The Gift You Can’t Earn

Transcript

Week 2 of the series Uncommon Gift, from the 11:30 service. Transcribed from the service recording and lightly edited for readability.

Welcome: The Gift You Can't Earn

Amen. We're in the series Uncommon Gift, and today we're going to talk about the gift you cannot earn.

You Move Mountains

Before I get started, I've just got to calm myself down a little bit. I get excited. The song we just sang says, "You move mountains. You cause walls to fall. You cause chains to break."

A Vision for the 11:30 Service

The 11:30 service is where we want to see all of that happen in people's lives. I really envision this service being for people who would normally be considered unchurched, people who would be considered out of the way.

And the crazy part is, I don't think this service is going to grow traditionally. We're not going to see people trickling in. Right now, on most days, I can count ten at most. But we're going to show up one week and the room is going to be full. Mountains are just going to move, and people aren't going to understand. There's going to be a reason. People listening to this message are going to hear it and realize, "I don't know why I'm driving my car over here, but I've got to get there." I see it. It isn't going to be one or two people. We're going to look up, and it's going to be full of people for no reason we can explain.

Somebody asked me if the fruit was worth the squeeze. The reality is I don't know, but I know I have to walk in a posture of obedience. That's where we are. God is giving me a gift, and He's giving us a gift, and we've got to use it for His full glory.

Ephesians 2:8–9

The scripture this morning is Ephesians 2, verses 8 and 9:

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith; and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God; not by works, so that no one can boast.

Paul's Letter to Ephesus

Here we are in Ephesians. Ephesus was an actual city, in what's now Turkey, and this is the church Paul was writing to. He was actually writing from jail. And I had the pleasure of going to Ephesus this summer. I walked those streets and got to see some of how those people lived.

A City of Influence

When I tell you they lived in the lap of luxury: Ephesus was the city. It was on a major trade route. There was business going on and education going on. It was an exciting time. And Paul was writing to the church in Ephesus to encourage them to keep going in their Christian walk in a city of crazy influence.

When you've got money, it's hard for me to tell you what to do. You don't want to hear anything I have to say. "I've got money. I figured this out. I know how this business works. I've got everything I want in life. What can you offer me that I don't already have or can't get myself?" But this thing about Jesus: money can't buy it.

So Paul is trying to awaken them, saying, "This gift right here, you cannot earn."

Grace Is God's Idea, Not Ours

What do I mean? The gift is grace, and grace is God's idea, not ours. God thought this all up. Grace originated in God's heart. There's nothing we can do to earn it.

But that's how we typically think. You go to work, you work 40 hours a week, and at the end you get a paycheck. You earned it because you did the work. That's not how this gift works.

Even as kids at Christmastime, you had to be real good, because you couldn't have any negative marks on your report card. My grades were always good, but my conduct was questionable. Around Christmastime I had to straighten up and fly right, because I wanted everything I wanted under that tree. I didn't want to give my parents any excuse not to give me something. But this is a gift you cannot earn.

Grace Is a Gift, Not a Reward

Grace is a gift, not a reward. A lot of times we think of gifts like Christmas shopping. The stores always advertise a free gift to attract you, but it isn't free, because you have to buy something to get it. This gift is 100 percent free. There's nothing you have to do to get it.

I'm in all kinds of rewards clubs and memberships. The more money you spend, the more credit they give you. You're trying to earn points so you can get free stuff. But all that free stuff is based on what you've already done. Grace is free.

Grace Comes Before You Ask

And grace is initiated before you even ask. God's grace came about before we were even born. He put a system in place for how He was going to be gracious and kind to us before we existed. The fact that He sent Jesus Christ to die for our sins before we sinned was grace. God had a plan for salvation, and it was in motion long before we were born.

God's Love Doesn't Depend on Your Actions

But we often live like God's love depends on our actions. Unfortunately, a lot of us were taught that in church growing up: that God would love us less because we acted a certain way or did certain things. But God can't love you any more or any less than He did when He thought you up and decided you were going to exist.

As parents, or if you're not a parent, you've got a parent: when a child is hungry, you feed them whether they earned it or not. Why? Because it's your responsibility to give them life and the things they need to sustain it. That's grace.

Grace Is God's Unmerited Favor

But we have to really understand what grace is. Grace is God's unmerited favor.

