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).
The historical context of this passage was the time when the Jews were returning from the Babylonian exile. As soon as they arrived home in Jerusalem they realized that God was leading them to rebuild the temple that lay in ruins.
At first, enthusiasm was high for the task and the people quickly laid the foundation with great zeal, but gradually the rebuilding of the temple slowed to a standstill. The local residents, who were the Samaritans, opposed the building project and made it their goal to discourage the people from participating.
Many laborers quit working on God’s house altogether so they could fix their own homes. As the years went by the unfinished temple became a testimony of the Jew’s preoccupation with their own lives and a lack of zeal for the Lord’s work.
Zerubbabel was the governor of a small colony of Jews who had returned from the exile at a much later time. Zerubbabel felt convicted to resume the rebuilding of the temple, but was overwhelmed with the task. He probably looked at the situation before him and saw the limited resources and all the obstacles and felt like giving up.(6)
His name didn’t provide any confidence either. Zerubbabel meant “born in Babylon,”(7) and Babylon represented bondage. In Hebrew, the meaning of a name determined one’s course in life, so his name spelled defeat from the very beginning. Zerubbabel could have easily felt destined to be defeated in whatever task he set his hand to accomplish.
Have you ever been asked by the Lord to do something huge – like Zerubbabel was asked to rebuild the temple – only to feel overwhelmed by the task from the beginning, and then you gave up? Many believers have denied God because they felt incompetent for the task. Many Christians – like the returning exiles – become discouraged, lose their vision, and tend to their own interests and forget about the Lord.
The reason this happens is because a person will look at a situation through worldly eyes instead of spiritual eyes. Someone might say, “This isn’t humanly possible,” and the person is often correct in the observation. However, rather than stating the obvious and leaving it at that, the Lord wants His people to trust and rely on Him for the strength to thrive in the midst of difficult assignments or life situations.
God wants us to dream big, because He’s big enough to see us through. If we lack confidence because we’re unsure of who we are in the Lord, then we’ll only sow small things and reap small rewards. We have to have faith that God is able to do what we can’t; and when we step out in faith, then an awesome power called grace will see us through.
We might be “born in the world,” like Zerubbabel, but praise God we don’t have to remain there, and give glory to God that where we are now doesn’t have to be our destiny!
Tending the Flame by Works
Zechariah had a vision in which he saw a lampstand, or a Jewish menorah. It was crafted with a single base, having seven arms extending from it. The seven arms were attached to two bowls which sat atop the lampstand, and oil was poured into the bowls which trickled down through the arms in order to fuel the flames (Zechariah 4:2).
It takes olive oil to fuel the flames, and the priests would have to continually go in and out of the temple refilling and maintaining the lampstand so the flames would remain burning. The light represented God’s presence, and it wasn’t allowed to die out.
This activity of going in and out by the priests represented human effort, and shows that anything done through man’s effort is bound to die out like an untended flame. I want you to consider the following illustration that contrasts the difference between human effort and grace:
The believer who seeks to live the Christian life through self-effort is like the man who, in attempting to sail across the Atlantic Ocean, found his boat becalmed for days.
Finally, frustrated by his lack of progress, he tried to make his stalled boat move by pushing against the mast. Through strenuous efforts, he succeeded in making the boat rock and so created a few small waves on the otherwise smooth sea. Seeing the waves and feeling the rocking of the boat, he assumed that he was making progress and so continued his efforts. Of course, although he exerted himself a great deal, he actually got nowhere.
So it is in the Christian life. The source of the Christian’s strength lies in God’s grace, not in exertions of will-power, or in efforts of discipline, or any other self-effort.(8)
Our own efforts can’t avail in overcoming life’s problems or challenges. If we continue exerting ourselves and imposing on God’s glory, then we’ll only succeed in wearing ourselves out spiritually. We’re supposed to be the light of the world (Matthew 5:14); however, self-effort will dim our light and possibly douse our flame.
