Grace Is // Grace Like a Flood (Part 1)

Grace Is // Grace Like a Flood (Part 1)

Good Morning Family Prayer For Today: Heavenly Father, I want to pray for the people who are hurting on this Sunday morning. Those who want their lives to be better and to be free from the bondages that are causing problems in their life. Even though I may not know them,You know their situations. They may be tired, discouraged and frustrated, but don’t let them give up. For we know that You are a faithful God who wants to bless their life. Today, set them free from any bondage they may be struggling with. Help them to keep believing and increase their faith as the Holy Spirit leads their way. In Jesus name we pray, amen…???? Keep God First…………….

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Today we’re starting a brand new series called grace like a flood, and I’m so excited about it because

This message is not a message for you. This is a message that wrecked me first

I’ve been raised in a Christian household all my life, and so like I was bad, but like good bad

You know what I’m saying y’all

Y’all know, like I wasn’t out like cussing people out and like soon and all that other stuff

but I was sneaky and I was lying and I was

Watching pornography and I was so so like and that’s funny how everybody laughed when I said good bad because in our minds we have

delineations

Of like who’s bad?

And then who’s like good bad

Have you ever heard somebody say like I just told a little white lie

It does the same it’s a lie

But for some reason in our hearts and our minds

levels

And this is maybe one of the fundamental problems that we have in the Christian faith

And in the world today is because the levels to our sin in the levels to our faith

And the levels to our outward devotion and the levels – how many scriptures we post on Facebook

We categorized people on levels of how close. They are to God and

How far they are from God?

Like you ever said something like this like are they out there

They really out there by whose standards

Now like they’re out there compared to and the only person we usually can compare them to

So if you do it, I mean it’s not that bad

but if they’re doing something, that’s

Further than what you do it, and you thought they are out there, oh my god, did you hear did you see?

Ok can we be honest cuz we’re a hot church humble open and transparent

how many people have thought or say if somebody else was out there come on let’s just and you could have said it in a

Lot of different words, but but you said that

Because somehow we become the measuring stick of God’s goodness

Somehow God has chosen me

– now come on let’s be honest. It’s not what we say, but this one we do somehow. He’s chosen me to

Be the the temperature or the gauge

For how all other human beings are viewed by God

He ain’t gonna bless you for that

Because I wouldn’t do that and God’s blessing me

But you’re doing it and God’s not blessing you so I must be

The standard

Come on. Let’s be honest

This is stuff church people don’t say for half y’all came today because you feel like going to church makes you better than somebody else

oh

oh

oh

It’s gonna be one of those series

Like somehow your friend who was at the bar last night and got drunk, and and they’re their sleep right now

But you put on your Sunday’s best

Flatirons your hair put your mac makeup on

face it beat you understand what I’m saying you did all of that and you came in here and

Somehow your mere presence

Because you didn’t worship

You were looking around to see who was looking at you instead of who was looking at ya, oh oh

I see y’all pray for me front row. I need your prayers cuz they gonna come after me on it

But somehow your mere presence on the parking lot

Like it’s like when the worship says God is here you you think they’re saying you are here or something

Somehow it puts us on these levels

Why are you saying all that Pastor Mike?

Why is you? Why are you so accurate with your with your interpretation of this because it was me

Like that was me for so many years is

That I would never say it, but I always thought

I’m better than you I

Wasn’t mad at me

Because it was ingrained in me somehow

That because of the family. I was raised in the church. I went to the the people who knew me my prayers

Looks like a pray

And I gave a little bit, and I was faithful and I messed up, but who does it?

All of sin falling short of the glory of God, but I’ll fall as much as you

Write a book say what you really meant by the scripture. I’m alright. It would be a best because that’s what we really mean like

It works for me, but it doesn’t really apply to you

and that’s how it was and I would come into this very Church and lift my hands and

Feel like because somebody else wasn’t lifting their hands. Did I consider that man they may have lost the loved one

No, did I consider that they may have been paralyzed in one of their arms no?

Like we don’t consider nothing like what uh?

You see me Lord

Here I am sue

Offering plate gone by you pull out your wallet strong life. How many how many Lord am I gonna?

