Today we will continue our series entitled “God’s Grace & Our Faith.” We are looking at The Law given under Moses vs. the Grace provided by Jesus. Our primary scriptures are John 1:14 & 17. Yesterday we also looked at 2 Peter 1:1-4. We will look at these again today.
(John 1:14 New International Version)
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
(John 1:17 New International Version)
For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
(2 Peter 1:1-4)
Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
We have been gleaning things from this passage for weeks. I like to teach by both precept and example. So let’s look at some examples today.
When Jesus was looking for disciples, men who would spend quality and intimate time with Him, men who were called to continue what He started, Jesus did not look for the most educated, affluent, or influential men of His day. Jesus picked simple, ordinary, hard-working, and industrious men. These men changed the world. They didn’t do it by their strength, power, or charisma. They did it by coming into the knowledge of God and then coming into God’s knowledge of them. They did it by believing what God believed about them! Peter and Paul are great examples of this. Let’s learn from their lives today.
So what does this mean to you today? A few things.
1. You must discover your purpose.
In Jesus’ day, the fishing industry produced rough and rugged men. Jesus called several of His disciples from this industry. One of them was named Simon. Simon was not polished, refined, cultured, or sophisticated. But, like all of us, his destiny was within him. Inside of the fisherman, an Apostle was lying dormant. Jesus brought him out! Peter came into the knowledge of God, and even more importantly, he then came into God’s knowledge of him. As a result, he changed the world! This is why it is so critically important that we get to the point where we believe what God believes about us.
The Apostle Paul has a different story. He was born with dual citizenship. He was both a Roman and a Jew. He was unique in that regard, and the Jewish leadership of his day saw that as a benefit. They invested in him. He was mentored by the greatest teacher of The Law of his day, Gamaliel. Paul was known as Saul of Tarsus, and he was being groomed to become a Pharisee of the Pharisees.
Saul of Tarsus led the movement AGAINST Christianity. So when God called him to lead it, everyone, including Saul, was surprised. But the point that I am making here is that he discovered his purpose. While Saul of Tarsus was terrorizing Jesus’ church, there was an Apostle of the church lying dormant inside of him, ready to be developed so he could come out. Thankfully for all of us, Saul heard the call, and he became the Apostle Paul.
Your name may not be Peter or Paul, but you, too, have a divine purpose. You were born with it. Your job is to find it, follow it, and finish it before you die!
2. Deploying into your purpose will require you to get out of your comfort zone.
Simon had to die to his identity as a fisherman in order to become an Apostle. He was not perfect. He often made mistakes. He was top-tempered and quick to ‘fly off the handle,’ but he was called, and he accepted the call. Peter focused on his new assignment, his new life, and his new reality.
Paul did the same. God called Paul to reach people he normally had no dealings with. Paul was an exceptionally learned man in all things pertaining to the Law of Moses and the Levitical Law. However, God called him to people that knew nothing about The Law. So who did God call to reach the Jews? Who did God select to reach the most educated men in The Law? Well, a fisherman, of course. That was Peter’s assignment.
— God called a man with no Jewish education to reach the most educated, and He called the most educated man to reach people who knew nothing about the Hebraic Law. Why does God do this? To get you out of your comfort zone, to force you to rely on His finished work and not your ability.
— What you feel most comfortable doing may be what you WANT to do for Christ. However, God knows that if He allows you to do what you feel most comfortable doing, then you will most likely do it in your own strength. See, when you are doing what you already know how to do, most of the time, you don’t involve God. So God calls you to do things you are NOT comfortable with. He calls you outside of your comfort zone. He calls you to operate in realms beyond your education, to pursue deals that exceed your bank account, and to connect with people you don’t know, so are you forced to rely on Him to do what you cannot do!
— God loves it when you walk into a situation, and your total reliance is on Him. Because at that moment, your focus is not on your work but rather on His finished work; on what God planned before the world began.
3. Godly success is not a matter of more trying; it is actually a matter of more dying; it will cost you everything!
— Once you discover God’s knowledge of you, you must be willing to die to become who God called you to be.
— Simon the Fisherman had to die to self in order to become the Apostle Peter. Saul of Tarsus had to die to self in order to become the Apostle Paul. Are you willing to die in order to live?
— I preached a message early in my ministry entitled, “When Loving You Is Killing Me!” The point of the message was that loving God was literally KILLING the person I had spent all my life becoming. For me to become the man God called me to be, I had to DIE to the person I had become without Him!
— Imagine the dying Paul had to endure. Paul had to give up everything and everyone he knew. All his mentors and friends were invested in him operating un der The Law and persecuting Christians. I can only imagine how painful it was for him to deal with the persecution of those closest to him. People criticize what they do not understand, and I am sure Paul was misunderstood. But he was willing to give up EVERYTHING for Jesus. Let’s close by looking at Paul’s experience in his own words.
(Phil 3:2-11 MSG)
2-6 Steer clear of the barking dogs, those religious busybodies, all bark and no bite. All they’re interested in is appearances—knife-happy circumcisers, I call them. The real believers are the ones the Spirit of God leads to work away at this ministry, filling the air with Christ’s praise as we do it. We couldn’t carry this off by our own efforts, and we know it—even though we can list what many might think are impressive credentials. You know my pedigree: a legitimate birth, circumcised on the eighth day; an Israelite from the elite tribe of Benjamin; a strict and devout adherent to God’s law; a fiery defender of the purity of my religion, even to the point of persecuting the church; a meticulous observer of everything set down in God’s law Book.
7-9 The very credentials these people are waving around as something special, I’m tearing up and throwing out with the trash—along with everything else I used to take credit for. And why? Because of Christ. Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant—dog dung. I’ve dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by him. I didn’t want some petty, inferior brand of righteousness that comes from keeping a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that comes from trusting Christ—God’s righteousness.
10-11 I gave up all that inferior stuff so I could know Christ personally, experience his resurrection power, be a partner in his suffering, and go all the way with him to death itself. If there was any way to get in on the resurrection from the dead, I wanted to do it.
You must be willing to DIE in order to live. There is a HIGH COST to this FREE GIFT!
I will stop here today.
Declaration of Faith:
Father, I thank You for teaching me about Your grace and my requirement to live by faith.
I am finally at the point in my life where I believe what You believe about me.
I discovered You, and in so doing, I discovered myself.
I know who I am. I know what I am called to do. I also know that this free gift will cost me my old life. I am willing to die in order to live. I am willing to give up anything and anyone that does not line up with my divine assignment.
I just want to Know You, Father! I want to know You in the power of Your resurrection, even if it means I must know You in the fellowship of Your sufferings!
Like Paul, I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed IN me and THROUGH me! Therefore, I declare GREATER IS COMING FOR ME! I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
This is Today’s Word! Apply it and Prosper.
