Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdik.
Speaker 2: I'm the pastor of Elevation Church, and this is our
Speaker 2: podcast and I wanted to thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 1: Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith.
Speaker 2: Hope it gives your perspective to see God is moving
Speaker 2: in your life.
Speaker 1: Enjoy the message.
Speaker 2: I have one verse of scripture that I want to
Speaker 2: preach on today.
Speaker 1: I did not choose the scripture. It chows me.
Speaker 2: In fact, I would say it jumped up and bit
Speaker 2: me on, bit me on my neck and told me
Speaker 2: preach me or I'll kill you. It's just that fierce
Speaker 2: the way that this verse came to me. It's in
Speaker 2: First Corinthians, chapter fifteen, verse ten. You know what, though,
Speaker 2: if we preach on just one verse today, if we
Speaker 2: preach on verse Corinthians fifteen ten, how's that going to
Speaker 2: make verse nine feel? And if we skip by verse
Speaker 2: eight to get to verse nine. So I only want
Speaker 2: to preach one verse, but I think I should start
Speaker 2: at verse one so that we do not offend any
Speaker 2: of the other verses. Support we need contextually in order
Speaker 2: to give the full illumination of the meaning of the verse.
Speaker 2: So listen to these words now from the apostle Paul,
Speaker 2: and I don't make you stand the whole time. If
Speaker 2: you're new here, you get a little nervous. At this
Speaker 2: point we do sit down, and then some people stand
Speaker 2: back up, just the ones who love Jesus.
Speaker 1: They jump up while I'm preaching and stuff. I'm kidding.
Speaker 1: I'm kidding.
Speaker 2: You can love Jesus and sit down to It's just
Speaker 2: you love him more if you stand up. But you
Speaker 2: can love him a little bit and sit to a sermon. Now,
Speaker 2: brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the
Speaker 2: gospel I preach to you, which you received and on
Speaker 2: which you have taken your stand. By this gospel, you
Speaker 2: are saved if you hold firmly to the word I
Speaker 2: preach to you. Otherwise you have believed in vain. Would
Speaker 2: you touch your neighbor and tell them, don't waste it.
Speaker 2: Don't waste it. For what I received, I passed on
Speaker 2: to you as a first importance, that Christ died for
Speaker 2: our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried,
Speaker 2: and that he was raised on the third day according
Speaker 2: to the scriptures, and that he appeared to Seethus and
Speaker 2: then to the twelve after that he appeared to more
Speaker 2: than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the
Speaker 2: same time, most of whom are still living, though some
Speaker 2: have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, and then
Speaker 2: to all the apostles, and last of all, he appeared
Speaker 2: to me, also as to one abnormally born. For I
Speaker 2: am the least of the apostles, and do not even
Speaker 2: deserve to be called an apostle because I persecuted the
Speaker 2: Church of God.
Speaker 1: But everybody shot. But that's one of the biggest.
Speaker 2: Words in the Bible, by the way, I mean, it's
Speaker 2: a big word, three letters, but it's a big word.
Speaker 2: Everybody shall butt. I was going down. I thought it
Speaker 2: was over. They laid him in the ground, and Hell
Speaker 2: had a party on Friday night. Ask somebody next to you, say,
Speaker 2: how big is yours?
Speaker 1: That's what I want to know.
Speaker 3: But by the grace of God, I am what I am.
Speaker 3: And His grace to me was not without effect. No,
Speaker 3: I worked harder than all of.
Speaker 2: Them, yet not I but the grace of God that
Speaker 2: was with me. I want to speak to you for
Speaker 2: a few moments today on this subject. The gift in
Speaker 2: the grind, the gift in the grind on your way
Speaker 2: to your seat, touch somebody and say I'm on my grind.
Speaker 2: You've seen that hashtag on Instagram. Right on my grind
Speaker 2: hashtag Jim flow hashtag, humbled hashtag, filter free hashtag, paleo hashtag, CrossFit,
Speaker 2: bro hashtag, it's every day brostag hashtag.
Speaker 1: Oh my grind. No, you're not on your grind, you're
Speaker 1: on your phone. Put down your phone and just go
Speaker 1: to the gym.
Speaker 2: If you go to the gym enough, you won't have
Speaker 2: to post about it.
Speaker 1: We'll all notice the results. Unless you want to show
Speaker 1: off your shoes.
Speaker 2: Then take a selfie. I mentioned it because Paul is
Speaker 2: it's coming across a little bit humble braggy in First Corinthians.
Speaker 2: I know, I know he's the Apostle Paul and everything
Speaker 2: he says is supposed to be so wonderful. But I
Speaker 2: will be honest with you. I like the Bible, Like
Speaker 2: I really like the Bible.
Speaker 1: What a relief. It wouldn't matter if I liked it
Speaker 1: or not, it would be true.