They could have given online you like don’t even know

but somehow

all of those things

feed this little

Insecurity in us that tells us somehow

I’m better than you

Where I live makes me better than you what our Drive makes me better than you

What opportunities I have that nobody knows about

But you’ll see like it’s funny when those people post like just cuz I ain’t saying nothing don’t mean nothing’s happening

Like I see a post like that once a week like make moves in silent. You just told us making moves

But it’s they all understand what I’m saying it’s this thing that we’re always trying to be on another level

then somebody else and

I was in a hotel in

Dallas on a sabbatical

July

2015 and I go away for one week every summer to just

Figure out what the Lord is trying to say for our church the next year and what he wants to say to me

God in that hotel room God didn’t speak nothing the whole first day

I came the second day, and I found this book called Jesus is by Judah

Smith and and God said I want you to read the whole book tomorrow now

I have never read a whole book in one day except like dr. Seuss or Chicka Chicka Boom Boom some of y’all know

so me y’all know what I’m talking about a whole book and literally 12 hours I

Read this entire book and at the end of the book. I was sitting there crying

Because it was a mirror basically exposing to me to my own judgment for Humanity

And how I was just as messed up and enos they were

As a pastor as a person who gave like their there was no difference

We all needed Jesus. We all needed the grace of God and

Then I proceeded to watch an 8 part series by pastor Robert Morris on Grace and y’all

For two days. I just said in that room and cried

because it was

27 28 years a

Feeling like somehow

That the guy and a homosexual relationship

Or the man who kidnapped the kids or the person who I’m better than them

And the reason why you don’t know what to say or do right now is because somewhere deep down in us

Many of us in this room

Feel like what people do is really who they are

And if they did it then somehow, and you didn’t then somehow you’re better than them and

Today I’m telling you this next six weeks

God is going to begin to tear through religion

No, I’m serious. He’s gonna begin to tear scales off of our eyes

to make you see if you’re the suburban mom

Who has a nine bedroom house and goes on vacation twice a year and you’re a homeless person?

living and eating out of the trash can

You both are still in need of the same grace

that is provided only by Jesus Christ I

Not know, it’s hard for some people to hear that right now, so I’m gonna explain it i’ma going to it

Let’s open up our hearts

And and and just go into this so my first point today is I don’t want to title this message grace is just

Grace is I called it Amazing Grace and I’ve done all this other stuff

But I just want to call it grace is and my first point. I want to say is grace is amazing

like like and this is the thing that a lot of people don’t understand is because

We say Amazing Grace and be singing uh

Xenon

Sirs flame

But why is grace amazing?

like

Not enough just to have grace, but explain to me

Amazing Grace

Like what does it mean to do something amazing?

And I begin to think about this because as I’m studying this and remember God has given me a full

Revelation like I up into this point when God showed me this. I’ve never heard a full message on grace

I only heard like like God’s grace is sufficient or this cliches and stuff like that

But really talking about grace seeing the balance of it seeing what it’s not seeing what it is

I never heard it, and so I got God just beginning to speak to me

And I was like what’s so amazing about grace and as I looked into it

I looked at that word amazing and that word amazing is talking about things that are unusual

Doesn’t make sense um um things that are uh

Abstract and over-the-top feats

Kind of like um some of y’all have seen American Ninja Warrior has anybody seen that show okay has anybody competed on that show

Okay, cool, okay

Me and my daughter were watching it last night, and I’ve been watching

I I don’t know why I love that show, and if you don’t know what that show is it’s basically people doing

extremely hard

obstacle courses for adults

Basically and these people are training for years

And doing all of this stuff to make this happen and I was watching it with my daughter last night

And it was so funny because it was her first time seeing it like actually watching it with me

And I’ve been watching it for a long time and she said daddy

How is he doing that I said girl don’t ask me? I don’t know

She said he’s so strong and then she started to list all these attributes his muscles are so big, and then she look at me

And she learn he said daddy do your muscles do this I said yes, yes, they do

They’re in process, but they do do that. I said I had him now but um

And then I said Bella isn’t that amazing she said yeah, that’s amazing

Because not the average person could do that

Not the average

Can can hang from a two-inch a piece of wood?

for 20 feet and that the average person could do that and

I begin to think about it and God said when it’s amazing it’s not average

When it’s amazing it’s something that the average person can’t do or maybe let’s take it a step further when we talk about God

It’s it’s something that they wouldn’t do

And so I said, okay?

