Good Morning, refuge family, my
name's Tina. And on behalf of
our team, we are so thankful.
You're joining us for refuge
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today's service. good morning
church. It's great to be back
with you today. Online again,
I'm pastor mark. I'm going to be
with you this month. Pastor
Jason takes a sabbatical, but we
started a new sermon series last
week called amazing grace. Now,
most everybody knows that song.
You grew up on that song, right?
It's a church song. You opened
that him to page 30, three of
that hidden on you had ripped
that church song out.
But what is amazing grace, you
know, last week we talked about
amazing grace and we found out
that it's scandalous grace. You
know, Jesus was asked by the
Pharisees, you know what should
happen? You know, when, when
people don't honor their parents
and he told the story of the
prodigal son, and even though
that, that boy was undeserving,
he says the had accepted him. We
saw that God's not some cosmic
killjoy sitting on the throne up
there. God is a father looking
out the window, looking for his
lost sheep to come home. Jesus
tells us that over and over. But
today I want you to say a word
for me. I want two words.
Actually. I want you to say
search me right now. Just say it
out loud. Search me God. Now
let's think about that. Search
me. Wait a second. Today. We're
going to talk about an
invitation for God to search our
lives. You want to understand
amazing grace? Well, it's one
thing to know that you can get
it, but it's also the next thing
to ask God, to search your life.
Everybody knows what to do when
you don't know something, you go
to Google, you Google that
stuff, right? How many times
have you been to Google this
morning? Your model went to
Google to find the church
online. If you're watching us
online this morning, it's pretty
funny.
When you look at what people
search everyday on Google and
Google publishes that and they
publish it by state. And it's
quite funny to look at the, did
you know that Google handles
more than 1 billion, 1 billion
that's with a B searches every
day. Now that's a ton of videos.
That's a ton of recipes. That's
a ton of all kinds of things.
Trust me. I can Google how to
fix my car all the time. I'm a
YouTube specialist. When it
comes to how to fix my car, I'm
not a mechanic by any means of
the imagination, but you do can
help you a lot. And Google gets
me there. That's a ton of
searches, but today is about
searching our selves and about
searching our laws. And you want
to know why it's called amazing
grace. Well, I'm going to get
you to challenge yourself, to
ask God to search you. That's
not an original thought. It's
not like pastor Martin just came
up with the idea of search me O
God, because we're actually
stealing it from king David
King. David actually brought
this up in the 130 ninth song.
Someone 39, 23, 24, David writes
search me O God and know my
heart. Test me know my anxious
thoughts. Point out anything in
me that offends you and lead me
along the path of everlasting
life. See king, David started
off that search me, God, search
me. Oh Lord.
See, last week we started
talking about Christianity and
we told the story about, you
know, the people getting
together to try to figure out
what made Christianity different
than other religions. Grace is
what makes Christianity
different. Grace. Grace makes
Christianity unique. It makes it
unique from any other religious
system or religious belief out
there. Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish
covenant, the Muslim code of
law. All of these offer a way to
earn approval, but only
Christianity makes God's love.
Unconditional. God's amazing.
Grace is unconditional. It's
hard for us to accept that as
Christians, we have a hard time
because we've been trained to
believe that it's God God's love
for us is conditional. We've
been trained to believe that if
we misbehave or we sin, God
punishes us. It doesn't work
that way. It doesn't work. Oh
man, I seen last night. That's
why I have a flat tire today.
God doesn't work that way.
That's not how God operates.
It's the religious part in all
of us that believes if we clean
up our act, we give more money.
If we come to church more than
God will love us and God will
bless us more, but that's not
true. That's not true at all.
Like we said, last week, that's
religion. That's not Jesus. And
Jesus came to this world to
stamp out religion.
Religion says if, but God says,
no matter what, no matter what
you do or have done, I am madly
deeply in love with you. And
that's where we left off. That's
what we talked about last week
with a scan. Grace. God's love.
Love for us. Go so deep that no
matter what you do, no matter
what you've done, it doesn't
matter. Mark. And you can say
mark, if God loved me, no matter
what then why does it matter?
What I do? I have people ask me
that all the time. Well, I mean,
if is this a free ticket to do
whatever won't people ask that,
right? Christians. It's like, we
can ordain our sins. Like we can
justify our sins because oh God
will forgive us. Oh God, forgive
us. It's a bank of forgiveness.
You just go back. Oh, I'll just
withdraw some forgiveness. And
that's what people think. Has
anybody ever wondered that? What
does it matter? What we do if
God's going to love us, no
matter what if God's love is
unconditional then does that
mean I can do whatever I want
and he'll forgive me for, you
know what? Yes. God loves you
that much. That's why it's a
scandalous. Grace. Let's unpack
that because you need to be so
madly and deeply in love with
God that that hurts. But that's
the truth. And it's hard for us
to understand.
Sometimes learning that God's
grace has no strings attached is
it causes us to, as Christians
to have a heartbeat to skip it
or to stand up when you mean
there's no strings attached to
God's grace, God will forgive
us. Right? Let me go ahead and
answer that question right now
once. And for all, yes, he's a
good, good father. And God will
forgive you. God absolutely
will. Isn't that what we all do
to some degree, we're all
hardwired to Psalm level, to
test what God will do and
forgive us for. We all will push
the limits even in the dark
recesses of our mind. When we
think that no one else knows,
God knows, but we convince
ourself. Well, I'll just ask for
forgiveness. I'll just ask for
forgiveness. God will give it to
me. Luckily, this is addressed
in the Bible and Paul talks
about this and we come across
this exact question in Romans
chapter five and six. And we're
going to read from there today.
And we're going to end up back
over in Psalm 1 39. And we're
going to look at what king David
said when he said, search me and
search my motives. Let's start
in Romans chapter five, verse 20
and 21 God's law was given so
that all people could see how
sinful they were. But as people
send more and more God's
wonderful. Grace became more
abundant.
So just as sin rolled over all
people and brought them to
death. Now God's wonderful.
Grace rolls in stead giving us
right, standing with God and
resulting in eternal life
through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
So this is the amazing grace
we've been talking about right
here. Paul says sin just kept
growing and growing and growing.
But so did God's grace, the more
that church would see it and the
more grace would be handed out.
You can't out sin grace. So stop
trying. You absolutely cannot
outstand the grace of guy.
You're saying, pastor, you're
telling me I can live. Like I
won't not at all. That's not at
all what I said, but I said, God
has enough grace to out grace,
your sins. That's a hundred
percent true. Grace is always
available to us. So then Paul
asked the big question right
here. Let's keep going. Uh,
Romans six, chapter six, verse
one. Well then should we keep on
sinning so that God can show us
more and more of his wonderful
grace? Of course not. Since we
have died to sin, how can we
continue to live in it? See Paul
saw it going on in the church.
Even the early Roman church, the
church, it was growing. People
were like, well, if God's just
going to forgive me, can I just
live? Like I want, can I live
like, hell, well you can because
you can't out grace, God.
But what Paul said right there
is we should die to our sins. We
should hate seeing so much that
it repels us. It nauseates us.
