Walk in Faith

Speaker 1: 0:00

Now, have you ever gotten a gift that was so thoughtful, so kind? It just made your heart feel great, like oh my gosh, I can't believe you thought about me to give me this thing. That's how I felt on my 28th birthday when I opened up for president and it was a pregnancy test from my wife saying that we were having our first kid. That was like oh my gosh, that was like a mixture of happiness and fear. That was great. But on the opposite side, had you ever received a gift from someone that you weren't expecting and it wasn't something that you wanted? And then you had to do the fake. Omg, I'm so glad you got me this. Like you shouldn't have, like really you shouldn't have. I think we all we love gifts. You know, for me that's one of my love languages gift given or gift getting given as much that's too much pressure. But this past Valentine's Day my wife and I got a gift that was so thoughtful and so kind. That really blessed us. Our five year old daughter, kingsley, has this little jar of money that she puts. She puts money in there and she does little chores around the house. We always kind of drop our loose change in there, and so our five year old, with her own money and her own plan, her own strategizing, met up, scheduled a time with her aunt to take her to the store to buy Aaron and I a Valentine's Day present. Now, so thoughtful when she was doing it oh my gosh, she's so kind Now. She did this a few weeks before Valentine's Day, so when Valentine's Day came I actually forgot that she did this right. So Valentine's morning comes and Aaron, my wife she does such a great job making little holidays like that so special for our kids and they came downstairs. They have balloons and they got their own little gift basket with chocolate and crafts and stuff. The kids are all happy for it. But then, kingsley, after we give the kids their gifts, kingsley all of a sudden remembers that she got us a gift. So she runs upstairs, she comes down with this bag and it has two little boxes of chocolate and one bear that we had to share. But it was so thoughtful, the gift was so thoughtful that she went out of her way to do it and it was one of those moments, that man, I felt so loved. I felt so loved by my own, by my kids, so it was pretty cool.

Speaker 1: 2:27

Today we are kicking off a series that will lead us to Easter Sunday called Live in Grace, and for the next four weeks we are going to talk about the gift of God's grace. We're going to talk about the gift of God's grace that he gives us freely, without question, the gift of God's grace and what it actually means for us to live in God's grace. So we're going to talk about how to walk in faith, how to walk in love, walk in purpose and walk in joy. And my hope I got a hope for us church my hope for the next four weeks leading to Easter Sunday that this message series will be a source of joy for your life. That's been my prayer as we're going into the Easter season. I feel like the Lord said he wants to bring joy to people, and so if you're going through a hard time right now I love what Gina had to say in the worship section If you're going through a hard time, if you're dealing with some problems, you're dealing with some anxieties and fears, the joy of the Lord is your strength. The joy of the Lord is your strength. And then we're going to talk about what it looks like to experience this gift of grace and joy as we celebrate Easter Sunday.

Speaker 1: 3:32

So okay, but what is grace? What is it? What is grace? What is something you say before you eat fried chicken before dinner God, make this grease healthy for me, in Jesus' name. Is that what it is? Or is grace the girl that got away? I was so in love, but she got away, no, no, no. What is grace? So what makes grace so special? So, to understand what grace is, let's first understand what grace is not. So grace is not mercy, okay, grace is not mercy. Grace is also not justice. Grace is not mercy and grace is not justice. Here's a pretty good illustration to get a point across If I was speeding which I never do If I was speeding and I got a ticket, and I was speeding and I knew I was speeding, and I got a ticket and I went to court and I stood before the judge.

Speaker 1: 4:30

The judge has a couple of decisions that the judge can make. She can look at me and say, well, I'm going to give you justice, and justice is I sped, I broke the law, I'm found guilty, I have to pay the fee. That's justice. Whether we like it or not, it's justice. You know it's justice. However, the judge can show mercy, which is mercy is I sped, I broke the law, I'm found guilty, but the judge lets me off with a warning no fees, nothing attached. The judge shows me mercy, which is very nice. It might be on my record, but it will fade off in a little bit and I don't have to pay for this. So that's mercy, grace.

