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If you got a Bible, go to Second Corinthians, Chapter 12, Second Corinthians, Chapter 12. And I want to flow in the same theme Ashley started in. But this is a message for all of us today. And the message is, his grace is sufficient. His grace is sufficient. We're going to talk about what that means, but let me first explain where this verse shows up. So Paul the apostle is in a battle, and the battle is what he calls a thorn in his flesh. There's a lot of people who have debated what does this thorn in his flesh mean? But I want to go to the very first part of this in verse. Let's start with verse 7. Because of these surpassingly great revelations that I had, in order to keep me from becoming prideful or conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh. A messenger of Satan to torment me. Now, some scholars have debated what this thorn in the flesh was. Was it a. You know, was. Was it an actual demon that was tormenting Paul, or was it a child? You know, was it a spouse? Was it a friend? Was it a church member? Was it some uncle, some aunt? Was it someone from his past? But. But it was something that was constantly causing pain and frustration in Paul's life. And Paul says this in the midst of this thorn in his flesh. He says, three times, I pleaded with the Lord to take this thorn away from me. But he said to me in verse nine, God said to Paul, and God said to his church, and God said to Ashley and Paul and Abby and Daniel, Joseph and every person in this room, God said, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in your weakness. Paul said, therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses so that Christ's power may rest on me. Then Paul says this. He says, this is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, and in difficulties. Because when I am weak, then I am strong. Can we just clap for the Word of God? That's such a powerful passage that our weakness invites his power. What Paul was saying here is that life is going to be filled with hardships. And when God doesn't take away the hardships, God gives grace to handle the hardships. You know, growing up in our church, being taught by my mom and dad, this was a passage I always wrestled with. And when my dad passed away, I remember there were people in the Word of Faith circle that started questioning. Billy Joe must have done something bad to die at age 57. He must have not been Living a perfect life. And I was like, or. Or bad things happen to good people. And sometimes you can do everything right and still walk through hardship. And so my theology started shifting. I'm still a word of faith guy, but I started having room in my theology and my understanding that trials and hardships are not evidence that you've done something wrong or that God has left you. It's proof that God is so with you, so for you, has not abandoned you, that he trusts you to handle trials, that his grace is going to lead you. And I watched even as my mom and I, we would talk and, you know, on this Mother's Day, I'm so reminded by my mom's just model of perseverance and her heart that through every trial, through every circumstance, I have watched my mom lean on the grace of God. You know, I watched my mom as a kid leading worship on Sundays when I knew she was struggling, when I knew her and my dad were walking through their own trials and hardships. And she would show up to church. Here's a good reminder for all the people in the room. Listen, you don't have to show up to church. Perfect. Just show up to church. You don't have to show up in the presence of God put together. Perfect. Just show up in the presence of God. If there's one place you need to be on a regular basis, it's in the presence of God, with the people of God, in the word of God, trusting in the grace of God. Because this world is crazy, y'. All. I mean, from gas prices to wars to AI to just people. Just people are crazy. And we, how many y' all could use some more grace in your life? Whether you have a thorn in your flesh or whether you have some people that feel like a thorn in your flesh, we all need grace. We all need grace. Paul needed grace. I need grace. You need grace. I watched my mom many times just walking with this grace. I remember when my brother and I, we decided to prank my mom on Mother's Day when we were like eight and nine years old. We tied rubber bands around the sink, little sprayer, so that when you turn on the sink, instead of the water coming down the regular faucet, it would come at the spray. And we pointed the spray right at her face. And she decides to go over to that sink after she put on all her makeup, her dress for Mother's Day, and John and I were over to the side thinking we were like the coolest little sons ever. And that thing just sprayed her in the face. And she just looks at us with mascara running down her face. It was like a horror movie. She was ready to murder us. I saw it in her eyes. And she was like. Starts praying in tongues. I don't know if it was tongues or something else under her breath. But in the midst of that, everybody said, grace, grace, grace. We all need grace. I think we got a couple of spankings that day, John and I. We used to put socks in our pants under our underwear to block the spankings from hurting us. And we all need grace. We all need grace. Let's talk about