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Dufresne Ministries Podcast
Mercy & Grace | Morgan Dufresne | World Harvest Church | Murrieta, CA
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Hi, I'm Nancy Dufresne. Welcome to our podcast channel. We know you'll be blessed by today's message.
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Tonight the Holy Ghost brought something to my attention and to my heart. I've never really preached on this before and so I thought it was interesting. But I had kind of been meditating on this probably because he brought it to my attention. But turn with me if you would. Let's start. Let's go first to Romans chapter five. And this really, this topic. I'm. You know, you almost feel not overwhelmed, but it's such a broad. This is by no means going to be an in depth Pastor Andersen exhaustive study of this subject. I don't even know if I'd ever have the nerve to preach about this in front of him. But I want to talk tonight about mercy and grace and some things that the Holy Ghost had shown me even from my own life. But look here in Romans chapter five. And I want to do a minute of reading here. And dad Hagin talked about that, how it was so important to read. And in churches they didn't read the Scriptures anymore. You know, I'm talking links of scriptures. So I want to read this so that we can really receive it by faith. Now it says here in verse 7, Romans 5, verse 7 now. And I'm going to read out the amplified now. It is an extraordinary thing for one to give his life even for an upright man. Though perhaps for a noble and lovable and generous benefactor. Someone might even dare to die. But God shows and clearly proves he his own love for us by the fact that while we were still sinners, Christ the Messiah, the anointed one died for us. What a press precious passage that he regards and recognizes that somebody who's noble and generous one might even give their life for them. But Paul recognizes or they recognize here that really and truly were we that person, were we worth right dying for? Were you worth dying for in all that you've done? Now, some of like myself were born and raised in the church. But I can understand from past generations that somebody didn't live like they were born again. Somebody in my family needed the mercy of God and needed did not deserve the salvation that they received. Amen. It's not based off of what that's what he's going to get to. It's not based off what you deserve. So right there it helps us to look at our salvation appropriately and not taking it for granted and understanding that we were still sinners. He chose to die. He chose. Even if you weren't the most noble person, the most generous person, the most honest person, he was still, still going to die. Okay, says verse nine. Therefore, since we are not justified, acquitted, made righteous, and brought into right relationship with God by Christ's blood, how much more certain is that that we shall be saved by him from the indignation and wrath of God? For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, it is much more certain now that we are reconciled that we shall be saved daily delivered from sin's dominion through his resurrection life. Not only so, but we also rejoice and exalting glory in God in His love and perfection through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received and enjoy our reconciliation. Meaning really, that just is talking about us coming back with God. Man was separated from God, now we have been reconciled. Man has through salvation a right to walk with God and live as his created being, as God had intended us to be. Says in verse 12. Therefore sin came into the world through one man and death as a result of sin. So death spread to all men, no one being able to stop it or escape its power because all men sinned. To be sure, sin was in the world before ever the law was given. But sin is not charged to men's account, where there is no law to transgress. Yet death held sway from Adam to Moses the Lawgiver, even over those who did not themselves transgress a positive command, as Adam did. Adam was a type prefigure of the one who was to come in reverse, the former destructive, the latter saving. But God's free gift is not at all to be compared to the trespass. Isn't that good? His grace is is out of all proportion to the fall of man. That means man's shortcomings, man's fall, man's failure is in no way ever going to exceed or be too great for or ever come close to God's grace and his goodness. Amen. That goes for the individual and that goes for he's talking really about mankind. No matter what mankind can do and how dark it gets, yet God's grace is always going to be greater. Amen. And we're talking about his saving grace and it says here in verse 15. But God's free gift is not at all to be compared to the trespass. His grace is out of all proportion to fall man. For if many died through one man's falling away, his lapse, his offense much more profusely did God's grace and the free gift that comes to the undeserved and favor of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound and overflow to and for the benefit of many. Nor is the free gift at all to be compared to the