Speaker 2: But I happen to like the Bible now more than
Speaker 2: when I first started reading it. It's just that now
Speaker 2: I don't like everybody in the Bible all the time
Speaker 2: like Jonah, because God went through so much trouble to
Speaker 2: get Jonah to preach a message in Nineveh, and then
Speaker 2: by the time he preached the message after God had
Speaker 2: to track him down and dispatch a whale and send
Speaker 2: a storm and all of this nonsense. That Jonah couldn't
Speaker 2: just go where he was supposed to preach and say
Speaker 2: what he was supposed to say. When he did preach,
Speaker 2: it wasn't even that great of a sermon. This was
Speaker 2: his whole sermon. Forty days an interval will be destroyed. Well,
Speaker 2: anybody could have done that. And I don't want to
Speaker 2: offend you so early in the sermon. I usually save
Speaker 2: that until about the twenty two minute mark.
Speaker 1: Right here, Paul is annoying me a little bit, a
Speaker 1: little bit, just a little bit.
Speaker 2: I'm sure he doesn't care that I'm annoyed with this
Speaker 2: passage that he wrote to the church at Corinth. He's
Speaker 2: not writing it as a letter to me or to
Speaker 2: you as his primary audience. He's trying to get the
Speaker 2: church in Corinth to live out what God has invested
Speaker 2: put in. That's really the challenge of life is to
Speaker 2: live out what God has put in. What makes that
Speaker 2: difficult is the grind. The grind the glory of God
Speaker 2: is such a wonderful, mesmerizing and peace inducing concept when
Speaker 2: we're together like this, I wonder if I would be
Speaker 2: able to preach as well if I had to follow
Speaker 2: you onto your job and see the people that you
Speaker 2: deal with. I wonder if my sermons would be well,
Speaker 2: you're saying amen a little too loud right now, we offended.
Speaker 2: But there is a sense in which every time I
Speaker 2: stand up to preach, I am aware that the Gospel
Speaker 2: has to be lived out not in the confines of
Speaker 2: a cathedral, but in the grind of everyday life. And
Speaker 2: life is a grind, and marriage is a grind.
Speaker 1: I know their vows were beautiful.
Speaker 2: But there's some stuff they didn't put in those valves
Speaker 2: because they didn't know about them yet. But four years
Speaker 2: into marriage, if they could say the vowels the way
Speaker 2: they really go, it wouldn't be big broad concepts like.
Speaker 1: Sickness and health and life.
Speaker 2: And death, because there's a lot of stuff in between
Speaker 2: life and death called grime. It's called do I really
Speaker 2: have to remind you to put.
Speaker 1: Gas in the car?
Speaker 2: You're forty seven years old, and we've been talking about
Speaker 2: this for twenty one years. Did you really leave the
Speaker 2: van on empty account? That's why people get divorced. It's
Speaker 2: not big things. It's seven hundred and ninety three dirty
Speaker 2: socks left in the room after I told you forty
Speaker 2: three times. I'm not sure, mom, pick up after yourself.
Speaker 1: It's just a grind. And I was confused because I
Speaker 1: thought people working.
Speaker 2: I thought people quit their jobs because big, horrible things happen.
Speaker 2: And I thought people gave up on themselves because of catastrophic,
Speaker 2: cataclysmic events. I found out that it's the grind. The
Speaker 2: grind makes ministers put down their microphone. I think I
Speaker 2: think they put down their microphone, not because they quit
Speaker 2: loving Jesus or left their first love. I think the
Speaker 2: grind makes volunteers quit showing.
Speaker 1: Up to serve because it's kind of our fault.
Speaker 2: When we sign you up to volunteer, we show you
Speaker 2: the glory, but we hide the grind.
Speaker 1: You see these beautiful.
Speaker 2: Women with the welcome team t shirts on there, I
Speaker 2: guarantee you some people on their team didn't show up
Speaker 2: to serve that we're supposed to serve today. Now that
Speaker 2: happens to you enough Sunday mornings when you put aside
Speaker 2: your Sunday morning to serve and somebody didn't even have
Speaker 2: the stuff ready that you needed to serve. After a while,
Speaker 2: you rip your name tag off and you say, I
Speaker 2: love Jesus, but this sucks, and I can serve God
Speaker 2: in my own way. I think I'll serve him on
Speaker 2: the boat. I have a boat ministry.
Speaker 1: Jesus. This stuff on the boat. I'm gonna go on
Speaker 1: the boat too. Lake Norman.
Speaker 2: They had seventy volunteers sign up for Lake Norman to
Speaker 2: volunteer at Lake Norman this weekend. I'm just gonna be
Speaker 2: upfront with you and tell you what they may not have.
Speaker 1: Told you at the campus.
Speaker 2: It's a grind. It's a grime. I mean it's a
Speaker 2: good grind, and God's gonna do great things, but it's
Speaker 2: a grime. How uninspiring could the introduction to.
Speaker 1: My sermon possibly be?
