Craig Smith - Relationships Are Like a River
- Watch
- Donate
Well, it’s a special weekend at Mission Hills. As you’ve seen, we’re doing baptisms, and I have a special message. What we’re celebrating on all of our campuses this week and in all of our services is the stories of people who have been used by God to bring those who are ready to get baptized to this moment. We’re celebrating how God has revealed Himself to them and who He has used to get them to this moment.
So, I want to leave plenty of time for their story. I’m going to give you a very short, sweet message today. Okay, I just want to share a very simple but really important idea. In fact, you can go ahead and write this down; this is really all you need to get out of today’s message. What flows to you must flow through you. Go ahead and write that down because that’s it. That’s all you’re getting today. I mean, I’m going to unpack it a little bit, but that’s the message God gave me to share with you today. What flows to you must flow through you. It didn’t start with you, and it can’t stop with you. If it does, bad things are going to happen, and God doesn’t want those bad things in your life. He wants you to receive what He has poured into you, and He wants you to pour that out to others.
Let me show you what I mean. If you want to follow along, we’re going to be in 2 Timothy chapter 2, verses 1 and 2 today. Just two very short verses that boil down to one very simple idea: what flows to you must flow through you. By the way, if you were with us last week, we talked about the fact that 2 Timothy contains the last words of the Apostle Paul. It’s literally the last book he wrote, and last words are of first importance.
So, as we see Paul’s last words — and he knows it’s coming; he knows that he’s not much longer for this world -he’s sharing with his protege Timothy, someone he cares deeply about. He’s sharing his big thoughts, his most important ideas that he wants to make sure get passed on. These are really important thoughts. One of them is this: he says, «You then, my son,"-he’s not actually his biological son, but he loves him so deeply — «be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.» Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. What’s he saying? He’s saying what flowed to you must flow, say it with me, through you.
Now, what’s the flow? What’s flowing? Well, it’s grace, right? He says there’s grace, and it started with Jesus. It’s in Christ Jesus; that’s the container it was poured out into you from. It started with Jesus. Grace flows from Jesus into you. By the way, if you don’t know what grace is, let me make it really simple for you. Grace is undeserved kindness -it’s God’s undeserved kindness for us. It’s really the heart of the Christian religion. Christian faith differs from every other religion in one really key ingredient. There are some truths about Christianity that are true of other religions; I think it’s totally healthy to acknowledge that. One thing that almost every religion agrees with Christianity on is that we’ve done wrong.
The Bible says we’ve all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. But every religion essentially says that, in some way, we’ve all lived out of alignment with God. Okay, that’s a common truth about all of them. The really big difference between Christianity and every other religion is not the recognition that we have done wrong. The big difference is: how do we make it right? Every other religion in the world says you’ve got to fight for forgiveness. You’ve done wrong, and that’s caused a separation between you and God.
So, if you want to be forgiven, here’s what you’re going to have to do: you’re going to have to fight for it. You’re going to have to follow the rules. You have to get really good at following the rules, and if you get good enough at following the rules, and if you are really faithful in participating in the rituals, right, then maybe God will forgive you. So, it’s a fight — you’ve got to work hard to get it. That’s every other religion. Christianity says, «No, actually, I’ve got good news and bad news.» The bad news is that you can’t fight hard enough. You’re never going to become holy. And even if you did, even if you got to the point where maybe you lived in some kind of cryogenic suspension so you never did anything wrong again -even in your head, I don’t know how that’s going to work — but maybe you pull that off. Just the fact that you’re not doing more wrong doesn’t fix the wrong you’ve already done.
There’s a real separation between you and God that has come because of the sin you’ve already committed. And even if you can avoid committing more sin, that doesn’t fix what you’ve already done. Fighting for forgiveness isn’t going to fix anything. That’s the bad news. The good news is Christianity says God fought for you because He loves you and wants a relationship with you. He sent His Son, Jesus, the vessel of grace. Jesus died on the cross, and when He poured out His blood, He was pouring out His undeserved kindness on us. He was paying the price for our sin.