effect of that one man's sin. For the sentence following the trespass of one man brought condemnation. Where is the free gift following many transgressions brings justification, an act of righteousness. For if because of one man's trespass, or we could say it says here, lapse and offense, death reigned through that one, much more surely will those who receive God's overflowing grace, unmerited favor, and free gift of righteousness, putting them into right standing with himself, reign as king in life through the one man, Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the anointed one. Well then, as one man's trespass, one man's false step and falling away led to condemnation for all men. So one man's act of righteousness leads to acquittal and right standing with God and life for all men. But it says, for just as one by one man's obedience, failing to hear heedlessness and carelessness, the many were constituted sinners, so by one man's obedience, the many will be constituted righteousness, made acceptable to God, brought into right standing with him. But then law came in only to expand and increase the trespass, making it more apparent and excite exciting opposition. But where sin increased and abounded grace, God's unmerited favor has surpassed it and increased more and super abounded. So that just as sin has reigned in death, so grace, his unearned and undeserved favor might reign also through righteousness, right standing with God, which issues in eternal life through Christ Jesus, the Messiah, the anointed One, our Lord. So we read here about this is talking about saving grace. There is the grace for salvation and there is the grace to live out your salvation. Two different really there's and we're going to look at the types of graces that are even talked about in the Scriptures. There's all different. There's the grace to prosper. There's the grace to keep standing in the midst of all kinds of difficulty. But this is talking about here's saving grace. Go with me to Ephesians 2, verse 8. And we're just kind of laying a foundation. We're going to get somewhere with this. Ephesians 2, verse 8. This says for by grace says for it is by free grace, God's unmerited favor that you are saved, saved, delivered from judgment and made partakers of Christ's salvation through your faith. And this salvation is not this is very important is not of yourselves, of your own doing. It came not through your own striving, but it is a gift of God. If you don't have that underline I want you to highlight that underline. This salvation is not of yourself, of your own doing. It came not through your own striving, but is a gift of God. And verse 9 not because of works, the fulfillment of the laws of Unless any man should boast, it is not the result of what any can possibly do. No one can pride himself in it or take glory to himself. And it talks about how we are his handiwork. And then go with me, if you would, to Second Corinthians, chapter 12. Go back to Second Corinthians, chapter 12. So we see here that this grace was of God's doing. This was his assignment. This was his his plan. And then we became his workmanship when we partook of that grace by grace are we saved through faith. We had heard the word by faith and walked through and came out of sin sin into the family of God by his grace. It's by his doing so that no man can take credit for this. Second Corinthians, chapter 12, verse 8 look at this. It says, three times I called upon the Lord and besought him about this, and begged that it might depart from me. But he said to me, my grace, my favor and loving kindness and mercy is enough for you, sufficient against any danger, and enables you to bear the trouble manfully. For my strength and power are made perfect, fulfilled, and completed, and show themselves most effective in your weakness. Therefore I will all the more gladly glory in my weakness and infirmities that the strength and power of Christ the Messiah may rest yes, may pitch a tent over and dwell upon me. The King James simply reads for he said to me, my grace is sufficient for thee. My strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly. Therefore I will rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Paul is saying, when I am weak, I now have his strength. If I am strong, do I really am I really going to draw on his strength? So here's another type of grace. It is my favorite and loving kindness to withstand any test, any mental bombardment, any physical bombardment, any financial bombardment. There is grace to withstand. So we move over from saving grace, and now we're getting into the grace that allows us to operate as the believers that we are. Amen. And then let's go. Go back with me to Ephesians chapter three. Look at Ephesians chapter three. Ephesians chapter 3, verse 7. Look at this whereof I was made a minister. Well, let me read it out of the amplified of this Gospel. I was made a minister according to the gift of God's free grace, undeserved favor which was bestowed on me by the exercise, the working, all its effectiveness of his power. And he says this grace, verse 8 to me, this is Paul talking to me. Though I am the very least of all saints, God's consecrated people, this grace