Speaker 2: But to tell you that, after you've picked out the
Speaker 2: baby names, and after they throw you a gender reveal
Speaker 2: party and a gender reveal reveal party, and a gender
Speaker 2: reveal reveal reveal reveal party, here comes to grind. The
Speaker 2: grind of diapers, the grind of long nights, the grind
Speaker 2: of Red Eyes and Red Bull. But the good news
Speaker 2: is if you make it through the infancy stage, the
Speaker 2: grind stops.
Speaker 1: After that.
Speaker 2: Raising children is easy, no more grind. Just sitting next
Speaker 2: to your child, tell them you're a grind. I love you.
Speaker 2: I'm grateful for you. See that's the thing. I'm not
Speaker 2: ungrateful for what God has given me. That's not why
Speaker 2: I get a bad attitude. That's not why sometimes don't
Speaker 2: want to show up.
Speaker 1: I appreciate.
Speaker 2: I know there are people who would love to have
Speaker 2: my life, and it makes me feel bad and guilty
Speaker 2: when you compare my life to somebody else, and I think, well,
Speaker 2: it could be worse.
Speaker 1: And people will say things like when you know.
Speaker 2: You could be in the hospital room, if you know
Speaker 2: somebody in the hospital room would love.
Speaker 1: To go to your job Monday, but they're not going.
Speaker 1: And I am, and I'm in the grind, and I
Speaker 1: am grateful I have a job. But there's just sometimes
Speaker 1: that the grind.
Speaker 2: Well, Paul is talking to a church that would have
Speaker 2: been very familiar with the grind.
Speaker 1: It's not some little town.
Speaker 2: Core is a major city, not exactly a port city,
Speaker 2: but connected to one that meant they had all the
Speaker 2: infrastructure of an urban city. That meant that the transportation
Speaker 2: systems were complicated, so they knew what it was to
Speaker 2: have a traffic jam. Just the grind, just the grind
Speaker 2: of trying to figure out how to worship Christ in
Speaker 2: a culture that is counter christ. Just the grind, trying
Speaker 2: to figure out how to serve Christ and a culture
Speaker 2: that is counter Christ from what is culturally normative is
Speaker 2: counter Christian. It's a grind, just a grind. And Paul
Speaker 2: reminds them of the importance of the Gospel. He said,
Speaker 2: I want to remind you not of the information that
Speaker 2: the Gospel contains, but the importance of it, because the
Speaker 2: grind can.
Speaker 1: Make you forget what's really important. You know this.
Speaker 2: The grind can make you lose a sense of priority
Speaker 2: that start giving your best energy to your lowest priorities.
Speaker 2: It's just the grime. Paul writes to them that he
Speaker 2: understands it. He does it in a strange way, though,
Speaker 2: And this is where he started to get on my
Speaker 2: nerves a little bit, because when he said, I want
Speaker 2: to remind you of the Gospel and the resurrection, which
Speaker 2: is your hope.
Speaker 1: I was with him when he said, if you don't.
Speaker 2: Hold on to it, and you don't really believe in it,
Speaker 2: it's like.
Speaker 1: It never happened.
Speaker 2: I understand what he's saying, not that God is going
Speaker 2: to take his grace away, but that sometimes if I
Speaker 2: don't walk in, at what good is it. I understand
Speaker 2: why he's saying. This gospel did not originate with me.
Speaker 2: It just came through me because a lot of people
Speaker 2: probably worship Paul and saw him as some indispensable gift
Speaker 2: to the body of Christ. But he realized that really
Speaker 2: all he was doing was regifting what God had given
Speaker 2: to him. I understand his sequence. How he said that
Speaker 2: he was the last one in to this og apostle group,
Speaker 2: How he said that almost everybody seemed to be picked
Speaker 2: before him. And then, in a blinding light on the
Speaker 2: road to Damascus, as he was on his way to
Speaker 2: persecute Christians, the very Christ who he was persecuting by
Speaker 2: coming against those who stood for his name, knocked him
Speaker 2: off of his horse. Oh yes, God will closeline you
Speaker 2: if you are headed in the wrong direction, because He
Speaker 2: loves you too much to let you waste your whole
Speaker 2: life headed for a destination that will ultimately disappoint you.
Speaker 1: Can I preach a little bit.
Speaker 2: So I get it when Paul says that I don't
Speaker 2: have anything that I didn't receive, and I'm with him
Speaker 2: when he says that.
Speaker 1: It's all Gospel all the time.
Speaker 2: When he gets to this part though, verse nine, we
Speaker 2: should look at it again. For I am the least
Speaker 2: of the Apostles. I'm not buying it, partially because his
Speaker 2: very name is almost synonymous with apostle.
Speaker 1: If I said the Apostle, and.
Speaker 2: Then let you fill in the blank, you know who
Speaker 2: wrote thirteen of the twenty seven New Testament books, the Apostle. See,
Speaker 2: you didn't say Bartholomew, and he was one two.
Speaker 1: But you didn't name your kid that the Apostle, Paul.