So God your grace is amazing so so what does that mean and God said most of my people in the world today?

Don’t understand grace

He said and they definitely don’t understand Amazing Grace okay people in the world. He said no no people in my church

Like my children like people they don’t understand grace, and they don’t understand Amazing Grace, and he said Michael just think about how many believers

Came in two houses of worship today, but they have a sense of shame

condemnation and a fear failure

How many people sitting in this room and watching right now are performance oriented and perfection driven? Oh?

It’s gonna be quiet in here today

How many of us have father wounds?

How many of us believers live depressed and discouraged because they feel that they can never measure up?

Like like this is what’s happening in the church people who’s put their faith in Jesus. This is what’s happening?

Every day and that’s because we don’t understand the grace of God

Because somehow you feel like it’s still your works that is making you accepted by God

Somehow you feel like it’s your paycheck and and how you dress and how your house is always clean

And how everybody precedes you you think that’s why I love you

You you you you are in a place right now

Believing the lie that the enemy wants you to believe that somehow

After you receive God’s grace now you have to work to keep it

So I’m out here, I’m doing everything I can cuz I don’t want to make daddy scared

I don’t want to make God mad, and that’s why you have so many people that are in church for years

And they’ve been serving God out of fear

Not out of love. They’re scared that the dad who adopted them is

Gonna one day put them out of the house

so I won’t be the child who does anything wrong because if I do one thing wrong I

Will be ashamed. I will be kicked out. I’ll be flown away and

Somehow, I’ll never get the experience the father’s love and that’s why you have generations of people who have gone to church religiously

But they’re empty and their children aren’t going to church because they see that it’s fake and now we have a whole group of people

That are unchurched and D Church

Because they don’t want to have to be feared into something they want to love something

And

That lets me know as a church. We don’t understand grace I

Heard a prominent pastor explain it like this. He said

Grace is like this. It’s like you’re in a boat, and there’s a current pulling you towards hail and

then God provides oars and

That’s grace

And as long as you get those oars, and you keep rowing and you go against the current pulling you to hell

You’re gonna make it to heaven

And he said grace is the divine enablement

To keep on rolling

And a lot of people would agree with that, but then I would know you don’t understand grace

Because that wouldn’t be amazing grace. That would be amazing you

This is me giving this is me serving. This is me. It would be amazing you and you’re not that amazing and

He went on to say he’s like no, no you guys kind of understand

He was talking to a large group of people and it broke my heart because when you know better you do better

I didn’t understand grace so seven years ago. I would have listened to him be like yes. Yes row row row your boat

like

That’s that would have been me but

When I understood it I was like

I gotta just keep rowing all my life and keep the law and keep going against like how and

He said I pulled a hundred pastors

And I asked him what is Grace and they said something like thee the unmerited favor of God, and he said yeah

But ten percent said it’s a divine enablement

To live a new life

And he said I think the churches missed it grace is the divine in a moment to live a new life

And and I was like god that sound kind of right, but I don’t like what he said Michael

He missed the key ingredient. He said he asks. What grace is

not what grace does

Grace does empower you to

Live a new life it does

Empower you to say no the temptations that you used to have it does

Empower you to put down the bottle who had control over your life

it does do that, but grace is and I want you to write this definition down because it’s going to be the

Anchor of this whole script this whole series grace is the unmerited

Undeserved

unearned

kindness and favor of God

That’s what grace is it’s unmerited. It’s undeserved, and it’s unearned

Like there’s nothing you did

Like your what you do

Does not allow God to put His grace on display for you?

It is

Unmerited undeserved and unearned, and it’s the kindness and favor of God

And this is gonna be a foundation message today

Because it’s gonna. Take me five weeks to get this in your heart like like like because some of you

There’s like. I just cracked religion right now like you’re just like

What is that?

