Finding Purpose Through Grace
Most of you know that Bud and I moved here from Louisiana. BUT before California was in the plans, we dreamed of buying a big piece of property that we could grow fruit trees and vegetable gardens, maybe raise a few chickens and a goat (that one is all Bud). We loved the idea of something with wide open space where we can breathe and dream and grow.
I thought about that dream when we were once again allowed here in California, to at least walk on our beaches. The first time Bud and I went, I got that feeling again of how amazing it is to stand in a wide-open space. We felt like we could breathe again. The possibilities seem so endless.
And it made me think about God’s grace. That may seem like a stretch but just stay with me.
In the New Testament, the apostle Paul wrote to the church in the city of Ephesus these amazing words, trying to describe what God’s grace was like.
Ephesians 1:7
7 Since we are now joined to Christ, we have been given the treasures of redemption by his blood—the total cancellation of our sins—all because of the riches of his grace.
Now I know that’s a lot because that word grace is difficult at times to understand and to explain. But the best way to explain grace is that it is God’s unmerited favor. What exactly does that mean? Before I believed that Jesus was who He said He was and believed in what He did for me on the cross, I wanted to be a good person and tried my best to do just that. But when I realized that something was missing and that it was God in my life, I surrendered to Him.
I remember that night vividly. Bud had invited me to a church that he had gone to growing up. He was 17 and I was 16 and at the time, I was so lost in every way possible. I was getting ready to graduate in a year and no one could really find any meaningful gifts or talents in my life. My guidance counselor basically told me not to aim too high because I really didn’t have much to offer. Nothing really stood out in my abilities that could be used to point me in a direction to pursue. So my aspirations for my life were very limited. I had no desire to continue on to a traditional college because I figured, “why bother?”
And besides that, my life and my heart had been broken by terrible choices I had made and in my darkest moment, I considered ending it all.
And then I met Bud and for some strange reason, he invited me to go to church even though he hadn’t been there in years. And that night I heard about true grace, the love of God and about Jesus who could take away the pain, cover the shame and give me a new life. I’m pretty sure I ran down to that altar. I had to see if what the preacher was saying could be true. And it was. What I realized not long after that experience was that nothing would ever be the same again. But as the years went on, it felt too easy to just say a prayer, believe and have God forgive and as Paul said in that verse, cancel all of my sins.
At that moment of salvation I knew full well that I had nothing to offer. But I tried. I went back to my old ways of living in my own strength. I tried to be good, obedient and faithful and all of that was great but what I didn’t understand was that working for something that already belonged to me was like receiving a gift and trying to pay the one who gifted it. I felt like I had to do something to earn this or pay this back but what it did was pulled my away from Jesus instead of closer to Him.
You see God has extended grace to each of us that will believe. That unmerited favor, that favor that wasn’t given because of anything we have done or haven’t done, could not be paid back. It was a free gift. And as I studied and learned and grew in that grace, I realized that there was so much more to that relationship then just gaining access back to God. He actually had a plan for me. He had a purpose for me; gifts and talents that I couldn’t possible see in myself. My guidance counselor was wrong. People who looked at me and said there was nothing there of much worth was wrong. God had a life of adventure and purpose that I could only dream of.
Living in God’s grace is living a life of freedom, wide-open, expansive freedom. So many of the people in my life that say that they know they need God in their lives but are not willing to give up that control or the things they think God would have them give up. They have no idea actually how small they are making their lives. They believe that because they are in control that they had true freedom.
They believe the lies about themselves that they can only be this or that in their lives because they barely made it out of high school or they can never succeed above a certain level because of their background or history or family. My salvation in Jesus freed me from my past mistakes and gave me a hope and a future that I couldn’t possibly dream for myself.
I’ve said it here before that if in that moment of salvation back so many years ago, God would have told me that I would preach or teach in far away places, I would’ve told Him he was crazy! But the truth is, those gifts were locked inside of me and I was using them even before I gave my life to God.
I was that friend in high school that everyone came to for advice. I had no idea why because I always felt so lost. But I knew that if could make my hurting friends see themselves the way I did, they would know their worth. Crazy, right, how God used those gifts before I realized they were from Him. As much as it was great to give them those powerful words, it wasn’t until I could tell them that their worth could be found in God, did the picture become clear. Preaching and teaching and loving people and given them hope in Jesus was a progression from what I was already doing.
Ephesians 4:7 Paul tells the church
7 And God has generously given each one of us supernatural grace, according to the size of the gift of Christ.
The size of the gift of grace that Jesus gave us is unfathomable. The depths of it is immeasurable. Which means that the purposes of my life are as well. Even after understanding this about His grace, years later I’m still in awe of what He has for my life.
