Grace Introduced to the New Testament

Good evening, welcome to the Baptist Tabernacle, and we are glad to have you here with us tonight. Let's all stay and we're going to get started by singing.

We will glorify words, be up there on the screen so you can follow along. Well-known song, Sing it out. Nice tonight as we sing praises to the Lord.

We will glorify the king of kings. We will. Find the lamb. We will glorify the Lord of Lords, who is the great. Rains and majesty, we will be.

In righteousness, we will worship him. Oh, there's a third verse let's that he is water above the universe, he is Lord of all live. He is made up of heaven and earth. Praise to him making.

There's a fourth person I should have just looked at my thing, I'm sorry. All right, I'm glad you guys are here tonight and I hope you're looking forward to a good time in the Lord's House. Let's go learn what a prayer. Ask his blessing on our time together here tonight, the only father we thank you for this day. Thank you. For all the folks that are here tonight. I pray to God bless them for coming out to the service this evening. Lord, you bless our time together may be an encouragement and a challenge to our hearts. In Jesus name, I pray. Amen. All right. Thank you. May be seated. A couple of announcements for you of some things coming up that you're going to be aware of. First ladies night out. Oh, no, no, no. First retreads this Friday from ten to one or two or whenever they get tired. So come on out for a time of fun games at ten o'clock and then a potluck lunch at noon. And our senior adults would love to have you be a part of this fun time with them, I believe. But aren't we talking about some upcoming events at that retreads? So if you want to know what's coming up for our senior adults, be there and learn about all the fun stuff they're going to be doing. And then Saturday is Ladies Night Out. That'll be at six o'clock at Losed Trace Hermanus and that'll be located downtown Collinsville. And ladies, you can come out for a wonderful time together. You get to know some some different ladies, all different age groups will be there. And a great time to get out of the house, get away from the kids, get away from your husband and just have a fun time with just the ladies. So make plans on being there Saturday night at six o'clock. And then this coming Sunday after the evening service, we're going to have a church wide fellowship. We're going to play volleyball on the basketball court and use the new volleyball system we have. And then we'll also be serving pizza. And so you can stick around for pizza and volleyball. You don't have to partake in both or either at all. But just we'd love to have you there and to enjoy your fellowship. And then some announcements about next weekend. Not this coming weekend. Next weekend, of course, Easter weekend. Things will get started on April 3rd. That's Saturday. And we'll have an Easter egg hunt from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 pm registrational start at ten. Forty five lunch will be provided there at the event. And so if you'd like to help, would you need your help? There's a sign up sheet in the foyer of four different positions where you can give us some assistance. And then also we do still need a lot more eggs and we need a lot of plastic eggs, candy filled eggs. If you want to put money in them, that's fine. Just make sure you donate them to the staff. But we do need a lot more eggs to be able to do the Easter egg hunt and make sure all the kids get a nice big bucket full of candy to take home.

And then, oh, well, you got that thing up there fast. Good job. Then on Sunday, we're going to have a little bit different schedule than we would have on a normal week. But it is a schedule we've done before for Easter. We'll have two morning services. The early service will be at 9:00 a.m. breakfast, be at 10am and then the second service will be at eleven. And so there'll be no Sunday school on Easter Sunday. And the child care, as you can see for the early service, is just for the choir members. The second service, the eleven o'clock service, is where we'll have our normal junior church and nursery. And so if you have children, that's probably the one that you want to come to. But anyways and then that night, we're going have a fun time together. We're going to have a kind of a worship service where we're going to sing probably two to three times as many songs as we normally would. And then we have a special video that we're going to watch. And so be a great time together. I hope you'll make plans on being there for that. I believe that's all of the announcements. Don't forget, if you did want to send a a wedding anniversary card to the Bacons tomorrow, is there seventy fifth wedding anniversary. And so, um, if you would like to do that, you can either drop that in the mail or even just drop it on their front porch. They live in downtown Collinsville. Easy to get to. If you need the address, you can call the church office and we'd be happy to give that to you. But they are trying to stay home bound. So if you do drop one off, please don't go in. Just leave it on the porch and they will get that. So.

All right. That's all the announcements I have. Let's all stand. We're going to sing another song.

Page number two, 77 in your hymn books, Trust and Obey will send the first, second and the fifth when we walk with the Lord in the Lord.

Glory Chadstone. While we do his good.

He abides by steel and with all who trust and. Trust and make sure there's no.

Either way, to be happy in Jesus to trust and obey orders. Can rise. Not a cloud in the skies, but his smile quickly drives all.

A town for fear, not a sign. All right here. By now, we trust and obey. Trust and hoping for there's no.

To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.