It makes us sick. Paul's pretty
straightforward. Paul said,
don't keep singing just because
there is grace. Yes, there is
grace, but you're abusing. God's
grace. You're taking advantage
of God's grace. God will forgive
you. God loves you, but your
head's not own. Right? You're
thinking about it wrong. It's
exactly the opposite. God's
grace pulls us out of a life of
sin. You should not want to be
in that scene anymore. It should
repel. You look what he said in
verse two, since we have died to
sin, how can we continue to live
in our sin right now? You're
thinking about some, some sinful
things that you may be
struggling with. Remember we
started with search me O God,
are you really ready to ask that
question of God? Are you really
ready to pray that prayer, God
search me God, point out where
I'm wrong and help me fix it
because God, I hate sin as much
as you hate sin. And I wanted
out of my life, God helped me to
stop using grace as my crutch to
sin. That's not the excuse.
That's not right. Stop living
that way. I want you to think of
it this way. Now maybe as we
read those words, you say, wait
a minute, mark. Whoa, whoa, Tom
out. I've accepted.
God's grace. I'm trying to live
for God. The best I can. But I
wouldn't say that I have died to
sin. Oh, pastor mark. Wait,
wait. I don't think I've used
those words that Paul used died
to my sin. In other words,
seeing is still a very real and
active part of my life. I don't
think I've died to it. I know
exactly what you mean and trust
me. So does every Christian who
has ever lived. We like to look
at that verse Dodd and my sin.
And we like to justify and say,
well, I hide my sin. I, you
don't know about my sin only.
God knows. And here's, here's
the thing that God does know.
God knows every dark sin and
every recess corner that you
experience, but he still loves
you because that's the amazing
grace of God. That's how good
God is. It's not an excuse to
sin. Paul said, you have to die
to that sin. Paul's not saying
here that you received God's
grace and all of a sudden sin
left your life and you'll never
give into temptation again.
Whoa, that's wrong? Because the
devil is the perfect fishermen
and he knows how to fish for
you. He knows how to tempt you.
When Paul means, when he says
you've died to sin is that sin
is no longer the boss. You have
a way to turn from sin.
It may be an annoying friend and
you an annoying friend. I know
we all have that annoying
friend, but sin is not the boss
of you anymore. See, it's just
that annoying friend that shows
up every once in a while and
gives you a hard time before
grace. When sin said jump, you
would say how high, but once you
receive the amazing grace of God
and you make God your Lord and
savior, when sin says, let's go,
you should have the ability to
say, no, I don't want to go with
you anymore. Sin, w w we're
breaking up this. That's not
what I want. Now. Here's the
thing. Sometimes you'll give in
and sometimes you'll still fall
in. And when you do, you stand
up and you dust your knees off
and say, no, God, I'm sorry.
God, forgive me. God helped me
not to give into temptation. So
you were powerless against sin.
You really as that, but when you
accepted Jesus and Jesus's death
on that cross, you gained all
the power you needed to
overcome. Sin. The power of sin
was broken at the moment that
you were saved. It's not gone
for good. It's not in charge
anymore. Is the important part
of sin. Sin will never be gone
for good, but it can't be in
charge of your life. Your life
belongs to God. And that's what
you have to look at.
It is skip ahead to verse 12,
Paul's going to break it down
for some even more in verse 12,
he says, do not let sin control
the way you live. Do not give in
to sinful desires. Do not let
any part of your bar. Body
become an instrument of evil to
serve sin and stay at, give
yourselves completely to God for
you, word dead. And now you have
new life. So use your whole body
as an instrument to do what is
right for the glory of God. Sin
is no longer your master for you
no longer live under the
requirements of the law and stay
at you. Live under the freedom
of, of God's grace. There's that
word again? You're not under the
law, but you're under the
freedom of God's grace. In verse
two, Paul said, sin is dead.
Don't live in it. The more you
live in dead squandering life,
the harder your life becomes and
the more distance you feel from
God. But here's the thing you
feel distant, but God is there.
God's completely there.
According to Paul, you have two
options. Your first option is
you can live in your sin or your
second option is you can give
yourself completely to guide.
Those are the two options that
you have today, right now, with
your struggles, with your
temptations, with your desires,
with the things you're living
in.
You want that scandalous, grace,
you either live in your sin or
you accept God's grace. That's
what Paul tells you to do. Look
at the end of verse 13, we were
dead, but now we have new life.
As someone who has received,
God's amazing. Grace do what is
right for the glory of God. At
this point, this is huge. Listen
to me for you no longer live
under the requirements of the
law. Instead you live under the
freedom. You're free. The chains
are broken. Okay? Mark. That's a
lot of scripture. That's a lot
of stuff going on there, but
what does it mean? What is the
freedom of grace and the
requirements of law singlets?
And there's actually college
classes about this. There's
whole seminaries about the
requirements of law. And I'm
about to give you a five minute
rundown of this. So buckle and
hold on. The requirement of law
was the hundreds and hundreds
and hundreds of rules. God gave
the Israelites, the Israelite
people in the old Testament, it
started with Moses on the
mountain, right, coming down
with, with those first 10. But
then the laws grew over the
years and it became hundreds of
hundreds. And, and that's how
people lived. And they lived
under the requirements of the
law and they had to follow
areas. Every one of them, and
inevitably you were going to
mess up. There was no way to
live under this law.
Every time a rule was broken,
sacrifice had to be made in
retribution for that sin, for
that breaking of that law. But
when Jesus came and Jesus died
on the cross, the requirements
of the law went away. The
requirements of the law were no
more. In other words, your moral
behavior is not what decides
whether not or not. You are
saved just because you're good.
Doesn't mean you're saved. I was
a good kid growing up, but I
could bust a fiery hell open.
And if I didn't give my life to
Jesus Christ, you might be
sitting there and say, well,
well, pastor mark, I hear you
talking about all of these sins
that people have. Well, I think
I'm doing pretty good. Hey,
that's great buddy. But listen,
doesn't matter how good you are
because good, right? What you
deserve hail because the grace
of God is the only thing that
gives us a terminal life in
heaven. Your moral behavior is
not the determining factor of
whether you're a Christian or
not. That doesn't matter. You
might be raised, right? And you
might use your manners. But if
you don't have God as your
personal savior, your Lord, the
determining factor that gets you
into heaven is grace. And that's
the amazing grace of God. It's
not the law anymore. It was the
grace given to us. When Jesus
died on that cross, we didn't
deserve it. You live in the
freedom of grace.
Get rid of religious baggage,
get rid of, because we've always
done it that way and follow
Jesus. You are free. You don't,
you don't care what your pastor
said. Growing up. I could care
less what he said. I don't care
what your parents told you. Your
actions don't ever unsave. You.
God loves you no matter what,
but you have to choose to die to
your sin. Drinking a beer is not
going to send you to Hale
cursing. Doesn't see fooling
around with your girlfriend. It
doesn't send you to hell,
whatever else you added to my
list over the years does not
send you to Hale. Do you want to
know what sends you to hell?
What sends you to hail is not
believing in Jesus period.
Paul's because that's it not
believing in Jesus, not
receiving his amazing grace. You
can make the list of the things
you've done. The wrongs, you've
done the affairs, you've done
the drugs. You've done the
problems you've had. The falls
you've made over the years. The
people you've stolen from that.
Doesn't seem to you to hail, not
receiving the grace of God does
not believing in Jesus. You
would think God who would have
been smarter about that whole
thing, right? That whole grace
thing beforehand, letting
everyone know upfront that you
can do what you want. Maybe
you're thinking that right now,
you made me well. God. Why? Why
did you do it that way?
People say mark, when people
find this out, they're going to
totally take advantage of it.
Yup. Welcome to grace. Wow.