favor privilege was granted and graciously entrusted to proclaim to the Gentiles the unending, boundless, fathomable, incalculable, inexhaustible riches of Christ wealth which no human could have searched out. So he's saying, now there's a grace on me to fulfill the call on my life. And because we know this, that God is no respecter. We all have an assignment to be a minister and a witness unto Christ. We all have a measure of grace that is to be walked out in the assignment on our life. So now we've seen a grace for the fulfillment of God's plan on our lives. So we've seen now two examples, two different types of, of graces that we can lay hold of. Go, go real quick to Galatians chapter. Let's see here. And I know we're looking at some scripture, but they're very clear scriptures, very clear about what we're, I think we want to do Galatians. Look at Galatians 2, verse 9. And when they knew, it says, and when they knew, perceive, recognize, understood, acknowledge the grace, God's unmerited favor and spiritual blessing that had been bestowed upon me. James, Cephas, Peter and John were reputed to be pillars of the Jerusalem Church. Gave to be to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship to the, the understanding that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised to the Jews. So notice this. He recognized the ones the apostles of the Lamb had recognized on Peter, who used to be there at the persecution of the Jews. He was there when they were stoning. He was there when they would heckle. He would be the one that would be encouraging this activity, condoning this, giving his approval for the Jews and, and the Gentiles for anyone who wanted to come against the church. He was okay with this. And, and really he was the one encouraging this. But he said it was grace upon him that he was walking in that people saw the transformation of his life Notice that he comes through grace. He comes through saving grace. And now he's walking in the grace on his life to fulfill the plan that God has. And he said, now other people are recognizing that and they've welcomed me because they see that grace. So grace is noticeable, grace is recognizable. And we keep seeing this word over and over again. His divine favor, his favor, his blessing, his favor, grace. Once you come through that salvation, that grace of salvation, there's a great grace to increase. Go real quick, go to second Corinthians. We should all know this. Second Corinthians, chapter nine. Second Corinthians, chapter nine. And it says in verse eight, we know verse six. Remember this. He was so sparingly and grudgingly will reap sparingly and grudgingly. He who so generously that blessing may come to someone will also reap generously and with blessing. Let each one give as he has made up his own mind and purpose in his own heart, not reluctantly or sorrowfully or under compulsion. For God loves. He takes pleasure in prizes above other things and is unwilling to abandon or do without a cheerful, joyous prompt to do it. Giver whose heart in his giving. And God is able to make all grace, every favor and earthly blessing come to you in abundance so that you may always and under all circumstances and whatever they be, self sufficient possession, possessing enough to require no aid or support and furnished in abundance for every good work and charitable donation. So now we see that there is a grace that can be visible in the financial, in the natural. Amen. And with the with this ability, it says here that we step into that a greater prosperity, a greater abundance of grace and divine favor. We do this through, through our generous giving because there are things that your giving can only get you into. Amen. So now we're seeing that grace. I don't care how rich a man has made himself, God's grace will always take him higher. Always take him higher. And this is what Jesus was telling the rich young ruler. Look, if you'll sell your stuff, I can take you further than your stuff can take you. You know your heart. If your heart will be in me and not in the natural, if your heart will follow me. It wasn't just about physically fine is about naturally fine. God is. Jesus is not asking this man, and we don't have time to hear that. He is not asking this man to be poor. He is not asking this man to go without. He is asking this man, just as you have faith in me to save you have faith and glory. Walk through grace, by faith for me to prosper. You. If you had faith to go through grace to be saved, then you have faith to go through grace to be prosperous. You have faith to go through grace and receive unmerited favor and divine blessing and the ability withstand any test. I don't care what you're facing today. I don't care what bombardment you have. I don't care what test is coming against you physically, mentally, financially. There is divine grace to walk through by faith just as you did at salvation. Amen. And notice this. Paul said it is visible. This grace is visible. They saw it on my life. You know, he didn't even have to petition. He just lived the grace on his life. But that is not my message. God said to me mercy is for the misses and mistakes. God's grace is for the advancement of the gospel. I