THE GIFT IN THE GRIND | Pastor Steven Furtick

I have one verse of scripture that I want to preach on today I did not choose the scripture it chose me in fact I would say it jumped up and bit me on bit me on my neck and told me preach me or I'll kill you it's just that fierce the way the way that this verse came to me it's in first Corinthians chapter 15 verse 10 you know what though if we preach on just one verse today if we preach on first Corinthians 15:10 how is that gonna make verse 9 feel and if we skip by verse 8 to get to verse 9 so I only want to preach one verse but I think I should start at verse 1 so that we do not offend any of the other verses whose support we need contextually in order to give the full illumination of the meaning of the verse so listen to these words now from the Apostle Paul and I don't make you stand the whole time if you're new here you get a little nervous at this point we do sit down and then some people stand back up just the ones who love Jesus they jump up while I'm preaching and stuff I'm kidding I'm kidding you can love Jesus and sit down - it's just you love him more if you stand up but you can love him a little bit and sit through a sermon now brothers and sisters I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you which you received and on which you have taken your stand by this gospel you are saved if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you otherwise you have believed in vain would you touch your neighbor and tell him don't waste it don't waste it for what I received I passed on to you as of first importance that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures and that he appeared to Cephas and then to the twelve after that he appeared to more than 500 of the brothers and sisters at the same time most of whom are still living though some have fallen asleep then he appeared to James and then to all the apostles and last of all he appeared to me also as to one abnormally born for I am the least of the Apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle because I persecuted the Church of God but everybody shout but that's one of the biggest words in the Bible by the way I mean it's it's a it's a big word three letters but it's a big word everybody shall but I was going down I thought it was over they laid him in the ground and hell had a party on Friday night ask somebody next to you say how big is yours that's what I want to know 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 I won't speak to you for a few moments today on this subject the gift in the grind the gift in the grind on your way to your seat uh somebody and say I'm on my grind you've seen that hashtag on Instagram right on my grind hashtag gymflow hashtag humbled hashtag filter free hashtag paleo hashtag CrossFit bro hashtag it's everyday bro hashtag hashtag I might cry no you're not on your grind you're on your phone put down your phone and just go to the gym if you go to the gym enough you won't have to post about it we'll all notice the results unless you want to show off your shoes then take a selfie I mention it because Paul is uh across a little bit humble brag II in first Corinthians I know I know he's the Apostle Paul and everything he says is supposed to be so wonderful but I will be honest with you I like the Bible like I really like the Bible what a relief wouldn't matter if I liked it or not it would be true but I happen to like the Bible now more than when I first started reading it it's just it now I don't like everybody in the Bible all the time like Jonah Oh Jonah because God went through so much trouble to get Jonah to preach a message in Nineveh and then by the time he preached the message after God had to track him down and dispatch a whale and send a storm and all of this nonsense that Jonah couldn't just go where he was supposed to preach and say what he was supposed to say when he did preach it wasn't even that great of a sermon this was his whole sermon forty days and Nineveh will be destroyed well anybody could have done that and um and I don't want to offend you so early in the sermon I used to save that until about the twenty-two minute mark right here Paul Paul is annoying me a little bit a little bit just a little bit not sure he doesn't care that I'm annoyed with this passage that he wrote to the church at Corinth he's not writing it as a letter to me or to you as his primary audience he's he's trying to get the church in Corinth to live out what God has invested put in that's really the challenge of life is to live out what God has put in what makes that difficult is the grind the grind the glory of God is such a wonderful mesmerizing and peace inducing concept when we're together like this I wonder if I would be able to preach as well if I had to follow you on to your job and see the people that you deal with I wonder if my sermons would be what you're saying Amen little too loud right now low offended but there is a sense in which every time I stand up to preach I am aware that the gospel has to be lived out not in the confines of a cathedral but in the grind of everyday life and life is a grind and marriage is a grind I know their vows were beautiful but there's some stuff