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CONSECRATION
Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Jesus, I belong to you.
I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice.
Jesus, we belong to you.
Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.
THE WORD OF THE LORD
Ephesians 3:1–6 ESV
For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles—assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for you, how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly. When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
CONSIDER THIS . . .
What a phrase: The stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for you.
If I’m honest, and you know I try to be, I typically think of the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me, for me. Isn’t that the point of amazing grace? “I once was lost, but now am found; was blind, but now I see.”1 This, of course, is true as it comes to the first half of the gospel.
But this phrase, the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for you, is all about the second half of the gospel. While I’m on the topic, let me flesh out this first half/second half distinction a bit more.
First half: justification. Second half: sanctification.
First half: John 3:16. Second half: 1 John 3:16.
First half: the new birth. Second half: fully mature.
First half: Lord, you took me out of Egypt. Second half: Now take Egypt out of me.
First half: baptism by water. Second half: baptism by fire.
First half: I am loved by God. Second half: I am becoming the love of God.
First half: God gives us grace for the sake of ourselves. Second half: God gives us grace for the sake of others.
You see the point, don’t you? It’s those brothers and sisters who press on into the second half of the gospel who steward the grace of God for the sake of those who haven’t yet entered into the first half. This is precisely Paul’s point with respect to the Gentiles.
All of this brings me to the overarching and underlying reason for the stewardship we are attempting to exercise with Seedbed and the New Room. The world will awaken to the first half of the gospel when our churches awaken to the second half of the gospel. The so-called unbelievers will believe when the so-called believers wake up.
Have you considered what might be the stewardship of God’s grace given to you for others? If amazing grace is God’s grace to me for my own sake, then the grace given to me for the sake of others must be astonishing grace.
PRAYER
Abba Father, we thank you for your Son, Jesus, who reveals to us the fullness of grace as both a gift to receive and a gift to give. Would you teach us this way of stewarding the grace given to us for the sake of others? We pray in Jesus’s name, amen.
JOURNAL PROMPTS
How are you grasping the grace of God for the sake of your own repentance and transformation?
How are you stewarding the grace of God given to you for the sake of others?
How do you reflect on this journey into the second half of the gospel? How does it challenge you?
SING
Today, we will sing “Open the Eyes of My Heart,” which is not found in our Seedbed hymnal, Our Great Redeemer’s Praise.I will print the words below:
Open the eyes of my heart
I want to see you
I want to see you
Open the eyes of my heart
I want to see you
I want to see you
Shinin’ in the light of Your glory
Pour out your power and love
As we sing holy, holy, holy
P.S. Would you pray about sponsoring a day of the Wake-Up Call?
For a couple of weeks every spring, we open up the opportunity to our sowers to help underwrite/sponsor a day (or more) on the Wake-Up Call. As you know, we give the Wake-Up Call away. As you might imagine, it is a costly gift. The underwriting/sponsorship opportunity is another way we share in this work as a community of sowers. So here’s my ask—just prayerfully consider the invitation. No pressure whatsoever. All the sowing fun is here.
For the Awakening,
J. D. Walt
John David (J. D.) Walt Jr. is the Sower-in-Chief for Seedbed and the pastor of the Gillett Methodist Church in Gillett, Arkansas.
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NOTES
- John Newton, “Amazing Grace,” 1779. Public domain.
5 Responses
“The stewardship of God’s grace given to you for others” is disciple making!
To make disciples is to show people how to open up and fully surrender their heart and life to the inner promptings and leadings of God the Holy Spirit. (Romans 8:1`4) It’s to train them to follow the still, small voice (1 Kings 19:12-13) of the Spirit (Zechariah 4:6) instead of their own thoughts, opinions, feelings, and desires.
Disciple making is much more than theological lecture and religious conjecture. It is actively demonstrating (1 Corinthians 2:4) the presence, power, and reality of the risen Jesus. It is steering people away from the seduction and routine of passive religions traditions (Mark 7:13) so that they can learn to be animated and directed by the presence of Christ living in and through them moment-by-moment. (2 Corinthians 13:5)
Making disciples is leading people beyond mere Bible analysis into the glorious ongoing experience of “Christ in you,” (Colossians 1:27) It’s helping people to overflow with the fruit (Galatians 5:22-23) and the gifts of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:1-11) everywhere they go.
To make disciples is to train people to deny themselves, take up their cross daily, and to follow and obey the risen Jesus. (Luke 9:23) It is showing people how to humble themselves, (1 Peter 5:6) to pray in the Spirit, (Romans 8:26) to seek God’s face, (Matthew 6:33) to turn from their wicked ways, (2 Chronicles 7:14) and even to love their enemies. (Matthew 5:44)
Jesus told His followers to go into all the world and make disciples. (Matthew 28:19-20) Can you think of even one place in even one nation in the world where heart-transforming and radically life-empowering discipling is being consistently done? If so, please share it in the comments.
Our band of wome (5) ….this is our first year and the Lord is awakening all of us…….your Sunday wake up call was a su ject line of discussion at our meeting yesterday…..Thank you Lord Jesus as we awaken.
First half/Second half. Uff dah. Open the eyes of my heart Lord. Transform your people; transform me to be second-half-of-the-gospel followers.
I’m probably just not seeing it, but JD promised a link to the first Wake-up Call and I don’t see it. Help?
I believe it was in 2018 that someone introduced me to the Daily Text which is now called the wake-up call. I also believe that it was the first time they were going through the book of Ephesians that JD spoke of the first half of the gospel and the second half of the Gospel. That was absolutely revelational to me. Not that I had not “heard” of justification and transformation and demonstration and glorification. But How seed bed has unfolded this through the years has connected to my way of learning.
And not just my way of learning but how Jesus in me an unrepeatable miracle of God shows himself to me and through me!
This is one reason why Ephesians 1:17-20 is not just my word for the year but my word for life!
It was holy discontent that brought me to Coker Methodist, San Antonio, TX. And Pastor Adam introduced me to The Wake-Up Call. God heard my prayers. I longed much more from just going through the motions. Thank you Lord for using the Holy Spirit to lead me to the Wake-Up Call. It has been such a blessing to me. Praise be to God. The Lord continue to use the Seedbed to reach and teach us all to be sowers.