Speaker 2: And so for him to be saying, oh, oh, and
Speaker 2: this is not his rookie year, I get it. In
Speaker 2: your first year, you've been killing Christians, or at least
Speaker 2: consenting to their murder. They laid the garments at your
Speaker 2: feet when Stephen was stone, when Jesus Christ gave a
Speaker 2: standing ovation to Stephen because of his boldness, and you
Speaker 2: stood there watching it, and not only watching it, but
Speaker 2: endorsing it and supporting it.
Speaker 1: I understand how at.
Speaker 2: That point it could take you a little while. But
Speaker 2: you've been in the game thirty years, planting churches all
Speaker 2: throughout the Roman Empire, taking it where didn't dare to
Speaker 2: take it.
Speaker 1: And in fact, Peter had.
Speaker 2: A sort of prejudice that didn't show itself except when
Speaker 2: he was around people who he thought were as prejudice
Speaker 2: as he was.
Speaker 1: Paul wasn't that way. Paul didn't talk.
Speaker 2: One way in front of one group or one race,
Speaker 2: and then talk another way when he got around his
Speaker 2: friends or his boys.
Speaker 1: He was just determined to take the gospel to all people.
Speaker 2: I just said something right there, one person, all the time.
Speaker 2: But Paul said, you know, really, I don't feel worthy
Speaker 2: of this.
Speaker 1: I've been in it so long, and I know I'm
Speaker 1: a legend.
Speaker 2: But I don't even really feel like what you think
Speaker 2: I am. I don't even really feel like I deserve
Speaker 2: this title. And I'm doing the job and I'm filling
Speaker 2: the position. But can I be honest with you, Sometimes
Speaker 2: I feel more like a little boy than I do
Speaker 2: like a dad. It's the difference between the title.
Speaker 1: Others give me and the truth I tell myself.
Speaker 2: And Paul knew a truth about himself that caused him to.
Speaker 1: Always feel a little unworthy of his title. He said,
Speaker 1: I'm the least of the.
Speaker 2: Apostles, and I don't deserve to be calling apostle.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: That's like the singers who just sing so good and
Speaker 2: then you're like, oh, you know, that was so good,
Speaker 2: and try to shut up. You know you can sing,
Speaker 2: And then there's some other ones who think they can
Speaker 2: sing and need a friend. I remember the first compliment
Speaker 2: I was ever given as a preacher, and there was
Speaker 2: a lesson in it because I preached this little sermon
Speaker 2: about the time that Peter was walking on the water
Speaker 2: and he saw the wind in the waves and he
Speaker 2: began to sing. I was sixteen years old preaching amongst
Speaker 2: corny n I Methodist Church. Because at age sixteen, you
Speaker 2: know all about the wind and waves of life qualifies
Speaker 2: you to bring a word to the people. And I
Speaker 2: got done preaching my sermon. And when you first start preaching,
Speaker 2: people are very kind. They see it as their responsibility
Speaker 2: to help bridge.
Speaker 1: The gap between your attention and your performance. So they
Speaker 1: say sweet things, especially in the South.
Speaker 2: They might not mean them, but Southerners will say it anyway,
Speaker 2: and George Altman came up to me after my first
Speaker 2: sermon and said, you did a good job today. George
Speaker 2: Altman was a legend at the church. He'd been in
Speaker 2: the church longer than the church had been in the church.
Speaker 2: He said, you did a good job today. And when
Speaker 2: he said it, I felt like that I shouldn't just
Speaker 2: say thank you, because that felt kind of arrogant that
Speaker 2: I should say something spiritual back. So mister George said
Speaker 2: that was a good job today. I said thank you,
Speaker 2: But it wasn't me. It was all God. And George
Speaker 2: Aupman said, it wasn't that good. You know, it's a
Speaker 2: little bit of you in it. If it would have
Speaker 2: been all God, touch somebody say you're not that good,
Speaker 2: and I feel pope. Not only does it feel a
Speaker 2: little bit like a humble brag.
Speaker 1: I'm not even deserve to be an apostle. It's all God.
Speaker 2: And he knows he's smart, and he knows he's of
Speaker 2: the tribe of Benjamin, and he knows he's a Pharisee
Speaker 2: of Pharisees, and he knows that he studied under the Meleel,
Speaker 2: who was the Jedi spiritual teacher of Judaic tradition, and
Speaker 2: he knows all of this.
Speaker 1: But he said, you know, I really don't even feel
Speaker 1: like an apostle. But then he confused me because in
Speaker 1: verse ten he can't make up his mind watch this.
Speaker 1: But by the.
Speaker 2: Grace of God, I am what I am, and his
Speaker 2: grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked
Speaker 2: harder than all of them, than Cephists, than the twelve,
Speaker 2: than the five hundred. I outworked everybody that God picked.
Speaker 1: Before me, yet not I. But it was the grace
Speaker 1: of God that was with me. So which one was it? Paul?