And in fellowship suite, we will sit at his feet or will walk by his side in. But he says we. Where he sings, We will never fear. Trust and faith, trust and.

And Jesus, but to trust and.

I imagine you're doing a great job every single last song.

I get turned over to the page, of course, but they'll be up on the screen for you. We're seeing Majesty almost there. All right, I'm good now.

Oh, OK, Majesty, worship is my.

Can't Jesus be all glory on and pray?

Majesty King.

We take from this hunter who is on his income race, so exalted, if not.

Justin, worship is Majesty Jesus, who died now glorified king of kings and getting him have our men come forward at this time.

And we're going to prepare to take up the Tizen offerings this evening and trusting God will bless you as you are faithful to give and support the ministry here at the church. And we are very grateful for everyone that is so generous to support the ministry here. Last year was a record year for us, despite covid and everything, and we are already either neck and neck with where we were last year or slightly ahead. So that's a great blessing. And so we're excited about doing more for the Lord here at the Baptist Tabernacle and of course, around the world. And how his brother, Mike Morgan, if he doesn't mind to pray, ask God's blessing on the offering tonight.

I thank you, may be seated.

Take your Bibles if you have been turned to the Book of Luke.

We'll just do the front.

The Book of Luke. We're going to be in chapter number two, Luke, chapter number two. Verse number thirty nine, if you wouldn't mind, if you're physically able to join me on of reading God's word by standing. Luke, chapter two, verse number thirty nine, we're going to read two verses here tonight.

Miles says.

When they had performed all things according to the Law of the Lord, they were turned into Galilee to their own city, Nazareth. Child grew and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom, the grace of God was upon him. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank for this day and thank you for all of the folks that are here tonight, pray that you'd help us.

Now, as you look into your word, give me the words you'd have me to say. You help folks to listen to here to their lives. Words in Jesus name. I pray a man like you may be seated.

So the last several weeks, we've been going through a series called Grace through the Bible and we have made our way, we didn't hit every instance of grace in the Old Testament, but we we hit quite a few of them. And it's important for us all to realize as we make the transition now into the New Testament, that grace doesn't begin in the New Testament.

How many of you have heard the term age of grace? We heard that that phrase. Some people would say they would actually write this down and and put it in print that the God of the Old Testament is a totally different God than the God in the New Testament. At the God in the Old Testament was a god of judgment and wrath and harsh and no mercy.

No grace. And then but when you come to the New Testament, God kind of softens a bit, mellows out a little. And now all of a sudden he's gracious and is merciful and all of these wonderful, loving things.

But you know better because we've looked at different instances of grace in the Old Testament. We found that indeed Grace is active in the Old Testament. God is showing grace. God is enabling others to show grace. And so the Old Testament is not devoid of grace right now. We're going to move now into the New Testament and the gospels are a transitionary time is a time where the law is still in effect. But obviously, Jesus is on the scene. And so the church is being established. His apostles are being chosen, the gospel is being preached, the kingdom has come. And so it's this transitionary period where the law is still here. But grace is the age of grace is starting to come into fruition.

Are you still with me?

OK, so nowhere is this more clear than in our passage here tonight. I want you to look back at the verses that we had just read and in the beginning, a verse number thirty nine. The Bible says when they had performed all things according to the Law of the Lord, you see, Jesus was born into a world which was dominated or characterized by the law. Now, you've probably been at Sunday school enough times to know a little bit about the law of God. For example, if you were going to live under the law, you were a Jewish person. Then on Saturday, you were to observe the what? The Saddam no working, you're to stay home, there was rituals that you would do, and so you had to observe the Sabbath and that was given to me as a gift by God. It was a chance to rest and recover from all of your labors throughout the week. Of course, we know by the time that Jesus comes on the scene, the Sabbath had become a burden upon the people. And we'll talk about that in just a moment.

We understand that in the law there was civil law that talked about if you're gaus out your neighbors eye, this is how you make restitution, talks about if you're digging a hole and your neighbor's donkey falls in the hole, what do you do? Well, you buy him a new donkey or you give him one of yours. And so the law spelled all of this stuff out. It was a very detailed prescription for how to live. It was their standard of morality, if we could say it that way.

But in our passage, we start with Jesus undergoing the rituals prescribed for a baby which was born under the law. And so you can read about that whole process in the verses preceding our passage. But as the firstborn son, there was a set procedure that had to be followed for Jesus. The firstborn was to be wholly under the Lord. And so there were certain things that the firstborn child, especially if it was the firstborn son, they would undergo that the rest of the children would not. And so our verse is telling us this, and it's making this connection in our mind that Jesus was a man or a young boy.

At this point, born in the time of the law, to be Jewish meant abiding by the law.

