God’s Grace Will Overcome

Every time I became frustrated it was because I was trying to do something myself . . . instead of putting my faith in God and receiving His grace. - Joyce Meyer(1)

In our message this morning we’re going to look at grace to overcome life’s daily challenges. Grace is simply defined as, “The unmerited favor of God toward men.”(2) Another definition says that “grace is the free bestowal of kindness on one who has neither claim upon or bounty, nor adequate compensation to make for it.”(3)

I want you to imagine grace as being a free gift of money that pays the price for something so expensive that we can’t possibly pay for it ourselves. The debt that grace pays for, is the cost of our sin (Romans 6:23), and grace purchases eternal life. Since God’s grace overcomes the most difficult obstacle of all (which is the gates of hell), it’s not hard to imagine how grace can overcome other, less difficult matters we face.

Grace can assist us in overcoming life’s problems by helping when all else fails. When we’re at the end of our rope – from struggling and trying everything humanly possible, and exhausting our intellectual and physical resources – then grace steps in. It’s kind of like a runner’s second wind.

A runner can go for hours at a time, but he eventually becomes exhausted to the point of giving up; but all at once he finds a new surge of energy that carries him across the finish line. An important point about grace, that’s different from a runner’s second wind, is that grace doesn’t automatically kick in once we’ve hit the wall. Grace works in our life only through faith (Ephesians 2:8).

Most believers have moments in life where things appear as impossible, and they’re tempted to give up. Faith that calls down grace is demonstrated when we acknowledge before God that we can’t make it on our own, and we believe in faith that God is the only One who can. If we’ll do this, then He will overcome our present trouble by His grace.

A Task Requiring Grace

I want to ask you a question: Can you recall a time in your life where the Lord told you to do something that required great faith? If so, what was your response? Perhaps it was similar to Elisa Morgan’s, when she was asked to become president of MOPS International. Morgan writes as follows:

I’m probably the least likely person to head a mothering organization. I grew up in a broken home. My parents were divorced when I was five. My older sister, younger brother, and I were raised by my alcoholic mother . . . When I was asked to consider leading MOPS International, a vital ministry that nurtures mothers, I went straight to my knees – and then to the therapist’s office. How could God use me – who had never been mothered – to nurture other mothers?(4)

Morgan questioned her background, she doubted her ability, and she felt extremely uncomfortable with the ministry offered to her. She contemplated turning down the offer; however, the Lord spoke to her and revealed how He would empower her by His grace. Morgan then stated,

The answer came as I gazed into the eyes of other moms around me and saw their needs mirroring my own. God seemed to take my deficits and make them my offering. [He said] “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9 NIV).(5)

In our main text this morning, we’ll meet Zerubbabel, a man who had an incredible task set before him and felt like giving up. He had no previous knowledge of God’s grace. However, because the Lord wanted the job to be completed, He revealed to Zerubbabel through the prophet Zechariah the miracle cure for overcoming the seemingly impossible. The solution to defeating his enormous challenge was grace. Stand with me in honor of the reading of God’s Word as we look at Zechariah 4:1-7:

Now the angel who talked with me came back and wakened me, as a man who is wakened out of his sleep. And he said to me, “What do you see?” So I said, “I am looking, and there is a lamp stand of solid gold with a bowl on top of it, and on the stand seven lamps with seven pipes to the seven lamps. Two olive trees are by it, one at the right of the bowl and the other at its left.” So I answered and spoke to the angel who talked with me, saying, “What are these, my lord?”

Then the angel who talked with me answered and said to me, “Do you not know what these are?” And I said, “No, my lord.” So he answered and said to me: “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord of hosts. ‘Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain! And he shall bring forth the capstone with shouts of grace, grace to it’” (Zechariah 4:1-7).