Speaker 1: 5:13

However, grace isn't something entirely different. Grace is I sped, I broke the law. The judge then says even though you sped and you broke the law, I'll take your place and I'll consider myself guilty. I'll make myself guilty of your crime and since I'm guilty of your crime, I'll pay the fee. You go and be free. That's grace. That's grace. The judge didn't have to do that, but willingly does it. Not based on anything I do, I'm in the wrong, I was speeding, I wasn't paying attention. Grace is the undeserved favor of God. It's the undeserved favor of God and this is good news.

Speaker 1: 6:05

And today I want to teach you some good theology. Hopefully, I'm always teaching good theology, but today I really want to teach some good theology on how to live in grace as us, as everyday people who are learning how to become Jesus followers. How can we live a life in the grace that God offers us, in the power that comes with it for our lives, because we live in a world that does not believe in grace. We live in a world that is full of bitterness, ready to cancel people, throw people away. We live in a world where a bunch of Christians are sometimes the most judgmental out all of them, and our churches are filled with people who close doors to people whose hearts are searching for God. So we live in a world where we have so much self-hate talk that we can't really believe that there's a God who can love us unconditionally. So, god, who pours out this scandalous grace on us?

Speaker 1: 6:59

I got some scriptures today and I'm going to encourage you to read scriptures from your own. Let me say something real fast. Anytime I preach something from the stage, I encourage you to read it for yourself too. Don't just take my word for it. You dive into the word, you dive into God's heart and God will speak to you. That's what our small group semesters do on this year.

Speaker 1: 7:19

Our small group semester this year is taking the message and then expanding upon what we learned in the community here to your life, because we want people. We want people. Here you go. Here's our heart. We want people to be with Jesus. We want you to come in on Sunday, be with Jesus, worship, saying to God, but we just want you to be with Jesus, and that's it. We want you to become like Jesus. We see, the best way for you to become like Jesus is in the context of healthy relationships, which is our small groups, just small groups. Here you go.

Speaker 1: 7:46

First one I want to read from the message paraphrase of the Bible, because it highlights some of these important truths for us. Romans 5-12 says this you know the story of how Adam landed us in this dilemma. We're in first sin, then death. No one except from either sin or death. So to understand grace, we have to go back to the creation story. Adam and Eve. They lived in Eden and they lived in perfect paradise. Then they eat from a pineapple tree. See, I believe it's a pineapple tree. That's why pineapples are so difficult to open. Then, even after you open them and eat them, they make your tongue feel all crazy. That's my opinion. It could be an apple, but they're red and delicious, anyways. So here you go. So this is what happens they sin. Romans continues.

Speaker 1: 8:35

It says that sin disrupted relations with God in everything and everyone, but the extent of the disruption was not clear until God spelled it out in detail to Moses. So then enters the law, which we get the 10 commandments From. There, though. God gave us 10 commandments. God gave Moses 10 commandments, but it expanded to 613 commandments. So that's a lot of laws to keep up with.

Speaker 1: 9:03

That's a lot of laws. If you violated one of those laws not one law wasn't more important or less important than other. If you violated one of the 613 laws, you had to have an animal sacrifice. It separated you from God. So what the law really did was to show people how bad they really were. That's what, at the end of it. That's what it was. It showed people how bad they really were. It's like if you're a parent or if you work with kids anytime you tell a kid not to do something, what's the thing that they do, the thing you told them not to do. It's human nature, isn't it? When you have something, don't do it, you want to test it and see what it is. That's what the law did. Here you go, so death.

Speaker 1: 9:47

Then this huge abyss separating us from God dominated the landscape from Adam to Moses, even those who didn't sense, precisely as Adam did, by disobeying the specific command of God, still had to experience his termination of life, this separation from God. But Adam, who got us into this, also points ahead to the one who will get us out of it. So God, from the very beginning, had a rescue plan. He had a rescue plan in mind, in motion. Yet the rescuing gift is not exactly parallel to the death deal and sin. If one man's sin put the crowds of people at dead in abyss of separation from God, just think, here you go. Just think God's gift poured through one man, jesus Christ, will do so.