Okay, just keep coming

Keep hearing because God is going to show us

And and and I want you to know that that I’m gonna just unpack these words

So let’s let’s do this if that’s the title of the message is grace is the first one is Grace is amazing and the second

Point is grace is unmerited

Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8 I’m gonna read this in

Three different translations cuz it just gives gooder and gooder, and I know that ain’t right

Oh my college professors. I don’t know, but that’s what it feels like it. Just gets good or and good look

Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8 it says for by grace

Everybody say that word grace

For by grace you have been saved through one action faith

So like when you put your faith in Jesus Christ you

Have now been extincted grace

Only through your ability to receive it through faith, okay, and that not of yourselves

And I love that because it tells you because you would try to take credit for it

It’s not your rolling that allows you to

Experience the grace of God it is the gift of God somebody say gift of God not

of works

Lest anyone should boast see there’s a lot of boasting going down going on down here, but there will be no boasting in heaven

Because everybody that that makes it to heaven will know I have much to do with this

Because I can playback the replay of all my mistakes

but the grace of God tells me that he cast my sins as far as

The East is from the West it says he chooses not to remember. Oh y’all come on cuz March 25th

1968 you was out there yeah out there

But God was right there with you and somehow we forget

That it’s not of our works. I’m a read this in the amplified version for it is by grace

God’s remarkable compassion and favor drawing you to Christ so if there’s any current

It’s not a current drawing you to Hale

There’s a parent that’s trying to draw you to Christ

That the Bible says it’s the Holy Spirit who draws unto salvation

And and and and life circumstances and issues they they’re the things that become dams and boulders, but God he’s after you

He wants a relationship with you no matter how many times you’ve messed up fouled up

He wants this with you and look at it. It says that you have been saved

actually delivered from judgment and given eternal life through faith and

This salvation is not of yourselves not do your own effort

Like not because of what you did

But it is the undeserved gracious gift of God

Not as a result of your works like it’s being very redundant because at some moments

I think that I

mean I didn’t deserve it back then but God you know I’ve been good like I’m doing good it like I’m

Serving you now like I’ve gone six months without having sex with somebody

I’m I’m good and and it keeps coming back to the same thing. It’s not of your works

It’s not because you gave that large offering it’s not because you served the orphans in Haiti

It’s the free gift of God

He said

He says but it is the undeserved gracious gift verse 9 not as a result of your works. Nor your attempts to keep the law

So that no one will be able to boast or take credit in any way for his salvation

I’m gonna read it in the message version. It says now God has us right where he wants us

With all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus

Saving is all his idea and all his work all we do look what we do trust him

We trust him enough to let him do it oh my god, that is good Bible

This should be friends somebody right now

Cuz there’s no way you could keep the law you set for yourself

Like okay, come on. Let’s be honest. You said you ain’t eating doughnuts this week

You set the law

Nobody else said it how did you end up in Krispy kream line?

Cuz we’re unable to

Keep the law that we even said

So, what do you do?

It says

All we do is trust him enough to let him do it

It’s God different start to finish

We don’t play a major role if we did we’d probably go around bragging that we’ve done the whole thing

No, we neither make or save ourselves

God does both the making and

the savings

Y’all

That’s such good Bible right there

So it’s not because of your rowing and

And we won’t be able to boast about it

And so when I when I started looking at this I know that this goes against a lot of people’s

philosophy about themselves because the only reason you feel good about yourself is because

You’re boasting about what you didn’t even do

Like my life has changed girl. Yeah, I know back in high school

I was like that, but now I got a job that paid me well. I got two guys fighting over me

I got I’m insurance. I’ll do a Bible study. I have a Christian glam squad. I mean we’re

And somehow I needed God when I got out of college, but somehow 10 years later after all my good deeds

It became my rowing

Do you understand what I’m saying and what happens is I know this sucks cuz it doesn’t make you better than nobody

Like and this is the hard thing where religion comes in and and tries to make

The differences know what we believe in this and then you believe in that it, and then we do this

But you only do it on this day, and and which

Everybody’s trying to be the one who’s God’s favorite

And what God’s looking at all of us and saying you’re all my favorites I

Love all of you to say evens around

He cussed you out Lord, I heard him, anyhow right now in your presence

Even Jerome as a matter of fact y’all hold on cuz I’ll leave the ninety-nine

Y’all didn’t got in touch. I’ll leave I know y’all good, but my child

And then we sitting here looking like the prodigal

Brother not the prodigal son of the protocols brother see y’all like yeah, that’s me no no

Why are you blessing him?