A Season of Favor

I've been telling people recently that I'm in a season of favor. We are in a season of favor. But if we stop and really think about it, we're always in a season of favor, because we're always living in God's grace. Sometimes it's just more visible to us because of what's happening in our lives. If we stop and think about everything God has done for us without us even asking, man, where would we be?

In Greek culture, the word grace meant generosity shown to someone undeserving. When I was in school, English really wasn't my favorite subject. I just didn't understand it all. Now when I read the Bible and see how words are used and how they play off each other, I think, "Man, I should have paid more attention in English." I love wordplay.

And that's the thing about Paul. Ephesus was an educated society, so he used wordplay to tickle their brains and draw them in. He was good at taking things related to their current situation, bringing them over to God, and switching it up on them. Paul is really trying to let people know that God has a radical love for sinners. It doesn't matter where you've been, what you've done, where you've come from, what your background is, what your DNA is, or what situation you find yourself in. God says, "I still love you. I care for you. And I have a plan for your life."

Faith Is the Only Way to Receive the Gift

Here's the thing, though. It says "through faith." Faith is the only way to receive God's gift.

Y'all know how it is. Some of you have your Christmas trees up with gifts under them. I can tell you, "I've got a gift under my tree for you," but if you never come over and get it, it's irrelevant. If you leave it under the tree, "Oh yeah, that's mine, I know it's in the box," you still haven't received your gift. The way we receive this gift of grace is through faith.

Faith Transfers Trust From Self to God

Faith transfers your trust from self to God. And if we're honest with ourselves, that's the biggest thing: we don't trust God. "I trust myself. I know what I'm going to do."

Matter of fact, half the time I know I'm going to lie to myself. You know how it is. This week I was actually good about it, but for the past few months I've been saying, "I'm going to get up at 6:00 or 6:30 and work out, or at least walk." Monday goes by, Tuesday goes by, Wednesday goes by, and I haven't moved, because every time that alarm goes off, "Oh, this is nice and comfortable. I'll try tomorrow." This week I actually got up and did it. But if we're honest, we lie to ourselves a lot. We don't do what we say we're going to do, yet we still say we trust ourselves.

With faith, we should transfer our trust from ourselves to God, because God is going to do what He says He's going to do, regardless. Go back to the song: "You move mountains." That goes back to scripture: faith moves mountains. Why? Because I put my trust in God, and I'm trusting God to move everything that's in the way.

Greater Things Than These

Matter of fact, if we truly trust God and believe scripture, Jesus says we will do greater things than He did. Which of us is doing greater things than Jesus? When's the last time you tried to walk on water? When's the last time you laid hands on somebody to heal them? Oh, I'm sorry. We're not going to talk about that. But if Jesus said we can do it, we can do it.

The Doctor Who Prayed

I was listening to a story about a doctor who came upon an accident. It wasn't his jurisdiction, so he couldn't really do anything for the young man in the car accident, and they thought the young man was dead. So the doctor walked over and prayed for him: "God, sustain this young man's life." He looked up, nothing happened, so he walked back to his car.

As he was walking back to his car, he heard a great commotion. He turned around, and they said, "What did you do?" He said, "I just prayed for him." They said, "Well, whatever you said, it worked, because he's alive."

Pray Big Prayers

Sometimes we have to have the boldness and the audacity to pray big prayers, to ask God for big things. We wonder why we don't see big things happen in our lives, and it's because we aren't actually believing God is going to provide the big things.

That's why I started the service off declaring a big thing. This place is going to be full, without us doing anything except being faithful to what God is doing. How? I don't know. Not one by one, but all at once. The land next door is going to be ours. How? I don't know, but God said it's going to happen, so it's going to happen. It doesn't matter to me how. All I know is God said He's going to do it. I might be alive or dead when it happens, but it's going to happen, because it's all about faith.

Faith Is Active, Not Passive

Faith is active, not passive. Your belief shows up when you live it out. Your friend will come to Christ when they see you living out your faith, not just talking about it.

Say your boss is giving you the blues. You go in tomorrow and declare, "From this day forth, this boss isn't going to have anything negative to say about me. I declare God is going to move this mountain." And when people see it happen, they'll say, "I need to worship the God you're worshiping. How'd you do it?" "I just said it. I believed it was going to happen."

