Overview
Jason Patterson addresses the places where people feel stuck, exhausted, dissatisfied, or driven by performance. Through 2 Peter, Ecclesiastes, Galatians, Matthew, Exodus, Joshua, and Hebrews, he contrasts self-powered striving with growth in grace—receiving God’s presence, rest, favor, direction, and supernatural supply in the work of daily life.
Transcript
Where Do You Need a Breakthrough?
Good morning. Today we're going to be talking about growing in God's grace. Please turn to 2 Peter chapter 3. We'll get there in a moment.
Is there an area of your life where you've been stuck, plateaued, or maybe even an area of life that's well rehearsed, but really we haven't been honest with ourselves? Maybe you've lost joy over a family issue, or even been faced with a health challenge. Maybe your finances aren't as they were before. And you ask yourself, when will this situation change? When will this season of life be over? You feel stuck.
Or is there an area of your life where you've become so accustomed with lack or dissatisfaction that you assume that's the new norm, and you just throw in the towel and say, all right, this is the way life is. Because if it was up to your own power or your own ability, you would have solved it by now. It doesn't matter how smart you are.
It doesn't matter how much emotional intelligence you claim to possess. When you realize that you do life on your own, without God, you will be stuck. The point is this.
What area of your life would you love to see God go to work? Where his movement is unmistakable and undeniable. And I'm not just talking about a natural breakthrough. I'm talking about something that is supernatural breakthrough.
Have you ever seen a dam that holds back water's break? Where the amount of water and the increase of the flow on the one side of the dam becomes so much, so strong in such a short period of time that it bursts open? In engineering realms these days, you can actually calculate how much force would be needed on the other side to break a dam. That's a natural breakthrough. Oh, they just had that amount of water in that short amount of time, and that's why it broke.
I get it. It's natural. But what we're going to talk about is a supernatural breakthrough.
What area of your life would you love to see God go to work? Where it was a change that could have only been brought about by the Almighty himself. Grace can lift you up and give you undeniable strength. And often to experience God's grace, we need to lay down our own agenda, our own striving, and instead find his grace.
2nd Peter chapter 3 verse 17 says it this way, You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you're not carried away with the error of lawless people. And what happens when you do that? You lose your stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Standing and Growing in Grace
To him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. John 1 14 says that Jesus was full of grace and truth.
Romans 5 says that we are to stand in God's grace. And here in 2nd Peter, it says that we're to grow in God's grace. Has anyone ever told you that you're full of it? Have you ever stepped in it? But more importantly, have you grown in it? What are you talking about? I'm talking about God's grace.
Sometimes we have been full of the wrong things, such as judgment and legalism. We've stepped in the wrong things, striving in our own strength. Or we've been prideful, which has resulted in unrest.
You see, when we're full of God's grace, there will not be pride, but rather humility. Please turn to Ecclesiastes chapter 2. Growing in grace is not a one-time event that happens with a new birth, and that's it. So growing grace implies that it's God's daily involvement in your life.
The Limits of Achievement Without God
Did you know that every opening of the 13 books of the Bible written by the Apostle Paul, it begins with grace to you? But they all end the same way. They all end with grace with you. How do we have God's grace with us? Let's look at Ecclesiastes chapter 2. And in verse 4, it says, I made great works.
I built houses, planted vineyards for myself. I made myself gardens and parks and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees.
Then I considered all that my hands had done, all the toil that I had expended doing it. And behold, all was vanity and a striving after the wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun. Verse 20.
So I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over all the toil of my labors under the sun, because sometimes a person who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave everything behind to be enjoyed by someone who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil. What has man from all the toil and striving of heart, which he toils beneath the sun for all his days are sorrow and his work is vexation.
Even in the night, his heart does not rest. Why is there unrest after all that striving? Ecclesiastes 12 verse 13 reminds us that the whole duty of man is to love God. When we do life without God, we'll experience efforts that lead to unrest.
This mindset aptly describes us today. If you've worked hard for it, then you deserve it. But if you haven't worked hard for it, then you don't deserve it.
What this leads to is a heart that's full of anxious striving and unrest. So then, how do we lead ourselves to the point where we can end this cycle of unrest, this striving to perform? We do this by experiencing God's grace. Too often, many of us, myself included, we can't find rest until we're satisfied with what we've accomplished.
Too often, we're out to prove ourselves, our own self-worth, and it's based on listing out all of our accomplishments in a single breath, just to gain affirmation from all those around us. Here in Ecclesiastes, Solomon says this trap of experiencing life without God is going to lead to unrest. What area of your life are you experiencing unrest? Too much control that you're not willing to turn it over to the Father.