want to make sure tonight and this is how he showed it to me, that we do because we again we can. You know, who knows, maybe someday we'll continue with that message on grace. But he gave me some very clear points to point out to us so that we can examine and make sure. I, I don't want to be living in God's mercy. I want to be over here walking in his grace. Says God, who is rich in mercy. He's very rich in mercy. But oftentimes believers find themselves going from situation to situation to situation depending on God's mercy when he has. We clearly see here we got to get over into God's grace to function and to live. And it needs to be recognized on us and apparent on us. When you're walking in God's grace, that means you're prospering. That means your mind. We can go, go to third John. Beloved, I wish above all things that you prosper and be in health even as your soul prospers. So it's getting believers out, out of living day to day by God's mercy, dependent on God's mercy. You know, there's three things he gave me that we're going to look at tonight that we can see and we can point out. And I want to point out and I don't have a clock, so my husband always says he'll pay me $5 if I'll keep it short. I think I'm going to up that amount, but I want us to see here. Notice this. Salvation was God's plan. Salvation was God's plan. Says by grace you are saved through faith. And it says by grace. Are you coming through by faith? But it must when you are in God's plan, then you can walk in his grace. If you are not in his plan, it is very difficult. People want to walk out their own plan and call on God's grace. And what they don't realize is they'll be calling on his mercy and dependent on his mercy. All those scriptures talked about it was God's plan to save mankind. It was God's through he brought the law. The law is not horrible and terrible. And we don't look at the law and go, my gosh, it was allowing through the law. It was to set up so Jesus could come on this earth. There was a divine order. It was still God's grace in operation. It just came in a different form to those who would look to him as their only God, worship Him as their only God. And now we don't have to just look at him as our God. Now he's our Father. Grace gave us a Father. Grace gave us somebody that we can fellowship with in our deepest, darkest nights. And when, when we're, when we're so overwhelmed with mental bombardment, you know, and then Paul talked about this. That was what Paul said. When I was buffeted, when I could not, you know, when I didn't know how I was going to get through, it was God's grace to help me to withstand in those difficult times. But see, Paul was in God's plan. That's the big key that unlocks that door. To be able to operate in that grace is he was in God's perfect plan. And it's very hard when we follow our own plan. We'll end up having to call on his mercy when we're really wanting the grace for prosperity, the grace for peace. Any, any step outside of God's plan is a step outside of his peace. Because you will end up trying to put things together on your own. Amen. So grace is for within the plan. Mercy is for when we step outside of it. You cannot call on God's grace is sufficient for what he has anointed, ordained and instructed. But his mercy is rich for when we step outside of that. So I'm not, I'm not bringing any kind of discouragement or condemnation. But what I want us to look at tonight in our own lives is where have I really depended on God's mercy and where maybe am I really actually walking in his grace? We need every part of our lives over on this side. When you don't walk in love, in your marriage, on the job. Let me tell you something. This is where you're at Right here, you're in God's mercy. You're in God's mercy. If you want to be walking in God's grace, his favor, his sufficiency, his ability. That's all graces is God's ability. If you want to walk in your own ability, you can do that. I prefer. I much prefer not to much prefer in any arena. And so we want to get every arena in our life over into God's grace, His favor, his ability, his workmanship that everything in our life can, can look like and reflect his workmanship the way we reflect his workmanship. Amen. So if I'm not following my own, then I don't have to do it on my own. Does that make sense? If you're not following your own plan, then God has said grace. My grace will be sufficient for you because salvation was not your plan. And everything subsequent, once you receive of his plan, plan of salvation, everything else, he has a plan for everything. I want to give you here three. And this is not a total list, but three things and two go together that will throw you into God's mercy and out of the flow of grace. Can we look at these three things? And I'm going to give you some examples. Number one at the top of the list is pride. That's number one is pride. Pride in any arena will throw you into mercy off the grace train and you will go right into God's mercy. You will be needing God's mercy because pride is oneself. Amen. Humility is about him. Pride. I would say the third thing, but also what follows pride almost every single time. So we could say number two is offense. Offense