Our Sovereign Grace Ministries Story (2)

Today I continue some thoughts I began yesterday re TFC's relationship with Sovereign Grace Ministries and the joys it has produced. I continue this boast confident of a couple of things. First, boasting in others is a very biblical thing to do (as Paul models for us time and again in the NT).

Second, I can boast in God's grace to us through SGM without any hesitation because in my estimation it has nothing to do with me except this: my church and I have been on the receiving end of grace in this relationship a whole lot more than the giving end. In boasting about the family of churches of which we are a part, I am not boasting about ourselves for this simple reason: pretty much all we've done is receive!

And third, I boast in others really so I can glory in God who in His astonishing mercy gives others to us for our good and His praise! If any good is to be found in SGM it is due to the amazing grace of God, and so in the end to boast in others is to glorify Him. And this I do with all joy!

So with all that in mind, let me continue with some excerpts from some thoughts I shared recently at a SGM pastors event:

Before I mention some specific blessings TFC has enjoyed in relationship with Sovereign Grace Ministries, let me say this. I’ve made more decisions during my life than I’d like to recall or admit, in which after the decisions were made, it became abundantly clear that those decisions were mistakes. Time revealed the errors of judgment of which I was guilty. But in the case of adoption into Sovereign Grace, the opposite is true.

Now that I can see with four years worth of hindsight, I can say with deep gratitude that as time has gone on, this is one decision about which I (and the TFC leadership team) have no regrets! I can say without any hesitation and with all thankfulness that we’ve become more sure of, more happy in, and more grateful for, God’s grace in leading us into relationship with Sovereign Grace than we were when the decision was first made. I’ve seldom been surer of the grace-produced rightness of a pastoral decision than I am of this one.

With all that said, when I asked Gayline to help me think of the blessings that being a part of SGM has yielded in our life and ministry, she didn’t take long to shoot off to me a list of no less than 20—yes 20—blessings. I think the process took her about three minutes! That’s the kind of joy impact that this relationship has had in our life. And now I get to share some of them with you...

Tomorrow I'll start sharing some specifics. But can I take a moment now to ask you this question: do you pause regularly to consider how God has blessed you through others, and then intentionally thank God and them for those blessings? When I got to share these thoughts with my SGM friends and leaders I was overwhelmed with joy precisely because I got to share them! I was given a chance to say thank you and to tell the folks that have been a means of God's grace in my life that I was grateful and humbled because of them and that grace.

Have you done that with anyone recently? A parent, a Christian friend, a pastor, a children's ministry worker who is a blessing to one of your children, a care group leader who commits 5-10 hours per week to help care for your soul? May I encourage you to practice the lifestyle of gratitude to others and glory to God that is displayed pervasively in the Bible?

Why not go out of your way to do this today?