That is often the area that you need a breakthrough. Often, that's the area where we need a tipping point of God's grace. Grace is the tipping point where we lay down our control, our own efforts, and rely on His grace.
Please turn to Galatians chapter 1. So often, the answer to the question of how do they get better results is to try harder. Do you want to excel in your career? Put in more time, learn faster, train harder, give it more effort. Although working hard to increase a performance in the area of life can be admired, it should not become our approach to God.
Do you know why? Because then it shifts the focus to your own strength. Sometimes this can be our approach to our spiritual life. However, if we train harder, learn faster, seek to excel, for that motive, we'll often experience unrest.
Grace Instead of Approval and Performance
Here in Galatians, Paul says, you started following Christ in the Spirit, but now you're trying to grow in Christ by your own works, by your own efforts. You started out with God's strength, but now you're living in your own strength. You started by freely receiving grace, but now you're performing to earn God's favor.
Galatians chapter 1 in verse 6, it says, I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ, and are turning to a different gospel. Verse 10, for am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God, or am I trying to please man? If I were trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ. Seeking approval in others is linked to the performance way of life, striving to achieve in your own works.
To grow in grace, we serve an audience of one. Seeking approval in others often happens when our identity rests in something other than Christ. This happens in our careers, our home life, with our family members.
When we need to look good in somebody else's eye, that's an indicator that we're stepping in the wrong thing, and that's not God's grace. This can be true when we have our identity in our profession. Think about it this way, we often rely less on God's ability when we can do something ourselves.
The question that you ask yourself or need to is, are you grounded in God's grace, or are you grounded in your giftedness? If you're grounded in your giftedness, when you fail, your identity goes with it. So three weeks after Jackie and I were married, I lost my job. At the time, Jackie was in grad school, and we only had one income.
This was back in 2008, many of you recall those years. And architecture firms across the nation were just unloading staff. The day I was let go, 50 people got let go in the same company.
And for weeks, I searched for another job in architecture, but as time unfolded, it became very apparent that this was not going to be a quick overnight situation. I was established in my career at this point, so I had much of my identity tied up in who I was as an architect. I was crushed.
I was caught in the wheelhouse of the performance-based way of life. Works. It took a while, but I realized I was not going to find a job in architecture, so I had to pivot my efforts in a new direction.
Too often, when we identify with something other than Christ, we may experience a win for a little while, but the cycles of unrest will come in the undercurrents of life. Let's look at Galatians chapter 3. The Galatians were seeking a relationship with God, with the self-effort performance model, shaping their identity in their own strength. To grow in grace is not to do more by mental or physical exertion, but rather to find our rest in Him.
Galatians 3.1, O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this. Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish, having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain, if indeed it was in vain? Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Just as Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness, do miracles happen based on works of the law? How about on how well you perform? What if on Tuesdays, you read your Bible for an hour and 15 minutes instead of the normal hour? What if you ate less carbohydrates for the glory of God? No, miracles come by hearing with faith.
If we fall into believing that God's blessings come as the result of doing what's right, we're building a performance-based faith. That's not grace. Why? Because then I would deserve it.
I did what was right, therefore I deserve it. That's religion. That's flesh.
That's works. That's pride. That's not grace.
Let me say it another way. If we could just succeed in following Christ in our own strength, who would get glory? We would. But God says, I thought you were doing this for me.
It's a gut check. If we're honest at times, we might say, wow, I guess that really was for my own glory. Pride is a clear indicator of the performance-based way of life.
Please turn to Matthew chapter 11. You see, it's easy to build your life on the belief that you can get more of God's faith by doing more good things, more striving. So many times we walk through life wanting to earn God's grace, seeking his favor.
Christ’s Rest in the Work
Let me ask you this. When did God say to Jesus, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased? Was it after he performed miracles? After he raised the dead, caused the blind to see, healed the woman who had an issue of blood? No, the statement was made before he even started his public ministry. Do you know what that means? It means that Jesus was starting his public ministry from a place of experiencing God's acceptance.
If only we could live our lives from his approval and not man's, the grace that we would experience would be pretty amazing. Philippians 1.6 says, he who has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Christ. It's not like I began a good work in you, but I'm not going to perform it until you make the right decisions.
Do you see how easy it is to tie our performance with his favor? Jesus came to free us from the performance way of life. Here in Matthew chapter 11, it says in verse 28, come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
He was full of grace. He modeled grace. Grace is not trying harder in your own strength.
Lay down your striving, seek his grace, and experience his rest. Maybe for some of us, our schedule is full, but our spiritual tank is empty. Why is that? Does anyone have a difficult time resting until you've accomplished something? More often than not, we don't feel like rest is earned until the work is finished.