Moses, of course, had delivered the law to them during their stay at Mount Sinai and for thousands of years they had lived under the law. Now, there was this other group in this time period that I mentioned, just alluded to in just a moment ago, a group called the Pharisees.

Now, when you think of the Pharisees, what kind of opinion do you have, positive or negative?

A lot of negative opinions about the Ferris's Barassi just means pure ones, they were they were concerned with maintaining the law and keeping the law and making sure everybody else kept the law. It wasn't just, hey, you know, I'm I'm not responsible for me. It's I'm going to make sure you keep the law and you keep the law and you keep law if you don't want to snitch on you and turn you in.

They were very nice people back then, lots of mercy, lots of kindness, but anyways, they often showed little mercy and they were really overly concerned with purity and said, well, what's wrong with being concerned about purity? Well, it wasn't purity of heart. It was more outward purity. You had to make sure the outside looked right. What did Jesus refer to the Pharisees as? They were as why did. Why did Sepulchers Sepulcher is right? It's like a creped.

They're full of dead men's bones. It's a coffin, it's a grave, it's like you look really nice and shiny and clean the outside, but on the inside, there's just death. And so the Pharisees, they were a big part of Jesus's life and they were dedicated to enforcing the law. The people of this time lived in fear of the law because in reality, no one, not even the Pharisees, were keeping the law.

We're on point no for their brother. If you could switch through some of these slides and get those points up there.

There's two. We'll catch up there for a second.

All right, now here's the thing about the law. Let's say you have a specific law that you struggle with. We'll just take the Ten Commandments, for example, familiar with the Ten Commandments. We've got a statue of him out in our garden. Go if you don't want to drive while you go out there and take a picture of it and there you go. You'll have the Ten Commandments for you to look at. But anyway, the Ten Commandments are not the whole law. OK, you understand the law is much bigger than the Ten Commandments. That's like the table of contents of the law. Not really the whole law, but let's just take that. Let's say you keep all nine commandments, but you miss the one. Let's say you, uh, I don't know, you covet your neighbor's wife, but I never killed anybody. Doesn't matter. Any man keeps the whole law and yet defends it in one point, is guilty of how much all of it. So, yeah, that's right.

And so it doesn't matter if you're ninety nine percent pure and one percent guilty according to the law, you're a hundred percent guilty. So in reality, no one is keeping the whole lot. It in a single point is to be guilty of all. It was impossible for a person to maintain their observance of the law continually.

No man had ever done it. Until Jesus comes on. And here comes Jesus, the perfect sinless son of God, one hundred percent God, but at the same time, one hundred percent man right?

Jesus would be the first and only person to live a life that kept the law at every point, and we see that starting in verse number thirty nine with his parents taking him to the temple so that all the law can be fulfilled for this little boy. Now, you may be thinking next slide, you may be thinking, yeah, but Jesus was God, so it's not the same. Well, I'm glad you thought that because we want to talk about that for just a second. And Berson before he kind of helps us with it. Go to the next slide there, Brother Maciel. Jesus, though divine, allowed himself to be limited as a man while he was on the Earth. I want you to think about some things with me. Throughout his life, we see that Jesus was limited to one location. Right, when he's with the disciples, he is in one place, he limited himself in his transportation. Now we see this before we see this after Jesus, before Jesus was born. We see this after Jesus was risen from the dead. Jesus has the ability to just show up. If he wants to show up, he can show up here, he can go here, he can go there and be there in an instant.

But when he's here on Earth, we see Jesus doing what he's traveling up and down Israel, going to Nazareth, traveling down to Jerusalem, going into Samaria. And everywhere he goes, what's he doing is walking.

Doesn't have to. He's God. But he allows himself to be limited. He is limited by a physical body, remember, Jesus gets hungry. Jesus got hungry when he was in heaven. I kind of doubt it. Do you think Jesus needs sleep? In heaven, no, but as a man, Jesus needed sleep, he got so tired one time he went to sleep in the bottom of a boat in the middle of a giant storm.

He felt weary, he felt pain. It was limited by a body that could die. It was mortal. There were even some things that Jesus didn't know. As a man. And with that. We're going to talk about it more in a moment, but there were some things that he said. Even the man doesn't know. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

I thought he was omniscient, he's all knowing I thought he was omnipresent everywhere, I thought he was omnipotent, all powerful. He was and is. But for a few years. Jesus allowed himself to be limited as a man and as you can see in the next point. Even as a child, Jesus experienced the same growth process as any other natural human being version of reform, he tells us that the child Jesus grew. Now, this is really deep, and I know it's Wednesday night, you're tired, your brain's a little foggy because you've been at work, you've been you've been, you know, nose to the grindstone all week long. And you just you don't really want to come. Thank you. Just you just want to sit here and, like, veg out as if you're watching TV. I'm not as entertaining as TV, but, you know, whatever. Here's what this means, the child group. It means that one time he was small. And by the next year, he had grown a little taller. And by the next year, he had grown a little taller and by the next year he had grown a little taller. There's really no deep spiritual significance here other than the fact that Jesus had a normal human body.

