that night, but I think it was the next, I couldn't let this idea go that I needed to be saved, that I needed to trust Jesus. And so I invited my mom to come in my room and I said, Mom, I need to help how what do I need to do? And there in my room, my mom, who has gone on to be with the Lord, led me to faith in Christ, where I cried out to Jesus for the forgiveness of my sins, for the hope of my salvation and the promise of eternity. And I was saved. I was born again. And as I think back on that, there's some lessons I think that are helpful for us here today and maybe helpful for you to think through. Number one is we just said, you know, we have to realize that being saved has nothing to do with if we are a good person or a bad person, has nothing to do with whether we go to church or don't go to church, whether we're saved or not is about whether we know Jesus as savior or whether we are still living in our lostness. And for a lot of people, that lostness may look more like self-righteousness than it does outward rebellion. As a matter of fact, one of the reasons that I am so passionate about reaching lostness, impacting lostness right here in North Central Florida is because I believe there's a huge number of lost people who are living in their lostness, but it just looks like self-righteousness. It looks like moralism. It doesn't look like outright rebellion and wanton sin. It looks like people who live good lives, work hard, have good families, yet have never surrendered their life to Jesus and trusted him, not their own works, for their salvation. So we need to remember that being lost or being saved has nothing to do with good or bad, church or unchurched. We all need Jesus, and there are none of us who are good enough. Number two, as we remember that, we need to remember that good kids still need Jesus, that kids in our church still need Jesus, and they need to hear the gospel just as much as the lost sinner on the street, so to speak. And we need to be very intentional about helping our good kids, our church kids hear the gospel and put their hope and their trust in Jesus. And I think the third thing is that we need to be reminded, those of us who know Jesus as Savior, no matter how long we've known him as Savior, no matter how long we've been following after him, no matter how often we come to church, which way we serve in church, it is only the blood of Jesus that cleanses us from our sin. It is amazing grace and amazing love that flow down from those pierced hands and pierced feet that were nailed to the tree of the cross of Calvary that brings forgiveness of our sin. And that there is not a sinner in the world today that is beyond his grace, and there is not a good person in the world today that is outside of the reach or outside of the need of his grace, that we all come to the cross on level ground. And so I hope that is an encouragement to you today. I hope that is a challenge for you today. And I cannot wait for you to hear more stories of faith, more songs of faith from some of the greatest people that I have ever had the privilege to know, the privilege to work with and serve alongside of here at the Orchard Community Church. So thanks for tuning in to Formed by the Word, and man, you are gonna love these next couple of weeks.

SPEAKER_00 10:13

Thanks for joining us today. We are so glad that you chose to spend a few moments with us in God's Word. If this episode has encouraged you, we ask that you leave us a review or maybe share this episode with a friend. Also, would you consider sending us a note to let us know what God is doing in your life? Pastor Eddie would love to hear from you. You can find this email in the show notes. Until next time, stay in the scriptures, keep following Christ, and allow your life to be formed by the Word.