they didn't put in those vows because they didn't know about them yet but four years into marriage if they could say the vows the way they really go it wouldn't be big broad concepts like sickness and health and life and death because there's a lot of stuff in between life and death called crime it's called do I really have to remind you to put gas in the car you're 47 years old and we've been talking about this for 21 years did you really leave the van on that's why people get divorced it's not big things is 793 dirty socks left in the room after I told you forty three times I'm not sure mom pick up after yourself it's just crying and I was confused cuz I thought people I thought people quit their jobs because big horrible things happen and I thought people gave up on themselves because of catastrophic cataclysmic events I found out that it's the grind the the grind makes ministers but down there microphone I think I think they they put down their microphone not because they quit loving Jesus or left their first love I think the grind makes volunteers quit showing up to serve because it's kind of our fault when we sign you up to volunteer we show you the glory but we hide the grind you see these beautiful women with the Welcome team t-shirts on there I guarantee you some people on their team didn't show up to serve that we're supposed to serve today now that happens to you enough Sunday mornings when you put aside your Sunday morning to serve and somebody didn't even have the stuff ready that you needed to serve after a while you rip your nametag off you say I love Jesus but this sucks and I can serve God in my own way I think I'll serve him on the boat I have a boat ministry Jesus this stuff on the boat i'ma go on the boat to Lake Norman they asked 70 volunteers sign up for Lake Norman to volunteer at Lake Norman this weekend I'm just gonna be upfront with you and tell you what they may not have told you at the campus it's a grind it's a grind I mean it's a good grind and God's gonna do great things but it's a crime how uninspiring could the introduction to my sermon possibly be but to tell you that after you picked out the baby names and after they throw you a gender-reveal party and a gender reveal reveal party and a gender reveal reveal reveal reveal party here comes the grind the grind of diapers the grind of long nights the grind of red-eyes in Red Bull and but the good news is if you make it through the infancy stage the grind stops after that racing children is easy no more grind you're sitting next to your child tell them you're a grind I love you I'm grateful for you see that's the thing I'm not ungrateful for what God has given me that's not why I get a bad attitude that's not why sometimes don't want to show up I appreciate I know there are people who would love to have my life and it makes me feel bad and guilty when you compare my life to somebody else and I think well I could be worse I think we will say things like when you know you could be in the hospital room if you know somebody the hospital room would love to go to your job Monday but they're not going in I am and I'm in the grind and I am grateful I have a job but this just sometimes centre-right well paulus talking to a church that would have been very familiar with the grind it's not some little town Corinth is a a major city not exactly a port city but connected to one that meant they had all the infrastructure of an urban city that meant that the transportation systems were complicated so they knew what it was to have a traffic jam just the grind just the grind of trying to figure out how to worship Christ in a culture that is counter Christ just the grind trying to figure out how to serve Christ in a culture that is counter Christ from what is culturally normative is counter Christian it's a grind just a grind and Paul reminds them of the importance of the gospel he said I want to remind you not of the information that the gospel contains but the importance of it because the grind can make you forget what's really important you know this the grind can make you lose sense of priorities so that you start giving your best energy to your lowest priorities it's just the grind Paul writes to them that he understands it he does it in a strange way though and this is where he started to get on my nerves a little bit because when he said I want to remind you of the gospel and the resurrection which is your hope I was with him when he said if you don't hold on to it and you don't really believe in it it's like it never happened I understand what he's saying not that God is going to take his grace away but that sometimes if I don't walk in and what good is it I understand why he's saying this gospel did not originate with me it just came through me because a lot of people probably worship Paul and saw him as some indispensable gift to the body of Christ but he realized that really all he was doing was regifter what God had given to him I understand his sequence how he said that he was the last one in to this oh gee apostle group how he said that almost everybody seemed to be picked before him and then in a blinding light on the road to Damascus as he was on his way to persecute Christians