A xylophone, a lost music sheet, and finishing anyway

Pastor Chuck Colegrove, who with his family planted Free Church in Oak Park in 2012, opens with the story of his son Evan's final school band concert. Assigned the xylophone, Evan nails the opening crescendo, then a gust of air blows his sheet music to the floor. He finds it at the last moment and hits the final crescendo to applause. The lesson: you can have a great start and a messy middle and still make it to the end, because God's promise is true for those who do not grow weary in doing good.

Summer is the growing season

Many people treat summer as the time to take their foot off the gas, but Pastor Chuck insists summer is when things expand and mature. No farmer plants in spring and ignores the field until fall, and kids come back from summer needing new shoes, as his oldest son did two weeks after getting a new pair. If you coast too long you become complacent, and if you stop moving forward you start moving backward. His text is 2 Peter 3:18: "But grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." To grow in grace, you first have to understand it.

Saving grace

From Ephesians 2:8, Pastor Chuck reminds the church that salvation is by grace through faith and is a gift of God. You cannot attend or serve enough to be saved; those are products of being saved. Grace does not say "do," it says "done," which is what Jesus declared on the cross when He said, "It is finished." He points to John Newton, the hardened, cruel atheist whose life was spared in a shipwreck and who went on to write Amazing Grace.

Justifying grace

Romans 3:24 says all are justified freely by His grace through the redemption in Christ Jesus. Right standing with God comes not from being good but from reflecting Jesus' goodness. The law makes us aware of how far we fall short, like a driver who instinctively slows down at the sight of a police officer. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more. Pastor Chuck sums up justified as "just as if I'd never sinned," which is why believers can boldly approach the throne of grace.

Teaching grace

Few people talk about this one. Titus 2 says the grace that brings salvation also teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, godly lives. Grace is not a ticket to sin; it empowers us to live above temptation rather than beneath it. From 1 Corinthians 10:13, he notes that every temptation is common to mankind, God will not let us be tempted beyond what we can bear, and He always provides a way out. Teaching grace applies to everyday life, from a crowded Costco to missing the last sourdough English muffins, and especially to offense in a church family. Jesus warned about those to whom offense comes, so grace teaches us to let it go. Pastor Chuck describes three voices: the first, usually the Holy Spirit, says let it go; the second is our own justification; the third is the enemy urging us to let them have it. Listen to the first voice.

Enabling grace

God's commands are not too hard because He supplies the grace to live them out. In Zechariah 4, Israel has returned from exile and begun rebuilding the temple, only to stall under opposition. God speaks: not by might nor by power but by His Spirit, and the mountain will become a plain as the capstone is set amid shouts of "grace, grace to it." The mountain represents every obstacle between God's promise and its fulfillment, so believers can speak grace over their families, finances, health, and future. Pastor Chuck turns to Paul's thorn in 2 Corinthians 12. Paul pleaded three times for it to be removed, and God answered that His grace is sufficient and His power is made perfect in weakness. Sometimes God does not move the mountain because He wants us to climb it, and He gives the grace to make it.

Thirty years of praying

His older brother walked away from the Lord after high school and stayed away for thirty years. When the Colegroves moved from Houston to Oak Park in 2012 to start the church, his brother said he would be the first member, and he was. Pastor Chuck later baptized his whole family. When the promise is there but not yet fulfilled, God's grace is sufficient.

Get back up

The closing challenge is for anyone knocked off course or slowed down: if you are still breathing, God is not done. The difference between the righteous and the unrighteous is that the righteous fall seven times and get back up. Like a dad telling his son to shake it off, grace says you can get back up and you are not on your own. It is not by our strength or power but by the Spirit of grace applied to our lives.