Speaker 1: 10:31

We are separate from God because of sin. That's the basic way we do it. Our sin separates us from God. Another way to understand it is like this If I had a 100% purified water, I had a water bottle, 100% purified water and I'm running the half-marathon. Come on and I grab my water bottle and I drink it and there's a little dribble, it and my sweat gets into the water bottle. What happens to the water? It's not 100% purified anymore, it's what contaminated. That's what our sin did to a holy God, like if we couldn't be in God's presence because of our sin. So our sin separates us from a holy God. Check this out.

Speaker 1: 11:12

Let's continue, though. There's no comparison between the death deal and sin and this generous, life-giving gift. The verdict on that one sin was the death sentence. The verdict on the many sins that follow was this life sentence If death got the upper hand through one man's wrongdoing. Here you go. I love the way Eugene Peterson puts this. Can you imagine the breathtaking recovery life makes absolute life, and those who grasp with both hands this wildly extravagant life gift, this grand set in everything right that one man Jesus Christ provides. Can you imagine a grace like that, grace upon grace? Here it is in a nutshell Just as one person did it wrong and got us into all this trouble with sin and death, another person did it right and got us out of it.

Speaker 1: 12:04

Come on, but more. There's more, but more than just getting us out of trouble, he got us into life. So we don't got to walk around being like, oh yeah, I'm glad that God got me out of trouble, but you know, I'm still just this person and I still just always have this addiction and I still always have this problem. Thank you, god, that you saved me, but I'm just like thanks, no, no, no, he didn't get you just out. He didn't save you so you can stay in your brokenness. He saved you so you can move in the freedom that he offers you, the life that is really worth living, a life that says I'm alive and I'm doing this thing. Come on, here you go. It continues.

Speaker 1: 12:52

He said one man said no to God and put many people in the wrong. One man said yes to God and put many in the right. All the passing laws against sin did was produce more lawbreakers. Lean in church, check this out. But sin didn't and doesn't have a chance in competition with the aggressive forgiveness we call grace. Come on, I love this language. So I got to say something because often when we speak about sin and our addictions and our problems and our pains, we hype them up. We hype them up. We use phrases like sin just caught me, sin was chasing me down, this problem got the best of me. I want you to know.

Speaker 1: 13:33

Today Jesus came up on the scene and he said the kingdom of God is at hand. He said the kingdom of God is here and now. He said repent and believe the good news, meaning that God's grace is more aggressive than sin can ever be that God's grace pursues you, is chasing after you, is for you and wants you more than sin could ever want you. Come on, get a little excited, because Jesus saved my life. Jesus gave me grace when I had none. Jesus gave me hope when I didn't see any and he gave me faith to know that my yesterdays don't have to define me, but what he did on that cross will, and three days later he rose again. Come on, it's spring forward. Up in here I lost an hour of sleep.

Speaker 1: 14:29

Aggressive Grace is more aggressive than sin ever can be. When it's sin versus grace, grace wins. Hands down, we're on the winning team. All sin can do is threaten us with death and that's the end of it. Grace, because God is putting everything together again through the Messiah.

Speaker 1: 14:52

Here's the key word Invites us. You know what you can do with the invitation. You can rip it up, but he invites us, gives you the invitation into life, a life that goes on and on and on. World without end. Man, let's breathe that in church, let's breathe it in. And this grace? This grace was displayed on a criminal's cross, for Paul says all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and the Hebrew word there for all means.

Speaker 1: 15:33

Everybody, it is all. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. But because Jesus lived the life we couldn't because he died of death, we deserve rose again on Easter morning. He invites us to live in this grace. Romans, hebrews 12 says this for the joy set before him. What was the joy? What was the joy? It was you and me and our family and our world and our city and this place and those people. For the joy set before him, he endured the cross.

