What’s So Amazing About Grace? Part 2

When we talk about God’s grace, we often think of Jesus dying on the cross for our sins and that is a very big part of it, but there is another kind of grace. It’s the grace God gives us to allow us to endure our most difficult moments. Join us as Pastor Dave Weiss shares about a time when his was at the end of his rope and maybe his ministry and the wise counsel he got from the Word of God in 2 Corinthians 11 and 12.

Another kind of grace

If you ever want to feel like a wimp read 2 Corinthians 11. I did at one of the toughest times in my ministry and it left me wondering if I should just give up and do something else. Fortunately God intervened and taught me something new about grace.

We always think of grace (at least when it comes to God and faith) as this idea that Jesus came and died for our sin so that instead of condemnation for our sins we get heaven and grace. That is the first and foremost kind of grace, but there is another, the grace to endure.

I was at one of the lowest points in my life and the lowest point in my ministry. People were abandoning my church in droves, which is especially tough when you are already small, I had experienced a health scare and we were under attack besides. In the midst of it I read 2 Corinthians 11 in which Paul talks about all the incredible stuff he endured in his ministry, beatings, shipwrecked 3 times, persecution and on and on. I began to feel incredibly weak by comparison. Always remember in the Christian life and in creativity, comparison will either make you feel proud or worthless, neither of which is helpful.

I was crying out to God in prayer and feeling very weak. Why can’t I be like Paul? And it was then that God showed me this other kind of grace.

If you look at 2 Corinthians 11 more closely, it’s not really a listing of Paul’s accomplishments and it’s not really bragging. Paul says over and over again that he’s talking like a fool. Context is important. The first couple verses of the chapter tell us that Paul’s ministry is under attack. False teachers have come in and tried to discredit him and undermine this new church. Paul is using this listing of his accomplishments to show the people that it is foolish to tout your own accomplishments and that it’s really God who deserves the credit. And that’s the grace I’m talking about here. You see Paul didn’t endure all that stuff because He was tough, he was able to endure it because God gave Him the grace to endure it.

Go to the next chapter, and you’ll see this really played out. After listing all these horrific things he endured by God’s grace, you’ll notice that he had an affliction that seems minor by comparison to all he’d endured and yet three times he BEGS God to take this away. And God says no. Paul calls it His thorn and he says it’s there for one purpose, to keep him humble. It’s something Paul can’t triumph over. It’s something God needs to help Him with. It’s something He needs grace to endure.

In 2 Corinthians 12 9 and 10 we see God’s response to Paul. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

We all have our thorns. We all have our weaknesses and things we don’t like about ourselves (I’m not talking about sin here, if you’re in sin, repent and you will receive grace). When you feel weak, (and this is a common affliction for creatives as to really do what we do we have to try many new things and fail often) don’t get down on yourself and don’t get down on God. Ask God to show His strength in your weakness and give Him glory when He does. The grace to endure is amazing but it can only be seen when we are in trials, experiencing things we don’t really want to experience. It’s important in those times look for His grace.

It’s sufficient.

This song illustrates the concept wonderfully. It’s Matthew West’s Strong Enough.

Message of the Week: Dear Galatia 6

I haven’t posted a message of the week in a while, but I felt pretty strongly led to post this one, so here it is.

It’s the last message in my Dear Galatia Series, it deals with how to use our freedom in Christ and how to function as the Church and the Body of Christ. Check it out…

The Pressure is Off

This is another piece done for the Church Planters Conference I attended last week. This one is based on the key verse for the week, 1 Corinthians 3:6. The apostle Paul was writing to his church in Corinth to straighten a few things out. See the people were building camps. They were playing a silly game of my leader is better than your leader. Some were saying I follow Paul’s teachings, while others were saying Oh yeah well I follow Apollos who was another leader in the church. Paul’s frustration comes in that they are both leaders in the same movement trying to go in the same direction. This dispute was showing that the church had their focus in the wrong place. What’s Paul’s response? “What after all is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants through whom you came to believe—as the Lord assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.”

Sometimes I think we also get our focus in the wrong place and as a result we take something that does not belong to us as well. You see I see a lot of ministry folks and Christians in general who feel like they are under tremendous pressure to make things happen. We want to see lives changed, we want to see people come to follow Jesus, we want to see churches grow and on and on and on. So we push ourselves harder and harder and we try to do more and more and more to make that happen. When we do this we are not so much different than those believers in Corinth. We take the focus off of God and put it on ourselves and when we do that the pressure starts to build. If that’s you, I have good news, the pressure is off.

You see we’re not the whole picture. Paul planted the seed and Apollos watered it. In other words Paul had his job to do and so did Apollos. Neither Paul nor Apollos was responsible for growth. Their job was to be faithful to do their part of the process, growth was up to God. If we could realize that we operate in similar conditions, a lot of pressure would leave our lives. Think about it, if we are faithful to do what we are called to do and we trust the rest to God, then our success comes in faithful service not in numbers. We do our part and God does His and when it succeeds we give the glory to where it belongs which not only is appropriate it strips us of the destructive pride that makes us think we did it all ourselves. See if we did it ourselves then it takes our strength to maintain it and none of us is that strong and so the pressure builds. So if it’s your job to plant, plant faithfully. If it’s your job to water then water it just right and in the midst of the whole thing Pray and trust God. He will make it grow. The pressure is off. You can depend on God and when you do, you’ll realize it doesn’t all depend on you.