Welcome to the grace of God.
It's amazing. We don't deserve
it, but it gives it to a CD way.
And that's the beautiful part of
the amazing grace of God, that
uncomfortable feeling you're
getting right now, religion,
it's telling you to it. Won't
let you go free that's religion.
But remember Jesus came to stall
out religion. The scenario
you're playing in your mind
right now. Well, what about the
guy who cheated on his wife or
the murderer? What about the,
what about the, what about all
of that? That's going on? As
long as they won't grace and
they're willing to receive it,
God says you can have it. It's
that kind of grace. It's an
amazing grace. We separate
Christians from non-Christian.
And we think about the
willingness to admit we're
pretty despicable people. And we
receive grace from God, because
that's the only difference
between a Christian and a
non-Christian. Have we accepted
that? We received the grace of
God. You're right. We're both
pretty despicable people.
Whether you're a Christian or
not, the Christians are just
accept the grace. And that's
where you're at right now. But
here's the funny thing about the
amazing grace of God. It has a
way of changing you. It does.
Once you realize you're free, it
calls you to want to honor the
grace giver.
Once you realize that the bonds
are broken and you're not bound
down by what the world has told
you, your parents have told you,
you're not bound down by
whatever body is put into your
head. That you're not enough.
You're right. You're not. But he
is. And you can be enough
because he is isn't that what
Paul said in the verse 13, you
were dead, but now you have a
new life. So you so use your
whole body as an industry to do
what is right for the glory of
God. That's what you should be
doing. Chuck's Windale famous.
Pastor tells a story about the
day he got his permit permit and
his dad tossed him the keys to
his pride and joy Cadillac. His
dad said here, son, you have the
car two hours. It's yours on
your own. Swindles said he got
in the car, had a tank full of
gas, thought he was going to
pick up his buddies, thought
he'd go out cruise. And he was
the big dog with his dad's
Cadillac. Maybe even take it out
on the highway, maybe see how
fast we can get that cat. The
lack of my dad, pride and joy
going up and see how fast it
could go. When Dale says, when
he got out on the road, he
didn't give into the temptation
to drive the speed lamb.
As a matter of fact, he drove
under the speed limit for all of
the 15 minutes that he drove. He
turned and he went back home and
he said, I love my dad so much
and knew how much his dad loved
that car that he thought doing
anything to mess up. His dad's
Cadillac overtook his thoughts
of craziness. He pulled in the
driveway, walked inside and he
tossed his keys to his dad who
seemed a bit surprised. And he
said, thanks. But no thanks.
That's the kind of love that we
have for God. I love to say
thanks, but no, thanks. We have
the, but there's a thanks, but
no, thanks. The power of grace.
You're free to do whatever you
want. You have the freedom of
choice. You're not a little
robot that God programs you to
what to do. You have the
freedom, but the more you fall
in love with a God, the more you
want to honor him, the more you
want to think of his ways, the
more you want to live. Like God,
the more you want to tell people
about God, thanks. But no
thanks. Not because you have to,
but because you won't. So
imagine that. Thanks, but no
thanks. Think about God and
everything that he knows about
you. I want you to think about
that. Realize that God knows
every part of you.
He's there all the time, all the
dirty despicable moments that
you have in your mind right
there. God knows about him
already. He can't stop thinking
about you though. You are
precious to him. And so you
should fall in deeply love with
him and died in your sins and be
willing to say thanks, but no
thanks. Sin will always be a
part of your life, but you have
to grow to the point. You can
say, thanks, but no thanks. When
you put all of these together,
we get a perfect picture of what
grace filled, loving
relationship with. God looks
like, say, God knows all the
worst parts about us. God is
madly in love with us. We give
him permission to search us and
we ask him to point out anything
that offends him. Are you ready
to do that? Are you ready to get
to the point to ask him to lead
you down that everlasting life?
Listen, I'm just not talking
about non-Christians. I'm
talking even to you, Christians,
will your prayer be today? God
search me, search me. God,
because I am so in love with
you. If there's anything in my
life that offends you help me
get rid of it. There's two
groups of people. There's
Christians right now that need
to pray that prayer, God search
me. That's a dangerous prayer.
That's a scary prayer because
sometimes we don't want God to
search us.
But then there's another group
of folks out there right now
that just need God's amazing.
Grace. Remember I said the only
thing about a Christian and a
non-Christian is a Christians
accepted that grace you're never
go live up to it. Let's bow our
heads. Let's pray. God, heavenly
father, we worship you today.
God, God, my friends out there
right now that are saved. God,
God, I just give them strength
to say search me O God, just
like king. David said, search me
O God. If there's anything in my
life that offends you, God
helped me to get rid of it. God
help us to have a relationship
that is so strong that we are
dead to our sin. God help us to
say no to our sin. God right now
I just need you to hear the
cries of the people crying that
out. Continue to pray church.
But if you're that other group
of people that need to be saved
right now, this is what I want
you to pray. Dear God, heavenly
father save me. God. I accept
the amazing grace. God, thank
you for loving me. Even though
I'm not worthy. Even though I'm
dirty, God, God, you are clean
and enough for me, God, God, I
believe that you are the Lord of
my life. And I confess my sins
to you. Save me God, whether
your prayer today was save me or
search me.
One of those needs to be your
prayer for everybody that
listens today. And that's my
challenge for you this week is
ask God to search you so that
you can live under his amazing
Grace Church. I love you now go
and be the church. thank you
again for joining us for this
morning service. We truly hope
our time together made an impact
in your walk with God. If you
made the decision to trust Jesus
as your Lord and savior.
Congratulations following Jesus
truly is the greatest decision
you could ever make. Please let
us know by filling out the
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available for ministry. If you
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There are three easy ways to
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again soon, but until then have
a great week.

Good morning, refuge family. My name is
Tina and on behalf of our team,
we are so thankful. You're joining us
for refuge church, online,
wherever you're joining us from today,
we're honored to get to spend it with
you.
I also want to give a special welcome
to those of you joining us for the very
first time before service begins.
We want to give you a few helpful tips
for our time together.
Make sure you grab your Bible so you
can follow along with the scriptures
and
the message. If you don't have a Bible,
don't worry.
The verses will be available on your
screen. Also,
please engage in the live comments. We
would love to connect with you,
to pray with you and to care for you.
If you're joining us for the very first
time,
please fill out our digital connect
card so we can get to know you better.
We love you and we hope you enjoy
today's service.
Hello church. It's good to see you
again.
I'm pastor mark filling in for pastor
Jason for the next couple of weeks.
I'm so glad you're back with us in our
amazing grace. 2.0 series today.
We're going to take a look at something
a little bit different.
We're going to talk about being a grace
giver. I want to start off with a
story.
It's a story that Walter, a wink tails,
and it's a story of,
um, a couple of peacemakers and they
meet with a group of Polish
Christians about 10 years after the end
of world war II.
And they had one question for this
group of Polish Christians there,
their question was, Hey,
would you be willing to meet with some
west German Christians
that just want to ask for forgiveness?
And then one man stood up in the
meeting and he said, well, absolutely
not.
There's Polish blood all over the
streets. Uh,
after what those Germans did to us,
there's no way that we can forgive
them.
The group of Polish Christians got
together with the two peacemakers and
they
held hands and they just decided to say
the Lord's prayer.
And as they began to recite that
prayer,
they got to the part of the Lord's
prayer. And they said, forgive us,
our sins, as we,
and then there was a pause and there
was a silence.
