Grace Working With Me

MP3 File: 

20110828 Sermon.mp3

For the last few weeks we've been talking about GRACE WORKS...how God's grace is interconnected with human works: we are "saved" by grace alone, but being saved means we should expect to see a life that is changed—a life that does good, a life that works for God.

A drowning man can't save anyone. He's caught in the storm; the waves are pounding; he's exhausted—he has nothing left. He's helpless to save himself, let alone someone else. But if someone rescues him—if he is saved—then he can make a difference for others who need help. He may volunteer for search-and-rescue; he may join the Coast Guard; he may contribute funds for life-saving equipment. All these things would be impossible for him to do if he had drowned. Being saved made the difference.

In the same way, good works or righteous deeds should be expected as an outcome when someone is rescued by God's grace. Human works are an expression of God's grace!

God pours out his grace on us though we don't deserve it and could never earn it. But once we've received grace, we should respond to it.

We've looked at some of the responses to grace that are listed in the Bible: working out our salvation...making every effort...abounding in every good work.

Today we'll wrap up this topic by considering how grace can empower us to do more and to work harder than we ever could on our own.

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. (1 Cor 15:10)

If we give God permission to work in us, he will do incredible things through us! God's grace gives us power to make a difference in our world—to affect in positive ways the lives of others around us.

Whatever you are called to do, doing it right will require sacrifice and commitment. You cannot make an impact on your world merely by drifting through it. You won't grow as a believer, you won't mature spiritually if you only sit back and drift. Change comes when someone is willing to grab an oar and start pulling.

Some people seem content to drift through life, completely at the mercy of the elements, unable to steer their ship, unable to direct their destiny. They go where circumstances and happenstance take them. When something good happens, they feel good. But when something bad happens, they get discouraged. Either way, they feel powerless to take control of their lives. And so they drift.

Effective change comes as we daily learn to submit ourselves in obedience to God. The more we give ourselves to God, the more he will work in us. The more we pour ourselves out for him who poured himself out for us, the more we experience his transforming power. The more we give, the more we do, the more we'll see positive change.

VIDEO of sacrifice and commitment

D.L. Moody, the 19^th-century evangelist who had a huge impact on his world, is credited with saying, "The world has yet to see what God can do with a man fully consecrated to him. By God's help, I aim to be that man." [www.ctlibrary.com/ch/1990/issue25/2510.html]

How about you? Are you willing to be that kind of person? Fully consecrated? Willing to let God use you in ways you can't imagine? If you've received God's grace, are you ready to give grace? I mean, are you ready to pour out grace in abundance on the people around you?

If Jesus gave his all for you, are you ready to give your all for him? If God has worked good things in your life, are you ready to roll up your sleeves and work for him?

Let's take a closer look at what Paul said in this verse to the Corinthian believers. First he says,

1. "By the grace of God I am what I am."

Who are you? How would you answer that question? Think of your answer...and now hold that thought. How many of you have an answer that tells something about your job or career? How many have an answer that tells your title or your role (like wife or husband, friend, parent, son, daughter)?

●      You can be a lot of different things to a lot of different people.

●      You are something because of your heritage, your parents, your ethnic background, your country, your genetics.

●      You are also something because of your training, your environment, your experiences, your upbringing, your personal discipline.

●      You are also something because of chance encounters, timing, circumstances, opportunities, good breaks, misfortune.

All of these are important because they help define you. They identify your unique characteristics. Who you are comes as a result of multiple influences and events that have touched or impacted your life.

But these things omit the most important aspect of who you are—and that has to do with your response to God's grace. Are you one who has experienced grace? One who has opened yourself to God's plan for your life? One who has surrendered to him?

Or are you a person who has gone your own way, doing your own thing, resisting God's purposes for your life?

At the end of our lives when we stand before God, there's only one thing that will matter. The other things won't really matter: what people think about us...who we are in the eyes of the world...what we've accomplished by human standards...how famous we are...how much wealth we've accumulated... whether or not our names are in "Who's Who"—none of that will matter.

The only thing that will matter when we stand before God is who we are because of grace.

Paul knew what he was before he encountered God's grace. He was the worst of sinners (1 Tim). He was a self-righteous perfectionist (Phil 3). He was a persecutor of believers (Phil 3).

Christians often take grace for granted. We become so accustomed to living in the light of God's grace that we forget what it would have been like to grope in the darkness.

It's good on occasion to remember what we would be if we had not experienced grace. (1 Cor 6:9)

Whatever improvements and changes we've experienced in our lives...whatever good we've accomplished...whatever positive influence we've made...ALL of that is because of God's grace.

Paul said, "I am what I am by grace." Can you say that?

Next Paul says that grace had an major impact on his life.

2. "His grace to me was not without effect."

In other words, Paul is saying, "I experienced real change. Grace made a huge impact on me! Grace brought results! My life was transformed because grace was had an effect—a powerful effect on me. Grace made a difference in my life."