Speaker 1: 16:10

So how do we live in this grace? Can I get some water? I'm preaching and I need to say, oh, thank you, t'sheba, thank you, okay, here we go. How do we live in this grace? Three steps of living in grace goes like this the first thing we have to do, we have to acknowledge your need for grace. The first thing is acknowledge your need for grace.

Speaker 1: 16:31

I don't know about you guys, but I need grace in my life. I need it in my life. I need God's grace as a man, as a husband, as a father, as a friend, as a pastor. It's hard, it's hard to do life on your own. It's hard to do things on your own For me, for me. Brandon, you can bring that up to me. Thank you, we got like an elite team up in here. Thank you, we got 100% pure five-water that we was talking about. I just contaminated it with my sweat, joking, okay. So here you go For me. I need help. I need it. For example, though I can't fix much things Like I'm talking about. I can't fix things like I'm not a handyman. I can't fix much things around my house, right. So I acknowledge that, and then, when I acknowledge that I'm not very handy, I can acknowledge that I become very thankful that I have friends who are very handy. I'm very thankful I have friends who are very.

Speaker 1: 17:36

Not that long ago, we had some crazy winds come, and the winds knocked the lamp posts in front of my house, so I got this little light that's above my mailbox. It's pretty cool, and the wind came and knocked it over. The truth is, though, I tried to fix it a couple of weeks prior to that, and I made it worse. I made it worse. I got on the ladder. My house is on a big incline. I got on the ladder and I got scared. I was like this is too high. So when the wind came and knocked it down. I just casually mentioned this to my friend, craig, who is handy. Everyone needs a Craig in their lives. And then one morning, while I'm getting the kids ready for school, I look at my front yard. I see Craig fixing my lamp posts. This is out of nowhere, undeserved. This did out of the goodness of his heart.

Speaker 1: 18:26

And for some of you, I want to say something, though. For some of you, you're still trying to fix things that you can't. You're still trying to fix things that you're trying to fix this problem, fix that person. I don't know why you're trying to do that. Fix this person, fix this thing.

Speaker 1: 18:41

And you have to acknowledge that you can't do it. You have to acknowledge your need for grace. You have to acknowledge that there's someone who can do it for you. This too says this, for it is by grace. You have been saved, through faith. This is not from yourself. It is a what, the gift of God, not by work so that no one can boast. So first you have to acknowledge I can't do it, but God can. I can't. I'm going to acknowledge that. I'm going to acknowledge. And there's freedom in surrender. There's freedom in surrender to God, not surrender to other things. The truth is we use that word surrender, you're like, oh, that's a big word, but the truth of the matter is we are all being informed into something and what your surrender to will determine your outcomes. There you go.

Speaker 1: 19:30

Second thing is this Second, so we acknowledge our need for grace and second, we receive God's grace. We got to receive it and there is a difference between acknowledging something and receiving it. We got to acknowledge and then receive. How do you receive God's grace is honestly as easy as your ABCs ABC One, two, three, uh, my time. I listen to that song with my daughter and she say who's saying that? I said Michael Jackson. She say who's that? I said he's the king of pop. Then I showed her a picture and she got scared that was messed up. I don't know why. I said that that was messed up. Man. Okay, here you go. It's easy as your ABCs.

Speaker 1: 20:16

First, you admit, you admit, you admit you pray, you begin to talk to God. When it comes to prayer, it's not this mysterious, mythical thing. Prayer is simply talking to God and listening to God. It's talking to God and listening to God. Romans 10 says this if you declare what Jesus is, I love this. If you declare with your mouth. That means you just gotta start talking. I want you to start talking. He hears you. He hears you.

Speaker 1: 20:43

So we admit, we pray, we believe. And it says if we believe in your heart that God, raised him dead, will be saved, it is with your heart that you believe, justified. So we believe in the finished work of the cross, freely gives us grace and sound. So we admit, we believe, then we confess, then we confess, and it's with your mouth that you profess or confess your faith and are saved. So we invite God's grace by simply talking to God, believing and living our lives with a confession or a profession of His great love for us. So we acknowledge His grace, we receive His grace.