the very Christ who he was persecuting by coming against those who stood for his name knocked him off of his horse oh yes God will clothesline you if you are headed in the wrong direction because he loves you too much to let you waste your whole life headed for a destination that will ultimately disappoint you can't preach a little bit so I get it when Paul says that I don't have anything that I didn't receive it I'm with them when he says that it's all gospel all the time when he gets to this part though verse 9 we should look at it again for I am the least of the Apostles I'm not buying it partially because his very name is almost synonymous with apostle if I said the Apostle and then let you fill in the blank you know who wrote 13 of the 27 New Testament books the Apostle so you didn't say Bartholomew and he was one too but you didn't name your kid that the Apostle Paul and so for him to be saying oh oh and this is not his rookie year I get it in your first year you've been killing Christians or at least consenting to their murder they laid the garments at your feet when Stephen was stoned when Jesus Christ gave a standing ovation to Stephen because of his boldness and used to their watching it and not only watching it but endorsing it and supporting it I understand how at that point it could take you a little while but you've been in the game 30 years planting churches all throughout the Roman Empire taking it where Peter didn't dare to take it and in fact Peter had a sort of prejudice that didn't show itself except when he was around people who he thought were as prejudiced as he was Paul wasn't that way Paul didn't talk one way in front of one group or one race and then talk another way when he got around his friends or his voice he was just determined to take the gospel to all people I just said something right there one person all the time but Paul said you know really I don't feel worthy of this I've been in it so long and I know I'm a legend but I don't even really feel like what you think I am I don't even really feel like I deserve this title and I'm doing the job and I'm filling the position but can I be honest with you sometimes I feel more like a little boy than I do like a dad it's the difference between the title others give me and the truth I tell myself and Paul knew a truth about himself that cost him to always feel a little unworthy of his title he said I'm the least of the Apostles and I don't deserve to be called an apostle yeah yeah yeah that's like the singers who just sings so good and then you're like oh you know you that was so good and trashed shut up you know you can sing and then there's some other ones who think they can sing and need a friend I remember the first compliment I was ever given as a preacher and there was a lesson in it because I preached this little sermon about the time that Peter was walking on the water and he saw the wind in the waves I began to sink I was 16 years old preaching at monks corner United Methodist Church because at age 16 you know all about the wind and waves of life qualifies you to bring a word to the people and I got done preaching my sermon and when you first start preaching people are very kind they see it as their responsibility to help bridge the gap between your attention and your performance so they say sweet things especially in the south they might not mean them but southerners will say it anyway and George Altman came up to me after my first sermon and said you did a good job today George Altman was a legend at the church he'd been in the church longer than the church had been in the church he said you did a good job today and when he said it I felt like that I shouldn't just say thank you cuz that felt kind of arrogant that I should say something spiritual back so mr. George said that was a good job today I said thank you but it wasn't me it was all God and George Altman said it wasn't that good [Applause] you know it's a little bit of you in it if it would have been all guy somebody say you're not that good and I feel Paul not only does it feel a little bit like a humble brag I deserve to be an apostle it's all God and he knows he's smart and he knows he's of the tribe of Benjamin and he knows he's a Pharisee of Pharisees and he knows that he's studied under Gamaliel who was the the the Jedi spiritual teacher of Judaic tradition and he knows all of this but he said you know I really don't even feel like an apostle but then he confused me because in verse 10 he can't make up his mind watch this 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 then Cephas then the twelve then the five hundred I ought worked everybody that God picked before me he had not I but it was the grace of God that was with me so which one was it Paul I worked harder than all of them I took the gospel where none of them would dare to go shipwrecks and lashings and accusations I was on my grind but it wasn't me it was all God it was it was it your grind or was it God's grace I don't believe in talking to dead people but I swear I feel like Paul answered me this week maybe it was a Holy Spirit and said why do you always try to keep two things apart that in the mind of God go together and I realized that