And that same man, he said, oh no,
God commands us to forgive. The same
man is quoted as saying,
I must say yes to your request.
I could no longer pray to our father.
I could no longer call myself a
Christian.
If I refuse to forgive.
The interesting part of that story is
about two minutes later.
Those same Polish Christians met with
the west German Christians in Vienna.
And they've been meeting every year
since now.
It's their children and grandchildren
that meet and they form this amazing
bond.
They've almost made their own church.
It makes me think of another story.
I think of the story of Martin Luther
king Jr.
On April 16th, 1963,
Dr. Martin Luther king Jr.
Wrote his famous letters from a
Birmingham jail.
See what was going on at the time, his,
his, his people,
his followers were being called names
beaten.
And judge Jenkins actually ruled that
they didn't have the right to
protest king.
And many of his followers were thrown
into jail.
Dr. King writes while he was sitting in
jail,
he became so angry at the men that were
outside that were still persecuting his
followers.
They were beating them, calling them
names.
And in Keane wrote in these letters
from a Birmingham jail, he said,
I struggled to forgive the police offer
officers who were currently
assaulting my people outside the jail
with nightsticks,
calling a profane names and the other
Southern pastors who were
calling a king demonic.
And even a communist king wrote that he
had to fast
several days before he can forgive them
because he needed the
supernatural power of God to be able to
offer
forgiveness to those officers.
He knew that he needed God help to
forgive. Listen. Yeah.
If you're just joining us today,
we've spent the past couple of weeks
talking about amazing grace.
And we said, what amazing grace is? You
can't earn it.
Remember religion tells us if religion
tells us if we do
this, if we do that, if we give more,
if we send less,
but grace tells us no matter what,
that's the beauty of.
God's amazing grace. We like to try to
sin ourselves out of grace,
but you can't, you can't out sin grace.
That's the beauty of grace. You don't
deserve it. I don't deserve it,
but yet God gives us grace.
That's what amazing grace actually is.
Religion says,
if grace says no matter what,
so if you've missed the past couple of
weeks,
I encourage you to go back online and
watch them on Facebook or on any of
our other channels.
But what I really want to talk about
today is a little bit of shift.
Instead of being the one that receives
the grace.
What about giving grace? You know,
those two stories that I just told you
are all about giving grace,
even when it's not deserved,
we're told and commanded to give grace.
It's one thing for grace to be as
amazing, as long as we're receiving it.
But how can grace be amazing if we're
the ones that need to
give it? And you're thinking, oh no,
what's that pastor going to talk about
today? Well,
I'm going to start off by telling you
what, I'm not going to tell you today.
It's that simple. This is what I'm not
going to tell you.
I'm not going to tell you that it's no
big deal.
I'm not going to tell you that whenever
someone hurts you or whatever someone
did to you, I can't just say
flippantly, forget about it. That's not
true.
And that's not accurate.
I'm not going to make forgiveness sound
like a small thing.
I'm not going to make it sound
insignificant or just something that
you can just
grab and do.
I'm not going to tell you that if you
can't forgive someone,
you must not love guide.
I'm not gonna say that because that's
not true because the truth
is giving forgiveness is a very
difficult thing to do.
It's a very difficult thing that
sometimes we need the
supernatural abilities of God in our
life to act.
We forgive someone, our hurt runs so
deep.
Our scars never go away. I get that.
I absolutely understand that.
But what I'm going to tell you today is
that if you're unwilling to give
grace to someone who doesn't deserve
it,
you've not fully grasp how amazing
using God's
grace is to you yet because you don't
deserve
it yet. He gives you grace. Now think
about that.
Let that sit in. The father's forgiven
you for what you've done,
what you want. We'll do every mistake,
every wrong. You made it in life,
but yet you struggle to give
forgiveness. I know it's not easy.
And I know that it hurts, but I want
you to understand is what I deserve.
I deserve hail. That's what I deserve.
But yet God's amazing.
Grace offers me so much more to make up
for every sinful
thing that I've done every wrong that
I've given every stupid thing I've done
in
my life against God. His amazing grace
is enough for me.
And I think about that somehow,
when I want to hold on to hurt that
others have calls me.
I have to remember what God did for me.
I think that's our starting point is to
sit there and think about that.
It's even so important.
Like the Lord's prayer says it's right
there in the middle.
When Jesus modeled prayer, he said, uh,
forgive us this day.
As we forgive those who have trespassed
against us,
Jesus was saying in our prayers, in
this model, prayer,
it's not just once that we ask for
forgiveness and give it. He said,
we do it daily.
We daily should give forgiveness to
those that have wronged dust.
As we have wronged God and others, we
have to do that.
I love that tents that Jesus put there.
It's so important that we forgive.
It's a daily reconnect commitment to
our faith to say,
Lord helped me do it.
So today it's all about asking God to
help you
be a of amazing grace.
Let's look in the Bible today in
Matthew, 1823 through 27.
And there's a story that Jesus tails,
that's all about being that grace giver
verse 23,
therefore the kingdom of heaven came to
be compared to a king who
decided to bring his accounts up to
date with servants who had borrowed
money from him in the process. One of
his debtors was brought in,
who owed him millions of dollars. He
couldn't pay.
So as master ordered that he be sold
along with his wife,
his children and everything. He owned
to pay the debt,
but the man fell down before his master
and begged him,
please be patient with me and I'll pay
it all.
Then his master was filled with pity
for him and he released him and
forgave his debt.
Now Jesus is teaching us about
forgiveness right here.
And think about that story. Let's put
it in today's terms.
Let's say I decided I was going to
build a mega million dollar
high-rise well, I don't have a mega
million dollars in the bank to build
it.
So I would have to get investors.
And let's say I went around to all
these investors and got millions of
dollars
of investment.
And then I didn't invest the money or
it didn't pan out,
or I didn't build the building or
whatever it was.
And then I get worried and I start to
get sick at my stomach because I have
to
go back to my investors and say, oh
man, I've squandered all your money.
And this story that Jesus told would be
like me meeting with those investors
and
saying, Hey guys, I'm sorry.
I've lost your millions of dollars with
these men could Sue me or come after my
state. But yet what if the man said,
it's okay, buddy.
We knew the risk when we invested. Now
that sounds flip.
It does it. That says, what are you
talking about? That doesn't happen that
way.
But that's what Jesus told him. This
story.
He said the master forgave, the
servant,
just because the acts, he ordered him
to be put in jail until he could pay,
sell off everything and slave his
family.
But then when he asked he was
forgiving, man, that sounds like God,
right. We should be thrown in prison.
We should be thrown in jail for our
sins,
but we simply ask and are forgiven.
But what I love about this story is
even though it's that incredible,
that Jesus tells us, uh,
what if we experienced that kind of
grace,
but let's go on a little bit further
because Jesus tells an even deeper
side of the story. When we look at the
servant.
So if you go a little bit deeper and we
read in verse 28,
the key thing we see is forgiving,
but the man becomes very verse 28
through 35 of the same
story says this Jesus goes on. But when
the man left the king,
he went to a fellow servant who owed
him a few thousand dollars.
He grabbed him by the throat and
demanded instant payment.
His fellow servant fell down before him
and beg for a little more
time, be patient with me and I will pay
it. He pleaded,
but the creditor wouldn't wait.
He had the man arrested and put in
prison until the debt could be paid in
full. When some of the other servants
saw this, they were very upset.