I know this is true of me, but this word rest here has a different meaning. Christ's rest is not a rest from work, but it's a rest in work. It doesn't mean that you stop working, but rather you find rest in work.
It's a respite to recover one's strength. How is this done? Instead of striving to achieve, it's given. That's the grace of God.
The man who was full of grace welcomed all those who were burned out of a heavy heart, emotionally stressed, and whose tanks were empty. We grow in grace by being humble. What are the indicators of not growing in God's grace, but rather living in the performance way of life? One is seeking the approval of others, finding our identity in something other than Christ.
The other two that I want to touch on is pride and insecurity. You see, pride says, I got this. I want to earn this.
I want to do this on my own. I want to get credit for this one. I want people to see that I brought this about.
Grace Gives God the Glory
Who gets the glory? We do. How can you tell if you're seeing God's grace? Naturally, God will be receiving the glory. Second Corinthians 9 10 says that experiencing grace will produce thanksgiving to God.
Moses told the children of Israel before they entered the promised land, be careful not to say by my own power, by my righteousness, we were able to possess the land. When you're on the mountain, we can say, I did this with my own works. I just went into work earlier than everybody else.
I had the best idea, so I quickly rose to the top. Or maybe I was just a little bit more strategic than everybody else. Let God bless you.
But when on the mountain, be thankful to him. It was his grace that gave you the strength to develop those ideas. We hold it loosely.
So those successes don't define our identity. Please turn to Exodus 33. Like pride, insecurity on the other end of the spectrum clearly outlines the performance way of life.
God’s Presence and Rest
Many times we can be tough on ourselves and hold ourselves hostage to what we haven't done, to what we haven't accomplished. Have you ever beat yourself up for what you're not? Guess I'm not the only one. If you relate to that, let me tell you this, one touch of God's favor can pull you farther than you ever imagined.
Maybe you feel that you've fallen behind and you're not where you should be in life. With your relationships, with your family, in your career, in your health or your finances, or maybe even your calling of God. I have a feeling that God knows how to accelerate your life for the better through his grace.
When we are really humble to carry out his will, his grace will be so present, unmistakable, undeniable. The tipping point of God's grace comes real when we are humble. Moses experienced God's grace.
Let's pay attention here in Exodus 33, verse 12. Moses said to the Lord, see, you say to me, bring up this people, but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. You have said, I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.
Now, therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways that I may know in order to find favor in your sight. Consider to that this nation is your people. And he said, my presence will go with you.
I will give you rest. And he said to him, if your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. He said, please show me now your ways.
That's humility. It doesn't matter how many years have passed. Get to the point where your heart says, please show me now your ways.
Grace is heart transformation and not behavior modification. It starts in the heart. Humility comes from the heart and not the head.
God told Moses, my presence will go with you, and I will give you rest. And this word rest, again, it means to settle down and signifies rest, not from work, but rest in work. Rest from what otherwise would have caused burnout, emotional stress, and unrest.
Moses said, I'm going to go where you lead. If you won't be with me, then I choose not to go. Are you at a crossroads in your life looking to make a big decision? Seek his grace, find his rest.
Crossing Over by Grace
If God has called you to it, he will give you grace for it. Please turn to Joshua chapter three. Do you ever get stressed out when you don't know or see the big picture how this is going to turn out? Joshua found himself in the same situation.
Let's see how he let God lead him and show him what was going to happen in the immediate. But not only that, God was going to show him further in the future, what he was going to do for him by driving out the nations of people so they could take the promised land. Joshua chapter three in verse eight.
When you come to the brink of the waters of the Jordan, you shall stand still in the Jordan. And Joshua said to the people of Israel, come here and listen to the words of the Lord, your God. And Joshua said, here is how you shall know that the living God is among you.
Isn't that the greatest question that we want to know and see and experience his grace? And that he will, without fail, drive out before you the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Hivites, the Perizzites, the Girgashites, the Ambarites, and Jebusites. Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is passing over before you into the Jordan. Now, therefore, take twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one from each man, one from each tribe, a man.
And when the soles of the feet of the priest bearing the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, the waters shall be cut off from flowing. The waters coming down from above shall stand in one heap. I love this, that the Lord of all the earth shall rest in the waters of the Jordan.
This word rest, again, is that same word we read about in Exodus and Matthew. So, what kind of span of grace are you looking for? The waters of life can be quite forceful and maybe steer you in a direction that was unanticipated. But through his grace, you'll find rest.
So, instead of a job in architecture, I started my own painting and construction business. I began piecing together work for 365 days. That became a new challenge for me, especially when sometimes only one job would last for a single day.