Actually, he uses a negative word to describe the impact of grace. KJV and NASB says that God's grace was not "in vain" or did not "prove vain." The word Paul used [κενός] literally meant, "empty." The grace he experienced was not "empty"—it wasn't hollow; it wasn't an empty shell; it wasn't a sham, a façade. It wasn't virtual reality. It was genuine reality!

How many of you play video games? I've seen some of you in the foyer playing games on your phone. (Your thumbs have all those extra muscles.) On a video game when you're racing those cars or blasting those space aliens or chasing down the bad guys, you know it's not real. It's "virtual." You can conquer the world on a video game and still be a 90-pound weakling in real life.
That's what Paul was talking about when he used the word, "empty." He wasn't talking about virtual grace—it was not in vain; it was not without effect; it was not empty. This grace was the real deal; it was genuine; and it was powerful.

If you've experience an "empty" religion, then we can't really expect anything, can we? But a "full" gospel is a gospel with power. God's "full" grace has a powerful effect. It will cause real change in your life. You will move in a whole new direction when you encounter God's genuine, full grace.

Can you say, with Paul, that grace in your life is "not without effect"? You've heard people ask the question: if you were put on trial for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?

Paul says, "My life was changed!" Are you seeing change in your life? Have you experienced a shift in your thinking? Do you have a new perspective? A fresh attitude about life?

Have your old habits and destructive behavior loosened their grip on you? Have you begun to develop new patterns of behavior? Have new habits begun to emerge in your life?

NLT: "But whatever I am now, it is all because God poured out his special favor on me—and not without results..."

Sometimes change happens dramatically—in a moment, in an instance. An alcoholic meets God at the altar, goes home and pours all his booze down the drain. He never takes another sip because he was instantly set free.

Other times change happens gradually, over time, as God's grace continues day after day to pour healing salve into the wounds of life over a period of time. Teen Challenge asks addicts for 12 months to receive healing from their destructive ways and to reprogram habits and attitudes.

A hurricane might wipe away an old structure in an instant; but a prevailing wind may take years to do the same thing.
Sometimes grace sweeps through like a hurricane, demolishing strongholds and tearing down rebellious thoughts in an instant. Other times grace is like a steady, persistent, prevailing wind that pushes a person in a whole new direction to an entirely new place.

When we lived on the high plains of West Texas, the wind seemed to blow constantly. It would sweep down from the mountains and push everything toward the east. Just west of town on Highway 87 was a small rest area with one lonely tree, bending toward the east in the wind. But the amazing thing was that on those rare occasions when the wind stopped blowing, the tree still leaned toward the east—as though the wind were still blowing. The tree was shaped by the wind, bent permanently in the direction that the wind blew.
Whether sudden or gradual, God wants to shape us by his grace! He wants us to bend in his direction. He wants to have "full" impact on our lives—working on us with grace that is "not without effect."

Paul said, "His grace to me was not without effect." Grace made a change in him. Grace produced results through him. Can you say that?

Then Paul says,

3. "I worked harder than all of them..." (Yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.)

In other words, Paul was saying, "Because of grace, I get more done."

How hard are you working? I wonder if perhaps the amount of effort we exert in our spiritual lives isn't an indication or a measure of the amount of grace that we permit into our lives.

If we ask ourselves how hard we're working, we ought also to ask ourselves how much we're allowing grace to work in us and through us: Is grace empowering me? Is grace motivating me?

You see, grace is not an invitation to sit back and relax. It's an equipping for a whole new way of life.

Grace is not a ticket to ride the train; it's more like a job offer to work for the railroad.

Or to put it another way: If grace is God's wind to move the boat, you've still got to hoist the sail! If grace empowers, you still must be open to receive God's power. If grace is the gasoline that makes your car go, you've still got to take the lid off the tank and fill it up. If grace is the helium that lifts your balloon, you've still got to allow God to stretch and expand you with his grace—because an empty balloon will just lie there limp and unmoving.
Grace can't do anything for the person who rejects God's offer.

"I worked harder," Paul writes. But he was quick to say that he wasn't the source of the energy working in him. The results and everything he was able to accomplish, he said, all came from the grace of God.

Paul said, "I worked harder...but not me, it was God's grace that was working with me." Can you say that? Is grace working in you and through you?

• Because of grace, we can get more done.
• Because of grace, we can give more of ourselves—our time, our effort, our energy.
• Because of grace, we can share more compassion and mercy to those who are hurting.
• Because of grace, we can travel farther, sacrifice more and accomplish greater things than ever.

Remember what D.L. Moody said? Will you also aim to be the kind of person who is fully consecrated to God? A person who is eager to see all that God will do through you?

"But whatever I am now, it is all because God poured out his special favor on me—and not without results. For I have worked harder than all the other apostles, yet it was not I but God who was working through me by his grace." (1 Cor 15:10, NLT)