That started out as a baby and grew and developed and had to go through puberty.

Teenagers. They're always like.

Did Jesus get pimples? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.

But can you think back to when you were a child, for some of you, that's not that far away. For some of you, that's a really long time away.

But trying to go back and just think through some of the experiences of growing up as a little human being into a medium size, being into a fully grown human being. Just think about some of the things that happen.

I mean, you know, you hit adolescence and you hit those growth spurts and the pants that fit you the day before, the week before all of a sudden are like to your ankles. You remember that stuff? No fun, OK? Jesus had to experience that.

You remember what it was like to to to have to learn new things, we were talking with my parents when we were visiting them last week about when I was trying to learn how to ride a bicycle. And I had just started riding the two wheeler, but I wasn't that good at it yet. And so my friend invited me to his bicycle birthday party. Well, that morning before the party, me and my dad, we were practicing we were trying to get it to where I felt comfortable riding my new two wheel bicycle and I just couldn't get it. It was a little too tall for me. And so we decided I'd ride my old school, which still had the training wheels on. It wasn't as fast, wasn't as cool, but it's better than me falling over every five seconds. And so so I took that bicycle. We went to the party and we're riding and all my friends were always older than me. And so they're all like seven, which means they're big. I mean, they're practically growing beards. I mean. He says, a six year old, that's what I thought.

And so the bike ride starts and they zoom off and leave me behind. And I am stuck in this part, I don't know whether they went to the trail and the left the trail on the right. So I did what any six year old would do. SAT down. And to this day. That memories still, I'm not really crying.

But you remember those things, I mean, I'm sure you've got stories about that, stories where you were little and you tried to do something that was for big people and you couldn't do it for tidiest. We went we went down to SeaWorld one day while we were there with the with the kid there in Texas. And he wanted to ride this roller coaster. He was all pumped. He's like, yes, I'm going to ride the roller coaster. When I was his age, I was crying and cried that much. OK, I know it sounds like I probably cried a lot when I was a kid, but I didn't. But the first time my dad made me ride the Judge Roy scream at Six Flags, I was not having it and then he forced me on. But Titus is there. And he was like, yes, we're going to do this. I'm so excited he gets out there. That kid is like a hair too short.

That lady crushed his dreams. Told him, you will not ride this. So we just waited an hour and a half, so I don't care.

Get out of here. It was damning, but.

I mean, Jesus was a little boy.

He was a little boy that was running around, he wanted to fit in with the big kids, he wanted to play whatever they were playing him. I'm sure they had balls and had a different games that they would play. Jesus wanted to be a part of all that. He had to go through puberty, had to go through that awkward teenage stage where just everything is out of proportion. I mean, he's there in the in the carpenter's shop with Joseph and they're working and sweating.

And all of a sudden Joseph is like, oh, and Jesus, what is wrong was the last time you took a bath. Jesus experienced the process of growing up, just like every one of us has. I don't think of him that way. It's like he somehow miraculously goes from baby Jesus in the manger to Grown-Up Jesus hanging on the cross. There was a childhood we know the most we know about Jesus is from three years of his life. But he was thirty three years older than me. I mean, there's 30 years that he was a fully present human being. And. He went through the same things we went through. Now the verse continues, not only did the child grow the scissors, he waxed strong in spirit. To act strong means to increase in strength. If you're increasing in strength, that means at one point you lacked strength, is that right? Now, does this mean Jesus was imperfect, no. Would you say my son Jackson is sinning because he doesn't know all the books of the Bible? No, he just hasn't learned them yet. You see, Jesus had to grow spiritually, just like you and I, when we could say we have to grow spiritually now we struggle with sin and he did it. That's the big difference.

But he's there and he was in his synagogue. We know he went to synagogue and learned and he's sitting there in front of the teachers and they say, hey.

Have you ever heard the story about the Israelites crossing the Red Sea? Jesus sitting there like, no. How they do that boats, no, they didn't use boats, God parted the Red Sea. War. He did I mean, can you just imagine being a little boy, Jesus, sitting in your Sunday school class? You start telling about that. Uh. It's crazy, it's wild to think about. But it says he waxed strong in spirit, this is a reference, I believe, to the spiritual growth that Jesus experienced is I don't believe that really.