takes you from his grace and moves you right into needing his mercy. And number three is ignorance. Ignorance will take you from God's grace in an arena and it'll move you. And I've got examples for these. And we'll just go through these. And then I think they will be sufficient enough for us to kind of see and look at even in our own, our own lives. Turn with me though, first real quick, go to Romans chapter 12. And I want to look at one more passage. Again, this is not an exhaustive study or anything like that. And I want to look at this one more because I don't want to miss all the scriptures that I had. Romans, chapter 12, verse 6, having gifts. Well, look at verse 5. So we, numerous as we are, are one body in Christ. That means what you do affects somebody else. It absolutely does. I think this is the number one revelation that if you can get A hold of that. What you do, what you do with your time, what you do with your resources, what you do with your attitude, what you do with your thought life will always touch into someone else's life. It will always touch and reach into somebody else. Because we, numerous as we are, are still one body in Christ, the Messiah, that individually. And it says individually, we are parts, one of another, mutually dependent on one another. But verse six, having gifts, faculties, talents, qualities that differ according to the grace given us, let us use them. He whose gift is prophecy, let him prophesy according to the proportion of his faith. And he goes on to list the gifts that we see in the body. But we can see first of all that it says that differ according to the grace given us. We all have gifts, we all have abilities. And God is expecting us not to use those bill those abilities in our own strength, but according to his grace. And he's not just really talking about, I understand it's referencing the body of Christ, but remember what we said. Everything you do is going to affect somebody else. So how you live even outside these walls is still going to affect the body. I want God's grace to not just be here when I come to preach or when I come to serve, when we're cleaning up tables and, you know, cleaning off the sanctuary. And many people do, they want, they understand and get a revelation for the grace to come and serve. You know, we did a lot of serving this weekend. We did a lot of work. And it's fun, it's enjoyable. And they'll draw on that grace to serve God in that one tiny little part they give him Sunday, and if God's lucky, maybe Tuesday, they'll come and serve faithfully and love it and say, I'm willing to partake of his ability to serve him. But everything you do is to serve him. So I want his grace to serve him in my finances. I want his grace to serve him in my marriage. I want his grace to serve him in whatever business and whatever thing that we touch. I want his grace, which is his blessing, favor and ability to be present, that I can reach out at a moment and say God's grace, your ability, because you, I know this. I'm in your will right now. I'm walking in your divine will and your divine plan. And that goes back to a whole nother teaching of how to follow the Holy Ghost. But we've pretend like we know all these things, right? Pretend like we, we. We've heard that before. But I want to look at these three things Number we said number one, prime, two, offense. And I'm going to give us examples. And we can see exactly how men, because of these three things, could not. These people could not call on God's grace. They had to call on his mercy. Number one, David was prideful in taking him the wrong woman. Pride was what caused David to kill the woman that he had his eye on, kill her husband and take her as his wife. That was inappropriate. That was wrong. That was a sin against God. But again, I'm not going to take time to turn there. But we know this. He went before God with a very repentant heart. And what did he had to call on? He had to call on God's mercy. When we see him facing Goliath, what was he in? God's grace, God's ability. Because him as a young boy is. There's no way in his own ability he's going to take down that giant. But the moment he steps out of God's plan and disobeys, what happens? He's got to go and call on God's mercy. But it was pride that got him there. He saw something and he was so prideful in himself, he thought, I can have that. Solomon, his son, was prideful in all the women he decided to take, wasn't he? Towards the end of his life and of the wrong company. They were not in God's will for his life. And he decided because of his pride, we see by God's grace he became so wise, which in the wisdom of God's grace made him wealthy, which in that prospered God's people in the temple. But what happens as time goes on? He forgets about God's grace, that it was God's ability that was God's design and anointing on him to be the king. And what happens to him? He gets into pride and he starts taking anybody and everybody. You know, as we say, that walks on two legs, you know, has two legs and walks. He's decided, I'm taking as many as I can get. And it was out of God's plan. What happened at that point, he steps out of grace and he's needing the mercy of God for his