Speaker 1: I worked harder than all of them. I took the
Speaker 1: gustel where none of them.
Speaker 2: Would dare to go, shipwrecks and lashings and accusations. I
Speaker 2: was on my grind, but it wasn't me, it was
Speaker 2: Oh God, was it?
Speaker 1: Was it your grind? Or was it God's grace?
Speaker 2: I don't believe in talking to dead people, but I
Speaker 2: saw I feel like Paul answered me this week. Maybe
Speaker 2: it was a holy spirit and said, why do you
Speaker 2: always try to keep two things apart? Then in the
Speaker 2: mind of God go together? And I realized that I
Speaker 2: was doing with the text what often happens even in
Speaker 2: our own nation.
Speaker 1: Is that two things that are really.
Speaker 2: Meant to go together get so divided, and now we
Speaker 2: see as opposites two things that actually cannot operate unless
Speaker 2: they operate in tandem. So one person will say I
Speaker 2: want justice and another person will say, but I'm a patriot.
Speaker 2: But those two are not opposites, because you can't be
Speaker 2: a patriot if.
Speaker 1: There is not justice. It's got to work together. Do
Speaker 1: you hear me? What God has joined together? Let not
Speaker 1: man separate.
Speaker 2: That's not just a Mariage scripture.
Speaker 1: We do it all the time.
Speaker 2: So we got some people who want to read the
Speaker 2: Bible on their couch and say, I'm all about grace.
Speaker 2: You know you really preciously with your girlfriend.
Speaker 1: You should make a commitment to her marriage.
Speaker 2: And you probably anybody wou say about something Sharley, No,
Speaker 2: I am what I am? Got the spirit of Popeye
Speaker 2: comes over you when somebody starts saying something, Amn, what
Speaker 2: I am?
Speaker 1: I wan what I want? God knows what I want.
Speaker 1: He even't want me to want it. He should have
Speaker 1: made me different. Well, he should have made me, should
Speaker 1: have made me want like all these women. And should
Speaker 1: you know it's his fault. He made him look good.
Speaker 2: I like your awkward laughter where you feel like we
Speaker 2: got out of church and got into real real life.
Speaker 1: The grind, the grind, the grind, the grind, all had
Speaker 1: the grace of God. You know, I don't go to church,
Speaker 1: but you know, me and God, we got our thing.
Speaker 1: We chill over in the game.
Speaker 2: See fantasy football is how I connect with God. That's
Speaker 2: my connection with God because I feel like he's my
Speaker 2: quarterback and God speaks to.
Speaker 1: Me over the game. It's a great thing. You wouldn't
Speaker 1: understand those of you.
Speaker 2: Who like commit yourself to church and discipline you, you
Speaker 2: just don't get the grace of God. Paul said, no, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 2: no no, you don't get the grind. Paul said, I
Speaker 2: got grace and I got grind. Those two are not opposites.
Speaker 2: I've got grace and I've got truth. Those two are
Speaker 2: not opposites. I've got grace. But it's not this fake grace,
Speaker 2: this cheap grace, this phony grace that finds you and
Speaker 2: just covers you. This is a grace that changes you.
Speaker 2: Paul said. When you've been where I've been, and you've
Speaker 2: done what I've done, and God.
Speaker 1: Picks you up off of a thirty Damascus.
Speaker 2: Road and gives you a mission, and forgives your sins
Speaker 2: and cleanses you from your unrighteousness and sets your feet
Speaker 2: on a rock. When you get this kind of grace,
Speaker 2: you don't stay on the couch. You walk into your
Speaker 2: calling determined and committed to be what he calls you
Speaker 2: to be.
Speaker 1: I am what I am because of his grace.
Speaker 2: And I will not stay what I was.
Speaker 1: I'm becoming what I shall be by the grace of God.
Speaker 1: Give him a shout of praise. If you got grace,
Speaker 1: come on.
Speaker 2: All the way to the top. Praise Him for his grace.
Speaker 2: Grace will make you praise him. Grace will make you persevere.
Speaker 2: Race we'll make you get up and go again. Grace
Speaker 2: will make you change your ways. Grace will make you
Speaker 2: say I'm sorry. Grace will make you stick it out.
Speaker 1: Did anybody make it by the grace of God? So
Speaker 1: Paul said, there's two ways to look at this.
Speaker 2: I'm on my I'm on my grind. I'm serving God
Speaker 2: more than all of them. And the reason I serve
Speaker 2: God more than all of them is because I needed
Speaker 2: more grace than any of them. This is the part
Speaker 2: of the sermon where the people who aren't perfect should shout,
Speaker 2: because when you know that you don't deserve what God
Speaker 2: has given you, nobody has to make you serve God.
Speaker 2: You know, every breakfast a gift, every step is grace,
Speaker 2: every day is grace.
Speaker 1: His mercies are new with every rising up the sun.