They went to the king and told him
everything that had happened.
The king called in the man who had
forgive, who had been forgiven and
said,
you evil servant.
I forgave you that tremendous debt
because you pleaded with me.
Shouldn't you have mercy on your fellow
servant,
just as I had mercy on you.
Then the angry king sent the man to
prison to be tortured until he had paid
his
entire debt. That's what my heavenly
father will do to you.
If you refuse to give your brothers and
sisters
from your heart,
let that story sink in just for a
second.
So the man had millions of dollars of
debt to the king,
but yet when he pleaded and ask for
forgiveness, it was given to him.
But that same man that was forgiven,
went to another,
that owed him only thousands of dollars
and refuse to forgive.
I love that last line that Jesus says,
Jesus told,
says right there. That's what my
heavenly father will do to you.
If you refuse to give your brothers and
sisters from your heart and that's been
on my heart all week, I've been
thinking about that.
Let that just sink in that last
sentence is amazing.
Amazing. That is a strong statement.
And I put a lot of thought into it. And
this is what I think Jesus was saying.
When, when he said that right there, I
think Jesus was saying,
if you refuse to forgive,
I'm going to let you stay locked up.
I'm going to let you stay locked up in
what you're struggling with.
I'm going to let you stay locked up in
the worry.
I'm going to let you struggle with
that.
If you don't forgive, like you've been
forgiven.
When we hold on to bitterness. When we
hold into hurt,
when we hold onto our pain, we lock
ourselves into a prison.
We begin to think over it and it goes
in our mind.
And then every waking minute we're
thinking about how that person has
wronged
us. That's what I'm talking about.
Being locked up to unforgiveness that
you're not willing to give.
We think we're punishing that other
person. Well,
I'm just going to show them by not
forgiving them,
but really we're hurting ourselves.
You're only like walking yourself's up.
I can say that in my years of
pastoring,
I've never met a single person who was
holding on to
bitterness and unforgiveness that felt
free.
I've never seen that.
I've never counseled someone that sat
across from me that was so bitter at
maybe a business partner or an X,
Y for ex-husband or a friend that heard
them.
A mother that just felt free. They had
so much anger inside.
They were in prison from it. Their
decision to hold onto these offenses,
kept them back,
held up to the offender like being
locked up.
But what I think Jesus is saying here
is, Hey, you were forgiven.
So you need to learn, learn how to
forgive.
That's so hard to do.
And I know that it takes supernatural
powers and intervention from God.
I love how Dr. Martin Luther king Jr
said he had to fast and
pray to get to the point that he could
give forgiveness to the people that
wronged him. But if you stay locked up
for the rest of your life,
that's your own fault for not giving
forgiveness.
The fact is we all should forgive right
now.
You're thinking about someone that you
should forgive.
You're thinking about someone that's
wrong,
Jew and in whatever way that that was.
But you think, you know what, pastor
mark,
you don't know how bad that person hurt
me.
Maybe it was physically or mentally or
spiritually or whatever.
You just don't know how bad that hurt
was.
Jesus should give me an exception
because my hurt is just too bad.
He won't.
I promise you that there's no exception
give to you no matter how bad
the wrong or how bad the hurt was. He's
not going to give you an exception.
If he would have the story that he
would have told,
right there would have had all this
list of exceptions to people that
didn't
have to give forgiveness. You've been
forgiven.
Therefore you should forgive is the,
is the thought of this story that Jesus
told.
I want to give you two thoughts today
that I want you to hold on at that
we'll
try to help you be a grace giver.
The first thing is forgiveness takes
supernatural help.
Right now there's somebody to forgive
and you need supernatural intervention.
You need grace from God. You need God's
help.
Offering forgiveness is just as much an
act of obedience as
is giving as is tithing as is praying.
You ever thought about that to be in
line with what God wants is to
give forgiveness. That's a part of
being obedient.
You can't just be obedient with one
part of your life. Well,
I'm obedient with Bible reading and I'm
obedient with my prayer and I'm
obedient. I Todd, pastor. So you should
leave me alone. No,
it's all giving it all to God,
including giving forgiveness to those
that don't deserve it.
It's that important. I love what Paul
wrote in first Corinthians 12,
nine, Paul said, my grace is all you
need.
My strength works best in weakness. He
was talking about God.
He's saying that God's grace is all you
need.
It's that amazing of a grace because
his strength works
best in our weakness. When we take less
of us,
we have more of him. You gotta pray.
You gotta pray and you gotta pray some
more.
The great theologian MC hammer said,
you got to pray just to make it through
today. Right?
Every kid in the nineties is singing it
right now. Trust me. I am too.
But think about that. It's not some
childish prayer that you give.
God helped me forgive them.
It's about getting on your knees and
offering forgiveness from your knees.
And you stay down there until God helps
you break free of that
to break for you, that jail. That's
what it's about.
And then when you get up and you go
about your day tomorrow, do the same
thing,
give forgiveness just like the Lord's.
Prayer says all for it up.
Pray until you're able to get up and
know that that
person is forgiven. Don't put a clock
on. It's not about, well,
I got five minutes to forgive them. Get
down,
get with God and pray. Serious.
Adult prayers is how you give
forgiveness to people that don't
deserve it.
The second thing I want to tell you,
and this one's important is forgiveness
is not permission to
continue to be hurt.
Forgiveness is not permission for you
to say, well, keep hurting me. Listen.
If you're being physically abused, get
out of it, get help.
Seek help. Now you're not supposed to
be abused.
If someone's taking advantage of your
generosity, stop giving.
That's not what it's about,
but I can still be a grace giver and
protect myself.
It's okay to protect yourself.
It is absolutely okay to forgive
someone doesn't mean that you have to
keep putting yourself in a position to
be hurt.
That's not what it's about. If you're
being abused,
if you're taking advantage of, get out
of it,
stop that first and then work through
the forgiveness.
Do you understand what I'm saying? It's
that important?
Don't give them permission to keep
hurting you.
That's not what forgiveness is.
There's a big difference in forgiveness
and permission.
They do not have permission to take
from you.
They do not have for mission to hurt
you because
forgiveness and permission are very
different statements.
But I do have to add one thing that I
think is so important.
Sometimes you're put into situations.
You need supernatural strength.
It's dirty ministries, dirty.
Maybe you have a friend or a family
member that's struggling right now with
something they're so tied up with their
struggles. Maybe it's addiction.
Maybe it's an affair, maybe whatever it
is. And you're thinking, Ooh, pastor,
that's such a fine line.
I don't want to get in involved in
helping someone through this because
it's so
dirty. I understand you may not want to
get involved,
but I also understand that God might
want you to,
God might want you to, to love someone,
to know someone giving grace and being
loving or
dirty ministry is a slow process.
Who do you need to give an deserved
amazing grace to today? Who is it?
I want you to think about that right
now.
Let's bow our heads and I want you to
pray,
but I want you to listen to me as you
pray out there,
because you're thinking of that person.
Your heart is pounding in your chest
right now.
And you know that this person is out
there that you need to give forgiveness
to.
Maybe you haven't talked to them since
the day they hurt you.
Maybe it was yesterday. Maybe it was
last night. Maybe it was 5, 10,
20 years ago. But there's somebody that
you need to give forgiveness to.
You need to think about it that listen,
you've been given grace.
You've been given an opportunity. God,
God forgave you first,
just like the king forgave, the debtor.