Why what you never threw a party for me, and I’ve been faithful, and I’ve been I’ve been holding on to your promises

I’ve been doing like why are you?

Because God’s coming to us today in this grace like a flood series, and he’s saying everything I’ve ever had

You

Could throw a party whenever you want to but the reason we’re celebrating is custom homeless loss

Come on church

but now he’s found and

He didn’t merit it. He did nothing to deserve this a matter of fact. He did the opposite

So what happened?

She feeling miss messes, huh

Listen so what happens when God

Extends his grace in his love even when you’re running the opposite direction

And then he asked you to help throw the party

To do the invite list

Do y’all hear what I’m saying. That’s when we’ll understand do we really understand grace

Are we still feeling somewhere, it’s about our works and

I wanna I want you to understand that grace is unmerited say that grace is

Unmarried we don’t merit the grace of God

And I as I begin to study this I was trying to think of examples of where this applied in my life

And I probably have one of the best fathers in the world. I don’t just have a good father

I have a grace filled father a prominent man of God said it like this

He said Tommy Todd is grace personified, and I didn’t understand what to say he would say it all the time

And I’ll be like okay great

What does that mean when I understood this that?

Grace is unmerited I

Pretend I just flash back in my mind

to all these examples and I

Remember one specifically that happened almost every week when me and my brothers were in middle school in high school

I have four brothers and inevitably one of us would forget or use prematurely our lunch money

every day

and that was the time where they start putting pop machines and

Fruitopia and I’ll no switch I had but boy that fruits. Hopefully a strawberry Kiwi. Just kept taking my dollars just

It was the bomb yeah

We broke

And and what ended up happening

Was we call our dang and like clockwork every

day one of my brothers

He would come and give us a new lunch money now. It’s only from eight to twenty like what it’s only four hours

How did you spend your six dollars of your eight dollars in four hours?

And and this is the thing that I always remembered he never

Punished us or and he never

Asked why we kept doing it. It was almost as if as a father

He expected that his children

would mess up

And he already was always prepared to take care of all of our stupid mistakes

And when I begin to think about what grace is it’s our Heavenly Father

Already taking in consideration, Oh your stupid mistakes and

Said I’m gonna send the payment that

We’ll be able to take care of all of your mistakes

And when I saw that I said, man

That’s what grace like a flex length

Or many of us if we were doing that in our kids. We’re doing that

You ain’t eating today, I guess you bout too fast

Because I gave you money, what did you do with the money? It don’t matter you ain’t got it no more, huh?

So I want you to do something now go to the lunchroom and watch everybody else eat

So maybe tomorrow

Come on let’s be honest

Cuz we’re always in a place where we feel like we gotta teach you

That what you did you suffer for oh?

Come on, y’all

I’m just I’m just trying to this is what the word is telling us right here, but once you receive the grace of God you

Get to experience another level of God’s faithfulness

so the grace of God is

Unmerited I heard. It said like this the Bible says love covers a multitude of sin

the MLT version the Michael Living Translation, I say grace covers a multitude of stupid sins

Because that’s really what ends up happening you cheated on your wife

God doesn’t throw you away. He says let me in today

Can I help you with that?

and I can restore what looks broken to the world and

I can make it something that other people can learn from

But you gotta like that grace like a flood

Come into that situation

and this is the sad thing about us many of us don’t want it for other people because we haven’t accepted it for ourselves I

Must say that one more time many of us do not want grace like a flood to be poured out for other people

Because we have not truly accepted it for ourselves

God is not holding you hostage to what you did when you were in college

you’re holding yourself hostage and

He keeps saying can we move past this I?

Already paid for it

It’s already paid for you want to keep talking about it

I’ll be here until

You realize that?

