Grace is not an excuse to live in sin. We’ve been set free from the ceremonial laws but as Christians, we still have moral laws to follow but we can’t do that without God’s grace. Joyce explains about Grace and the Law and the difference and what is ours as Believers. Watch now and find new liberty that you’ve never had before in Christ Jesus.

grace is not an excuse to live a sloppy

life and get by with it

come on now stick with me

grace is the power not to have

to live in sin it’s not a it’s not an

excuse to

and just an attitude that god will

overlook it because he’s so gracious

we have been set free from

the uh

the laws in the bible that covered

things like that

what we call the ceremonial law set free

from

following rules and regulations and

having to honor

certain days and feast days and rules

about diet

rules about material you can wear

together and material you can’t wear

together and

what you can eat what you can eat and

all that stuff

but we have not understand me

we have not been set free from the moral

law

the ten commandments are just as

valuable today

as they were then come on

i heard somebody say one time can you

can you imagine anybody standing up and

teaching on the ten commandments

i thought well yeah i’m

i kind of like to do that myself it’s

like

they’re not gone

there’s a new liberty you know like i

don’t necessarily think that

you have to take every sunday and

sit home all day and do nothing but i do

think if you don’t have a sabbath rest

on an average of once a week you’re

going to fall apart

and i think that we need to have time

set apart for god i don’t just do it one

day a week i do it every day i can’t

make it through one day without jesus

amen and

so grace doesn’t

give us an excuse not to have a high

moral standard in our life

grace actually requires us to do

more than what the law did and i’ll give

you a couple of examples

jesus said in the commandments it says

thou shalt not commit adultery but he

said i

say unto you that if you

look at a woman if you even so much as

look at a woman to lust after her

you’ve already committed adultery with

her in your heart

so he didn’t make it easier on us

he made it harder on us but he said i’ll

give you the grace to be able to do it

i will give you the power to be able to

do it see they were trying to

be good under the law but it was all up

to them

so if they were good they felt good

about themselves and if they weren’t

good then they felt

guilty they were always making

sacrifices

the law says an eye for an eye and a

tooth for a tooth but jesus said i say

unto you forgive your enemies

bless those who curse you misuse you and

abuse you

help them if they have a need you know

a lot of people believe that tithing is

under the law and so

you no longer have to tithe well i’ll be

honest we can tell you i don’t think you

have to either

but i frankly i don’t know why you

wouldn’t want to

and because there’s a great promise that

comes with it

now in malachi it says if you don’t

bring all the tithe into the storehouse

you’ll be cursed i don’t believe god

curses people because jesus bore the

curse

but i think a lot of times if we don’t

follow these principles

we forfeit blessings in our own life and

i figure if they could give

10 under the law what should we be doing

by grace

come on you may not like that you

haven’t even gotten even close to the 10

percent yet

see in the bible you know what word they

use

in the new testament you don’t see the

word tithe much it talks about how

melchizedek brought

brought tithes and i still believe it’s

valid today i mean abraham was tithing

long before the law was ever given so

you know

i don’t i don’t agree that it’s still

not something that we should do but i

don’t think

it’s going to keep you out of heaven if

you don’t

i don’t think god’s going to get mad at

you if you don’t

i don’t think that you forfeit all your

blessings but you do reap what you sow

and so here’s the word that the new

testament uses be generous

okay you know what the word generous

means to go beyond what’s required

come on now you see the requirement

in the old testament was 10

but now paul says be generous and you

know why he used that term

because he was talking to gentiles who

didn’t understand the word tithing

and so he said be generous

give and give beyond what you’re even

able to give

help people share everything that you

have

with people he didn’t ever talk about 10

it sounds to me like

everything had to be available to god i

mean

people in the book of acts they sold

their properties and they brought

everything and they all had in common

and they all

shared a like so i mean if you’re

wanting to keep your money you’d be

better off to live under the law

than to get messed up with jesus because

when you get hooked up with him

let me tell you something there is no he

money and she money and

you know hidden money in your wallet god

knows where it’s all at

and sometimes he’ll ask you to get it

out and give it

maybe to somebody you don’t even like

[Applause]