Speaker 1: 21:26

And then, lastly, the third step we live in it. We live in it. So I acknowledge I need Him, I receive what he's done for me on the cross, and then I live in it. I live in it. We have to live in grace. And that's what this series is all about and this is what we're gonna be talking about for the next four weeks is how do we walk it out? How do we walk this thing out? How do we live in it? We walk.

Speaker 1: 21:48

First thing is this we're gonna walk in faith. We're gonna walk in faith. We live in grace and we walk in faith. So, knowing that we have grace for our lives, that God's love for us is big and he has favor for us, and that His grace is a gift that we did not deserve, we can live from a place. We can live from that place and confidently walk in faith. See, because of that, why don't you get this? Because of that, we don't have to live from a place of if I just get better, if I just do more, if I just perform better, if I just tried harder, if I just get that person's approval of me, if I just get that promotion, if I just have that much money in my bank account, if I just have that thing, then I'll be like no, no, no.

Speaker 1: 22:39

Living in grace gives us the ability to live how God designs you today, gives you the ability to live that way. Here you go, let's get practical here. First thing is this faith gives us confidence in God. Faith gives us confidence in God. Going back to that verse in Ephesians, it says for it is by grace you have been saved through faith. It's by grace that you have been saved through faith. Now, faith part is very important. It's very important and it's grace that saves you, but it's faith that you walk it out. You walk it out in faith.

Speaker 1: 23:14

Imagine this. Here you go. I got an illustration for you. Imagine this.

Speaker 1: 23:17

Imagine you're at the biggest, most extravagant party you've ever been to. I mean, there are balloons everywhere, people, there's music, people are dancing, they're doing the stinking leg. You know there is endless ice cream. Come on, it's your favorite, people all around you and you're having the time of your life. Like man, this is the best party I've ever been to.

Speaker 1: 23:39

But then, middle of the party, you remember you're like, wait a second, I actually never got invited to this party. Yeah, I actually never got invited to this. And then you start to worry. You think, dang, where they find out, where they find out that I never got invited here. They're gonna kick me out. They're gonna kick me out of this thing. But then the host of the party, the one who put this whole thing together, walked straight up to you and you're nervous. At first You're like, man, they found me out, they're gonna kick me out. But the host walked straight up to you and then hands you the most beautifully designed invitation you've ever seen, and it says I'm glad you're here. And then it says and I made this party just for you. I made this just for you. This, my friends, is a little bit of what grace feels like. It's like getting the best invitation to the greatest party ever, not because you earned it, not because you deserved it or even knew you asked for it, but simply because the host loves you so much.

Speaker 1: 24:47

Now imagine, as you're holding this invitation, you realize it's not just a piece of paper, though. It's a key. This invitation is a key, A key that rescues you from every locked door you ever faced, especially the biggest locked door that we all face, the door between us and God, and all the mistakes that we've made, all the mess ups we've made, all the things we believed about ourselves, all the false truths that we took as actual truth. So this invitation is a key. That's what being saved is all about. That's what we hear that term being saved. What are we being saved from? We're being saved from that separation from God, and it's God handing us the key, crafted from pure grace, saying this is for you. I've got you covered. I got you covered, now and forever. I got you.

Speaker 1: 25:55

But how do you accept this invitation? How do you accept this key? It's through something called faith. Imagine faith as reaching out your hand to take the key. And it's not about mustering up the right feelings or having the right answers, but it's about trusting that the host really means that when he says this party, this rescue, it's for you. And then your head you're thinking but I'm not worthy. I made so many mistakes. If you knew my real, if you knew my thought life, you wouldn't, you wouldn't even love me. The same way, if you knew my struggles, if you knew who I really was and this is why grace is so scandalous, because the host, because God, he knows the deepest parts of you, the parts that you hide from your spouse, the parts that you never told the people closest to you. God knows those things and, with knowing those things, still loves you, still calls you, still believes in you. It says you are worth an invitation. This love is unconditional, it's scandalous and it's in the invitation to a life of freedom, joy and endless love, all made possible because of Jesus. And the best part, this invitation, this grace, this faith, it's all a gift. It's all a gift. None of it comes from us trying really hard to be good enough. It's not about how much we know about God and how much of the Bible we've read, but it's about us coming to God.