Any man that be in Christ

He’s a new creation

behold the old has

Everything in your life no

But you can say that

But the question is do you believe it so the grace of God is unmerited the next one the grace of God is

Undeserved somebody say grace is undeserved

You don’t deserve it

That’s the point-blank period of this whole point even though you’re a leader even though you’re a better person

Even though you’re more humble even though now you have a big house

Even though you’re generous even though you’re in a pure relationship you do not deserve the grace of God

look what Romans 3:24 says it says being justified freely or

Undeservedly by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus

Let’s unpack this word grace a little bit this word grace

Actually in the Greek is the word Horace a lot of people say Karis, but it actually is pronounced Horace

And if you’ve named your daughter Karis don’t go home and start calling her her ease okay

But-but-but this word is actually a Greek word before it was a spiritual word so God chose to use this word to

To be able to show us what grace is in life

and so I begin to study it what it meant in the Greek and and and it always referred to a

Superior giving a benevolent gift to an inferior not an inferior person

But maybe they were inferior in goods or inferior in something that they had and so what would end up happening is let’s say

Somebody owned a shoe store, and they were superior. They could provide shoes Charles come here and help me real quick

You’re gonna be the superior you stand right there, okay, so so let’s say Charles wanted to provide shoes

And and and there was somebody that that needed shoes

And and and they um they wanted to bless them so sweetheart. What’s your name?

Gabrielle come here come help me Gabrielle. Okay? Um. This is this is what would happen is that the logical thing?

this is the picture of grace okay that a

Superior in goods or resources would give to the inferior and most of us is like ah that’s grace

But when you study it out in the Greek this may surprise you there was always a third party

involved in this word grace

so there would be the superior the

Inferior that needed. What was there and these are the closest on words in the English language

So I wouldn’t use these in spiritual terms

But I just trying to get you to get the picture this would be the paid the patron okay

This would be the client, but there was always a third party in his name was the broker

and

What would happen is?

This person say I can provide the goods and and and and the brokers job was to bring the person who had it

Together with the person who needed it

But there was something else that happened. Can you give me that real quick?

So the broker didn’t just bring him together the broker paid for it, too

So you made it and

I now know who needs it

But you said I want to bless people kind of like Tom’s have y’all ever heard the story of toms

And how they make shoes for and then every shoe that’s bought here somebody in a third-world country kid so you made it

But I know who needs it, and I’m not just gonna give it to him. I’m gonna pay for it in full

This this is the Greek meaning of hurry or grace and

I as the broker went last night and paid for these Nikes

okay, and

because I saw them heels you have on today I

Went and paid for it from somebody who made it and knew what needed to happen

But now I’ve paid for it in full and I’m going to give it to the person who’s in need

Don’t miss this picture the saint of faith example. These are your Nikes okay?

Do you see her face cuz she didn’t deserve it

She didn’t earn it and she didn’t merit it, but I was thinking about her last night. I

Was thinking about her when she wasn’t even thinking about her sad

Baby girl god bless you

There you go till y’all give it up for them as an example

That is the picture of grace does that sound familiar?

Jesus is the broker

He’s the one that said God

What do you need me to do cuz the world needs you and he said I will go and pay for it on the tree

And I’m not putting a down payment on it. I’m gonna pay it

boom, Oh

Somebody ought to give God some praise like that

That God paid for it in fool for your mess ups for your shirt to off feel the presence of

Somebody y’all need to recognize this God didn’t put your salvation on layaway

Excuse me layaway you

General a layaway. It’s one word you don’t know what layaway is where you you pick it out

And you put a little down and then and then we come back, and we we put a little more on it

And that’s what we feel like coming to church is

Putting putting a little more

When we serve I don’t really like doing this guy’s not really transformed my heart, but I got to put a little something

To keep must

When you accepted Jesus it was paid in full I

Hear you I hear you, but that’s the mic you’ve now just given people a license to sin

They don’t need permission

If they don’t see it

See it can’t be love and to there’s a choice and

I know pastors and leaders who are watching it. It’s easier to keep a congregation and controlled if you scared them

It literally is that’s why the church has been built on hail and you’re just not going to hail

Like you’re gonna. End up in hail like you gonna. It’s like a scare tactic, but who are you really love?