The thought of this, followed by the experience of several days and sometimes weeks without work, became a little bit unsettling. So, you know what I did? In my own efforts, I stacked many stones to try to keep the waters from flowing. And I was just trying to make things happen in my own efforts.
But it was by the grace of God that one day I received a phone call from a potential client. And when I got to this job site, he said to me, I got your number from this contractor who was also there on the job site. He's like, oh yeah, you look familiar to me.
We worked together on a job, you know, some time ago over in this other little neighboring town. I had never met this man before in my life. But at this point, the further I talked to him, he apparently got my number somehow.
And then he gave it to this client and gave me a high recommendation. At this point, I was not going to argue. When the grace of God rests in your life, go with that flow.
From this one client, I had consistent work for almost an entire year. I just went from one of his properties to the next. I love here how it says that the Lord of all the earth shall rest in the waters of the Jordan.
Let's be clear, wherever the Lord decides to rest, the waters will be cut from flowing. The waters at the crossing location, they continued to flow, but they rose like a dam. Talk about being covered by the weight of God's grace.
Leaving Striving and Approaching the Throne of Grace
It was the rest of the Almighty for his people. Are there areas of your life where you are seeking rest? Are there some waters that you've been trying to dam up through your own efforts so that you could walk on dry ground? Maybe you place individual stones and then realize that water was still leaking, so you put your fingers in the holes just to try to keep the water from coming. You ran out of fingers and you started using your toes.
We've all done this. Are we trying to hold back the waters with our own experience? Maybe our educational expertise, your prior accomplishments, or even your bank account. At times we tend to do this when we feel like we have the strength and ability to do this on our own.
We live with the mindset that this outcome is completely dependent on how well I perform, which ultimately leads to unrest. You see, God's grace releases the burden of unrest and endless striving. If we are at a place of unrest, we need to experience more of his grace and less of our own self-efforts.
Often we'll find ourselves restless until we find our rest in him. Here God's grace and rest span literally 20 to 30 miles, but when acts of God's grace are experienced, those run deep in our hearts. Where are you looking for the waters to be cut from flowing? The better question might be, what are you stepping in? Where have you placed the soles of your feet? Where are you seeking dry ground where his grace is undeniably at work? Maybe it's in our families, in our marriages, in our relationships, or even at work.
Are you looking to be unstuck? Release yourself from the performance way of life and accept his grace. Grow in his daily giving of grace. Hebrews 4.16 says, come boldly to his throne of grace.
It's a throne of grace. It's not a throne of condemnation. It doesn't even say it's a throne of love.
It's a throne of grace. And we daily have that opportunity to involve him. When we don't, we'll find our identity in something other than Christ, like a career, relationships, or hobbies.
We'll find ourselves being swayed with pride and noticeably insecure. All of these are clear indicators of the performance kind of faith, which results in unrest, burnout, and emotional stress. When we involve God, we'll receive his mighty grace.
When we find our identity in Christ, we'll be receptive, we'll be humble, like Moses who said, please show me now your ways. I only want to go if your presence goes with me. We'll be in step with the flow of his grace, find his presence, and experience his rest.
God bless you.
Key Takeaways
- Growth in grace begins by honestly identifying where self-effort, dissatisfaction, or fear has left a person stuck.
- Achievement, giftedness, and human approval cannot provide the identity and rest that come from God’s grace.
- Jesus Christ frees believers from a performance-based relationship with God and invites them to rest in the work He gives them.
- God’s presence supplies direction and stability when the full path or outcome cannot yet be seen.
- Grace releases endless striving, produces thanksgiving to God, and enables believers to move through difficult crossings with confidence.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does it mean to grow in God’s grace?
It means increasingly relying on God’s favor, presence, strength, and direction instead of building life on performance, control, or human approval.
How does grace address performance-based living?
Grace separates God’s favor from personal achievement and allows believers to work from rest and identity in Christ rather than striving to prove their worth.
What should a believer do when the path forward is unclear?
The teaching encourages involving God, trusting His presence, taking the next faithful step, and allowing His grace to provide direction and rest during the crossing.
Scripture References
2 Peter 3:17–18; John 1:14–17; Romans 5:1–2; Ecclesiastes 2; Ecclesiastes 12:13; Galatians 1:6–10; Galatians 3; Matthew 11:28–30; Philippians 1:6; 2 Corinthians 9:10–15; Exodus 33:12–18; Joshua 3; Hebrews 4:9–16
Verification Note
Prepared from a recovered machine transcript. Verify names, quotations, verse references, punctuation, and unclear phrases against the original video and a Bible before publication.