Even if he doesn't stop the negative talk, you're going to stop hearing it negatively. Wouldn't that be crazy? Your boss is still talking negatively, and you're smiling like he never said anything wrong, like he's praising you. Your coworkers are like, "What's wrong with you?" Because I recognize the only reason he's trying to downgrade me is that he wants me to act out of character, and I'm just going to keep living for God, because I know God has all of this in His hands. The situation isn't going to be taken care of; it's already taken care of. So I'm going to step into it and live like it's already done. Everybody is going to watch and see, and all you'll be able to say is, "My God, my God."

Faith Connects Us With Grace

Faith connects us with grace, like a hand reaching out for a gift. But without faith, the gift remains unopened.

Unopened Gifts Under the Tree

Imagine I had a Christmas tree up here with a whole bunch of unopened gifts, and we just left them there. Y'all would say, "This is crazy." And if somebody said, "There's a million dollars in that box," and you said, "Okay, cool, just leave it in there," and then went to work telling everybody you've got a million dollars. "Where's it at?" "At home in the box." They'd be like, "Why haven't you opened it? What is wrong with you?" But that's what God is saying to us: "What is wrong with you? I've given you a gift, and you're refusing to open it?"

I don't know about you, but I need all the grace I can get, so I'm opening every single grace box I can.

It's easy to acknowledge that Jesus exists. It's easy to say Jesus is my Lord and Savior. But it's hard to act like it. That requires you to do some things. It requires you to step out on faith. Just like me, hanging out on the edge of this step. That's how we are: "Yeah, I believe it. Oh, no, I'm going back to my comfort zone." "Yeah, I can walk on water. He walked on it. Peter walked on it. I should be able to walk on it." And if you jump in the water, all that's going to happen is you get a little wet. It'll be fine. Just trust God.

Faith Is Relational, Not Mechanical

Faith is relational, not mechanical. It's about dependence and loyalty, not intellectual agreement. That's what faith is about: dependence and loyalty. And our faith has to be in God: our dependence and our loyalty in God.

A husband and wife depend on each other to be faithful. That's what marriage is about. When that unity is broken, when the loyalty is broken, the faith is broken. But when has God ever broken faith? We might break ours, but God has never broken His.

Works Don't Earn the Gift

This is what we have to realize: works don't earn the gift; they just show you've received it. You can't work your way into heaven.

Some of us try. Before I started preaching, I said, "Once I stop cussing, I'm going to start preaching." The devil had me cussing a whole lot, but not for too long, because it finally clicked: you can't fix yourself. We want to do everything ourselves. "I can do this." Our country will tell you to pull yourself up by your own bootstraps and all that foolishness. But we can't do anything in our own strength. We have to bring ourselves to God just as we are, and expect Him to transform our lives.

Evidence, Not the Entrance Fee

Good works are the evidence of salvation, not the entrance fee. They just prove that God's love for you is real. Works flow out of gratitude, not guilt.

I have friends of all different faiths and spiritual beliefs, and it's funny: every Catholic friend I have says, "Yep, that Catholic guilt." I'm like, that's a horrible way to live. Good gracious, I don't want to guilt people into doing things. You want people to genuinely love you, genuinely show you favor, genuinely be interested in your life, not be guilted into something. That makes no sense.

So in the church, we shouldn't guilt people into coming to church. You shouldn't guilt people about whatever they're doing, especially grown folks. When you're grown, nobody has to tell you you're doing wrong. Every grown person knows when they're out of line, out of bounds, going too far. You don't have to tell them.

But here's the awesome part I've found: when you love people in the midst of their mess, you're actually getting out of the way so God can deal with them. If I come to you and say, "You know you're wrong for this, you know you're wrong for that," you're going to be mad at me. But if I say, "I love you in the midst of your mess," now the only one you can be mad at is God: "God, You made me this way." And now He can deal with you, because you're talking to the One who can actually resolve the situation and work it all out. And He will.

Our Job Is to Love People

So often we're in the middle, judging people, condemning them, making them feel guilty. But that isn't our job. God tells us to do one thing: love Him and love His people. That's it.