just for a moment. What does it mean when he says, my grace is sufficient for you? The word sufficient means enough. Enough that his grace is enough to sustain us. His grace is enough to strengthen us. His grace is enough for us to rest in his care. I was watching as one of our kids crawled up in Ashley's lap recently. And one of these children was just. I mean, I won't say who it was, but this. This child was having crazy tantrums throughout the day and moments where just. It felt like they were falling apart. And by the end of the day, you could tell it was all catching up with them. And they were. I mean, it's 5pm and they were falling asleep. And I was like, praise God, they are falling asleep. But how they fell asleep was they crawled up in Ashley's lap. And there was something about the safety of the mother's arms wrapped around this child and just that sense of resting. And this is what I picture sufficiency as the sufficiency of his grace gives us the strength to rest on the days where we feel exhausted. Like, I've had some days where I am just exhausted. Someone came up to me recently. They were like, you doing okay? I was like, yeah. They're like, you sure? I was like, well, I mean, I'm alive. Like, right now. Survival is success. Raising five kids and just trying to do life. Anyway. Can I just celebrate the success that you're alive? That's a good. Like, it's okay that you don't have a New York Times bestselling book. You are alive. You are succeeding. And I'm like, I've just given myself grace right now. Because sometimes we are so hard on ourselves. Like, I gotta be doing this and that, and I gotta be succeeding over here and spinning all these plates. And sometimes at the end of the day, you're just grateful you made it through the day. You're just grateful you're sitting on your father's lap at the end of the day, by the way, no matter how old you get, you're still a child in the eyes of God. You're still a child in the eyes of God. Romans, chapter 8, verse 1, reminds us of this grace. Because oftentimes condemnation will show up knocking on the door of your heart, saying, you should have done this. Should have spent more time with the kids. Should have written, I'm still learning English. Should have written a better book. Should have preached a better sermon, should have led a meeting better. Should have been on time. Should have done this. Could have been that. Could have been that. You could have raised your kids better. You could have done the. And it's all this shoulda, coulda, woulda. And it's condemnation. Condemnation never made a Christian better. Condemnation never made a child better. Grace does something that only, like, there's something that grace does. Grace gives something that shame could never give. Grace gives you not permission to stay in a low place. But grace gives you this rest and this strength that even on the days where you miss it, on the days where you could have done better, that you don't stay in that place. Shame off you. This is what Paul says in Romans 8, verse 1. He says, There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. So let's talk about, what does this grace do? This grace shows up in the gaps in your life. This grace shows up in the Guilt. Mom. Guilt is real. Dad, guilt is real. Guilt for any person is real. This grace shows up on the days where you are grieving. This grace shows up on the days where you are trying to grow, but you feel like you're not growing to the level you should. I was at my mom's graduation a couple years ago, and she graduated with her master's degree. And I was so excited for her. And she came over to me and she said, well, I probably should have done this a lot sooner in life. You know, I'm doing this in my mid-60s. I said, Mom, I am proud of you. I am so proud of you. She goes, don't say proud. I don't want you to be prideful in me. I said, no, no, no. As your son, I am so impressed with you. She goes, well, maybe I should have done it when I was in my 40s. I don't know. You know, your dad did it sooner than me. And I said, mom, shame off you. Shame. Tell the person next to you, shame off you. Stop living with shame. I'm telling you, some of the best Christians I've met sometimes struggle with shame. Because, I mean, there's something about this feeling of, well, I don't know if I'm living as. And here's what Romans 8 reminds us, is that the grace of God is not rooted in your performance. It's rooted in your identity that you're a child of God. When I, you know, correct my kids, I don't say, well, now you're gonna have to earn your last name again. You're gonna have to earn your spot back in the family. They are still my child even in the correction, even on the days they will never stop being my child. That identity gives us security. It gives us security to know I have the grace of God as a child of God. His grace doesn't leave me on some days. I have grace in the morning and grace in the evening. I have grace on the mountaintops and grace in the valleys. I have grace for my growing seasons. I have grace for the places that I lack. On this Mother's Day, I'm reminded of one of the mothers in our world that was a famous mother and that's Mother Teresa. Mother Teresa, she said this. People are often unreasonable and self centered. Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway. It takes grace to love people. How many all need grace. Just loving your own family. Don't look at them right now, but you know what I'm talking about. You're like, give me grace today to love these people. If you find happiness, people may be jealous of you. Be happy anyway. The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway. Give in the world. Give the world your best. Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway. For you see, in the end, it was between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway. When I think about a woman who just walked in, grace, Mother Teresa, I think about not just her, but my own mom. Just that grace that she walked in today. My mom speaking at my sister's sister Ruthie's church. And this morning she called me. She said, I had a dream in the middle of the night. I. I said, what was it? She said, you invited the whole church over to my house today. I said, you remember when I did that when I was 18? She goes, yeah, that's why I thought it was real. I woke up and started cleaning the house. This was this morning at 7:00am she goes, Are you inviting the church over today? I said, no, Mom. They're going to go celebrate their own Mother's Day at their own houses. She's like, okay, well, I clean the house up just in case. I was like, you're good. Grace. Everybody say grace. Grace. Grace. Ashley and I, we were with the kids on a missions trip in March. And we were. This one night, we had a free night. And so at our hotel, there was karaoke going on. And so we walk in there with all of our kids except Liam. He was on his sixth grade missions trip. But we walk into this karaoke night, and there's all these families, all these people around, and. And they're singing songs. And so Ashley was like, we gotta do this in front of the kids. We gotta show them what we got. We gotta show them what we got. So I was like, all right, let's do this. And I walk out there and I was like, hit it, dj. And he starts playing this Whitney Houston song. Oh, I want to dance with somebody. And I start trying to sing it. And I didn't know the lyrics, so I was like, you got it. So I hand it off to Ashley, and Ashley starts singing. She's like, oh, I want to dance. And we both didn't know the lyrics. We just want. We just knew that one line, you know? And then they're playing other songs we didn't know. She wakes up the next morning, she goes, paul, I'm just really reliving that karaoke truth. Ask her about this the next day. She's like, we could have done better at karaoke. She was like, I just really feel guilty that we just messed up that karaoke night. I was like, it's gonna be okay. She was like, I just really wish we could go back and. And do that karaoke better. I was like, babe, we're gonna redeem ourselves. One Sunday at church, we will do a karaoke Sunday at Victory, and we will redeem ourselves. Should we do this right now? She's saying, no, no, no, no. Okay. All right. We'll save it for next Sunday, okay? Give us some time. We gotta work on this. But I told her in that moment, I said, babe, it's gonna be okay. Shame off. You. Like, it was a karaoke night. There was 30 people that we will never see again. Let it go. Tell that person next to you, let it go. All right. Three women in the Bible. Three women in the Bible that teach us the grace of God. That I want to hit on real quick. The first one is Ruth. In Ruth, chapter one, Ruth is with her mother in law, Naomi, and Naomi is very broken, very sad. She just lost her husband. Then she just lost both of her sons. Moms are not supposed to bury their kids. Kids are supposed to bury their moms and dads. And so Naomi is heartbroken. And she's just dealing with this anger and this grief and bitterness towards God. And she actually changes her name. The beautiful story about Naomi is that her story is actually called the Book of Ruth. It's not the Book of Naomi. Even though the whole story is really about Naomi, Ruth together. But the beautiful thing is that God doesn't get trapped in your bitterness, in your pain and your shame. God always has a future. The book is about the future for Naomi. The book is not about the past or even about the present pain. It's about the future that God has for Naomi in this moment. Naomi, in her bitterness, says, I don't want to be called Naomi. Call me Mara, which means bitter. And she says, I don't even want to be around you girls. Y' all need to leave. You need to find new husbands, find your own families. Leave me alone. Let me just be a bitter woman living by myself. So one of the daughter in law, she leaves. But then Ruth looks at her and she says, don't. Don't tell me to go. Look at this. In verse 16, Ruth replies to Naomi. She says, don't urge me to leave you. Don't tell me to go. One day with a bitter mom is better than any day without a mom. I'd rather have one day with my mom, even if she's having a bad day, than a day without my mom. And I'm so grateful for my mom that she's still alive. I'd rather have one bad day with Pastor Sharon than a day without Pastor Sharon. She says, listen, don't urge me to go. I'm staying with you till the wheels fall off. I'm with you through thick and thin, through hell or high water. Don't tell me to turn away from you. Where you go, I will go. And where you stay, I will stay. And your people will be my people and your God. What a vow Ruth made, made to her mother in law. She was like, you are