I think he always knew everything all the time. You think baby Jesus was laying there fully aware of everything that was going on?

Would he get the whole human experience?

Was the one hundred percent human? Biologically was the one hundred percent human.

I mean, his brain had to develop just like yours.

When toddler Jesus first began to pray at night before bed. I highly doubt that he didn't start speaking out the great priestly prayer that we read about in John. You know, it was probably something pretty simple. His relationship with his father was something probably pretty basic to start off, but it grew as his spirit waxed stronger. Spiritually, he started small, physically he started small and grew as he learned and lived. And isn't this exactly what many of us have experienced? Isn't this what many of us want and desire for our children and grandchildren?

Joseph and Mary had to be thrilled as Jesus started learning the different stories of the Bible.

I mean, they knew who this was. And says this. He was filled with wisdom.

So I have this cup bottle full of water. Now, I do this because the jury doesn't clean it up like an empty this bottle of water, right it and then it would have nothing in it.

And if I wanted to put something back in, I would have to what, fill it back up? Filled with wisdom, Jesus grew not only physically, not only spiritually, but also he grew in wisdom. He grew in his mental abilities. He had to learn just like any other boy. Can you picture a little Jesus standing by, Joseph, asking him why he's making a chair a certain way? Why are you using that particular tool? Joseph? Joseph will explain it to him and she said, I got it. That makes sense. He had to learn, just like you and I do, Jesus had just as normal a childhood as anybody else. He just never sinned. That's the difference. He was perfect, he never touched the hot stove after Mary said, don't touch that. He never said give me to his half brothers and sisters when they were playing with the toys, Jesus never did those things, but he was a child, just like any other child. Growing in stature, spirit and psyche are all expected in the story of a little boy.

Brother Mechai, go ahead and hit the next slide there, this verse verse, an authority about Jesus childhood proves that Jesus shared in our experiences of growing up as humans. It's the end of verse number 40 where we kind of have this unexpected feature. It's a phrase that when I read it, when I first started working on this sermon several days ago, it started to make me think. Because it seems that Jesus shared in another of our experiences that that we might not have thought I'd go to the next slide there. The passage says that Jesus had the grace of God upon him as a child.

You said, well, I don't see what's wrong, what's wrong with that? Well, the next point is we've made a point of defining Grace as what?

Undeserved favor.

Was this true of Jesus?

Was God's favor on him undeserved?

Did not Jesus deserve God's pleasure and favor and blessing?

I mean, I think we can probably all agree that if there was ever anyone who deserved God's favor, it was only Jesus.

You're looking kind of smug, like I deserve it, too, Brother Gary. You don't know how good I.

Me and Jesus. We're some special. I deserve God's grace. Oh, you don't.

I mean, to put this person here, there was a verse in the New Testament, some of you that are better Bible scholars, me could probably remember it, but something along the lines of.

Great, if Grace is a works, then it is no more grace than James think now you find it correct that. If it's something earned, then it's no longer grace. So why does Jesus have God's grace upon him? Well, let me back up and ask you this, why did Jesus have to grow up physically?

Why did he have to grow stronger in his spirit? Why did he have to be filled with wisdom? See everything Jesus does during his time on Earth. He didn't come to the minister down to. He came to. Minister. Everything Jesus does, it does for our sake, he's on the earth, for our sake, if it wasn't for us, he wouldn't have come. Was the president had to come, but that's a whole different story. But I believe even this phrase of God's grace was upon him was something that is recorded for us so that Jesus could set an example for us.

Let me explain.

When Jesus came to this earth, he came as a.

Baby, I'm sorry, I've been told I can't hear very well up here, so maybe you're all talking and I just can't hear you. But yes, he came as a baby. He didn't plop down on this earth as a fully grown man ready to save everybody. It came as a baby and he went through the process of growing, you're like, yes, we know we've covered it, we got it. OK, so make sure. But why did he go through that process? Well, like I said, he did it for our sakes.

He did it so that he would be able to relate, not that he couldn't before, but he can experience everything we have experienced. He did it so that he can go through everything that you and I have gone through in the natural. It's not the exact circumstances, but the natural human experience of growing and going through adolescence and all of that other stuff that comes with it and do so without sin.

You see, it wouldn't have been enough for him to just come to Earth as a man, be here for five minutes, die on the cross and say, all right, I've done it. He had to live a life.

That was perfect.

He was perfect as an infant. He was perfect as a toddler, as a child, as a as a pre-teen, as a teenager, as a young adult, as a as a mature adult. Jesus was perfect.

And he did that for us. The same is true about this, this phrase here, the grace of God.

Jesus allowed himself to go through the transformations that occur in the growth of a human. The same is true when it comes to Jesus living his life and the power of God's grace.