Speaker 2: I want all the unworthy people to shout, all the
Speaker 2: undeserving people to shout. Come on rock Hill, come on Gaston,
Speaker 2: come on Lake Norman, come on you see, come on Blakeney.
Speaker 1: You might want to jump up on your feet for
Speaker 1: seventeen seconds and second for his unmars.
Speaker 3: And then I got grind.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, And I'm not grinding to get God's favor.
Speaker 2: I'm grinding because I've already got God's favor.
Speaker 4: I got grace in the grind. So I want to
Speaker 4: make a new hashtag. I want to make a new hashtag.
Speaker 1: I want you to post this week hashtag on my grind,
Speaker 1: but change it a little bit. Sit down, I'll show you.
Speaker 2: It says I worked harder than them all. I'll work
Speaker 2: them all because I'll send them all. I worked them
Speaker 2: all because of what I knew about me, Not so
Speaker 2: God would love me, but because he did so much
Speaker 2: I didn't bust through the front door and annoying his
Speaker 2: feet with perfume to earn his acceptance. It was because
Speaker 2: he had already given me his acceptance. It meant so
Speaker 2: much to me.
Speaker 1: So I'm on my grime. But it's not really me,
Speaker 1: it's his grace to me.
Speaker 2: And perhaps here a distinction would be helpful between the
Speaker 2: common grace of God that is given to all men,
Speaker 2: the saving grace of God which brings us into right
Speaker 2: relationship with Him, and then that particular grace of God
Speaker 2: that God has given you and no one else, Elijah.
Speaker 2: God gave me a grace to raise you. Any other
Speaker 2: Dad in this room would fail at it. But I
Speaker 2: can do this because I got grace for it, not
Speaker 2: that I need it. I got grace for it. God
Speaker 2: doesn't just give you a grace to save you. He
Speaker 2: gives you a special grace for your grind. God does
Speaker 2: not just give grace to a preacher when he stands
Speaker 2: in a pulpit. He gives grace for negotiation in a boardroom.
Speaker 2: If that's your place, that's your grace. God has given
Speaker 2: you a particular grace. It is custom design to fit
Speaker 2: in the space where God has assigned you.
Speaker 1: Paul said, it was his grace to me, his grace
Speaker 1: to me. Verse three. I passed on to you that
Speaker 1: which was given to me, the grace that God gave me.
Speaker 1: I regifted it to you. That's all I did.
Speaker 2: I get weary when I try to pass on to
Speaker 2: others what God did not give to me. But when
Speaker 2: I stay on my grind, hashtag in my grace, that's
Speaker 2: the new hashtag.
Speaker 1: I'm on my grind. Tell somebody say I'm on my grind,
Speaker 1: but I'm in my grace. Hashtag in my grace. That's how.
Speaker 1: Give me that bag. Follow me around you follow me
Speaker 1: with that bag. I want you to go into situations
Speaker 1: this week. Can I use you? You don't look so sure.
Speaker 2: Is those situations in your life that require extra grace
Speaker 2: those people in your life. One author called it e
Speaker 2: g R people Extra grace acquired people. Do not make
Speaker 2: eye contact with the person you came to church with
Speaker 2: right now. That would be the worst thing you could do.
Speaker 1: And I want you to take the situation in your
Speaker 1: life this week that the grind and in your mind.
Speaker 1: I want you to see it as a gift. So
Speaker 1: I got a whole bag of bows and I want
Speaker 1: you to take the situation this week.
Speaker 2: That you've been asking God to take away anymont and
Speaker 2: when that person comes your way, then tries your soul
Speaker 2: to the marrow of its essence.
Speaker 1: Oh god, how many of you just had a flash
Speaker 1: image of who they are? Put a bowl on them
Speaker 1: in your mind. Now, don't do it?
Speaker 2: Really?
Speaker 1: Then you know I might but that person that you
Speaker 1: got to deal with and you can't make them go away.
Speaker 1: But I want to find here.
Speaker 2: It is the gift in the grind. Oh, thank you,
Speaker 2: annoying person. Thank you long drive to work. I've been
Speaker 2: needing to listen to my audio Bible that is on
Speaker 2: my iPhone app and you just gave me thirty seven
Speaker 2: extra minutes to do it.
Speaker 1: What a gift. It's the gift in the grind. Oh,
Speaker 1: thank you dentist office. Just a little stuff, you know,
Speaker 1: just a little stuff forgiving me the opportunity to meditate.
Speaker 1: And even though this dntal hygienesi is trying to talk
Speaker 1: to me while she has an instrument of death in
Speaker 1: my mouth, why do they do that. I'll take this
Speaker 1: as a gift. You look better with that. It's a gift.
Speaker 1: It's a gift. It's a gift. Everybody shot it's a gift.
Speaker 1: It's a gift.
Speaker 2: It didn't look like a gift at first, but you
Speaker 2: know that person that doesn't like you, that God is
Speaker 2: using to set you free from the need to have
Speaker 2: people like you. It's a gift. It's a gift. Shout
Speaker 2: it out, love by faith, it's a gift. Doesn't have
Speaker 2: to feel good to be good. All things work together.