That it’s out of fear

And what I’m saying is I know this is messing with all your religion like I know like you’re like wow

And then they’re going to think they can do I would rather people hear this

go while out and sin hit rock bottom and

See that the only thing they need

Instead of

Living a lukewarm life

If I’m saved on Sunday wiling out Monday through Saturday

but I’m putting a little bit on my layaway of salvation the

Grace of God

is undeserved

Just say it one more time grace is undeserved I

Heard this story about a man named

Edward Victor here and some of you know maybe dr. Eva Hill he was prominent in

the church world

he tells the testimony on how he was a young man and

he felt the call to be a preacher and

He told his mom mom

I’m gonna be a preacher one day

And she said I believe that so you’re gonna go to college and so all growing up

He was a young minority, and he he thought all the way to he’s about 12 13 years old

He was going to college because he would always say it

And then he started to realize the at this point in our nation’s history

It was very hard for an african-american young man to get into a college let alone have the finances to pay for it

he realized he was being raised by a single mother and

And they just didn’t have it, so he said I’m I’m still gonna be a preacher

I’m just not gonna go to college and so he started telling himself that and then one day got the courage to tell his mom

And so he says mom you know I’m still gonna be a preacher, but I’m not going to college. She said boy shut up

She said you’re going to you gone to college y’all know gone like that’s one word that’s going but it’s gone you gone

She said you’re going to college and she said look them square in his eyes. She said God will provide

He said okay, I will provide or we still broke

We’re still struggling

He goes throughout his high school career

he would get down again and

He said mama I’m still gonna be a preacher like I’m studying the scriptures on them

But I’m probably not gonna get to go to college there

There’s no assistance for me right now, but I can’t do it when she says son

Square in the house God will provide

So his mom sent him to the Registrar’s Office on the day that everybody’s supposed to get their schedules

and

he’s standing in a line and

And and standing in a college register line don’t mean much because they will let you get all your stuff and then like deny you

At the last moment like you got booked. See you got all

Denied like and so he’s standing there

Five people back, and he said he’s just shaking

cuz he has no money and

His mom said go cuz God’s gonna provide for

People back three people back two people back. He said when he got

Up to the window and the woman said can I help you he said a man

Stepped up next to him took out his hand put a lot of money in it and he said son

God will provide oh, yeah

Y’all

he gave the money to the woman she

Beginning to counted out told him what the bill was and it was enough for him to get registered

She took a big red stamp and over the receipt. She said boom and it said paid in

And

For the first time in his life

All the Scriptures he studied came to this point and he said I remember thinking. That’s what Jesus did for us

He paid our bill in

Full if you don’t hear anything else that I say

You didn’t merit

The kindness favor and goodness of God you don’t deserve

The favor kindness and goodness of God and my last point is

grace is unearned and

This is the one that a lot of people get messed up on the Romans 11:6 says and if by grace then

It’s no longer of works otherwise grace is no longer grace, but if it’s of work

It’s no longer grace otherwise work is no longer work. Let me help you understand this

Let’s substitute for grace and works free and earned cuz Romans 6 26 tells us that we receive the free gift of God Romans

3:24 tells us that being justified freely by His grace

So I just want to say this scripture a different way just substituting the words so Romans 11:6

remixed if it’s free

It’s not earned

Otherwise free is not free if it’s earned

It’s not free otherwise earn does not earn

This scriptures are saying either grace is one or two things. It’s free or it’s earned

And many of us don’t want to accept that the grace of God is a free gift

Like like it’s unearned look what the baker encyclopedia of the Bible says about it

It says grace is the dimension of divine activity that enables God took?

human indifference and rebellion with an inexhaustible

capacity to forgive and to bless

Thank you you can’t run out of forgiveness for us

Cute you won’t stop blessing us

It’s free like

Like you can never be given a gift that you have to pay for

It’s not a gift. Just imagine you being at your birthday party like oh my god Sally

Oh, we thought about you here. You go, and you open them. You’re like oh

Like do you like it? Yes, that’ll be eighty six thousand fifty two cents

You wouldn’t even know I don’t even like it. This is ugly actually

Because

It’s it’s not free if I have to pay for it

Get this grace is not free it’s not a gift

Which the scripture says over and over it’s the free gift of God. It’s the free gift of God

What can you do with the gift? What’s the only thing you can do?

receive it

And that’s why God is coming to you every Sunday here a transformation church, and he’s trying to give you the gift of grace and

And Grace has a name

Jesus grace is bonus point grace is Jesus

That’s all in it and every day and every day the Bible says in Revelation he stands at the door and knocks I

