Dear Elim Grace,
One month ago on September 14, I personally celebrated 9 years as Senior pastor of Elim Grace. It was the Monday after our first Encounter Weekend, which was also the opening of our new sanctuary. So for me the entirety of that weekend was “weighty” and significant and memorable. I sat there in those services and felt a sense of purpose. This was meant to be. I guess I should say, this IS meant to be. As I consider and pray over our future as a church, a couple of thoughts come to mind.
1. We must not receive the grace of God in vain. I preached on this a few weeks back, but the core insight is that we must give grace an effective welcome. Yes, we are saved by grace alone. Yet grace comes with and for a purpose. Paul is speaking to believers who have been saved by grace when he exhorts them to “not receive the grace of God in vain”. We must respond to and receive the grace of God to seize every opportunity God gives to us. If we are to fulfill God’s purpose for us in our generation, we must allow the grace of God to have its full transformative end or purpose in our life.
2. We cannot come down from what God has called us to build. I also preached on this a few weeks back from the story of Nehemiah. We are doing a good work! And we have successfully completed an important part of the work God has tasked us with. But the race continues. The job continues. We cannot come down! The thing to remember is that there will be tests and trials and temptations that will call to us, “Come down.” Yet we must remain fixed and focused, Elim Grace. “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it.” (Mark 8:35)
3. We must remain in the joy of the Holy Spirit. It is a joy inexpressible and full of glory. After Acts 2 we never get the sense that the disciples missed Jesus. Why? Because the Holy Spirit, the promised Helper, the Spirit of Christ, had come in the fullness of His power. We need the Person and the Presence and the Power of the Holy Spirit for all that we are and all that we do, Elim Grace. In Him the tangible reality of the Kingdom of God is manifest in joy (and righteousness and peace). A joy that cannot be destroyed. A joy that is not dependent on outside circumstances going right. Rather, a joy rooted in the life and the victory of Jesus Christ over sin and death. A joy rising up from the grace of God that has come down in salvation.
4. We must remember the nature of faith. On the hand one hand, we are justified by faith in Christ apart from our works. On the other hand, we are called to have a faith like a grain of mustard seed that does not doubt. But to “not doubt” feels impossible! So does Jesus call us to have faith for the impossible by giving us an impossible task (“does not doubt”)? No, the nature of faith doesn’t change after we’ve been saved or justified by faith. Paul says Abraham didn’t weaken in his faith and no unbelief made waver concerning the promises of God. Yet, if you read his story, you’d beg to differ! I think Paul’s point is that since Abraham was justified by faith alone, the account in his own name was closed. Meaning, all his faith was now transferred to a new account – the account belonging to Jesus Christ. So, for the remainder of Abraham’s life, he lived by faith. Even when he sinned; even when he leaned into his own understanding; even when his strength failed to bring about God’s purposes; even when his eyes couldn’t see how God could possibly fulfill His promise; he did not waver. Rather, “he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God.” (Romans 4:20 emphasis mine) After it all, and at the end of himself, he would “not doubt” but trust in God. He would time after time and day after day transfer his faith over to God.
5. We must see with eyes of faith. When I walk into our new sanctuary, I see every chair filled. I see every person with hands and faces lifted to heaven. I see every voice raised in prayer and in praise to God. I see specific faces, too! And it brings me to tears. Now, I have not seen with my physical eyes 350 chairs filled for a prayer meeting, but I believe I will, because by faith I see it. I have not seen with my eyes 350 people singing and praying out loud in unison, but I believe I will, because by faith I see it. And when I say “by faith” I mean as if it were. There’s not a wishfulness to it, but a concreteness to it. A substance of things hoped for. We cannot live by sight alone, Elim Grace, but by faith. If we cease to see by faith, it can only mean we are refusing to live in the presence of God – in obedient and loving relationship with God. For faith cannot survive outside of the presence of God. But in the presence of God there is life and life abundant. We live in, through and for the One who is able to do (Ephesians 3:20; Jude 24-25).