my mom. On your worst day, on the day that you don't even feel like being a mom, I am with you. I'm going to stay beside you. And then she says in the next verse, verse 17, she says, where you die, I will die. We're going through this together. And there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely. If even death separates you and me. Now, this vow would lead to the grace showing up in Ruth and Naomi's life. So they move, move back to Naomi's hometown. And when they show up, it's harvest season. And Naomi says, I'm too tired to go outside. I'm too. Like, I got too much pain, too much bitterness. I can't even get a job. Ruth, you're going to have to go out and get enough for both of us. So Ruth goes out into the fields, right? And she gets her harvesting tools. And we don't have harvest today. This is all we had around the church. But she gets her. She gets her. So she goes out there and she starts looking for, like, her way of harvesting the field. And as she's out there working, Boaz notices her. And Boaz says, who is this girl? And they say, this is Ruth. She's the daughter in law to Naomi. And she decided to stay with Naomi even after she lost her husband. And Naomi lost her husband. And Boaz said, I want to do something for her. I don't want her to work for it either. I want to leave her bundles, harvest every single day. When she shows up in the field, I want you to go before her and behind her and leave her bundles of grace. I want her. I want to just give her favor. And when I read the story of what Boaz did for Ruth, I'm reminded of the grace that God gives us, that on the days where we are grieving, on the seasons where we are walking through pain and frustration. The beauty and sufficiency of God's grace is not that he removes trials and hardships, but he graces us to handle the hardships. He graces us in the morning, in the evening, the grace is waiting for us. In the story of Ruth, we see a girl that continues to show up every single day. And grace is waiting for, harvest is waiting for. And finally Naomi's like, you got to get that guy that is your man. And so it ends with, now here's the interesting thing. Boaz was the grandson of Rahab. Rahab was the prostitute that lived in Jericho. And in Jericho, when Joshua sent two spies into Jericho to go and spy out the promised land, they showed up at Rahab's house. Rahab, her trade required discretion. I mean, she was a prostitute. And she said, listen, I won't tell anyone that you showed up to my house. In fact, hide out here tonight. And if my city asks where you're at, I won't tell them where you're at. But Promise me this, that you will spare my family, and that one day my family will be a part of Israel, that I want to be a part of what God's doing through you guys. So Rahab grafted herself into the story of God's grace. And then through Rahab's family comes Boaz. Boaz grafts Ruth into the story. Through Ruth, their grandson is David. And through David would come the lineage of the Messiah. Here's what I'm trying to say. Grace is a generational thing. The grace that was on my parents, the grace that was on your grandparents, the grace that was on your great, great, great, great, grand. That grace of God continues from generation to generation to generation. I want to talk about a second woman today that teaches us the grace of God, and that's the Widow at Zarephath. First Kings 17. First Kings 17, verse 8. Sometime later, the brook dried up and the word of the Lord came to Elijah. And he said, I am going to provide for you. Go to verse nine, he says, go at once to Zarephath in the region of Sidon, and stay there. I have directed a widow to supply you with food. So Elijah shows up in verse 10, and when he gets to the town gate, a widow was there gathering her sticks. And she's gathering her sticks, knowing this is her final meal with her child. She's a mom that feels like she's insufficient, her bank account is insufficient, her funds, like she's run out of money. And Elijah looks at this poor widow and he says, would you bring me some water in a jar that I may have something to drink? And while she goes off in verse 11, she's going to get water. And when I see this moment, I just think about me and my kids sometimes sitting on the couch, just watching a Thunder game while Ashley's in the kitchen working on stuff. And we're like, hey, could you get us some water? Hey. And while you're at it, could you bake us a cake, too? Like, that's literally what Elijah says. And she's like, get off the couch and get your own water and bake your own cake, right? Elijah's like, hey, while you're getting me a water, could you also bring me a piece of bread? That's what he says. And I love what she responds. Here in verse 12, she says, as surely as your God lives, I don't have any bread. Now, you could also say, I don't have any grace. I've run out. I'm exhausted. I've spent everything I have on These kids, on my husband, on my family. I'm all out. This is where the grace of God shows up. When you are down to nothing, God's up to something. When you feel weak, when you feel insufficient, when you feel like all you have is a couple of sticks. That's where she was at. She's like, this is all I got. I'm going home to make my last meal with my son. And we're gonna die together because we are both done with life. It is too hard to keep going. And Elijah looks at