Then, three days later, He was raised from the dead. Having been raised from the dead, God says, «I’ll forgive you if you’ll just follow Jesus. Just connect to Him, and grace will flow into you, and you will be forgiven.» The thing about grace is you don’t have to fight for it; it just flows. It flows into you. All you have to do is receive it. But, and this is really important to understand what Paul’s saying here, it’s not just that it flows to you; it’s also supposed to flow through you. Because what does he say? He says, «Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.» That’s a command. He said, «This is what you’re going to have to do. It’s not a road to forgiveness; it’s a result of it. Because this has been done for you, here’s what I expect: I expect you to become strong in grace.»
Okay, what does that mean? It’s interesting that he says " be strong,» right? What you expect him to say is " be grateful for it,» because when somebody has given us something, the natural response is gratitude. That is a good thing to do. In fact, I wonder if you’re here today, if you’re in one of our campuses, or if you’re watching online and you have received God’s grace. It has flowed into you, and you know that you’re forgiven and free. I wonder how many of us are grateful. I want you to make a little bit of noise if you’re grateful for God’s grace. Yeah, absolutely. That’s a really good thing to do. But it’s interesting that that’s not what Paul says to do. At other points, he talks about that, but here he doesn’t say «be grateful for grace.» Here he says, «be strong in grace.» What he means is the grace that flowed to you now has to flow through you. The same grace that was shown to you, you have to show to other people, right?
It’s interesting; I think sometimes we think about grace a little bit like a get-out-of-jail card, right? It’s the get-out-of-hell card. We’ve been forgiven, and that’s really good news. So you get the card, and what Paul says now, though, is that if you look at that card, it says «get out of jail,» and when you flip it over, it’s also a get-into-the-gym card. One side says «get out of jail,» and the other side says «get into the gym.» Jesus, having saved you, meets you and says, «Okay, now we’re going to get you strong.»
I was trying to think through this because I don’t know how you picture Jesus. How do you picture Jesus? I grew up in church, and I always saw pictures of Jesus, and they were always kind of the same picture. First off, He’s always a white guy with blonde hair, which is weird for a Jewish guy, but I had these pictures, and He’s usually very skinny. But, you know, He’s got this gentle smile. I don’t know; I kind of growing up always pictured Jesus — if I’m being really real — the image I had in my mind was that He’s kind of like a hippie.
That’s what the pictures got. He’s just like, you know, you think, «God, He’s probably got a flower tucked behind that ear inside the long blonde flowing locks,» and He probably didn’t walk anywhere; He probably skipped, you know? That image doesn’t quite fit with " be strong in grace,» right? I mean, that’s not a bad picture of maybe I can picture that as the Savior, but as the guy who’s making us strong? That feels weird. So I went to AI and I said, «Hey, would you give me a picture of Jesus who’s not only the Savior, but He’s also interested in making us strong?» And it spit back this.
And I had two different thoughts when I saw that. My first thought was, I don’t like that. And then my next thought was, actually, I really like that. Like, that’s a savior who’s making me strong, a kind of Messiah that I could follow. I’d like to follow that guy, right? And that’s kind of what Paul is saying. It’s like, yeah, you get the card that says, I saved you by grace. Now, flip the card over. Be grateful for the front side. Now flip it over, though. And he goes, «Hey, I’ll see you in the gym tomorrow.» And you go to the gym, and that Jesus meets you there. And he goes, «All right, we’re going to get ready.» You’re like, «What’s that going to look like?» He goes, «Okay, well, we’re going to do some exercises.»
The first one, I call it the grudge toss. It’s forgiveness. Okay. You’re going to take all the wrongs that have been done to you. Oh, he has a lot of wrongs, Jesus. Like my mom and my dad, my brothers and sisters, and that guy at work and my neighbor, you know, and the HOA. You know, like I got a lot of grudges. He’s like, «Yeah, we’re going to reach down. We’re going to grab that grudge. Toss it. Forgive them.» But this one’s heavy, Jesus. Yeah, I know. That’s why we got to get strong. Well, how much do I have to do this? Oh, you want to know how many reps you got to do? You’re going to have to do a lot of reps. Actually, it’s funny.