Speaker 1: Of them.
Speaker 2: They loved God and are called according to his purpose.
Speaker 2: So I'm looking for the gift in the grind. I'm
Speaker 2: looking for the gift in the discouragement. Imagine how much
Speaker 2: fun is gonna be to go through the boring.
Speaker 5: Parts of your week with a back full of bothes,
Speaker 5: just looking for the grace of God, just looking for
Speaker 5: the mercy of God, just looking for the gift of God.
Speaker 2: Because if I seek, I will find, and if I knock,
Speaker 2: the door will be open. And if I embrace the grid,
Speaker 2: I can receive the gift.
Speaker 1: Because the Word became flesh.
Speaker 2: And dwelt a loove us, and we beheld his glory,
Speaker 2: the glory, yes, of the only begotten, of the Father, full.
Speaker 1: Of grace and truth. Does somebody say, I gotta give.
Speaker 1: It's a guilt. It's a guilt. That's how I do it.
Speaker 1: I'm out of boze. You take the bag. I got
Speaker 1: a gift. I five everybody in your vicinity.
Speaker 2: A second.
Speaker 1: What a gumft, what a gamp?
Speaker 6: My weakness is a gift. My struggle is against God
Speaker 6: could have knocked Paul off of his horse.
Speaker 2: Before he ever consented to the killing of a Christian.
Speaker 2: But if he had done it too early, Paul would
Speaker 2: have valued it too little.
Speaker 1: I have a feeling.
Speaker 2: That when God really wants to use somebody in a
Speaker 2: great way, just like they took the olives to make
Speaker 2: the oil that went in the lamps that went in
Speaker 2: the tabernacle so that they could burn in the presence
Speaker 2: of the Lord, had to be hand pressed so that
Speaker 2: there would be no pulp in the lamp that would
Speaker 2: cause the light not to burn as brightly or as long.
Speaker 2: I have a feeling that God does to the life,
Speaker 2: that he really wants to handpick what they would do
Speaker 2: to those olives, and he hand presses the life to
Speaker 2: get the oil to flow from the purest place. That's
Speaker 2: what the grind is for. To get out my pride.
Speaker 2: That's what the grind is for to get out myself reliance.
Speaker 2: That's what the grind is for, to get out my superiority.
Speaker 2: If God would have given it to me too early,
Speaker 2: I would have thought I was better. But now I
Speaker 2: can say I don't even deserve to be what you're
Speaker 2: calling me.
Speaker 1: But I'm in. But it's not me, but it's in me,
Speaker 1: and I want my grind when.
Speaker 2: I'm in my grace. Here's the challenge. The enemy can't
Speaker 2: stop God from giving you grace, so he wants to
Speaker 2: stop you from using it. And I want to ask
Speaker 2: a question of everyone who made the choice to come
Speaker 2: to church today, have you been wasting your grace?
Speaker 1: Paul said, God gave me so much grace.
Speaker 2: And when Eugene Peterson tried to translate his version of
Speaker 2: First Corinthiums fifteen ten in the Message Bible, he had
Speaker 2: to say it like this, God has been so very
Speaker 2: good to me, and I don't intend to waste a
Speaker 2: drop of it. I won't waste it because it costs
Speaker 2: too much. Waste is relative to value. When you've had
Speaker 2: so much of something for so long, you lose the
Speaker 2: value of it, and so you use it and you
Speaker 2: abuse it because you have lost your sense, I want
Speaker 2: to remind you of the gospel.
Speaker 1: I preach to you, the gospel that God gave to
Speaker 1: me and I gave to you.
Speaker 2: And now you're in this gospel and you're in disgrace,
Speaker 2: but you're wasting it.
Speaker 1: The church at Corinth had.
Speaker 2: A lot of problems, not only idolatry, not only sexism,
Speaker 2: not only divisions in the church, not only sexual problems.
Speaker 1: But they had gift envy.
Speaker 2: It was a church full of gifted people that were
Speaker 2: walking around with other people's gift on their wish list.
Speaker 2: And when you envy someone else's gift, you waste your grace.
Speaker 2: When you wish that you had what they had, you
Speaker 2: missed the gift that God has given you. Don't waste
Speaker 2: your grace because you're wishing for someone else's. Well, if
Speaker 2: I could be like her, I guess I would. Paul said,
Speaker 2: I am what I am, and guess what that means.
Speaker 1: I'm not what I'm not.
Speaker 2: But it's okay because I got my own grace. I
Speaker 2: got my own grace. I don't need yours. I got
Speaker 2: my own. How many times have we wasted the grace
Speaker 2: that God has given us because we have envied the
Speaker 2: gifts that he gave another. I see people miss the
Speaker 2: season that they're in because they're waiting on the one
Speaker 2: that's to come. You will waste the grace of this
Speaker 2: season if your focus is on the next one. And
Speaker 2: now you're weary, and now you're burden. Now you want
Speaker 2: to give up because you've wait, not that you don't
Speaker 2: have the grace, you're wasting it. It's right there be
Speaker 2: sad to get to heaven. And there's a big pile
Speaker 2: of all the grace that God gave you each day
Speaker 2: that you didn't appropriate because you were.