her in her insufficiency, in her feelings of lack. This is where grace shows up. Listen, your weakness is an invitation for God's grace. Your lack is an invitation for God's. Enough. And so here's what Elijah says. Don't be afraid. Everybody say, don't be afraid. He says, go home and do as you have said. But first. But first, make a small loaf of bread for me. Elijah, this brother, are you kidding me? He's like, I know, I know you're out, but go ahead and make me some cake, right? But here's what Elijah knew. Elijah, back then, they didn't have Bibles. So the prophetic word was the Bible. The prophetic word from Elijah was literally the word of God. And he was saying, if you'll trust in God's word, if you'll trust in the spoken word of God, I promise you, God will always show up. If you'll obey God, if you'll trust in God, if you'll take God at his word, you will never run out. I promise you, you'll have enough for you and your son. Watch what he says in the next verse. Verse 14. He says, this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says. The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the land. So the woman took him at his word, and she did exactly as he told her. And there was food every single day. I'm talking about grace every single day for the whole family. Not just for you. How many all need grace for your whole family. You need some grace for people that are connected to you that they need some grace. And it comes by trusting God. Here's the third woman, the last woman I want to look at today that shows us the grace of God. It's in John, chapter 20. It's Mary Magdalene, John, chapter 20, verse 10. And I love this story because it's a story about surprises. And. And John 20, verse 10. The disciples went back so Peter and John and James, they all went back to the upper room, but Mary stayed. Women are better at staying in moments than men are. Women are just better at staying in a moment. Like when ladies have the encounter nights at Victory, Ashley doesn't get home until like 2 in the morning. When we have guys nights at Victory, I'm home at 9pm Like, I love hanging out with the bros, but I'm ready to go to bed at 9. I'm like, we're heading back. Ashley's not done. Even when she's done, she's not done. She's still on the phone at 2am Talking to the girls about encounter. I'm like, where have you been? She's like, we had encounter night. I was like, y' all stay long. She's like, women know how to stay. Women know how to talk and keep on talking. And we just keep on talking on the phone. When we're done talking and then we text after we're done with the phone call, we just keep talking. How many y' all you know? Some. You know what I'm talking about? Women know how to stay. So Mary stayed and the disciples ran. Now, this was Mary Magdalene. This is not the mother of Jesus. And here's the misconception. When you look up the name Mary Magdalene and you do some research on it, there's actually this little thing underneath her name says the common misconception. And I thought, how many women have been mispronounced, misconceived, misunderstood? And they say Mary Magdalene is commonly misunderstood as a prostitute. But she never was a prostitute. She was a woman that dealt with demonic torment. But Jesus set her free, and she became a servant and an apostle. With the apostle, she became one of the disciples of Jesus. She followed with the. With the twelve disciples. And she would serve and she would help and support the ministry. And so here she is. She's standing at the tomb, and she's just angry. She's frustrated, she's crying. She's staring at this tomb. And as she's weeping, she bends over to look in the tomb and. And watch what happens in verse 12. Sorry, I'm making all kinds of stuff here, Grace. She sees two angels in white seated where Jesus body had been. One at the head and the other at the foot. And they look at her and they say, woman, why are you crying? She says, they've taken away my Lord, and I don't know where they've put him. And then in verse 14, at this, she turned around and she saw Jesus standing there. But she did not realize it was Jesus. She's staring at Jesus and she doesn't know it's Jesus. And he asked her, woman, why are you crying? Who is it that you're looking for? Thinking he was the gardener. She was thinking that he was the gardener. Cause he was in the garden where the tomb was. And she's thinking that he's out there doing the gardening work. She misunderstood him because she's been misunderstood. She misunderstood him to be the gardener, but he was the gardener. He's always been the gardener. He was the gardener. When he first showed up. He was doing something in the garden that needed to be done. All the way back from Genesis, chapter three, Jesus was the new Adam. He was back in that same garden. And he was tilling the soil. And he was taking something that was dead. And he was bringing life out of dirt, death. He was working in the garden. Not the garden of Eden, but the garden by the tomb. But not just the garden by the tomb. He was working in the garden of people's hearts. She mistook him as the gardener. But he was the gardener. Because in John 15:1, he reminds his disciples, I am divine and my father is the gardener. In verse two, I love what he says. In verse two, he cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit. While