If we truly have faith that God will work things out in the lives of the people around us, we'll love them where they are, trusting that God is going to work it out. A lot of us go around judging and persecuting and pointing fingers because we don't trust that God is going to move. We think we've got to fix them, make them better, make them right. No. We just have to love them and trust God to do what only God can do. Because if you really think about it, He was the only One who could turn your life around. He's the only One who could get you to move when nobody else could.

Big Mama stopped talking to you a long time ago and started praying for you, because that child ain't got good sense. My grandpa had a saying I didn't get until I had children of my own: "The more I talk to you, the dumber I get." I was like, "Huh?" Now I understand what that means. Maybe you'll get it later.

Boasting Is Eliminated

Alright, I'm about to go to my seat. Boasting is eliminated when works are put in their proper place. Since I realize I didn't save myself, I have to give God the credit. That's why I like the way God works: He's going to do some stuff in your life that you can't take credit for.

When this room is full of people, I can't take credit for that. I don't preach that good. It's God moving. When things grow in your life, when unexpected financial blessings hit and you go from being broke to being a lender, you'll say, "There's no way in the world I could have done that myself." Because I tried many times. I'd get out of debt and get right back in it. Get out of debt and get right back in it. But now I'm in a place where I can give money to people and not even care if they pay me back.

Nothing but God can do that, because I know me: I'm selfish. If I'm lending money to somebody and don't care if they pay it back, that's nothing but God and His favor. When God does things in your life, the natural response is to be giving and loving, as He is.

Moving the Mountains in Our Lives

So we're about to move some things. That song said we're moving mountains, and some of the mountains we're moving are in our own lives: our perceptions, our understanding, our way of seeing life and this world. God says, "I need to move those mountains so you can see clearly, so you can truly step out on faith and trust that I've got you." Because when you step out on faith and trust that He's got you, you'll really understand His true gift of grace.

No Longer Afraid to Fail

And when we understand the true gift of grace, we're no longer afraid to fail. "I went out there, Lord, but I slipped. I cussed her smooth out because she got on my nerves." But you understand God's grace, so you step out again: "I'm going to try again. Next time I'll do better. I'm going to last fifteen minutes before I cuss somebody out." Next thing you know it's thirty minutes. Next thing you know, "Okay, I can talk to this person without acting a fool." Why? Because you've got to keep stepping. It's a muscle. It's training. It's active. It's like going to the gym: you've got to train this thing.

But a lot of us get scared because we messed up after the first step. God says, "Keep walking with Me. Keep talking with Me. I'm going to work this out in your life. Stop being afraid of messing up, because I already know you're going to mess up. I created you. I set this all up. This is the training ground. Have faith that I can fix whatever you mess up. Have faith that I'm going to carry you where you need to go, because I've given you grace. Even before you asked for it, I gave it to you."

God Is Entrusting Us to Change the World

God is entrusting us with changing the world. That's what He's entrusting us with. And just like Paul in the days of Ephesus, He's saying, "Don't be so mesmerized by all the trinkets and high positions and things of this world. I've got something that's going to change and revolutionize your life."

Look around. You know people with money in their pocket but no peace. They've got a huge house but no home. A mega-mansion, and the kids won't even come back to visit. Because that stuff doesn't mean anything unless you have love. And the only way you can have love is to have God, because God is love.

So this week, don't leave this gift unwrapped, and don't go out trying to earn it. Just settle into the fact that God has given you what you didn't deserve, and embrace it.

Weekly Challenge

As I go to my seat, let's wrap it up.

Reflect: Are you still trying to earn what God has already given you?

Act: This week, do one act of kindness purely out of gratitude for God's grace.

Pray: "Lord, help me rest in Your grace, trust You fully, and let my actions reflect the salvation You've given me."

Closing Prayer

Most gracious and heavenly Father, we come before You saying thank You. Father God, we thank You for Your grace and Your mercy. I pray that You would change our minds: the way we think, the way we see things, the way we hear things, so that it can be based on Your word and what You would have us do. Father God, I pray that You would keep testing our faith, so that we know exactly where we stand with You and with others, so that we can keep growing, keep strengthening our faith, and keep stretching ourselves further for Your glory. For if we truly understand the grace You've given us, we have no choice but to serve You fully. Father God, we love You and praise You. In Jesus' name. Amen.