The Apostle Peter literally came to Jesus and asked that. He came to Jesus, and he was honestly a little full of himself. He goes, «Hey, how many times do I have to forgive my brother when they sin against me? I’m willing to go as high as seven times, Jesus. I’ll give you seven reps on that one.» And Jesus goes, «No, no, not seven. 70 times 7.» And both of those are round perfect numbers in the Hebrew mindset. So 70 times 7 means, like, there isn' t really going to be a limit to this one, Peter. I imagine Peter’s like, «That’s a lot of reps.» Jesus goes, «Yeah, you’re going to need to get started. Go ahead. Start doing it. Start the work. I’m going to need 455,692 of those.»
That’s a lot of work, Jesus. Yeah. Yeah. We’re just getting started. Okay. I call this one humility. What do we have to do on that one? Humility. I need you to start thinking about other people. Practice thinking about other people more than you think about yourself. Well, how much do I have to do that? 120 times? Oh, that’s not so bad. No, no, I’m not done. A day. You’re going to need 120 reps of that one a day. 120 of humility every single day. Is that all? No. No, it’s not all. Patience. God was patient with you. He’s still being patient with you. And you got to pass that on, right? So I’m going to need you to be patient. And you’re going to have to do that like 97 million times in your life.
What’s the point, Jesus? Because you got to get strong. Because what flows to you has to flow through you. And this is actually how God’s work in the world goes. It’s how it advances, how the gospel moves out. What saved us has to be shown to the world, right? What flowed to us has to flow through us. And Paul, writing to Timothy some of his last words, says, «And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses, entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.»
Do you see it? What’s he saying? He says, «What flows to you must flow.» Say it with me. What flows to you must flow through you. Well, what’s flowing here? Well, it’s the gospel. It’s this good news about the grace of God so that we can be saved by faith. He says, «You have heard me say, you’ve heard me speak this truth, and you heard me say in the presence of many witnesses.» Like it didn’t start with me. I got it from people before me, but I’ve passed it on to you. It flowed to me. It flowed through me to you. But it’s not just me, Timothy. He says, «You heard it from me, but you also heard it from other witnesses.»
He’s probably thinking about Timothy’s grandmother, Lois. The Bible says she was a faithful follower of Jesus, and she shared that love of Jesus with her grandson. He is probably also thinking about his mother, Eunice. The Bible says she loved Jesus and was faithful in following Him, and that flowed through her into Timothy. This came to you, right? It flowed to you, but it can’t stop with you. He says, «I want you to teach it to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach it to others.»
Do you see the flow? What flows to you must flow through you. Okay. Why? Why? Why is that so important? I think there are a couple of reasons, and one of them we’ve already sort of hinted at: it’s this idea that that’s how God works in the world. We’re going to see some people baptized today, and they’re the recipients of grace. It flowed to them. Obviously, that’s from God, but God’s instruments were often people in their lives — whether it’s parents, mentors, teachers, coaches, or friends. God’s grace flowed to them through other people. As the gospel advances in the world, it has to flow to us and then through us to others, right?
That’s part of the reason it’s so important. There’s another reason it’s so important, and that is that if it stops with us, something bad happens. Something really bad happens. In Israel, there are two major bodies of water, and if you spend any time in church, you’ve probably heard of them. Even if you’re new to church, you’ve probably heard of at least one of them. I’m thinking of the Sea of Galilee. How many of us have heard of the Sea of Galilee? Yeah, it’s where Jesus did most of His ministry-around the Sea of Galilee. And then there’s the Dead Sea. How many of us have heard of the Dead Sea? Yeah, two bodies of water could not be more different.
The Sea of Galilee has one of the most vibrant living ecosystems in the world, with dozens and dozens of different varieties of fish and hundreds of different kinds of plants. You can drink the water; it’s only 0,3% salt, so it’s fresh water. It’s great to drink. And then, on the other side of Israel, there’s the Dead Sea, which is the exact opposite of the Sea of Galilee. It’s 34% salt. In some ways, it’s saltier than the ocean, which means it’s so salty you can get in it, and you just kind of float at the top of it. No matter how heavy you are or how much natural buoyancy you bring to the process, I bring a fair amount of natural buoyancy, but in the Dead Sea, it doesn’t matter. You just float right there because there’s so much salt. And because there’s so much salt, nothing lives. There are no fish. There are no plants. There are no plankton.