I was doing with the text what often happens even in our own nation is that two things that are really meant to go together get so divided and now we see as opposites to things that actually cannot operate unless they operate in tandem so one person will say I want justice and another person will say but I'm a patriot but those two are not opposites because you can't be a patriot if there is not justice it's got to work together [Applause] do you hear me what God has joined together let not man separate that's not just a marriage scripture we do it all the time so you got some people who want to read the Bible on their couch and say I'm all about grace you know you really shouldn't sleep with your girlfriend you should make a commitment to her in marriage you should price it above us save us and Sally no I am what I am that the spirit of Popie comes over you when somebody starts saying something I am what I am I want what I want God knows what I want even want me the one he should have made me different well maybe she made me want like all these women and you know is his fault he made him look good I like your awkward laughter where you feel like we got out of church and got into real real life the grime the grime the dry the grime I had the grace of God you know I don't go to church but you know got me and God we got our thing we'd still over the game see fantasy football is how I connect with God that's my connection with God because I feel like he's my quarterback God speaks to me over the game unless it's a grace thing you wouldn't understand those of you who like commit yourself to church and discipline you you you just don't get the grace of God Paul said no no no no no no no you don't get the grind Paul said I got Grace and I got grind those two are not opposites I've got Grace and I've got truth those two are not opposites I've got grace but it's not this fake grace this cheap grace this phony grace that finds you and just covers you this is a grace that changes you Paul said when you've been where I've been and you've done what I've done and God picks you up off of a dirty Damascus Road and gives you a mission and forgives your sins and cleanses you from your unrighteousness and sets your feet on a rock when you get this kind of grace you don't stay on the couch you walk into your calling determined and committed to be what he calls you to be I am what I am because of his grace and I will not stay what I was becoming I shall be by the grace of God give them a shout of praise if you got grace come on all the way to the top brace it for His grace grace will make you praise him Grace will make you persevere rights will make you get up and go again grace will make you change your ways grace will make you say I'm sorry thanks will make you stick it out did anybody make it by the grace of God so Paul said there's two ways to look at this I'm on my grind I'm on my grind I'm serving God more than all of them and the reason I serve God more than all of them is because I needed more grace than any of them this is the part of the sermon where the people who aren't perfect should shout because when you know that you don't deserve what God has given you nobody has to make you serve God you know every breath is a gift every step is Grace every day is Grace His mercies are new with every rising of the Sun I want all the unworthy people to sell all the undeserving people come on Rock Hill come on Gaston come on Lake Norman come on you see come on Blakeney you might wanna jump up on your feet for 17 seconds and that get far is unmerited [Applause] oh yeah and I'm not grinding to get God's favor I'm grinding because I've already got God's favor I got grace in the grind so I want to make a new hashtag I want to make a new hashtag I want you to post this week hash tag on my grind but change it a little bit sit down I'll show you it says I worked harder than them all I'll work them all cuz I out send them all out work them all because of what I knew about me not so God would love me but because he did so much I didn't bust through the front door and anoint his people feet with perfume to earn his acceptance it was because he had already given me his acceptance it meant so much to me so I'm I'm on my grind but it's not really me it's His grace to me and perhaps here a distinction would be helpful between the common grace of God that is given to all men the saving grace of God which brings us into right relationship with him and then that particular grace of God that God has given you and no one else Elijah God gave me a grace to raise you any other dad in this room would fail at it but I can do this cuz I got grace for it not that I need it I got grace for it God doesn't just give you a grace to save you he gives you a special grace for your grind God does not just give grace to a preacher when he stands in a pulpit he gives grace for negotiation in a boardroom if that's your place that's your grace God has given you a particular grace it is custom designed to fit in the space where God has assigned you Paul said it was his grace to me his grace to me verse three I passed on to you that which was given to me the grace that God gave me Irie gifted it to you that's