Jesus had all power, he always was God, he never stopped being God. But during his life on Earth, Jesus made himself, and this is an important phrase here, voluntarily dependent. Upon the father. And upon the spirit. It was voluntary. There was a voluntary dependance while Jesus was on this earth on the power of the father and on the spirit. He was led by the spirit and look for 14, he cast out demons by the Spirit. Matthew Twelve twenty eight, he prayed in dependance on the guidance of the father in Luke six 12 right before he chose his disciples. If you just go down to the end of this chapter, look to forty nine, what was he busy doing? His business or his father's business? You see, Jesus made himself dependent upon the grace of God for the ability of his ministry. Could Jesus have done everything he did in his own power?

Yes, the answer is yes. But he didn't why? For our sakes.

He is demonstrating for us the power of God's grace in a person's life. Jesus was demonstrating what would be possible after God's grace was made available to all. Through the gospel.

It's kind of like. The covid vaccine.

Like just recently, they said all Oklahomans are now eligible to go get the vaccine.

It's available. I think it's even free to you. What a great deal.

If you want it, I don't know. We're not going to get political here. You don't seem to be in the mood. But it's available to all. There is no cost.

Has it always been that way?

Only for a select few you yet these parameters. But now it's open. It's kind of what Grace is like here. There were people who experienced God's grace before this.

But now. As Jesus lives his life, as he dies, and as we're about to celebrate Easter Resurrection Sunday, this is a whole new chapter in man's history to where now God's grace will be freely available to whosoever. And Jesus says, I want to give you a quick demonstration. Of what it looks like when a person lives in the power of God's grace. God's grace, the power of God's grace, working through their lives.

I don't want to ruin the ending here.

How many do you know how many times the phrase grace of God appears before this passage, the whole line up to this point, how many times do you think the grace of God, that phrase appears in the Bible?

Even those three words contained in a single verse.

You probably guess you're right. Yeah, well, I have my notes, you know. It's zero. It doesn't it doesn't show up.

After this passage, though.

Twenty nine times the phrase the grace of God shows up in the New Testament. It's kind of like this is a tipping point.

Like, this is the focal point of of history as Jesus introduces a new way of living for humanity.

Jesus was born under the law. The law was a harsh taskmaster, the law was. What's the word?

All I can think of is implacable, but that's not that's not it, you couldn't please it was never enough. It was like having a two year old in your house. It's never enough. You read books, they still want another one. I mean, that's the law, never fulfill the law, but Jesus did.

Jesus blazed a trail of grace for people who had very little idea of what Grace was capable of. They had no idea what Grace was going to be able to do in their lives and to be honest, Jesus is still helping people who have very little idea of what God's grace is capable of in their life.

I mean, really, if you were honest with yourself, how well connected are you with the possibilities of what God's grace could do in your life? Some of you have sins in your life that you've had for decades, you've had this sin in your life longer than I've been alive. And you have convinced yourself that it is just.

Zach, it's just the scene that does so easily upset me, I'm never going to get rid of it, just who I am, my temper. I was born that way. My dad had a bad temper. He didn't, but he had a bad temper. I just I'll never get over this. The grace of God says, yes, you can.

I can give you the victory over that. And coming in to find out that it's not so much. If I do this, this, this and this, then I will access some mystical power of odd.

It's more of one of these things where I'm going to let you change.

It's not that you need to change yourself, is that you need to submit to his desire to change you. If you if you can change if you can change that mentality in your mind, that that image of I have to fix myself so that God will give me his power as opposed to I need to allow God's power to fix me, that would make a big change in our lives.

Jesus is an illustration of what the grace of God can do. What is your favorite part or story from Jesus life?

Walking on water. Healing the blind, the lame. Feeding the five thousand.

Maybe it's a message, maybe like the Beatitudes, you like the Sermon on the Mount, you like when he maybe you like when you hear you're a little more violent in your mentality, like when he makes that whip and starts turning tables over and running them out of the temple at your favorite part. Maybe it's his death on the cross. It makes you sad every time you read about it, every time you hope, surely it's not going to happen and then it does, but you just really can appreciate what it cost to purchase your salvation. Maybe for some of you, the resurrection is your favorite part of Jesus life, you love the imagery that is connected with Easter, that bright sunrise, the the women coming to the grave to anoint his body, the angels that are there. You love Peter and John racing each other back to the grave. All of it. It's just your favorite part.

Maybe you like the way Jesus interacted with others. You watch The Chosen.

You haven't watched the chosen submit to your pastor's leadership and just go watch it being sarcastic, but you really should watch it.

Gives you a better view of Jesus's interaction with people, his interaction with children.