every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes. Pruning is a part of the process. Paul the apostle said, God, I just wish you would take this thorn away from me. God, I wish you would make life easier. I wish you would get rid of people that I don't want to stay. And Jesus says, I'm going to leave some people in your life to make you stronger. I'm going to leave some people in your life to prune out some attitudes in you. I'm going to walk you through some trials that you wish would disappear. But. But through these trials, I'm pruning some areas in your life. I'm cutting off some impatience and impulsive behavior. I'm dealing with some grief and bitterness you've been holding onto ever since your dad left you. And I'm working some things out that you've been holding onto. And it feels tedious. And sometimes I remember going over my mom. My mom was a gardener. She was always in the backyard, just. We called her Bush Woman. She would just have bushes coming out of her hair. And she would be in the backyard with her shears. And she'd have bushes and plants in her head. And she'd be sweating, and she'd be in the Backyard. And she was pruning. And one day she was pruning this tree down to nothing. I was like, mom, you killed that tree. She said, no, I'm making the tree stronger, Paul. She says, everything that bears fruit, even the things that bear fruit, must be pruned so that they can bear even more fruit. I came back that next summer. This is when I was, like, 19, I was in college. And I was watching her prune this one tree. I came back, the tree was bigger. The next summer. She said, do you remember when I was pruning that tree? I said, yeah. She said, I pruned it so it could bear even more fruit. So Mary's staring at the gardener, and he's going. She's going, what have you done with the body of Jesus? What have you done with my life? This is where the grace of God shows up. The grace shows up in your guilt, in your grief and your gaps and your glitches and. And your pain. And while she's staring at the gardener, go back to John 20. She's staring at the gardener, and she's trying to figure out what's going on. And she looks at him and she says, sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you've put him, and I will go get him. And I love what he says next. He says, mary, Mary, Mary Magdalene. She turned towards him and she cried out in Aramaic, rabbonai, which means teacher, my pastor. And after this, she embraced Jesus and she found grace. I want you to stand to your feet all over this place. The grace of God wrapped Mary up that day, reminding her that he is still with her even when she's feeling pruned, even when she's crying out, even when she's feeling forgotten. Even when Paul the apostle was saying, God, where are you? I need your help. He was saying, my grace is sufficient for you. It's more than enough. It's more than enough. The widow at Zarephath saying, God, I'm running out of money. I'm running out. My bank account's looking low. God, I don't know how I'm gonna take my kids on vacation. I don't even know how we're gonna pay the bills. I don't know how we can afford gas right now. I don't know what we're gonna do with this situation. And God says, my grace is sufficient. My grace is sufficient. Shame and guilt have to go. Fear has to go. I was looking up this last week. What are the top fears that moms face? And you know, the Internet never lies. So, you know, I was doing some cross referencing on all the Internet. But the top three common fears that moms had is moms one, they fear about the future of their kids. What's going to happen? Who are they going to marry? What if they get in a car accident? What if they get down to something bad? What if they get into an addiction? What if they stumble upon something on their phone? Or what if they're bullied at school? Or what if someone breaks their heart? Or what if they go through something that's difficult? So that's their first fear is what's going to happen to my kids? And the second fear is maybe I'm not doing this right. Maybe I'm not parenting them right. Maybe I'm making some mistakes. And number three, what if I mess them up because I'm not good enough? And therefore I raise them up with this feeling of insufficiency and lack and poverty mindset and fear, and I mess them up because I'm not good enough. I'm going to make them not good enough enough. And let me tell you something. Today, fear never produced anything good. Fear never made any good fruit. But the love and the grace of God. This is where the real fruit comes. When we rest in his grace, the grace of God. Grace opens the door for a whole lot more change in our lives. I remember this one night I came home during college and I just felt overwhelmed, stressed and exhausted. And my mom was still awake. It was midnight. My dad was asleep, snoring, but my mom was awake. She was cleaning clothes and doing laundry, and she was watching a movie. And she was like, paul, what are you doing home? You're supposed to be in the dorms. I said, can I stay here tonight? She said, sure. What's going on? I said, mom, I'm just tired, and I just feel like I'm failing. And da, da, da. She was like, well, sit down in the kitchen. Let me make you a grilled cheese sandwich. I said, okay, that sounds good. Good. She made me a grilled cheese sandwich at midnight. And we're sitting there and she just starts talking