And he wants you to not be locked up
with your struggles.
Will you pray with me? God,
you know the struggles of people right
now that are out there,
the ones they need to give forgiveness
to God, God,
I just pray that you intercede. You
just be with them. God,
you just comfort and put your arms
around them.
As they work through that forgiveness,
God, God, we adore you. And we,
we love you. God, God help us to be
grace givers.
Those that have wronged us in our life.
Don't let it just be words,
but let us offer up forgiveness to
those people. God,
God heavenly father. We adore you. And
we love you guys.
God, it's in your sweet name. I pray.
Amen. Listen.
It's so much more than that because
once you forgiven that person and
you've
truly broken the bonds that you're in
to that prison, let them know.
And it might just be in a letter or an
email or a text and say, look,
I forgive you. It's not saying you have
to hang out and be buddies with them,
but break the bonds. You're free.
But I want to talk about true freedom.
See, we talk about amazing grace,
but I need to talk about that man named
Jesus because he died on the cross for
you. You struggle with being forgiven,
but he wants to forgive you today.
Listen, if you're out there and you
need to be saved, you need to be
forgiven.
You need to be freed from your sins. I
want you to pray right now.
Something like this. God heavenly
father save me.
I admit that I'm wrong.
I admit that I've wronged people. God,
I know your son died on that cross for
me.
And I confess my sins and I confess him
as Lord of my
life. I know God that he died for me.
Save me God. It's in your name. I pray.
Amen.
See for him salvation is that simple.
You can't out sin. God's grace. God
just wants to love you.
He loves everybody, but it's through
grace that you're saved.
If you need help, reach out to us,
reach out to us at the church so that
we can pray for your contact. You,
if you got saved today, let us know. We
want to know more about it.
Church church.
I'm going to continue to pray for you
this week as you're a grace giver.
Now I need you to go and be there. Uh.
Thank you again for joining us for this
morning service.
We truly hope our time together made an
impact in your walk with God.
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as your Lord and savior.
Congratulations following Jesus truly
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form@findrefugehere.com slash care.
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And we hope to see you again soon, but
until then have a great week.

Hey church. It's good to see you again.
I've truly enjoyed amazing grace. 2.0,
I'm kind of sad that today's our last
installment of it, but you know what?
We really have to finish up talking
about an important point. I got to talk
about what amazing grace is and what it
isn't. Before we do that, I'm going to
tell you a story. I'm going to tell you
a story about the mayor of New York
city via Rola LaGuardia, right after
world war II. You're thinking
LaGuardia, LaGuardia airport. Yeah. You
ever been there man? Ride on the
Hudson? Probably one of the worst
airports in the world, right? Yeah.
That airport, well, LaGuardia was known
as the little flower in New York city
after world war II, because he was only
about five foot four, and he always
wore a Carnation in his lapel. He did
outrageous things for the city. It was
nothing for the mayor to ride on a
police card ride with the fire
department. It was nothing for them to
raid the speakeasies and be right there
where the officers, when they broke in,
in January of 1935 on a cold cold
night, LaGuardia went to night court
and sent the judge home. He was going
to serve as the judge that night, the
first woman comes up and it was a
little old grandma. And the interesting
thing about this grandma, she had been
arrested for shoplifting. She had
stolen a loaf of bread. LaGuardia.
I asked her, well ma'am why did you
steal a loaf of bread? And she said,
well, my daughter has two small
children and, and her husband's left
her and we don't have any food. And my
grandchildren were starving. So I, I, I
had to steal the bread because I don't
have any money. Either. LaGuardia
looked over at the shop owner and he
said, sir, is this the case? He said,
absolutely. I won't hurt. Thrown in
jail. LaGuardia shook his head. He
said, well, ma'am you have to be
punished for your wrongs. So he said,
here it is either 10 days in jail or a
$10 fine. The funny thing is it's
recorded as LaGuardia reaching in his
back pocket, as he said this, and he
pulls out a $10 bill and he says, and
you're going to choose the $10 fine.
And here it is. But it gets better
because serving as the judge that not
LaGuardia looked at the bailiff and he
said, Mr. Bailiff, I now bond every
person in this courtroom, 50 cents for
being in contempt of the court for
living in a city where people have to
steal bread and no one takes care of
it. The bailiff looked at him and every
man, woman, person, criminal lawyer in
there was charged 50 cents. And the
bailiff went around the room,
collecting the contentment bond. And in
the end he had $47 and 50 cents. And
LaGuardia said, Mr.
Bailiff, I need you to give it to this
woman. And she left that day with that
money. Think about that. That's a true
story. Wouldn't that be amazing to be
there when LaGuardia did that, that
night, can you imagine that shop owner,
could you imagine how red faced he was
when he was charged 50 cents for being
in a contempt of court that he had to
put it in there? Can you imagine every
petty criminal, the story goes on to
say that every lawyer, criminal and
person in there, except for the shop
owner stood up and applauded LaGuardia
for what he did that day, because it
was just doing the right thing. Listen,
if this is the first time you've joined
us with amazing grace, 2.0, I suggest
you, you go back and listen to some of
these old, older sermons from the past
few weeks as we learn what grace is and
what grace isn't. But today we're going
to put a bow on that. See, we learn
right at the very beginning that
religion tells us CF, but gray says no
matter what religion tells us, if we
act better, if we do more, if we give
more, but grace says, God loves us no
matter what, no matter what you've
done, no matter what you will do say,
the interesting thing is God loves
everyone, but it's only through God's
grace are we saved. And I think that's
a beautiful thing.
Last week, we even talked about being a
grace giver as much grace as you've
received. What does it mean to be a
grace giver, but let's go on today and
talk about what grace is and what grace
isn't. Let's start with this. Grace is
not a license to sin. You can't and you
are so in the wrong. If you choose to
be disobedient and sin against God,
because you want to abuse. God's grace.
That's not right. Roman six, one
through seven. Well then should we keep
on sinning so that God can show us more
and more of his wonderful grace? Of
course not. Since we have died to sin,
how can we continue to live in it? Or
have you forgotten that? When we were
joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we
joined him in his death for we died and
were buried with Christ by baptism. And
just as Christ was raised from the
dead, by the glorious power of the
father. Now we also may live new lives.
Since we have been United with him in
his death, we will also be raised to
life as he was. We know that our old
sinful sales were crucified with Christ
so that sin might lose its power in our
lives. We are no longer slaves to sin
for when we died with Christ, we were
set free from the power of sin.
See, Paul wrote this to the church in
Rome and people were, we're getting to
abuse. God's grace, but use it as a
license to sin. Well, he's just going
to forgive me. So I'm just going to
keep on doing it. And Paul came into
the churches, a whoa, whoa, whoa. It's
not that I love that line. When Paul
said, should we keep on sending so that
God can show us more and more of us
wonderful grace, of course not. But the
beauty of it is he does. God shows us
his amazing grace over and over, but we
should be dead to our sins. I like how
Paul takes that and says, Hey, when the
old you died and you gave your life to
Christ, that's like dying with him. And
then when he came out of the grave, the
new you comes out of the grave. That's
why we baptize. It's the symbol of
going down the old million coming up,
the new me. Are you sinless? No, not at
all. There's nothing sinless about it,
but you've died to your sins. Your sins
don't control you anymore. If you're
wrapped up in a sin right now, you
might need supernatural intervention
from God to break free of those bonds.