life. What about Samson? Boy is these women. What about Samson? It's the same thing. Got prideful. He understood it was God's, God's ability. He knew it was God's ability. But pride so worked him down. You know what I'm talking about. It kind of ate away his own pride and what he could do. He at one point Forgets and lets Delilah cut his hair. Because he forgot. God said, don't do that. He decided, I've done these feats of strength so many times. Surely he forgot it was he had been staying in God's grace. And what happened at the end of his life, in one last great feat of strength, he had to cry out for God's mercy. And in that act of mercy, he died. But he still was able to fulfill God's will. But what could he have done had pride not got in the way? Had he stayed in God's grace, how much further could he have gone? How much longer could he have lived? So just these three. There's more than this. But these are the three that, you know, came to mind when thinking about how pride really put these men into a place where they were needing to really, you know, in that covenant, beg God and asked for mercy so that they could keep going. Number two was offense. What about this? Lot was offended. We talk about that. Lot was offended and he forgot. Through God's grace, he was connected to Abraham. Abraham was the chosen to be the father of many nations and receive the miracle of the child in his old age. The blessing was on Abraham. The blessing was not on Lot. God's grace was his connection to his uncle. Right? God's grace is who you're connected to. If you get offended, you will immediately go into God's mercy and God's mercy. You know, God's mercy we see in that story where Abraham said, God, if there be a hundred and Sodom and Gomorrah, would you spare if there be, you know, 50 righteous. And he goes down the list and he begs God. So this man had to call on God's mercy even for his own family. I don't ever want. Now remember this guy. God is rich in mercy. He's rich in mercy. And that's not to diminish mercy. But I don't ever want to find myself in a position where a family member is having to call on God's mercy for my life, you know, because he wasn't. He was so far. Offense had taken him so far, he couldn't even call on God's mercy himself. That's true. And that offense, and that's why I say offense is kind of a subcategory to pride. Because really, it started with pride. Look at all that I had gotten. Look at all that I. That I own, you know, and when we look at the scripture, it says, let not. You know, Abraham said, let there be no. Really, let there be no Offense between you and me, or which means there was. And it was between their two men. Please let there be no offense. And that divine connection, it was severed really through offense and pride. And one day, mercy was not enough to even save his own family. Mercy was only enough to save him. He had put himself in a position where it couldn't even reach his family. That's very sobering. He had stepped out. When you step out of God's grace, he lost not only his stuff, what God had blessed him with through his favor and divine ability, but now he lost his family and he lost his future, really. We talked about Miriam. Miriam was offended. God's mercy again. Notice somebody had to call out to her for her. Moses had to call out for mercy for her. Somebody is going to have to call out for mercy. And in the time, especially in offense, that's usually when you see people, they don't know to call out for mercy, even for themselves. And in their cases, somebody had to call out. Moses had to call out for mercy for his own sister. And we have this example, and it's encouraging. If there's family members you have or people that you know. No, you can call on the mercy of God for them, but what about for us endeavoring to be in God's will? I just want to stay over on this side. We could say on the side of grace, right where I am hearing his voice, I'm reading His Word, I'm staying full of his presence. I'm not perfect, but I am endeavoring to fulfill his plan. If you are still serious and really sober about fulfilling God's plan, He will pour out his grace so much on your life. Amen. That every step you take, there is his divine favor and ability right there for you to step into. But if you want to do things on your own or you end up getting offended with those that he's connected you to, to help you walk out that plan, you'll come over here and you may end up in a place where somebody's gonna have to call on God's mercy on your behalf. Saul was offended, and David showed him mercy through God's instruction. So nobody. I don't care how low you are, I don't care how high you are. I don't care who you're related to. Right. Lot's related. Miriam's related. Notice that blood didn't mean anything. Number three was ignorance. And we see, even with this, we see that I always think of Peter ignorance. Because Peter, all this in the three years he followed Jesus. What was There, first of all, they weren't filled with the Holy Ghost and they're being just, you could say, inundated with miracles, signs and wonders and teaching after teaching after teaching. And all of this is really sounding almost contrary to what they had heard