Speaker 1: 28:06

There's a story in the Bible about a general who, who displays his great faith. His friend is in need, desperate for help. The Satterian finds Jesus and asks for grace. Check this out. Matthew 8 says this A Satterian came to him asking for help, lord, he said my servant lies at home, paralyzed, suffering terribly. Jesus said to him shall I come and heal him? Check this part out. The Satterian replied Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my root, but just say the word. Come on, he says, just say the word and my servant will be healed, for I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one go, and he goes. I tell that one come, and he comes. I say to my servant do this, and he does it.

Speaker 1: 28:59

This is confidence in God. This is what confidence in God says. The confidence in God says God, if you said it, I'm going to believe it. If you said it, I'm going to believe it, and I might not feel it today, I might not see it around my circumstances today it might feel kind of dark and it might feel kind of lonely. But, god, you said it and I'm going to believe it, and I'm going to walk in faith and I'm going to believe that your grace comes. And this is what it says.

Speaker 1: 29:29

This is what it says when Jesus heard this, he was amazed. My prayer, church, my personal prayer, and I hope you make it your prayer too my prayer is that I can amaze God with my faith. I hope that my faith is big enough that Jesus says Jacob, that's some good faith man. I hope I can be that kind of person. Jesus says. Jesus was amazed and says to those following truly, I tell you, I've not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. Then Jesus says to the church go, go, let it be done just as you believe that would. And his servant was healed at that moment. We live in grace and we walk in faith by being confident. Last thing is this we walk in faith by just simply following Jesus. Guys, I ain't going to make this too complicated for us. The gospel is not complicated. In history we see that it was unschooled, uneducated, ordinary people who took the gospel and changed the world as we know it, so I'm not going to make it complicated.

Speaker 1: 30:30

How do we walk in faith? How do we live in grace? Well, we got to follow Jesus. We got to simply follow him. How do we become people who live by faith and not by sight? How do we live in grace? Our faith isn't all, isn't all the things that we say. We believe. It's what we do next. How do you follow Jesus? What's your next step? What's your next thing? It's making a commitment today to say I will follow Jesus. Today and again, we make following Jesus way too complicated. It's not about having all the right Bible, versus memorizing, which is an awesome thing to do, but it's not about going to all the Bible studies but going to a small group is great but it's just about saying today, jesus, I'm going to follow you, and when we fall, his grace meets us.

Speaker 1: 31:19

One last story there's a guy in the Bible who I like. His name is Peter. I love Peter Peter's. That guy, he's just the guy who is just. He has a lot of faith in him and his faith in him makes him say things that you're like Peter, you're like this dude, and I can relate to Peter because I'm like Peter, sometimes Because Peter Peter's the kind of guy. He's fiery, he's passionate and sometimes it gets him in trouble. But Peter's also the guy that he spoke and 5000 people came to know Jesus, and there's something special about a Peter. And so here you go. We all know this story.

Speaker 1: 31:59

Peter and 11 other disciples are in a boat at night. A storm comes, everyone's freaking out and then an even more freaky thing happens Jesus is walking on the water. Like who does that? Who just takes a night, and we walk through a storm on the water and they think they see a ghost. But it wasn't Casper. And then they realize it's Jesus.

Speaker 1: 32:23

And then Peter just does the thing that only a Peter would do he gets up and he says Jesus, if that's you, call me to the water and I'll follow you. Here you go, even in these conditions, hold on. Let me say that one more time. Peter got up, went in wave crashing against the boat. If it, if it's you, jesus I can't see that well because the because the water keeps splashing in my face but if that's you and that's you over there, call me out, call me to walk on the water, and I'll do it, because I trust in your grace and I have faith. And so Jesus says come. And Peter says dang. I didn't really think he was going to say that. And then he looked back at other disciples and Judas is over there like don't do it, don't do it.

