Drill
WORD PICTURE: DRILL
Scriptural Reference: 2 Corinthians 6:1
As God's fellow workers we urge you not to receive God's grace in vain.
1. Show a (woodworking or arborist) drill and read 2 Corinthians 6:1.
2. Credit Pastor John Bevere with this entire teaching, especially his experience when reading Revelations 2 -- the seven incidents of “I know your works” at the beginning of each message to each of the seven churches -- how Bevere was startled by this, but then God said, “Did you notice that I didn’t say ‘I know your hearts.” ?
3. Show drill again pointing out that you don’t have to drill into the heart of an apple tree to tell if it’s a good apple tree or not -- you just LOOK art it. Rotten fruit? Sound, firm rosy fruit? Show the drill.
4. The idea here is that each of us is like one of those seven churches -- a temple of the living God. We have received the Lord’s grace -- we are saved and set apart to bear bountiful, beautiful fruit for His kingdom. But have we received His grace in vain?
5. Tell the story of the recluse living on the mountain top to define “receiving His grace in vain” (next ).
The Recluse on the Mountaintop
There’s a believer, a recluse, who has been living on an island mountaintop for twenty years. He has Christian friends, but has maintained his friendships by telephone contact only. Other than his phone and running water, the man is wholly self-sufficient on his little farm up there. He doesn’t even have a vehicle -- he just farms everything he needs and has not once left his private mountaintop up in all those twenty years.
Then one day his phone rings and it’s the U.S. Geological Survey. They are calling to say that he is living on top of a volcano, and it’s about to blow. He tells them he doesn’t have a vehicle and they say they will try to send help, but they are thousands of miles away and his volcano is literally two hours from erupting.
The man hangs up the phone, despairing. His retreat is well up the rugged mountain terrain, and the island is 300 miles around. It would take him the better part of a day just to get off the island, if he had a car. But he doesn’t.
Just then, someone appears at his doorway. Behind him is an SUV, and the man is dangling a set of keys. The man gratefully accepts the gift and rejoices as the angel ascends toward heaven. Jubilant, the man runs for the telephone to tell the U.S. Geological Survey his incredible good news. Then he grabs the Driver’s Manual and reads it cover to cover. Beside himself, he calls his friends to tell them his situation and his awesome news. He gets so into his excitement that he forgets to get into the car. Now THAT is receiving the Lord’s grace in vain. The question before us is how does that pertain to me? Is there any way in which I have received the Lord’s grace in vain?
What I Shared
For me, the key to victory on earth is devoting my dawns to the Lord. If I’m too busy to start my day with God, I’m too busy. I need to abide in Him; I need to be grafted into the vine. For me, driving the car means starting my day with the Lord -- not as a ritual, but as a conversation. A real meeting. It was very very hard for me to establish the habit, but I managed to find a way to read the Bible in one year (using The Oswald Chambers Daily Devotional Bible, which divides the entire scriptures into short readings). This method has enabled me to painlessly read through the whole Bible every and every year. So if it’s January 31, I turn to Reading 31. And so forth. Once I got into it, I found this habit completely life-transforming -- really fruitful. After my reading, I reflect on what I’ve read and what the Lord might be trying to tell me. Then I pray for things that God impresses on my heart and conclude by writing in my journal whatever it is that I think He’s saying.
This is my way of “getting in the car” like that recluse needed to. It is one way of avoiding taking the Lord’s grace in vain. Is there any way you can relate?
All Scripture references from the New International Version of the Bible (NIV).
Copyright by Whitney McKendree Moore, May 2002