to me. She says, just tell me what's. What's really bothering you. What's really going on. It's okay, Paul. I won't judge you. You could tell me anything I want. You can tell me whatever secret's really on your heart. And I just started to open up to my mom. And it was in that conversation that there was just this release of shame and guilt and fear and anxiety. And it was just this love. And today I want you to just bow your heads and close your eyes, because I believe that the presence of God wants to do this for someone in the room. You're walking through some things right now where you just need grace. You're walking through areas and different categories of your life. Where you're going. God, I could really use your grace in relationships. I could really. I could really use some grace in even just my questions about the future, my questions about. About my finances, my questions about family. God, I just need grace. Even in my own attitude, the way I'm responding to people, the way I'm reacting. God, I need your grace to just walk in, patience, to stop beating myself up every single time I think I should have. Could have done better in something. If you're here right now with heads bowed and eyes closed, if you need grace, if you need God's grace, and you're walking through some trials, there's just some thorns, and you're trying to figure out, God, how do I. How do I get through some of this? God, God, I really need your grace. I want you to just raise your hand up all over this room. Lord, I just pray right now for every hand that's up from the back to the front. God, I thank you that your grace is sufficient. Your grace is enough for us, that you meet us in the garden of our own soul. Soul. And you see the weeds that are growing up, the weeds of fear and doubts and hurts and wounds and bitterness. God, you see the things that you need to uproot and prune off of the branches of our own soul. God, you're looking at people right now who won't even raise their hand. And you know they need to raise their hand. But your grace is sufficient. Even for those that won't raise their hand. Your grace will meet them even on their drive home today. Even those that are watching this online, listening to this podcast, your grace is right there. And, God, I thank you that your grace never runs out, that your mercies are new every single morning. Great is your faithfulness. Your grace goes from generation to generation. Your covenant God is with generation to generation. God, if that's you today, God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. And if you raised your hand or you wanted to raise your hand, or you just need to get to this altar, would you leave your seat? Come and meet me at this altar right now. And I want to cheer on brave men that are taking a step. Brave women, moms, daughters, sons, fathers, husbands, wives, grandparents. If you need grace, I'm telling you right now, his grace is here. His grace is here right now. I feel the grace of God in this room. And if you will just humble yourself and say, God, give me grace. Give me grace for what I facing. Give me grace for what I'm walking through. Give me grace, God, for the areas in my heart where I have been such a critic towards myself. God, give me grace to receive God, what you're doing in me, to see it and believe it and trust it. Give me grace, God, to love the people that have hurt me. Give me grace to forgive the people that betrayed me. Give me grace to be kind to the people that have mistreated me. Give me grace, God, where I felt so deficient, God, give me grace in my finances. Give me grace, God, to pay my bills. Give me grace, God, when I feel like I'm not enough. Give me grace, God, when I feel like I'm coming up short. If you need grace, he's here. He's in the room. His name is Jesus. And his grace is sufficient for you if you're here today and you just say, paul, I just need prayer. I need to get down to that altar to receive prayer. Come, come meet us at the altar. There's no judgment. This is a judgment free church. You come as you are, but you don't have to leave as you are. You can leave changed by the grace of God, by the mercy of God, by the kindness of God, the unmerited favor of God. And we're just going to worship. Y' all go ahead and lead us in that song as you come to this altar. Just receive what God has for you. Lord, I thank you, God, for your grace. Just put your hands out like you're receiving a gift. God wants to put a gift in your hands today. A gift of his grace, a gift of his mercy, a gift of his forgiveness, a gift of his love, a gift of his strength. He says, I'm going to sustain you in that hospital. That I'm going to sustain you, sustain you in that bedroom. I'm going to sustain you in that dorm room. I'm going to help you get through that at your workplace. I'm going to help you with that situation that's beyond your control. His grace is sufficient. His grace is sufficient. His grace is sufficient. His grace never runs out. Grace in the morning and grace in the evening. From the top of your head to the souls of your feet. May the grace of God cover. May the grace of God lead and guide you. May the grace of go of God power. May the grace of God strengthen you. May the grace of God cover your path, cover your gifts. He loves you. He's with you. He is with you. He is with you. He is with you in the morning,