all I did I get weary when I try to pass on to others what God did not give to me but when I stay on my grind hash tag in my grace that's the new hash tag I'm on my grind flesh somebody say I'm on my grind but I'm in my grace hash tag in my grace that that's out give me that bag follow me around you follow me with that bag I want you to go into situations this week can I use you you don't look so sure is those situations in your life that require extra grace those people in your life one author called it EGR people extra grace required people do not make eye contact with the person you came to church with right now that would be the worst thing you could do and I want you to take the situation in your life this week that the the grind and in your mind I want you to see it as a gift so I got a whole bag of bows don't you take the situation this week that you've been asking God to take away anymore and when that person comes your way then fries your soul to the marrow of its essence oh god how many of you just had a flash image of who they are put a bow on them in your mind now don't do it don't know really yeah you know that might but that person that you got a deal with and you can't make them go away but I want to find here it is the gift in the grind oh thank you annoying person thank you long drive to work I've been needing to listen to my audio Bible that is on my iPhone app and you just gave me 37 extra minutes to do it what a gift it's the gift in the grind oh thank you dentist office just a little stuff for giving me the opportunity to meditate and even though this dental hygienist is trying to talk to me while she has an instrument of death in my mouth why do they do that I'll take this as a gift they look better with that it's a gift it's a gift it's against a my shot us a gift it's a gift it didn't look like a gift at first but you know that person that doesn't like you that God is using to set you free from the need to have people like you it's a gift it's a gift shout it out loud my faith it's again doesn't have to feel good to be good all things work together for the good of them they love God and are called according to his purpose so I'm looking for the gift in the grind I'm looking for the gift in the discouragement imagine how much fun is gonna be to go through the boring parts of your week with a bag full of bows just looking for the grace of God just look for the mercy of God just looking for the gift of God cuz if I seek I will find and if I not the tour will be ugly and if I embrace the grind I can receive the gift because the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory the glory as of the only begotten of the Father does somebody say I got a gift it's a gift it's a gift that's how I do it I'm out of booze you take the back my weaknesses again my struggle is against [Music] God could have knocked Paul off of his horse before he ever consented to the killing of a Christian but if he had done it too early Paul would have valued it too little I have a feeling that when God really wants to use somebody in a great way just like they took the olives to make the oil that went in the lamps that went in the tabernacle so that they could burn in the presence of the Lord had to be hand pressed so that there would be no pulp in the lamp that would cause the light not to burn as brightly or as long I have a feeling that God does too the life that he really wants to handpick what they would do to those olives and he hand presses the life to get the oil to flow from the purest place that's what the grind is for to get on my pride that's what the grind is for to get out my self-reliance that's what the grind is for to get out my superiority if God would have given it to me too early I would have thought I was better but now I can say I don't even deserve to be what you're calling me but I'm in but it's not me but as in me and I want my grind when I'm in my grace here's the challenge the enemy can't stop God from giving you grace so he wants to stop you from using it [Applause] and I want to ask a question of everyone who made the choice to come to church today have you been wasting your grace Paul said God gave me so much grace and when Eugene Peterson tried to translate his version of first Corinthians 15:10 in the message Bible he had to say it like this God has been so very good to me and I don't intend to waste a drop of it I won't waste it because it costs too much waste is relative to value when you've had so much of something for so long you you lose the value of it and so you use it and you abuse it because you have lost your sense I want to remind you of the gospel I preach to you the gospel that God gave to me and I gave to you and now you're in this gospel and you're in this grace but you're wasting the church at Corinth had a lot of problems not only idolatry not only sexism not only divisions in the church not only sexual problems but they they had gift Envy it was a church full of gifted people that were walking around with other people's gift on their wish list and when you envy someone else's gift you waste your grace [Applause] when you wish that you had what they had you miss the gift that God has given you don't waste