(Read 1 Corinthians 15:9,10)
This morning we continue our new series, “Maximizing 2015 by God’s GREAT GRACE.” For the past couple of days I have been telling you about the goodness of God and how God wants to pour out His grace in/on your life in this season to a greater level than you have ever experienced. No doubt many of you have questioned why God would want to do such a thing, because you are calculating your performance. You look at what you have done and you hear what I am saying, and you then think, “But Rick, you don’t know me and you don’t know what I’ve done.” Let me be clear, what you have done — good or bad, for God or against Him — is not the issue. You are putting the spotlight on the wrong person. What you need to do is put the spotlight on God and His goodness.
The Apostle Paul almost made the same mistake. He wasn’t there when Jesus fed the 5,000 with a little boy’s lunch. He wasn’t there when Jesus walked on water. He wasn’t there when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead after four days. The Apostle Paul was at a disadvantage, in comparison to the other Apostles, because he was not part of Jesus’ ministry team like they were. To make matters worse, Paul was on the opposite side. While the early Apostles were preaching, Paul was persecuting them. Paul’s focus was on having the followers of Jesus imprisoned, tortured and killed.
When Paul thought about all he had done against the cause of Christ he said, “All the other apostles are greater than I am. I say this because I persecuted the church of God. That is why I am not even good enough to be called an apostle.” With that statement the Apostle Paul sounded like many believers today; believers who calculate God’s goodness towards them based upon their works. But that was actually not Paul’s message at all. Paul knew he could could never raise himself to the level of God’s assignment for his life, but God raised him up to that level by grace. The Apostle Paul went on to say, “But, because of God’s grace, that is what I am. And his grace that he gave me was not wasted. I worked harder than all the other apostles. (But I was not really the one working. It was God’s grace that was with me.)”
So what does this mean to you today? A few things as we seek to maximize this season.
1. Your human performance could never measure up to the size of God’s divine call on your life.
a) The only way to accept the full magnitude of God’s call on your life is by His unearned grace.
b) On your own you could never be good enough to earn what God called you to do. But Jesus was good enough FOR you.
2. Grace does not come BY works, it comes FOR work.
a) Paul’s actions did not earn God’s grace, but God graced him for divine action.
b) God called you by grace in spite of your bad actions, and He then gives you the grace to perform good actions – actions that are pleasing in His sight, actions you could never do without Him.
c) You cannot work FOR grace, but you will be able to perform everything God has called you to do BY grace.
d) If you can expand your capacity to believe God to the point where you SEE yourself doing what He called you to do, and you have the faith to STEP OUT and actually attempt it, God’s grace will kick-in where you human ability runs out and you will experience the supernatural.
3. God is looking for you to open your heart to His Great Grace in this season.
a) Paul did not work for God’s assignment, he just yielded to it. Once he yielded to it, God’s best was manifested in his life. That’s exactly what God expects you to do.
b) If you accept and yield to God’s Great Grace in this season, you will experience God and His power like never before.
c) You provide the natural when you simply yield to God and God provides the supernatural by empowering you to do what you could never do on your own.
*** The Greater Grace will flow in your life in this season, but it will not be because of your works!
Closing Confession: Father, I thank You for Your Great Grace towards me. You love me with an everlasting love and You want to use me by grace, to accomplish all You called me to do from the foundations of the world. There was a time when I could not accept Your best, because I kept factoring in my performance. My performance never measured up to the size of the call on my life. But those measuring days are over. I know I am not good enough, but Jesus was good enough for me. I know I am not worthy, but Jesus was worthy for me. So I simply accept Your assignment by Grace and I pursue it by faith. This is a season of the Greater Grace for me, not because I will work FOR it, but because I will work BY it. I simply open my heart to receive Your Greater Grace and You empower me to do what I have never done, to see what I have never seen, to impact lives I have never touched, and to experience the best year of my life. Not because I’m so good, but because You’re so good! Only because of Your Great Grace! I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
This is Today’s Word! Apply it and Prosper.
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