Speaker 1: 33:41

And then Peter steps out and begins to walk on the water, and this is the part I love the most, here's the part I love the most. Here we go. He's in a storm, but he's secure. He's in a storm but he has security and these conditions. I'm going to follow you. But then, but then what happens? What happens when we're in a storm, though? What happens when, in a storm, we begin to look at the storm and we begin to get insecure? We begin to get a little insecure.

Speaker 1: 34:23

That conversation I just had made me feel a little insecure. That anxiety I had making me feel a little insecure, that pain I'm feeling is making me feel a little insecure. I was secure at first, when you called me, but now the winds and the waves, they're crashing up against me and I'm feeling a little insecure. And when we feel a little insecure, what begins to happen? We begin to sink. We begin to sink, but I want you to check this. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out Lord, save me.

Speaker 1: 34:53

You know, the miracle of this story is not that Peter walked on water we highlight this walking on the water on his tippy toes thing. The miracle of the story was that when he began to fall, he cried out for grace. When he began to fall, he knew that my hope comes from Jesus and even though I'm falling, I'm going to cry out to Jesus. And then, and then, second part says this immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him, and this is important. He says to him you a little faith. He said why did you doubt? Now I've read this story hundreds and hundreds, maybe thousands of times. I preach this message so many times.

Speaker 1: 35:36

One thing that I never really caught was this when Peter began to sink, jesus rescues him first, rebukes him second. The rescue always comes before the rebuk and then I also want you to see this the rescue comes first, then the rebuk. But his rebuk wasn't uh was wrong with you. His rebuk was you forgot about my grace, didn't you? You try to live in your own strength. Am I preaching to anyone today? I'm trying to live. You're trying to live in your own strength, in your own convictions, in your own way, that you reason things. He said you forgot to live in my grace, but that's okay, because you cried out to me. And guess what you experienced, peter, and what you can experience in your life today.

Speaker 1: 36:23

When you cry out, it's grace, it's aggressive, and it comes for you and it lifts you up and walks you back to the boat and it says Hebrews, reminds us, it reminds us. Let us then approach God's throne of grace with what? Fear, with doubt, with worry? No, no, no, no. We can approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. God, jesus, holy Spirit, we need you. We need you, lord, we need your extravagant grace in our lives. It's not about our power, it's about yours.

Speaker 1: 37:24

God, if you rose from a grave, you can meet us where we are, and I'd like the Holy Spirit telling some people today the conviction that you feel is not a conviction. All you keep making mistakes. You got a sin problem. The conviction that you're feeling is you keep forgetting about his grace and his conviction is reminding you of his grace in your life, that you are a sinner saved by grace, that there is victory in your life. The scripture tells us that you're the righteousness of God. So, god, we come to you. We say we need your grace, we want to live in it, we want to soak it up. You went to a cross and the joy set before you, and that joy was us. He thought about you, friends on that cross, though he was sinless and perfect, he said yeah, you sped, yeah, you're guilty, I'll take it for you. So, jesus, we thank you for this amazing love.

Speaker 1: 38:47

If you're in here today, you know, jacob, that sounds good, but I don't personally know this Jesus you're talking about. Or maybe you're in here and you say I did once, but I walked away. If you want to make a decision to trust Jesus with your life, right where you are, that's what you want to say to this prayer. I'm not going to call you out. Have you come up front? Nothing like that. I know you're right where you are in your chair. If you want to make a decision to trust Jesus with your life or trust him again, say this prayer with me. You can say it out loud or you can say it in your heart. Just say Jesus, forgive me for my sins, make me new Today. I trust you. Today I follow you in Jesus name. Amen, amen, amen. Let's give God some praise in here today.