Steven Furtick - It Didn't Look Like a Gift... At First (10/30/2018)
In this message, Pastor Steven Furtick teaches that the grind—the difficult, repetitive situations we face—is actually a gift from God that produces grace, refines us, and draws out pure oil for His use. Rather than wasting grace through envy, shame, or wishing for different seasons, embrace the grind with gratitude, refuse to waste God's great grace, and declare "I am what I am by the grace of God" to live fully in His provision.
The Grind as a Gift from God
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. It's 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, the grind, and in your mind, I want you to see it as a gift. So I have a whole bag of bows. I want you to take the situation this week. But you've been asking God to take away, and he won't. And when that person comes your way, then tries your soul to the marrow of its essence. And they're just like, 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 do it really. You know, that might... But that person. that you have to 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, you know, 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'm going to take this as a gift.
You look better with that. It's a gift. It's a gift. It's a gift. Everybody shout, it's 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 by faith. It's a gift.
Finding Grace in Difficult Seasons
It doesn't have to feel good to be good. All things work together for the good of them that 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 it's going to be to go through the boring parts of your week with a bag full of bows just looking for the grace of God. Just looking for the mercy of God. Just looking for the gift of God. because if I seek I will find and if I knock the door will be open 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 Full of grace and truth.
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 bows. You take the bag. I got a gift. High five everybody in your vicinity and say, what a gift! What a gift! My weakness is a gift. My struggle is a gift.
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 to the life that he really wants to hand-pick, 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 out my pride. That's what the grind is for, to get out my self-reliance. 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 it. But it's not me, but it's in me, and I want my grind when I'm in my grace.
Don't Waste Your Grace
Here's the challenge. The enemy can't stop God from giving you grace. So, he wants to stop you from using it. 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 1 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 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 preached 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 it.
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 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. 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. Paul said, I am what I am, and guess what? That means I'm not what I'm not. But it's okay, because I've got my own grace. I've got my own grace. I don't need yours. I've got my own.
Refusing to Waste Grace Through Envy or Shame
How many times have we wasted the grace that God has given us because we have envied 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. Now you're weary, and now you're burdened. Now you want to give up. Not that you don't have the grace. You're wasting it. It's right there.
It would be sad 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 what I did, 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.
And I will not waste my grace. The past is behind me. The cross is before me. 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 misappropriated.
So I'm done wishing that I was someone else, because 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. Spirit of God, help me minister this message to someone. You have been wasting your grace. The great grace of God, greater than all of our sin, greater than all of our sin. Great grace. Somebody shout, great grace. Great grace.
But 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, because he said that it didn't matter how I wanted to close the sermon. It mattered what was true. That grind is what produces the grace. That's where the grace comes, right into that place, right into that insecurity, right into that revolving situation.