your grace because you're wishing for someone else's well if I could be like her I guess I would okay Paul said I am what I am and guess what that means I'm not what I'm not but it's okay cuz I got my own grace I got my own grace I don't need yours I got my own how many times have we wasted the grace that God has given us because we have indeed the gifts that he gave another I see people miss the season that they're in because they're waiting on the one that's to come you will waste the grace of this season if your focus is on the next one and now you're weary and now you're burdened yeah now you want to give up because you've wait not not that you don't have the grace you're wasting it wow it's right there beside to get to heaven and there's a big pile of all the grace that God gave you each day that you didn't appropriate because you were waiting until you felt worthy Paul said I know I know what I did yeah but if I stay in my shame I will waste my grace and the price that was paid for me to stand in this grace was too great for me to waste it I will not waste my grace the past is behind me the crosses before me [Music] and I will not waste the grace of this day this is the day that the Lord has made I will rejoice and be glad in it I refuse to leave any grace [Music] misappropriated so I'm done wishing that I was someone else cuz I am what I am by the grace of God I'm done wishing that I was in a season or a situation that you know what I am done wasting the grace that God has given me worrying about situations that I can't control that's it I'm done I have wasted enough time crying over stuff that was over and missing stuff that I was living in I will not waste the grace of this day [Music] the Spirit of God helped me minister this message to someone you have been wasting your grace the great grace of God graded greater than all of our sin greater than all of our sin great grace somebody shout great grace great grace when you don't value it you don't get it and you know that grind that we talked about earlier the stuff that you wish would stop in your life I didn't want to close the sermon this way but God told me to cuz um he said that it didn't matter how I wanted the closest sermon it mattered what was true that grind is what produces the grace [Music] that's where the grace comes right into that place right into that insecurity yeah right into that revolving situation stand up so I can pray for you you've been wasting your grace Paul said I didn't ever feel worthy but I was made worthy and I will not waste the grace of God waiting for a feeling to accompany the truth I won't waste mine she's just lift your hands to heaven if you want to receive a fresh empowering of the grace of God because I know you need it men I know the grind is real I know sometimes it just grinds the joy right out of you Father and your presence is the fullness of joy and your right hand pleasures forevermore it never runs out we thank you today for common grace that's given to all men your loving kindness that bends your disposition in favor of the human race that you created we thank you today for saving grace that took away the penalty of our sin the effects of our shame and set us free to know you I also thank you today for that special grace that special grace for special struggles that grace that comes in hospital rooms that grace that comes in layoffs that grace that comes in financial crisis that grace that comes in the kind of success that seems unsustainable I thank you for this grace this gift [Music] in Jesus name look at me for a moment sometimes you're waiting for God to give you something that he already gave you and you don't know you have it one time we were about to write a song and I was opening us up in prayer it seemed the pastoral thing to do and my prayer to me sounded very spiritual I prayed out loud God we're here before you today and we ask that you would give us a song I prayed that out loud I felt God speak back to me not out loud but inside I said God give us a song I felt God say you give me one because I have given you your mouth your mind your ears your spirit your vocabulary my word your experiences I have given you the grace now give me a song I believe God wants you to give them a song today I believe if you would open your mouth right now in this moment the grace of God would invade situation the grace of God would in vain shame thanks for joining us today if got his impact in your life through this ministry we would love for you to help us reach people through investing to give go to Elevation Church org slash give or download our app and select gift and don't forget subscribe to our channel so you can hear more teachings like this one [Music]

Channel: Elevation Church

Views: 687,532

Rating: 4.8636913 out of 5

Keywords: Elevation Church, Pastor, Steven Furtick, Gift, Grind, Grace, Serving God, In My grace, On My grind, Strength, Favor, How to find grace, Parenting, How to handle any situation, How to give grace, Overcome doubt, perseverance, mercy, obstacles, beat discouragement, grace for a season, wasting grace, How to find worth

Id: n1Nic2AI7Vc

Length: 44min 14sec (2654 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 02 2017