come on are you with me

we actually had somebody call the office

and they said i need to ask a question

i’ve got some friends

that are they’re actually into illegal

activity but they’re making a lot of

money

and they go to church all the time

and they feel like that

they’re not getting caught and god’s

blessing them

because of his grace what do you say

about that i laughed

so hard you know what i said

that is the dumbest question i have ever

heard

and i didn’t say that to the person but

when they brought me the question at the

office i said you got to be kidding

i mean how far off can we get

but here’s the thing satan deceives

people

a little tiny bit at a time

a little tiny bit a little tiny bit a

little tiny bit

that’s why we have to make sure that

what we believe

agrees with the word of god and that we

don’t just

base things on our experience alone

experience is valuable

but we learn by the word of god and by

life’s experiences

amen so

actually the bible teaches us that if if

we are legalistic

and make everything into a law that it’s

spirit it’s a sign of spiritual

immaturity

that spiritually mature people know how

to be

led and guided by the holy spirit

because god has written the law in our

hearts the ten commandments are written

in

our hearts now are you following me are

you okay

let me ask a question how many of you

are pretty good at

turning things into laws

how many of you don’t have a clue what

i’m talking about

all right i’ll give you an example

cleaning my house

i cleaned my house every day we vacuumed

every day

we dusted every day we polished every

mirror in the house every day because

see really i didn’t feel good about

myself

so i felt better if my surroundings were

all tidy

come on is anybody hearing anything i’m

saying

so you can turn bible

reading into a law

one time i got on this thing reading the

bible through in a year everybody at

church was reading the bible through in

a year

and so you had to read two chapters the

old testament two in the new one in

proverbs one in psalms every day six

chapters a day

and you’d get through the bible in a

year and we all had a calendar

and i put my calendar on the

refrigerator in the kitchen

so people would see that i was

well when you read your six chapters you

got a check mark

your flash loves check marks

i mean if you’re a legalist and you love

lists how many of you love

lists well now there’s nothing at all

wrong with a list

but here’s what can be wrong with the

list if you don’t get everything on your

list

list checked off and now you feel

condemned or guilty or bad about

yourself because of that

now it’s no longer a list to just keep

you disciplined

it’s your rule of laws that you have to

follow every day

one of my daughters who’s had a a real

turnaround in her life

because of finally understanding grace

was always very legalistic and i can

remember

she would she would write down on her

list the number of pieces of ironing

that was back when we actually had to

iron her clothes

that she wanted to get done every day

when on on ironing day

and if she didn’t get them done which

she never did because she set

unrealistic goals for herself

how many of you know sometimes we set

ourselves up

for a fall and so then if she didn’t get

them all done

then she’d feel bad about herself

herself and feel guilty about herself

all the time

so i i think a good thing to do

is stop counting everything

stop counting how long you pray and

how many chapters you read you know just

be led by the spirit

and learn something and stop doing

everything

by some kind of numerology so you can

feel good about yourself

i got into i got i was fine as long as i

had check marks on the calendar

but when i started getting these big

gaping holes because i wasn’t doing six

chapters a day

then i would go in the room where that

calendar was and i couldn’t wait to get

away from the thing

there was a lot there was a lot of

teaching at one time about

praying one hour a day can you not pray

with me one hour

scripture jesus said to his disciples so

everybody was praying an hour a day

well i had my clock and i tell you it

was exactly

60 minutes didn’t matter if what i said

made any sense didn’t matter if it was

coming out of my heart

i got in my hour

let me tell you something a lot of you

are a lot more legalistic than you think

you are and that’s one of the reasons

that you’re not enjoying your life

because the law does not bring joy it

brings death