in the synagogue. And they're having to reconcile. Wait a second, I think this is the one. But he's talking about something we've never heard of and that's God's grace, faith. You know, they, they didn't understand these concepts the way we understand these concepts. Concept, concepts. So even in gaining knowledge and reading and hearing knowledge from Jesus, there was still ignorance there. So we see, you know, Jesus having to tell Peter, get thee behind me, Satan. What is that? That's ignorance. You know, Jesus trying to instruct or Peter trying to instruct Jesus. I have it a couple times, ignorance. But Jesus in his mercy, mercy kept Peter around. What did he do? He rebuked him multiple times. What was that? Ignorance. And you know, what I see is a key here too, to this Notice they had a lot less ignorant moments when they got filled with the Holy Ghost. Do you notice that they. We see a lot less missteps of Peter when the power came from on high. Can't we say for our own lives, that's a big key. We stop seeing them falter and stumble with their words and be confused and, you know, deny and I mean all the things, the mishaps, not be able to cast out. Suddenly they went from not being able to cast out the devil to the shadow, you know, healing those. What happened? Power showed up. Power is not just for the spectacular, but it's also for the renewing of the mind. It's the equipping. It's part of the assisting of God's grace. If you reject the renewing of your mind in every, in any arena, you are rejecting God's grace. This right here is the first step to God's grace. And the Holy Ghost is the second step. And he will lead you, he leads us in all truth. That is his assignment, his job. If you think you're going to be led by the Holy Ghost apart from the Word, and he's going to take you out into the great deep things of God. And you did not take your time to. He's. You're setting yourself up to be offended. You're setting yourself. He. He is not doing you any justice. He's not helping your life to take you further than your knowledge is. Gain in knowledge, you'll gain in grace. What you gain in knowledge, you can gain and step into God's grace. And if you're really serious, you'll take time to fill up with the next gift of God. Jesus was the first gift of God's grace. The Holy Ghost was the second gift. Amen. What about Paul? Go to go real quick and then we're going to close. First Timothy, chapter one. First Timothy, chapter one. Because Paul, even Paul has no pride. He's got no pride. That man's preaching whether he's a prisoner on a. On an island, you know, whether he's before kings and he's telling his testimony he has no pride. The greatest sin, the least Paul is, he said, it's the God's grace that has gifted me with this ability and I'm going to share it with anybody who's going to listen. And that's really important in our walk with God, that we not take God's ability and say, I'm only going to use it if it's going to be noticed and seen. I'm only going to use it. You know, my husband says, and I don't know if it's from where I'm from or probably just my personality. I'll talk to somebody at the Rite Aid as wholeheartedly as I'll talk to somebody in the church. You know, it doesn't really matter. You get the same response. It doesn't have to be seen, it doesn't have to be visible. Whatever it is you're doing, I don't care if you're just. And this is where it comes into play with a lot of times with people's finances, if it can't be seen, they struggle with obeying. And we see with Paul, he was so humble, there was no pride in him. So it didn't matter where he was or what he was doing. And this is what he endeavored to teach Timothy. And look at what he says here. First Timothy, chapter 1, verse 13. Though I firmly blaspheme and persecute and was shameful and outrageously and aggressively insulting to him, nevertheless I obtained mercy because I had acted out of ignorance in unbelief. But look at this. And the grace, unmerited favor and blessing of our Lord actually flowed out super abundantly and beyond measure for me, accompanied by faith and love that are to be realized in Christ Jesus. This is one of the best examples. He said, through ignorance I had to receive God's mercy. What I did was out of ignorance. I was a blasphemer, you know, and he said I was ignorant. I didn't know. But God's mercy was Jesus in a bright light saying, paul, Paul, why Saul saw, why are you persecuting me? And God's grace changed his name just to show him he can have a new identity to really solidify for him that new identity. But he had to notice, he had to call on the mercy. He said it was God's mercy. What about this one Moses? When he killed that Egyptian, he began to come into the knowledge and recognize my people are being mistreated. What was starting to deal with him would come on him was probably a measure of that gift for what his assignment was. But he acted out of pride, offense and ignorance. Paul was acting really out of all three. When he killed that, that Egyptian, he became prideful at his position. You know, I'm sure he thought to himself, I'm the, I was in the king's household. I can kind of do what I want around here. And then he realized he's