The following video can also be found on The Village Church YouTube Channel:

The following video can also be found on The Village Church YouTube Channel:

Many of you have requested to see the message that I gave at the 2010 SBC Pastor’s Conference. We have been given permission to post this video on our website.

The Village can sometimes look like a trauma center. Since 2002, we have asked God to send us broken, hurting people to proclaim the gospel to, and He has. It’s messy and at times exhausting, but watching God work in the severely wounded is a beautiful thing.

A key piece to anyone recovering from a broken and sinful world is an understanding of what the problem is. Everyone knows there is something wrong with the world, but what you think the problem is will determine how you try and solve it. Unfortunately, most people spend all their efforts on symptoms rather than the disease that’s causing those symptoms.

“Grace-Driven Effort” goes after the heart. I am always amazed at how so many people have separated their actions from their hearts. There is a reason you have a crummy marriage, lack patience, are always angry and addicted to ________________.

There is a reason you have to tear down other women constantly and why you feel led to point out their flaws and failures. The reason is you have a wicked, idolatrous heart. If you simply try to handle the symptoms without addressing your heart as the source of those symptoms you’ll never see sin mortified in you. “Grace-Driven Effort” uses the weapons of grace on our hearts not just to manage a behavior.

The following video can also be found on The Village Church YouTube Channel:

Let’s continue diving into the idea of “Grace-Driven Effort.” We have already stated that people don’t stumble into godliness. Paul uses great phrases to describe our growth into holiness and reflecting the Glory of God and His reign and rule over our lives. Paul talks about “training ourselves in righteousness” (1 Tim. 4:7), “laboring in prayer,” “running to win,” “counting it all a loss” (Philippians 3) and “beating his body” (1 Corinthian 9:26-27).

Paul’s language doesn’t paint the picture of sitting on the couch and falling into godliness. The problem as I perceive it as a pastor is that most who claim to know and love God want to see sin lose its power in their lives and walk in greater intimacy with Christ, yet they are exhausted and have been trying to mortify sin by promises and threats, rather than through the weapons grace provides.

By promises I mean they believe that they will have life to the “full” and get a great house in heaven if they behave in this manner or that manner. In Dallas, this plays itself out with church attendance and comparing ourselves to others. If I go to church frequently and am better than I was a couple years ago or if I’m better than other people who attend my church then I must be good. We love to compare our strengths to others’ weaknesses and grow confident in our goodness.

By threats I mean that many try to behave and modify their behavior because they fear hell and God’s wrath and so that they can earn their way out of hell. The problem with this is that heaven isn’t a place for those who fear hell; it’s a place for those who love God.

Another very popular sport in the Bible Belt is fighting residual sin with our own vows and resolutions; these become our defense. In the end, as we have already discussed you are simply pitting sin against sin and in that scenario, you lose. We fight sin and grow in godliness by using the weapons grace provides. There are at least three:

• The Word of God- 2 Timothy 3:16-17- “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.” The Holy Spirit illumines the Scriptures as the “storehouse of weaponry” in the battle against sin and for godliness. All that we need to stand and fight are found within its pages. The reason I think so many people stumble about when it comes to residual sin and maturing in Christ is they have no idea what the Scriptures say when it comes to those subjects. The Scriptures are where we find and are trained to do battle in such a way that victory is found.
• The Blood of Christ- Ephesians 2:13- “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” One of the reasons Paul constantly preaches the gospel to people who already know and believe is because it is human tendency to run back to the law instead of trusting in the blood of Christ to cleanse them from all unrighteousness. You see this especially in Galatians 2:20-3:5. When we stumble and fall we run to God, not from Him. This is made possible by having God’s wrath removed from us and absorbed by Christ and Christ’s righteousness imputed to us. A mark of Christian maturity and genuine gospel understanding is not running away from God to clean yourself up and then come back, but a broken and contrite spirit that runs to Him, asking Him for forgiveness and strength.
• The promises of the covenant- Hebrews 9:15- “Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.” I remember singing a song in VBS as a kid about God hating liars; I knew I was in trouble. If the 10 Commandments were a quiz or test, I would have easily failed. I’ve been guilty of every one of them. The law was given to show me I can’t be perfect, that I’m going to fall short, that I am in desperate need of a Savior (Romans 1-7). When we stumble and fall, the Spirit reminds us of the Scriptures that promise that there has been a death for those failures and that there is a new covenant resting on Christ now and not on my ability to obey the law. This allows me to pursue Christ without fear and by “beholding his glory I am transformed.”

We’ll try and finish up this series this week with a blog about going after heart instead of action.

Grace-driven effort comes from a new heart. Without this new heart and this work of regeneration by the Holy Spirit, there can be no grace-driven effort. (Ephesians 2:1-10). There can only be effort driven by the applause and praise of men or from pride or self –righteousness. Without the transfer out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light (Colossians 1:13), we will simply pit sin against sin.

It is not uncommon to watch men and women battling their fears and anxieties with control or manipulation; their lust with self-righteousness. No matter which issue wins out…sin still reigns in the ring. It is imperative that we understand what the gospel is and why it is the good news it is. We have been saved by grace ALONE through faith ALONE so that no one can boast!

We will continue trying to define “grace-driven effort” over the next week. I think there are at least five more pieces.

Three different streams flowed into one another for me last week as I was preparing to preach out of Colossians 3. The first stream was Jared Wilson’s blog. I am a fan of Christ in Jared and have found him to be a tremendous thinker. On Friday, May 28, Jared quoted D.A. Carson from “For the Love of God” (Vol. 2):

“People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, and obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated.”

So Carson became the second stream. The quote resonated deeply with my mind and soul. It’s very true. I wanted to see how Carson defined and unpacked “grace-driven effort” and was frustrated to see that he doesn’t do a lot of explaining, which led to the third stream.

In reading, I was reminded of an article written by Ralph Erskine (1685-1752) on “The Difference between Gospel Mortification and Legal Mortification.” After reading, praying and studying, I have tried to define “grace-driven effort” and will be rolling out what I believe it is in a series of blogs this week and next. Stay tuned.

The following video can also be found on The Village Church YouTube Channel:

The following video can also be found on The Village Church YouTube Channel: