Grow Strong in God’s Grace – Wk 12
Grow Strong in God’s Grace: Learning How to be a Faithful Farmer for God’s Harvest!
The Faith that Bears Fruit! (Cont.)
Hebrews 11:11-12 (NASB)
STEP #3 OF THE FARMER’S STRATEGY: CARE FOR THE MATURING PLANT
Sarah was a real woman, with real faith, in real history, and her story began with a faith that pleased God. Her transforming story is recorded in Hebrews 11:11-12:
By faith even Sarah herself received ability to conceive, even beyond the proper time of life, since she considered Him faithful who had promised. Therefore there was born even of one man, and him as good as dead at that, as many descendants as the stars of heaven in number, and innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore.
To experience the promises of God we must learn how to care for the maturing plant of our faith through the storms and tribulations of this life. Genesis 21:1-8 tells us how long Abraham and Sarah had to wait to experience God’s promise in their lives:
Then the Lord took note of Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as He had promised. So Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the appointed time of which God had spoken to him. Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore to him, Isaac. Then Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. Now Abraham was one hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. Sarah said, “God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me.” And she said, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.” The child grew and was weaned, and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned.
If you read more about Abraham and Sarah’s transforming story of faith in Genesis, you will see that they went through many trials and tribulations. While they blessed the nations through their faith, they had to live by faith to bear the good fruit of the promises of God to them. We are now going to turn to the New Testament, learning from the biblical pattern of Paul’s life so that we can learn how to live strong in God’s grace as an heir of the promise of Abraham. Let us learn from the fruit of Sarah’s womb how we are to live as those who have inherited the promise of Abraham through faith in Jesus Christ. As Paul said in Galatians 4:28, to those who believe in Jesus Christ, “And you brethren, like Isaac, are children of promise.” This is how Paul saw himself and this is how we should see ourselves.
There are four practical steps we can learn from Paul about how to live as children of promise. First, Paul started by claiming the promises of God in Philippians 1:6, “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.” As we have previously learned in my Live like a Champion Today sermon series, the Bible is filled with the promises of God that will lead you to living the victorious life of Jesus Christ. For example, you may think, “If I am not successful in this situation, then my life will fall apart.” The natural result of such catastrophic, slippery-slope thinking is anxiety and doubt. Replace that faulty logic with the promise of God, “Even if I am not successful in every situation, God, who began a good work in me, will bring me through this tribulation and bring me to completion.” This promise will decrease the anxiety-inducing, self-focused thinking, and keep your mind focused on the power of God to fulfill the promises of God, in and through you!
Second, Paul taught us to pray the promises of God in Philippians 1:9-11:
And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ; having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
The Bible is filled with prayers that are effective and in accordance with God’s will: pray these prayers! The Psalms were Jesus’ prayer book; the Bible has example after example of prayers God has already declared as prayers He will answer. Memorize them, cultivate them into your heart and mind, plant them as seeds of grace, so that in your 9-1-1 moments your communion with God will be unbreakable by neither of the normal fleshly responses caused by your autonomic nervous system: adrenaline rush (fight) or detached retreat (flight). To illustrate this form my life experience, Psalm 23 is my personal go-to prayer. I have memorized it and I walk through my days with it for three reasons:
- It relaxes me – rest for my soul in His green pastures and beside quiet waters
- It reminds me of who God is – the Good Shepherd of my soul, in whom I shall not want
- It focuses me on God’s promises for my life and eternity – He walks with me all the days of my life and I will dwell with Him always
Paul then gives us the right perspective on our circumstances in Philippians 1:12-14:
Now I want you to know, brethren, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel, so that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known throughout the whole praetorian guard and to everyone else, and that most of the brethren, trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment, have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear.