Have you ever taken one of those extensive personality tests? People who have taken those say that it gave them some insight into how unique they were and explained a lot about how they thought. Walking in a life with Jesus at the center can do that and more. As you trust Him, you can start to see how He can use your God-given unique ways to find those purposes in your life.
When we try to find our purpose in our own power, we think that because we are in control, our life is open to more possibilities because we are in charge. But when we live within the parameters of God’s grace, then life will begin to get to the depth of our possibilities.
So I wanted to share this really interesting story found in the Old Testament book of Judges, chapter 6, we about a young man named Gideon.
To give you some background, this story takes place after Moses brings the Israelites out of Egypt and was during a time when God wanted to appoint judges to help the nation He was creating.
But the nation of Israel had walked away from God and their many enemies were tearing them apart every chance they got. This had gone on for 7 years.
Every time the Israelites would grow grain and crops and start to prosper, those enemies would descend upon them like locusts and devour everything so the people were on the verge of starvation.
If you have school age kids or even just toddlers you know what this looks like. Just say the word SNACK and it looks like a jailbreak!
And they did what we all do when we are facing hardships; they cried out to God for help. One day as a young man named Gideon was hiding and preparing wheat to harvest, an angel appeared to him.
Listen to this conversation and see if you can find yourself in Gideon’s words.
Judges 6:12-16
12 When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.”
13 “Excuse me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us?
Gideon completely ignored the fact that the angel called him a mighty warrior. Mighty warrior? Who are you talking about, looking around?
“Mighty warrior” in Hebrew also translated as “mighty man of valor”. The terminology is the same used to describe King David’s valiant warriors who had executed courageous exploits on behalf of the David. This label made sense for David’s warriors. They were elite fighters, handpicked to perform special tasks. They were Israel’s Navy seals. They were champions.
Gideon didn’t have the look of a “mighty man of valor.” Hiding from his enemies, Gideon felt and looked like anything other than a warrior.
But God’s view was not bound by Gideon’s reality or actions.
Gideon may have been under the shadow of the nation of Midian, but God was not. He could see beyond the exterior, calling out of Gideon something that the timid young man didn’t even realize was in him. Gideon wasn’t a scared farmer. That’s just how he was behaving, but that’s not who he was.
God’s perspective of us is often so unbelievable, so foreign to our own belief system that it will take time and trust to see in ourselves what God sees in us.
We see ourselves based on the present. God sees us based on our potential.
The angel had already told Gideon Who was with him, but now he wanted to reveal what was in him.
The angel knew that Gideon wouldn’t respond well to the call until his perception of his potential was reformatted.
BACK TO VERSE 13
Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.”
The Lord is with me? How can you say that when we can’t see God in our lives at all? How can He be with us? Why has all of this happened to us?
Ever been there? Maybe a better question is, how many times have you been there in the last few months, right? Here is this messenger from God, which in itself is amazing, calling Gideon a mighty warrior and announcing that God is with him.
14 The Lord turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?”
Go in the strength you have. Use what you have, what I’ve already given you, God says. We see God saying this to so many of the men and women of the Bible. He asked Moses “what do you have in your hands?” God can take the little you have and make it much.
15 “Excuse me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least important in my family.”
16 The Lord answered, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive.”
Gideon was limiting himself. All he saw was his situation, his status and his lack of abilities. God had created 12 tribes within the nation of Israel. Mannaseh was considered a half tribe because of a fight over land; too long of a story to go into here today. Within the tribe of Mannaseh were different families and Gideon’s family was apparently not great and within his not so great family, he was the youngest which meant he had very little rights.
But God saw a warrior. Why? Because God knew what He had given to Gideon.
God sees us through the lens of our potential.
Without God, left to my own reality, I am all of those things I think of myself—fearful, incompetent, and insignificant. But with Him, my purposes and possibilities completely change.
His perspective might sound unbelievable and even look completely incorrect based on the way we are acting and feeling. But trusting God and walking in His who He says we are, will open up that expansive life we dream of.
A believer without a clear sense of his or her true spiritual identity is like a police officer with no badge, like a driver with no license. They may have the right equipment, but they don’t have the authority to use it like the 5 year old boy who got in his mom’s car and headed out to the highway on his way to California with his life savings of $3 to buy a sports car! He had the right equipment but no authority to use it.
Gideon was more than the sum of his cowardly parts. He was more than his circumstances. And so are you, my friend.
Even if you are hiding in self-doubt, seeing no way to accomplish the kind of life you dream of, even if all you see is what you don’t have instead of what you do.
God has a plan and purpose for you that will blow you away. Next week we’re going to unpack the rest of Gideon’s story and give you some great truths to help you navigate a wide-open life of purpose!