Have a package for you I

Have transformation for you, I healing for you, you know you don’t want me today, okay, I’ll be back tomorrow

Hey, it’s me again, Jesus. I can’t grace

Ya know I’ve been here since you were 10 when you went to that that camp and you almost received me then

But you thought that your failures in what you did the night before

made you unworthy but

like I

I’ve been watching you every day

Since you’ve been born. I know this is a little weird, but like I know the number of hairs on your head I

Know that’s crazy. You don’t even know that I don’t know it’s crazy

Why do you want me

What I should have to pay

For all of the things that yeah about that like no no no no the wages of your sin was death there was a payment

But yo like if you let me in I could tell you about our Father

Like and so our Father like yo, you haven’t met him yet, but when you do

You’ll never meet a

more graceful person in your life

like he saw you here in this decade and

So he sent me

and

So everything that you would do that would create this long bill

Man, we got a good dad. He paid for it

like like no no

But you got to understand like I heard that it was all these rules rituals and regulations

Now broke like this is what you got to understand like once you meet that

You’ll just want to do things different

Like like once you meet that you won’t be looking for your security on a posting Instagram where you have to be naked

Cuz you’ll know who’s you are now like you just been out here by yourself

Can I can I please come in I’m not ready yet, okay cool

I’ll be here tomorrow and the day after that and I’ll show a picture job

And I’m working a little things like like that promotion you got

That was me

No, that was me

Okay, but you you know you’re not that good

Like you know you copied and pasted everything for that presentation. I was there remember I was there I

Mean I was outside I was outside the window I saw it what?

Well maybe another day tomorrow’s not promised

But just in case just in case

I’ll be here

See the grace of God it’s unearned

And I want to show you a picture of grace

We’re done today. I just hope you really realize

That the grace of God for you is amazing

grace is

unmerited

the grace of God is undeserved and the grace of God is unearned and

the grace of God is a person the grace is Jesus I

Want to show you a picture of grace there’s this man named dick and Rick Hoyt?

It’s it’s a father and a son

Rick was born with the umbilical cord around his neck and so he he had brain damage

And so he’s never been able to walk or talk a day in his life

They found out though that he was extremely smart so his mom Julie and

Dick they they taught him how to read the alphabet with just blinking his eyes and moving his eyes

And he would he learned this and so then they got together with

Some developers in 1973 and they developed the technology

that would allow him to basically move his eyes like a cursor on a mouse and then like bumped something with his head as

like a

Clicker and he would be able to talk for the first time in 1973 now think about that technology

it’s in use all over the world today, but they built it for him and

One day they had a tragic accident. He’s in high school now

They had a tragic accident with one of the kids at his school, and he he typed out with his eyes

he the city was doing a 5k run to raise money for the family of his friend that that was tragically paralyzed and

He told his dad. I want to run in that race

So his dad beginning a train not a runner

Not anybody who’s ever done any athletics like this, but he begin to train because his only son

decided he wanted to run in this race and

So they ran in that 5k

And at the end of the 5k his dad dick looked at Rick and he said how do you feel?

And he typed out he said this is the first time in my life that I haven’t felt handicapped

and

So his dad continued to Train

he literally committed his life to

Making sure that his son

Could experience that feeling over and over and over again and so since then

these two have done over 72 marathons and

over

255 triathlons

And if you don’t know what a triathlon is I looked it up cuz I did a triathlon is 2.4 miles of swimming

26.2 miles of running and a hundred and twelve miles of biking

They’ve done that over

250 five times

So so when dick is running

Rick is being pulled behind him or being pushed in front of him

When when when dick is swimming?

Rick is in a life raft

Being pulled by his father

And when when dick is cycling Rick is on the seat in front of the bike being carried I?

Want to show you I hope you’ve never forget this a picture of grace

Who taught the son

And who told them you can love this file

Hi whose words

Every the same god, that’s things

Oh

To 12

Every time I watched it it messes me up

Because I’m the young man in the chair

And anything I’ve been able to do in this life

It’s been because God has been pulling me. He’s been pushing me, and he’s been carrying me by His grace

The grace of God

Is amazing

Cuz none of us deserve it have earned it or mareting

Thank God for Jesus