Our circumstances overwhelm us so often that we lose perspective on what is true and real in life from God’s reality. Yes, it is true that our perception shapes how we view what is real to us, but it is not true that my perception is true reality. Paul claimed God’s promises, he then prayed them, and then he gained an accurate assessment of reality. God gave Paul his perspective: what has happened to me, though difficult, has served a greater purpose. In life, we are going to suffer, but will our suffering have meaning, purpose, and hope attached to it. It is a right perspective of life that shapes our contentment and ability to rejoice in all circumstances. It is how we walk through these circumstances that often shapes our witness to those around us and proclaims the transforming power of faith to all who are watching us. This is the good fruit of God’s grace through the gospel of Jesus Christ – live strong in God’s grace today!
That brings us to the last thing we are going to learn from Paul in how to care for the maturing plant so that it grows strong enough to bear good fruit. Paul teaches us to seize the moment and execute God’s plan for our lives in Philippians 1:21-24:
For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. But if I am to live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which to choose. But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better; yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake.
Paul’s life was built on the promises of God, he prayed effective prayers from the Word of God, and he kept a right perspective on his circumstance, so that he could seize the moment for the plan of God in his daily life. God used Paul’s life as a descendent of Sarah’s womb, an heir of Abraham’s promise – Paul was a blessing to the nations as the Apostle to the Gentiles! We are to do the same in our lives as children of the promise – we are called to bless the nations as ambassadors of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17-20). Just as Sarah’s faith bore good fruit, so should our lives reap a harvest of praise. That brings us to the last action step.
STEP #4 OF THE FARMER’S STRATEGY: REAP A HARVEST OF PRAISE
Living strong in God’s grace leads to a harvest of praise because it is the empowered life of the Holy Spirit! In a life that reaps a harvest of praise, all four of the elements we learned from Paul’s life are important: a promise to claim; a prayer to pray; the right perspective on circumstances; and a plan to execute. Without one of these you may find yourself overridden with an anxious or fearful heart, aimless in your life, and buried in your circumstances. If you were to examine the life of Abraham and Sarah, you will see the damaging effects of not trusting God for the promises of God (Genesis 16). Whereas the flesh produced Ishmael, the Spirit of God birthed the good fruit of Isaac (Galatians 4:21-31). Paul emphasized this part of the Abraham-Sarah story in Galatians 4:31-5:1, to illustrate why we, as followers of Jesus Christ, are to walk by the Spirit, “So then, brethren, we are not children of a bondwoman [Hagar who gave birth to Ishmael], but of the free woman [Sarah who gave birth to Isaac]. It was for freedom [from sin] that Christ set us free [to live for God through faith]; therefore keep standing firm [by faith through the Spirit] and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery [the flesh].”
It is my desire to help you choose the better way, the way of living by the power of the Holy Spirit, who promises to reap a harvest of praise in and through your life, learning to trust God’s promises and obeying Him in all that you do. This is the life of faith – live strong in God’s grace! Jesus taught about the empowered life of the Holy Spirit in John 14:15-21:
If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also. In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.”
To keep Jesus’ commandments is to obey the God you worship. True worship is not empty praise from unbelieving lips; it is a life whose actions and attitudes flow out of what you believe about God. This is what Jesus intended when He said in John 4:23-24, “But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” Are you worshipping in spirit and truth?
What do you believe about God? Faith is reckoned to you as righteousness! What does your life say you believe about God? Faith in God leads to a life that proclaims the very character of God through the fruit bearing of the Holy Spirit, as promised in Galatians 5:22-23, “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” This is the harvest of praise that will spread the seed of Abraham, the fruit of Sarah’s barren womb, to all the nations because you obeyed God’s voice in your life. This is the miracle of God’s grace as it grows in you – from Sarah’ barren womb came the child of promise, Isaac, just as from the seed of faith, God grows the fruit of the good news of Jesus Christ – God’s righteousness for all the nations. Be fruitful for the kingdom of God!
Abraham and Sarah’s transforming story of faith strengthens our faith, gives us hope, and gives us the courage to tell a better story with our stories. To make visible that which is invisible – the kingdom of God on Earth as it is in Heaven! May we reap a harvest of praise as our stories are transformed through the gospel of Jesus Christ!