We've watched it, you know, where he is talking to those kids and he's making them laugh. They're making him laugh. He's just so personable with them. He makes that little horse in stable for the little girl and he leaves it there for I mean, isn't that just the most precious thing?

It's amazing to think of Jesus that way, that some long haired hippie walking around like you stoned out of his mind. I mean, that's basically the way most people portray Jesus.

Care for children is protection of children, if you are in one of these little ones, would be better for you to have a millstone hung around your neck and be tossed into the sea. His love for the unlovely. Don't you love that?

I'm on lovely.

I can put myself right into that story and say Jesus would have loved me, but he does love me.

But you understand.

His concern for those who are hurting.

How many of you struggle sometimes to empathize with people?

Suck it up. Be a man, rub some dirt in it, walk it off. You'll be fine.

Jesus always cared for the hurting. Because everything Jesus did in his life was a result of the grace of God at work.

It was the grace of God at work in and through him.

Our theme is grace to us, grace through us, the same grace that was upon Jesus is upon us as his children, we share in the same power.

Patients to a. The grace of his gospel has already begun to change you if you're a believer. Says by grace, you are saying the moment you get saved, your spirit is regenerated, a part of you that was dead becomes alive. Titus through seven tells us that God's grace has justified us. He has taken his righteousness and applied it to your dirty, nasty account.

You know, my count is dirty and nasty because you're a human. But when God looks at you because of the grace of Jesus, he doesn't see it.

He sees holiness, you are holy before the Lord, you may not always act like it, but when he sees you, he sees the blood of Jesus and he sees you as holy.

But, you know, we are to grow in grace. Second, Peter, three, 18.

It's Grace, according to Hebrews 12 twenty eight that enables our service to God.

Grace, whereby we are able to minister Grace, is multiplied to us in our time of need haber's 416 is there the let us therefore come boldly under the throne of. God, that we may obtain mercy and grace to help in time, the second twenty to one grace strengthens us. Clawson's three 16 and Caution's four six say that Grace informs not only our speech. A speech being graceful, but also our song. Our song is to be informed by the grace of God. How much Grace is in the music that you listen to and seeing on a daily basis?

You don't think I should listen to Christian music all the time, do you? Well, you just try to listen to a little more of it than you currently do. I can share just a tiny little pastoral pet peeve of mine.

Maybe I should.

OK. You have pulled it out of me, but when you don't like it, it's your fault. Please don't let the only Christian music you listen to be when a country singer records a Christian album to make some more money.

Which favor Christian City. Let me tell you, when Alan Jackson sings, it is no secret who. The church in the wildwood. There's other good music out there.

Don't don't just be eating at the leftovers of whatever has been country singer who needed a few extra bucks, decided to throw out a Christian CD just because he knows Christians are really, really easily. Sucked into country music, so I'm sorry, that was my pastoral pet peeve.

We can move on.

Back to Grace. In Romans eight twenty nine, the Bible says that we are predestined to be conformed to what? The image of Jesus. Jesus image is one of a grace filled life. If we're going to be conformed to his image, his example, his model that he set for us, that means we're going to have to live a life of grace. Living a life of grace is as natural for the Christian as growing is for a child.

You all laughed when I made a big deal about Jesus growing up physically. Why? Because you're like, well, of course he did.

He was a baby. He grew up. Lots of people do. They learn things. That's how it works. The same is true with grace in the life of a Christian. If a child isn't growing. We all know something's wrong. It physically, year after year after year, they stay the same height. Something's not right.

The same is true with a Christian who isn't growing in grace. So how do we unlock God's grace in our life? Well, as I studied, it seems like. We just ask for it. We just ask for it. 13 times, Paul says, Grace, back to you. Grace, back to you. What's he doing, is that just empty language? No, it's a prayer. God's grace to you. You can pray for God's grace in other people's lives. If we're going to do that, don't you think it's probably reasonable we would pray for in our own life?

He was for 16, says we can receive grace from the throne of God.

Jesus, life was an example for us of what a grace filled life looks like, you want to know how we're supposed to live, read Jesus life. He set the example for us. Yeah, but he's God. Yeah, but he did it in the same power that you and I have access to.

The father. And the Holy Spirit.

Well, but he was more connected to the Holy Spirit because he's the he's part of the Trinity. Yeah, you have the Holy Spirit living inside of you.

We have no excuse not to be grace filled people. Maybe we need to ask for more Grace. Even here tonight.

Heavenly Father, we thank for this day, thanks for the good attention of the folks that are here. God, I ask that you help all of us to follow your son's example. Lord, your grace would be evident in our lives that we would. So we would ask for it, it will allow your Grace to. Work in us and through us to those that are in our in our lives or we love you and we thank you for all you do for us. It's in Jesus name, I pray a man. All right, thank you for your good attention tonight. We're going to take just a moment to update our privacy.