offended at this man for hurting, you know, his God's people. And then he decides out of ignorance, I'm just going to kill him. I'm just going to, I'm just going to take matters in my own hands. But because he was ignorant to go God's plan, he didn't realize that's not how it's to be done. And it took him 40 years. What did the Bible say? He became the most humble and the most meek of all the men. And what did he do? He became the really the type of Christ to the Jews because he got out of pride, he got out of offense. And he began to walk in probably the greatest man measure of grace that a man had ever walked in at that up to that point. So these three things, what's the opposite of pride? Humility. What's the opposite of offense? It's guarding ourselves in love. And then the opposite of ignorance is knowledge. So if we'll focus on developing ourselves in love in knowledge and humility. Grace always has an open, an unhindered flow into our lives through these three things. Amen. What does it say in Hosea 4:6, My people perish for lack of knowledge. You know, we can look at these three, Gideon, the three Hebrew boys, Daniel, what happened? And they were humble, they didn't fight, they were meek. They depended completely on God's ability, God's resources and God's power to get them out of. And they have tremendous testimonies of success. And not only that, all three of them, this is what God's grace does. And we'll close he Takes us, we get out of. We realize I'm not living in his mercy anymore. I'm not living on a hope and a prayer that I know I overrode my spirit. Spirit. I know I. He's dealing with me to focus on my love walk. He's dealing with me to focus on this or that or the other. It's all different for all of us. He's dealing with me, you know, to get my words right. He's dealing with me with my fellowship. He's doing. I want to get out of God's mercy and, you know, hoping that, you know, if I'm walking in, you know, my own way, that I'm just gonna make it out. And I want to get over here into grace. And that's what some of these men, we can go through, all through the Bible and see examples of that. But every single time they decided, I'm not walking in his mercy, I'm walking in his grace. We not only see them step into the fullness of the plan, but then God promotes them. There was promotion. That's what he says super abundantly. What is super abundance? That's David becoming king, right? That's Daniel becoming, coming up even higher. That's the heat. Three Hebrew boys causing everybody in the land to bow before their God. We see every time a man or a woman of God chose to walk in God's grace, meaning the fullness of his plan, not get offended and not be ignorant. We see God promoting them not just that they were kind of successful or just fulfilled the plan. It was super abundantly over. And they got promoted and got recognized and God was able to put them as an example every single time. So he's not just going to leave you. Grace doesn't leave you where it found you. It takes you further with God. And that's why the Holy Ghost, he said that statement to me and showed that that to me, mercy is for the misses and the mistakes. I want to get out of the continual misses and mistakes. Grace is for the advancement of the gospel. How does God advance the gospel? He advances those who believe in the gospel. He advances those who will trust the gospel. He advances a man, he does not advance. His word cannot advance it through just by itself out there flowing, floating in the air. His word advances. What is the gospel? It's the good news of Jesus Christ that you are redeemed from poverty, sickness and spiritual death. You don't have to be sick, you don't have to be poor. You don't have to struggle anymore. You don't have to deal with depression and oppression and fear. You don't have to be a victim. But here's how we do that. We put on our pride. We put down offense. We put down not being able to walk in love with people. We put down our ignorance. Deciding to put down ignorance. I'm not going to be ignorant. This more. I know I've struggled in this and I somehow do what the word says. I'm going to find out what the word says. So the gospel, grace is God's way of great. Let me say it's grace on your life. Say grace on my life is God's way to advance the gospel. That is the purpose. That is the purpose of grace. You know, there's a lot of misuses of it. Oh, I, you know, they were, they did something me, but I'm going to show them grace. No, that's not grace. That's mercy. Let's get that. I can't stand that. Oh, I showed them grace. You didn't show them any ability or, you know, you maybe showed them a little favor. But that's, that is mercy. That's what God does for us when we mess up. He didn't show us grace. He shows us mercy because he's rich in it. But I'm going to come over. I'd like to. I'm glad he's rich in mercy, but I want to come over in the super abundance of grace. How about you? Amen. Amen. Well, thank you, everybody. Stand with me to your feet. Thank you everybody for coming tonight. Turn to somebody before you're dismissed. Safe. I'm not gonna be ignorant no more. We'll see you on Sunday.
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