Speaker 1: Waiting until you felt worthy.
Speaker 7: Paul said, I know what I did, but if I
Speaker 7: stay in my shame, I will waste my grace. And
Speaker 7: the price that was paid for me to stand in
Speaker 7: this grace was too great for me to waste it.
Speaker 7: I will not waste my grace. The pastes behind me,
Speaker 7: the crosses before.
Speaker 2: Me, and I.
Speaker 1: Will not waste the grace of this day. This is
Speaker 1: the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice
Speaker 1: and be glad in it. I refuse to leave any
Speaker 1: grace misappropriated.
Speaker 2: So I'm done wishing that I was someone else, because
Speaker 2: I am what I am by the grace of God,
Speaker 2: I'm done wishing that I was in a season or
Speaker 2: a situation that you know what. I am done wasting
Speaker 2: the grace that God has given me worrying about situations
Speaker 2: that I can't control.
Speaker 1: That's it. I'm done.
Speaker 2: I have wasted enough time crying over stuff that was
Speaker 2: over and missing stuff that I was living in.
Speaker 1: I will not waste the grace of this day. The
Speaker 1: Spirit of God helped me minister this message to someone.
Speaker 2: You have been wasting your grace, the great grace of God, greater,
Speaker 2: greater than all of our sin, greater than all of
Speaker 2: our sin. Great grace, somebody shall great grace, great grace
Speaker 2: when you don't value it, you don't get it. And
Speaker 2: you know that grind that we talked about earlier, the
Speaker 2: stuff that you wish would stop in your life. I
Speaker 2: didn't want to close the sermon this way, but God
Speaker 2: told me too, because he said that it didn't matter
Speaker 2: how I wanted to close the sermon, It mattered what
Speaker 2: was true.
Speaker 1: That grind is what produces the grace.
Speaker 8: That's where the grace comes right into that place, right
Speaker 8: into that insecurity, right into that revolving joys.
Speaker 1: Stand up so I can pray for you.
Speaker 2: You've been wasting your grace, Paul said, I didn't ever
Speaker 2: feel worthy, but I was made worthy, and I will
Speaker 2: not waste the grace of God waiting for a feeling
Speaker 2: to accompany the truth.
Speaker 1: I won't waste ants.
Speaker 2: You just lift your hands to heaven if you want
Speaker 2: to receive a fresh empowering of the grace of God,
Speaker 2: because I know you need it. Man, I know the
Speaker 2: grind is real. I know sometimes it just grinds the
Speaker 2: joy right out of you. Father, And your presence is
Speaker 2: the fullness of joy at your right hand, pleasures forevermore.
Speaker 1: It never runs out.
Speaker 2: We thank you today for common grace that's given to
Speaker 2: all men, your loving kindness, your disposition in favor of
Speaker 2: the human race that you created. Well, thank you today
Speaker 2: for saving grace that took away the penalty of our sin,
Speaker 2: the effects of our shame, and set us free to
Speaker 2: know you. I also thank you today for that special grace,
Speaker 2: that special grace for special struggles, that grace that comes
Speaker 2: in hospital rooms, that grace that comes in layoffs, that
Speaker 2: grace that comes in financial crisis, that grace that comes
Speaker 2: in the kind of success that seems unsustainable. I thank
Speaker 2: you for disgrace this gift in Jesus' name, look at
Speaker 2: me for a moment. Sometimes you're waiting for God to
Speaker 2: give you something that He already gave you, and you
Speaker 2: don't know you have it. One time, we were about
Speaker 2: to write a song and I was opening us up
Speaker 2: in prayer. It seemed the pastoral thing to do, and
Speaker 2: my prayer to me sounded very spiritual. I prayed out loud, God,
Speaker 2: we're here before you today, and we asked that you
Speaker 2: would give us a song. I prayed that out loud.
Speaker 2: I felt God speak back to me, not out loud,
Speaker 2: but inside. I say, God, give us a song. I
Speaker 2: felt God say, you give me one. Because I have
Speaker 2: given you your mouth, your mind, your ears, your spirit,
Speaker 2: your vocabulary, my word, your experiences.
Speaker 9: I have given you the grace, Now give me a song.
Speaker 9: I believe God wants you to give him a song today.
Speaker 9: I believe if you would open your mouth right now,
Speaker 9: in this moment, the grace of God would invade situation,
Speaker 9: the grace.
Speaker 1: Of God that would invade shame. Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2: Special thanks to those of you who give generously to
Speaker 2: this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible.
Speaker 2: You can click the link in the description to give
Speaker 2: now or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more
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Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening. God bless you.