The only thing that lives there is what they call extremophile bacteria because it’s one of the most extreme conditions on Earth. It’s a dead place. They call it the Dead Sea for a reason. And here’s what’s crazy about these two bodies of water: they’re both fed from the same source. The Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea are both fed from the River Jordan. So, how can they be so different? Well, the Sea of Galilee, the Jordan flows into it on the south, and then the water flows out of it on the north. What flows to it flows through it and out of it. The Dead Sea, however, the water flows in and there’s no exit. The water flows in, and the only way for it to leave the Dead Sea is actually through evaporation, which is why it’s so salty.
I want you to think about that for a second because that’s why God says what flows to you must flow through you. Partly that’s because that’s how it works in the world, but that’s also partly because He loves you and wants you to experience everything that He has for you. But here’s the thing: write this down. What stops with you stagnates in you. Do you hear me, church? If it stops with you, it will stagnate in you.
And I’m always talking to people who feel like they’re looking for something else to be poured into them. They’re like, «Yeah, I don’t know. I’m thinking about leaving this church and trying another church, or I’m coming here. I’m going to try this church because I was in another church and I don’t know. I just don’t feel like I’m getting anything. I don’t feel like I’m growing anymore. I don’t have the joy of my salvation like I used to.» Or maybe it’s like, «I got to leave this life group and go over and try this life group because you know, these guys were fine, but I’m just not getting anything out of it. But this group maybe-maybe they’ll give me something.» Or maybe it’s the next book, or it’s the next Bible study, or it’s the next podcast-but it’s, «I got to get something because I’m feeling dry. I don’t know, I’m feeling stagnant.»
And what I find myself telling people over and over again is, «Hey, consider this: Consider that the problem isn’t what’s flowing to you. Maybe the problem is that it’s stopping with you, that it’s not flowing out of you to many others.» It’s interesting how often, when I talk to people like this, I say, «Who are you serving? Who are you sharing the gospel with? Who are you praying for? Who are you coming alongside?» And the answer is, «Well, no. I I have to get more in me before I can pour anything out of me.» I respond, «No, actually, the problem may be you’ve got a lot in you, and it stopped with you; it’s stagnating in you. If you want to restore the joy of your salvation, you need to restore the flow. What flows to you must flow through you.»
So I just want to ask you two questions today. Before we get on to some more baptisms, I want to ask you to think about this question: Number one, who’s upstream from me that I need to be grateful for? Because here’s the thing: Relationships are kind of like a river, right? There’s an upstream and a downstream. There are people who have come before you, and there are people who come after you.
There are people who are a little farther down the road than you are; they’re a little farther up the river towards the source, and they’ve flowed things into you. So, who’s upstream that you need to be grateful for? I’m so grateful for people who came before me. I think of my mom and dad; they love Jesus. I’ve got an aunt and uncle who were missionaries; they love Jesus. I have cousins who are older than me, and they love Jesus too. But I’ve also got mentors. I think of Larry Osborne out in California. I think of Scott Wright out in North Carolina. I think of my friend Chad Moore and a couple of other pastor friends I have. They’ve poured into me, and I’m grateful for that.
So this week, in preparation for this message, I sent some texts just to let them know, «Hey, I’m really grateful for the ways that God has flowed grace, wisdom, instruction, and encouragement into me through you. I’m just really grateful that it flowed through you.» Maybe you need to make a phone call. Maybe you need to send a text or an email or just have a conversation. Who’s upstream that you need to be grateful for?
Then there’s this other question: Who’s downstream I need to be gracious to? Who’s downstream from me that I need to flow what was flowed into me through me to them? Where’s the kindness? Sometimes kindness is actually having a hard conversation because you truly care about them and need to challenge them on something. Sometimes it’s forgiveness; I need to give you forgiveness’cause Jesus wants you strong in that, and that forgiveness opens the relationship again. But maybe it’s teaching, maybe it’s sharing the gospel, maybe it’s inviting them to come to church with you. But who’s downstream that you need to be gracious to?
What flows to you, say it with me, must flow through you. And God, we’re just so grateful for your grace, and we ask that you help make us strong in that grace. Pump us up, Holy Spirit. Speak to us and show us where we need to do another rep, where we need to get better at showing what has been shown to us by reflecting what we have received. Lord, as we celebrate more baptisms now, would you just speak to us about the people who are upstream from us that we need to be grateful for and the people who are downstream from us that we need to be gracious to, in Jesus' name. Amen.