And the.

Got some updated requests that we want you to be aware of, brother Ronnie Bacon had back surgery here today and so please be in prayer for him as he recovers from that. And then Mike Morgan's friend, Shannon Austin, she is beginning her second round of chemo and showing improvements. So we praise God for that good news. Lisa Dunham, this is Miss Nancy Collier's neighbor with the new baby. She has no further surgeries that she was looking at.

Several surgeries coming up, but we pray that that doesn't have to happen. Then please pray for Tom Merrill. He is back in the hospital with a lot of different things going on as a lot of it connected to covid, which he had shortly and not not long ago. So please pray for him, but also pray for Miss Rose. That's his mom. She's very concerned about his health care for his family and his children, that they're very worried about him, that God's peace would be upon them and that Tom would make a quick recovery, be able to come home soon. Also, J.D. Key, his brother, Mike Morgan's friend, he passed away last night or. This morning, thirty nine years old and died of covid, so please be in prayer for his family and all of the things that have to happen now with the arrangements that God would somehow get the glory from that. And that perhaps would be some who never heard the gospel, who would hear because of this situation. Are there any other updates or new requests that we need to be aware of here tonight? I'll start to my left, your right, and then I'll work my way across the auditorium in this section here. Yes, ma'am. Amy. Pray that they'll allow kids to be hosted here in the States this year. They didn't let it happen last year. That's how you all first got connected with Claire. Is that correct? So. Anybody would like an extra child for the summer. See, Miss Amy, she can she can help you with that, um, you all may remember Brother Vladimir looking at but looking at one of our missionaries got saved because an American family hosted him for a summer. He was introduced to the gospel, got saved, went to Bible College to be a missionary. He's back in Siberia and doing great work for the Lord. And it all started because of a program just like that. So no telling what God might do in that kind of a scenario. So please pray for that. Anybody else in this section here, Michiana? OK, private machine, and she has her second job interviews that at the school at Rejoice with the principal and.

And that that would go well, she would get that job. S.A.. I imagine this section here is Kim.

OK, pray for Miss Kim O'Bannion, she is a follow up visit with her doctor tomorrow they're going to do some X-rays to make sure that there is no permanent damage to her lungs. Please pray that that would be the case.

Raise.

Hey, man, she is off of oxygen. She doesn't have a little, uh, carry around with her anymore, so praise the Lord for that. She stays off of it.

OK, everybody else in this section here. OK, over here. We're hearing.

Brother Gary, his health worker, we got you on here, health and strength.

No false. We will continue to pray for you, Brother Gary. Anybody else in the section? Sir.

And then Jimmy had an appointment with the E.A. yesterday and no paralysis. That's a phrase. There are some notes, but they are confident they can treat those with steroids. And so please pray for him and his continued.

A recovery. What else? Really, can you get anything for us? No, sir. So we can go, we can go.

All right, let's all stand and we'll will be dismissed in a word, prayer. Thank you all so much for being here tonight. Good attention. I trust that God will give you a good rest of your week. He bless you and his grace, be with you wherever you may be. So let's pray and we'll be dismissed. Heavenly Father, thank for this day. Thank you for the time we've been able to spend together here at your house. Thank you for the ministry that has occurred in the back with our children's workers. Our team workers bless each one of them, that their investment would bear fruit the lives of the young people. We pray for the young people that would like to be able to come over here to the states for the summer. We asked that you would open the door for them to be able to do so, and that you would place many of them in Christian homes where there would be exposed to the Gospel and Lord, that you would be given an opportunity to work in their lives and draw them to you to be with machine in second interview that you hope that to go well. She'd help her to get the job. It would be your will learn that you would show her the way that she should go. Please be a brother. Miss Kim Miskin O'Banion and her doctor appointment tomorrow, the x rays. We asked that you would make it so there is no permanent damage to her lungs. You should be able to continue to recover and get back to doing the things that she loves to do in life. Please be a brother, Jimmy. And the nodes that are there in his throat. Just pray that those would subside and you help those to go away. He wouldn't have any more problems with that, with the bacon as he recovers from surgery of that to to go smoothly. Uh, be with. Uh, JD Ki's family on the passing of this young man, that you would comfort them, Lord, and that you would draw them to you or ask you to be with Tom Merrill and his family, just help them as he is back in the hospital. I pray that he would get his strength back, that you would help him to recover, that you would comfort his family while he is there. Lord, we love you so much. And thank you for all you do for us. It's in Jesus name that I pray. Amen. You are dismissed.

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