But you can do it with God. Then that's
the beauty of it. So when we talk about
grace, grace, isn't a license to sin.
Paul told us that we're supposed to
break free from our sins. Let's keep
going though, because what Gracie is,
grace is a license to love that. That's
what it is. It's a license for you to
love even people that aren't lovable.
First Timothy, one 14, the grace of our
Lord was poured out on me, abundantly
along with the faith and love that are
in Christ. Jesus. That's what it is.
The grace that was poured out on you
was poured out abundantly. It's not
like you can run out of grace. It's not
like in general, running low or
something like that. It's not like the
gas tank running empty. Oh, I'm low on
grace. I got to go back to the whale
and get some you can't run out of.
God's amazing. Grace. God loves you.
That's why he offered up grace to you.
Last week, we talked about being a
grace giver. I hope some of you have
prayed through it this week. I hope you
write it down. Write down the bonds
that have been broken because you're
now free. You're not imprisoned to
wanting to punish someone that's tied
you down before I was reading a story
this week and it was the story of
Charles Spurgeon and Joseph Parker. Now
see, both of these men were pastors in
London, uh, about the 19th century.
And the story that I read says that
Joseph Parker commenting on the poor
condition of the children that were
going into Spurgeon's orphanage at his
church. Well, have you ever played the
game of telephone and one person starts
it and it ends totally at the other, or
you've had somebody at work come up to
you and say, Hey, you know what I heard
you were at gossip already sounds bad.
And so when Parker made the comment, he
was just talking about the poor pitiful
children. Well, when it got back to Dr.
Charles Spurgeon, it was told to him,
can you believe that pastor Parker is
talking about your orphanage, how bad
your orphanage is? So it's pretty funny
that that was the report that Spurgeon
got. And so Spurgeon in his next Sunday
service people flocked over because it
got in the newspaper. Don't you love
that small town news, oh, local pastor
accuses a pastor's church, orphanage of
being a bad and falling apart and poor
conditioned disrepair. So everybody
goes to Spurgeon's church the next day.
And, and, and when people flocked over
there, uh, from the pulpit, he was
criticizing, uh, the orphanage itself
is what he said. It spurge him, blasted
Parker. It became personal at that
point. Well guess what happened the
next Sunday? It's human nature.
Everybody goes to the other church, big
gathering at the church because all of
a sudden it's a war between churches.
And I love what pastor Joseph Parker
said. He was quoted as saying, I
understand Dr. Spurgeon is not in his
pulpit today. And this is the Sunday
that they use to take an offering for
their orphanage. I suggest we take a
love offering here in stead, and that's
all he said. And they started passing
around the plates and the ushers had to
empty the plates three times because
they filled up with money with people
giving money to the other churches,
orphanage. Well, the next day Spurgeon
showed up to Parker's office and he
knocked on the door and he said, you
know, Parker, you've practiced grace on
me. You've given me not what I deserve,
but you've given me what I need. Isn't
that a beautiful picture of grace.
Think about that with God, God, you
don't give me what I deserve. You give
me what I need. No matter how much I
mess up, no matter what I say, you give
me what I need. So this morning, we're
going to talk about Exodus chapter
three and your lot. Well, pastor, how
are we going to the old Testament to
talk about grace? Great picture of
grace here. Even in the old Testament.
See, when we talk about Exodus, that
that whole first chapter of Exodus is
talking about. The Israel. Lots are
blessed from God, but the Egyptians get
afraid of them. And so they start
killing off the children.
So there's the Israel, Israel out
woman. And she has a baby, a little
baby Moses. And you can you imagine her
looking at little baby Mo oh baby Moe.
You're so beautiful. And she takes a
little baby MOA. She says, they're
going to kill you. All the, all the
midwives are killing the babies when
they're born. So cause they're trying
to eliminate us. And so she takes Moses
down to the river and puts him in a
Reed basket and sends him out in a
crocodile infested river. And he floats
on down the river. And at the time of
the gypsy princess, the Pharaoh's
daughter finds him there and takes
semen and raises Moses as her own. The
whole second chapter of Exodus is about
Moses being raised as an Egyptian
prince. But then, you know what? He,
his eyes are open and he sees what's
going on here. And he sees the abuse,
the Israelite he has owned, people are
taking and he stands up. Matter of
fact, he even kills a man. And then he
knows immediately that he's done wrong.
And he buries the man. And then he
takes off running, running from God
because he knows that he's wrong. God.
And then that's where we're going to
pick up in chapter three, because in
chapter three, we see a lot of drama
that goes on and we see a lot of
evidence of God's grace.
We moved from the silence that God's
given his people for over 400 years to
God speaking directly to Moses here.
And he speaks to him through a Bush.
And later on, he even speaks to him on
the mountain, but a center that's
running from God bonds. The grace of
God, let's read this morning in Exodus,
chapter three, verses seven and eight.
The Lord said, I have seen how my are
suffering as slaves in Egypt. And I
have heard them beg for my health
because of the way they are being
mistreated. I feel sorry for them. And
I have come down to rescue them from
the Egyptians. I will bring my people
out of Egypt into a country where there
is good land, rich with milk and honey.
Now, as we read that the scripture
breaks down this into five declaration
that God says to Moses. There's five
declarations about the people of Israel
that are made here. And I think you
need to look at them because they're
about giving grace in the form of love.
God said, I have seen their suffering.
I have heard their cry. I feel sorry
for them. I have come down to rescue
them and I will bring them up in a new
land. So how can I show God's amazing
grace to others. That's the question
that I think we should answer this
morning. What we know grace.
Isn't, it's not a license to sin, but
we know grace is a license to love. So
how do I love other people? How do I
show this amazing grace to other people
that we've been studying? Yeah. The
first thing you have to do is you have
to pay attention to the condition of
others. You have to pay attention to
how other people we can live in our own
little worlds and our own bubbles and
the world can go on around us. And
sometimes we just don't see the
obvious. And that's what God said in
Exodus three, seven God said, I have
seen how my people are suffering as
slaves in Egypt. Are you taking time to
see the world around you? Are you
taking time to see suffering or does it
take a, a TV show or a commercial? How
many of you cry at the commercial with
the dogs that are abandoned? Right? It
comes out and it plays the Sarah
McLaughlin song and everybody starts to
cry. Why do we have to have a sad
commercial on TV for us to see the
broken world around us? God said he saw
his people suffering. Grace is about
noticing and observing the world around
him, Jew and the condition of the
people around you. It's not about
noticing just what's going on overseas
and Africa, south America, central
America, the middle east over in Asia
yet. Listen. That's great. That's
important. Yes.
We have to worry about that too. But
what about your community? What about
your neighbors? How many of you are
sitting there and you don't even know
yours now, your neighbors name much
less. The condition that they're living
in right now. See grace is selfless,
not self-serving. So yeah, it's
uncomfortable to get out there and see
the world. But if you want to get out
there, you don't have to go very far to
find people that are suffering,
whatever hometown is for you. Right
now, there are suffering people in that
hometown. There were hurting moms and
dads. There are hurting children. There
are hurting grandmothers. There are
people that are homeless. There are
people all around, just open your eyes
and C just like God commanded us to do
there. The second thing is, understand
their journey, understand how they got
there. The second part of verse seven
says, I have heard them beg for my
help. Also the way they are being
mistreated. Grace is about listening to
their story. Listen, I'm a fixer. You
know, as a husband, many of us are
right guys, your wife will start to
tell you something. And then you're
like, well, I'll fix it. And sometimes
she just wants you to listen and not
fix it. Listen, I've been married 20
years. I love my wife.