Tending the Flame by Grace
We also read that there were two olive trees on either side of the bowls (Zechariah 4:3). You wouldn’t normally find olive trees attached to a lampstand; therefore, the olive trees represent something we shouldn’t miss. The trees were tied directly in to the lamp, and because the oil was being pumped directly in, there was a continuous supply. This means that the priests no longer had to tend the flame.
This vision represented the ushering in of God’s grace. It revealed a time in which believers would no longer have to work for salvation and be unable to attain it, and a time in which believers would no longer have to work at a task and fail through their own inability.
The allegory Pilgrim’s Progress suggests that through grace even the devil can’t hinder the Lord’s work accomplished through His people (cf. Mark 16:17-18). John Bunyan wrote as follows:
I saw in my dream that the Interpreter took Christian by the hand and led him to where there was a fire burning against a wall. Someone was standing by it, throwing water on it to extinguish it. But the fire burned higher and hotter. Christian said, “What does this mean?” The Interpreter answered, “This fire is the work of grace in the heart. He that pours water on it to extinguish it is the devil. Because you see the fire burning higher and hotter, you also see the reason.”
He turned Christian to the backside of the wall. There he saw a man, with a container of oil in his hand, continually (but secretly) throwing it on the fire. Christian asked, “What does this mean?” The Interpreter answered, “This is Christ, who continually with the oil of His grace maintains the work already begun in the heart.”(9)
Once we’re tapped in to the life-giving flow of grace, which comes by way of a relationship with Jesus Christ, the Lord will continually pump His grace into our life. Neither the devil, nor any other person or thing will be able to steal His grace and douse our flame.
We read how this vision of the lampstand was the word delivered to Zerubbabel (Zechariah 4:6). It was the word delivered to a man who had an impossible task set before him; and it’s a word to Christians today who feel overwhelmed by any life-situation.
The word is this: We don’t have to fail if we’ll lean on God, attempt the impossible, and trust Him for the outcome. We can look at any mountain set before us and declare, “Who are you, O great mountain!” (Zechariah 4:7). “Through God’s help you will be leveled out as a plain before me!”
We read that by God’s grace the temple would be completed and the final capstone would be placed on top (Zechariah 4:7), showing that nothing is impossible with God’s grace!
Time of Reflection
I want to ask you this morning: What is the obstacle that’s stopping you from obtaining spiritual victory? What mountain is between you and God’s promise? If we’ll rely on the Lord instead of our own effort, then we’ll not only have the confidence to tackle life’s problems or any task that God demands of us, but we’ll press onward to victory in Christ Jesus. If we trust in God’s grace, all of the ups and downs in life can be leveled out as a plain, and we’ll be able to run the race that is set before us.
Maybe the mountain you face is sin and the consequences of sin, which is spiritual death (Romans 6:23). You can overcome the enormous obstacle of death through Jesus Christ, God’s one and only Son. Grace was delivered by Christ’s death on the cross, for He was the embodiment of grace. Jesus was God’s gift to pay the price for your sin, and to purchase your eternal life in His kingdom.
There’s nothing you can do that will earn eternal life (cf. Ephesians 2:8-9); but if you’ll accept God’s free gift to you, His grace through Jesus Christ, heaven awaits you when you reach the other side.
NOTES
(1) Joyce Meyer, How to Succeed at Being Yourself (Tulsa, OK: Harrison House, 1999), p. 131.
(2) W. Evans, The Great Doctrines of the Bible (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1974), p. 295.
(3) R. B. Girdlestone, Synonyms of the Old Testament, on Logos CD-ROM (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1998), p. 107.
(4) Elisa Morgan, Christian Parenting Today (May/June 1999), p. 64.
(5) Ibid.
(6) Mark Adams, “God Makes Big Things Small and Small Things Big,” a sermon preached at Redland Baptist Church in Rockville, Maryland on February 7, 1999.
(7) Steve Sawyer, “The Grace of God,” a sermon preached at Harvest Cathedral in Macon, Georgia on February 25, 2001.
(8) Michael P. Green, Illustrations for Biblical Preaching (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1997), p. 175.
(9) John Bunyan, Pilgrim’s Progress (Nashville, TN: Nelson, 1999), p. 29.