And let me tell you now she'll say
something and I just have to be honest
and say, you want me to listen or you
want me to fix it? Because sometimes
grace is just listening. It's listening
to people where they are, understand
their journey, understand how they got
to where they're at. Unless you take
time to talk to people and listen to
people. It's hard to be a great, give
her and feel people with love. The
third one thing is you have to feel
their pain. It's okay to hurt when
other people hurt. It's okay to cry.
When other people cry. I think back to
the, to the show where they would
renovate homes for people remember
remove that bus, right? How many of you
have watched that? I know, right? And
then even us big gusts. We've got a
tear coming down her eyes when they
move that bus. But why do we have to
see it on TV? Because if we look around
us right now, all around your
community, in your world, there are
people in pain and you can meet them
where they're at. God has you where you
are not by happenstance or it's by his
complete choice that you're there.
You're there for a reason to feel that
pain grace is about feeling the misery
to a degree that it sparks deep
compassion with you, your heart. What
do you have a passion for?
Because other people have that same
passion. Let's keep going. I need you
to number four, to take action, to
change their situation. Exodus three,
eight God said, I have come down to
rescue them from the Egyptians. God
came down to Moses. He took action.
Moses was his action through that
burning Bush and God came down. God was
the burning Bush. And he told, I came
down here to make a difference. I came
down. What is that? Passion that spark
inside of you that wants you to make a
difference. Grace is doing something
about their situation. That's what
grace is your license. Still up. I
could listen to you and feel sorry for
you all day, but it's not about
feeling, sorry. Don't feel sorry. Feel
empathy. Feel hurt because another
human hurts feel suffering because
another human suffers it's about moving
them out of a oppressive prison of pain
and suffering and helping them to see
that God loves them out of that current
situation, whatever the cost is, it's
your time. It's your prayers. It's
about showing them. God loves them. And
the fifth thing is to bring them to a
new place of hope. I mean, think about
it. That's why God is God's enemies.
New hope. We live in a broken city,
full world.
And the only thing that keeps us going
is hope that we have it's the faith
that we put into that hope and that
promise that God gives us Exodus. Three
eight says I will bring my people out
of Egypt, gypped into a country where
there is good land, rich with milk and
honey, see grace is about more than
observing and listening and
sympathizing and being empathetic. It's
taking people to a new place is taking
people to a place of God's refreshing
goodness and hope and outcomes. Think
about that. God said, I promise you a
land of milk and honey, a rich land
about the borders of the United States.
There are men and women that put their
little children on a road because they
think America is the land of milk and
honey. And we sit there and sometimes
we think, oh no, I can't even think
about those immigrants. Listen, friend,
Jesus was an immigrant in a foreign
land. Moses was an immigrant in a
foreign land. What about the grace that
we give people? I get it there's hurt
for citizens. There's hurt for
immigrants. There's hurt for legal
people being here and there's hurt for
undocumented people. Being here.
There's hurt all around us. Take time
just to sit and look and ask yourself,
what is my passion? Because that's the
grace that you have to pour out to
others. That is God's amazing grace to
see what's going on around us.
God, didn't say here's your land of
milk and honey, he said, I promise you
a land of milk and honey. That's what
being a grace givers all about. How do
we help people see God and be led to
that land of milk and honey, you know,
I want us to flip over to the new
Testament and look at Jesus because
Jesus has a mic drop moment. And man,
if I was sitting there and if we think
about Mike's at that time, back in
Jerusalem, if there were there, he
would have dropped the mic. Luke four,
14 through 20, then Jesus, I just
returned to Galilee filled with the
holy Spirit's power reports about him
spread quickly through the whole
region. He taught regularly in the
synagogues and was praised by everyone.
When he came to the village of
Nazareth, his boy had home. He went as
usual to the synagogue on the Sabbath
and stood up to read scripture. The
scroll of Isaiah, the prophet was
handed to him. He unrolled the scroll
and found the place where this was
written. Now think about it. Jesus, a
Jewish man. He knew the prophecies of
Isaiah. And in the, in that time he ask
for that scroll and they handed him the
scroll, the writings of Isaiah. And I
love what he flips too.
As he quotes the old Testament, Jesus
read the spirit of the Lord is upon me
for, he has anointed me to bring good
news to the poor. He has sent me to
proclaim that captives will be
released. The blind will see, and the
oppressed will be set free. And that
the time of the Lord's favor or has
come think about that. Jesus just said
the time of the Lord's favor, the
Lord's favor, the Lord's grace. The
same thing. It's time that his grace
has come. What they didn't know is
Jesus was God's grace own us. Verse 20
says that Jesus rolled up the scroll,
handed it back to the attendant and set
down. All right? And the synagogue
looked at him intently. Then he began
to speak to them. Jesus said the
scripture you've just heard has been
fulfilled this very day. Yay. Mike drop
that's Jesus. We looked for God's
grace. It was that day when Jesus said,
Hey, Isaiah's prophecy is fulfilled and
it's fulfilled today because the Lord's
favor has come. The Lord's grace has
come and it did. And the day it came,
it was Jesus Christ. Who read that to
the masses that steal the Lord's favor
today. He steal the Lord's grace today.
You're struggling the idea of grace out
there, whether you need grace or you
need to give grace. Jesus said today's
the day because the Lord's grace is
here. I want you to pray with me.
Let's bow our heads. God heavenly
father. You are the giver of amazing
grace. God, God, thank you for
abundantly, pouring out your grace upon
me. God, thank you for abundantly
pouring out upon this guy. We don't
deserve it. There's nothing that we
could do to deserve the amount of grace
you pour on us, but God, you give it to
us anyway. And that's the beauty of
grace. We didn't deserve jeez Jesus on
that day. But you gave us Jesus on that
day. I don't deserve God's grace today.
I don't deserve the grace that Jesus
brought, but you give it to me anyway.
God, I know that I deserve hail, but
God you love me. You love me through my
shortcomings and my failures. And even
when I'm wrong and God there's people
out here today that are listening and
they're praying and God, they just want
your grace to pour out upon them. God,
I need you to listen to the prayers
that are being lifted up to you right
now. God, there's people out there that
are saying we need God's grace. We need
forgiveness from our sins. We need our
burdens to be broken. God, God, we need
you today. God listened to our prayers.
As we call out to you, God, you are
amazing Lord. And we love you. And it's
in your name. We pray. Amen. Listen
friend. It's more than just receiving
God's grace.
I think there are some of you right now
that need the salvation being offered
to you through this grace, you've never
taken a moment and given yourself to
God, you've never turned. You may have
gone to church your entire life, but
you've never said, God, I need you to
save me right now. I want you to pray.
If this is your prayer, pray, something
like this directly to God, God heavenly
father save me. God, God, I know I'm a
sinner. I know I'm lost without you.
God. I know I don't deserve it, but
God, I need your grace. God saved me. I
admit I'm lost. I believe Jesus was
your son that brought the grace that
day. I believe he died for me on the
cross and I confess my sins. But more
importantly, I confess him as Lord of
my life. Save me God. It's in your
name. I pray. Amen church. That's
amazing grace. That's what it's all
about. That's amazing. Grace. 2.0 God's
grace. Can't be beat. Thank you for
having me this month church. I love you
now go and be the church.